Materials and resources once common, inexpensive or just non-existing pop up in a new league of the craved for or expensive. Copper and solar panels have been new objects of theft in recent years. Now grease is getting locked up to protect it from thieves. Yes, grease. Biofuel producers are now buying used cooking oil…
America vs Europe trade war over carbon looming
The European Union is about to take two small steps on the long journey of combating climate change: A small “tax” on air travel and another small tax on fossil fuels based on exactly how polluting the specific type of fossil fuel is. Both could ultimately end up in WTO courts; the former brought there…
Occupy Wall Street? Occupy Earth! Nature is in the 99%
Remember how Bill McKibben of 350.org gave a short speech at Wall Street lately? He’s not the only one connecting the dots between the socially unjust financial crisis and the environment. When I went to Occupy Copenhagen last time I think most of the speakers were mostly going on about the bank bailouts – but…
Climate change and the new geography of violence
One of the unpleasant effects of climate change is its tendency to incite further conflict where such already exist and in some cases war is already looming. Sociologist and writer Christian Parenti is blaming “pathologies of neoliberalism” and Cold War leftovers that converge with climate change effects for inciting further conflict where it already lingers….
Biofuel demand and CO2 quotas drive violent land grabs in Honduras
To the country whose history coined the term “banana republic” land grabs is not a new phenomenon. The European Union funding it by buying carbon credits and biofuel from the perpetrators is, however. In the case of Honduras, the global rush for production of biofuel and access to carbon credits is making it profitable for…
Obama intervenes in Ugandan oil trouble zone
Oil have been found in the underground below Lake Albert on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Western companies are working with the Ugandan government to get development under way but a myriad of issues seem to delay the project: Criminal and rebel activity is up and rising, Ugandan democracy…
Free book: “Natural Resources and Conflict in Africa the Tragedy of Endowment” by Abiodun Alao
Abiodun Alao Natural Resources and Conflict in Africa the Tragedy of Endowment Rochester Studies in African…From the conclusion: “the tendency to see natural resources either as a “curse” or a “blessing,” or the conflicts emanating from them as being rooted in “scarcity” or “abundance,” is inherently flawed” […] neitherscarcity nor abundance has been a consistent…
Blood and soil!? Scarcity and conflict re-revisited
Inspired by the growing body of literature linking natural resource scarcity to conflict, dating back at least to the 1960s but gaining momentum in recent years, Norwegian Ole Magnus Theisen published a review of the statistical literature on this link in 2008. In short, his conclusion was that large scale violence was generally not linked…
Watch ‘The Ambassador’ first chance you get
Mads Brügger – whose last documentary consisted entirely of ultra rare recordings from deep inside North Korea – is releasing a new documentary; this time about corruption in the Central African Republic (CAR). Not posing as a diplomat, but having bribed his way to actual diplomatic immunity, Mads travels to the capital Bangui to set…
As on Helgoland, so in Cambodia
Once upon a time…Forsete, son of Balder and Nanna, grandson of Odin, was a Norse and Frisian god of justice. The isle of Helgoland off the coast of what is now Schleswig-Holstein, Germany was sacred in his name. It was customary to settle disputes of all kinds by arranged battle on islands; the term for this, holmgang,…
Three degrees warming doubles risk of civil war
Global patterns of civil conflict are directly associated with planetary-scale climate change. Specifically in tropical countries, the risk of civil war have just been shown to double in warmer El Niño years (to about 6% risk per country per year) compared to cooler La Niña years (when the risk is about 3%). “When you think…
Risk of riots linked to food prices
In 19th century Bavaria rye prices correlated to property crime rates (see Correlations from weather to sociology). When food prices spiked in 2008 commentators were smart enough to mention this might have something to do with the riots across the 3rd world (see World’s poor are up in arms over food prices). The first half…