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2014 bookmarks – the year in war over natural resources

Posted on 24th December 2014 by Benno Hansen

From the depths of my bookmarks (that were all automatically tweeted) on conflict and natural resources, here is a quick review of the way in which Earth was plundered for natural resources in the past year. Year 2014, the 100th anniversary of the first war to run on oil.

In short, 2014 was just more of the same. Like…

  • Geneva Conventions once again violated in Palestine as the conflict seems to be increasingly linked to natural resources,
  • gold and diamonds helped the Central African Republic explode in brutal violence,
  • the indigenous protester José Isidro Tendetza Antún being murdered just in time for COP20,
  • Central Asia drying up a bit more.

But a lot more of the same also means obscure news stories grow into reports from acknowledged organizations—like when

  • NASA found out we’re headed for irreversible collapse,
  • Global Witness built a terrifying graph from the reports of murdered environmentalists and
  • The World Bank concluded climate change will lead to battles for food.

Some of the worst news this year was how Islamic State grew out of the chaos in Iraq and Syria, and became known not as the richest terrorist group in the world, but as the poorest terrorist country. Because they successfully occupy and exploit vast oil fields, loot everything lootable while controlling many smuggler’s routes and ruthless dealers. I get how they control the population by mass executions rivaling the worst in history, denying crucial water supplies to villages and other callous misdeeds. But how do they manage to sell oil worth millions of dollars every single day even as all eyes are on the region? Money talks, of course, anywhere and anytime, but still?

Part of the answer came in this fascinating report by Suzan Fraser and Yilmaz Akinci from the border between Turkey and Syria, where… hillbillies, basically… tell how they have always been smuggling. Everyone did it. For generations. So, suddenly a few more bearded men came with a bit more oil than usual. It worked for a time, but Turkish police cracked down on it. Their large scale “pipeline” was smacked into smaller, obscure “pipelines” – like the ones the Islamic terrorists have for every other country, apparently.

Probably more efficient that the Turkish police, however, is the Saudi Arabian financial muscle. To them and most of their allies, the sum of benefits of a low oil price seems to currently triumph the more obvious benefits of a high oil price. Mainly by cutting the cash flow to Iran, Syria, Islamic State, Russia, even North American non-conventional (fossil) energy producers and others. In fact, I’ve seen some speculate Saudi Arabia has almost won the war on Ukraine’s behalf as Russia’s weakening rubles soon cannot pay for any more war. Speaking of Ukraine: This country used to be self-sufficient in coal, but the territory occupied by rebels and Russians just happen to host 66 coal mines, leaving Ukraine’s power plants under-supplied; and the shores off now Russian Crimea just happen to be full of gas. What a coincidence.

That was all just slightly scratching the surface of year 2014 in war for natural resources. On slightly more positive notes, Interpol published a most-wanted list of environmental criminals at large– go get ’em – and Egypt and Ethiopia seems to be agreeing on how to share the Nile.

https://twitter.com/Global_Witness/status/456347470071463936

Happy New Year!


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A book and a blog about natural resources and conflict by Benno Hansen, Journalist, M.Sc (@bennohansen). Ecology, geopolitics and brutal plunder.

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markamesexiled Mark Ames @markamesexiled ·
20 Nov

EU using Azerbaijan dictatorship to launder its Russian gas supplies. Russia gets its gas revenues, EU gets its winter gas at a premium, a premium worth paying because it allows them to continue pontificating. Europeans are whacky.
https://twitter.com/GabrielCSGavin/status/1593677538152386561

Gabriel Gavin @GabrielCSGavin

Russia’s Gazprom will supply Azerbaijan with up to 1 billion cubic metres of natural gas this winter, Moscow’s Kommersant reports, saying the deal will relieve domestic demand and help Baku meet its commitment to export more to the EU and other Western nations.

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theredlinepod The Red Line - Podcast @theredlinepod ·
15 Nov

WE'RE HIRING 💼💼

The Red Line is currently expanding our research and analysis teams here at the show.

So if you have a mind for geopolitics, and want to work one-on-one with ambassadors, analysts, and security experts, we would love to hear from you.

https://www.linkedin.com/hiring/jobs/3354920920/detail/

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guardian The Guardian @guardian ·
1 Nov

Enormous emissions gap between top 1% and poorest, study highlights https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/01/polluting-elite-enormous-carbon-dioxide-emissions-gap-between-poorest-autonomy-study?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1667286667

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theredlinepod The Red Line - Podcast @theredlinepod ·
24 Oct

THE GREEN LINE << PART 2 >>

HOW THE CHINESE MILITARY IS PREPARING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE 🇨🇳🇨🇳

Climate Change has become THE make or break issue for the Chinese government, and the effects are already threatening internal security, and regional alliances.

https://www.theredlinepodcast.com/post/how-the-chinese-military-is-preparing-for-climate-change-the-green-line

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petergleick Peter Gleick 🇺🇸 @petergleick ·
22 Oct

Weaponizing water in the Russia-Ukraine wr.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/how-water-has-been-weaponised-ukraine-2022-10-22/

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