Excerpt: The mid-2000s marked the start of a trend of steeply rising commodity prices, accompanied by increasing volatility. The prices of a wide range of commodities reached historic highs in nominal terms in 2008 before falling sharply in the wake of the financial and economic crisis. Since mid-2009, and especially since the summer of […]
Subjects Archives: Climate Change
Shashe Declaration: 1st Encounter of Agroecology Trainers in Africa Region 1
We are 47 people from 22 organizations in 18 countries (Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Angola, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, South Africa, Central African Republic, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Portugal, USA, France, and Germany). We are farmers and staff representing member organizations of La Via Campesina, along with allies from other farmer […]
A Resurgence of Nuclear Power Poses Significant Challenges
Advocates of nuclear power are promoting a “nuclear renaissance” based on claims that a new generation of reactors will produce relatively cheap electricity while solving the threat posed by global climate change. U.S. power producers have proposed building more than 30 new nuclear reactors — and some proponents have called for building as many as […]
Second Class Citizens: Gender, Energy and Climate Change in South Africa
Excerpt: Forty percent of South Africa’s 48 million people are poor, and more than half of poor people are female. Official unemployment figures hover at around 25%, but since this statistics does not count those who have given up looking for work, real unemployment may be double this. South Africa is, by world standards, […]
Path to Solve Climate Talks: Be Clear about Targets and Honour Commitments
13 June 2011 BONN — Today, Ambassador Pablo Solon of the Plurinational State of Bolivia addressed reporters at the UN climate talks in Germany. Ambassador Solon outlined a clear plan, based on submissions from other countries and civil society, on how to move the talks forward in 2011. “The key issue at these talks […]
On the Nuclear Power 2021 Act and the Nuclear Energy Research Initiative Improvement Act of 2011
Testimony on S. 512, “The Nuclear Power 2021 Act,” and S. 1067, “The Nuclear Energy Research Initiative Improvement Act of 2011,” before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, U.S. Senate, 7 June 2011 Good morning. On behalf of the Union of Concerned Scientists, I would like to thank Chairman Bingaman, Ranking Member Murkowski, and […]
Renewable Energy Likely to Become Dominant Climate Change Solution by 2050, U.N. Study Concludes
But Support for Renewable Energy Policies Remains Key to Reaching Goals Renewable energy is likely to become the world’s dominant climate change solution by the middle of the century, according to a new study by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It has the potential to be more competitive than nuclear power, […]
Nuclear Power: Not the Solution to Climate Change
If carbon emissions from energy production are the problem, is nuclear power the solution? After all, nuclear reactors split uranium atoms to generate heat; no fossil fuels are used on site, and no CO2 is released into the air from the power plant itself. Plenty of voices can be now heard advocating construction of nuclear […]
The Ecological Rift: A Radical Response to Capitalism’s War on the Planet
John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark, and Richard York. The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth. Monthly Review Press, 2010. 544 pages. Climate change is often called the greatest environment threat facing humanity. The threat is very real. Unless we cut carbon pollution fast, runaway climate change will worsen existing environmental and social problems, and […]
The President and the Climate: Reflections on Progressive Obama Delusion and a Curious Line in Bill McKibben’s Eaarth
Just what did Barack Obama and his spinners do to the critical faculties of so many leading American progressives? Some of my regular readers might be surprised to know that I often bring a significant measure of disinclination to my recurrent radical criticism of President Barack Obama and his “progressive” defenders. The reluctance stems […]
The Equitable Sharing of Atmospheric and Development Space: Some Critical Aspects
Excerpt: In the quest for an international agreement on actions to address the climate change crisis, three aspects have to be the basis simultaneously: The environmental imperative, to prevent the climate from changing to the extent that would have disastrous consequences. The developmental imperative, in that developing countries have the needs and goals of eradicating […]
WikiLeaks Cables Show Why Washington Won’t Allow Democracy in Haiti
The polarization of the debate around WikiLeaks is pretty simple, really. Of all the governments in the world, the United States government is the greatest threat to world peace and security today. This is obvious to anyone who looks at the facts with a modicum of objectivity. The Iraq war has claimed hundreds of thousands, […]
COP16: Cancunhagen Lets Rich Countries Off the Hook
Meena Raman: The developed countries have gained quite a bit [at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancún] because the proposals in there [in the COP16 Outcome] really take them off the hook in terms of doing the real kind of emission reduction they need to do and a lot of responsibility has […]
People’s Assembly in Cancún
Pablo Solón, Bolivia’s Ambassador to the United Nations: To the Via Campesina protesters, to social movements, we can tell you: What you’re doing is key because we, Bolivia, the ALBA countries, are not going to be able to change the reality of these negotiations if the people of the whole world don’t raise their consciousness, […]
Anti-Democratic Behavior of US and Canadian Governments Denounced by Their Own Citizens on Global Day for Climate Justice at UN Climate Change Conference
US and Canadian UN COP16 observers and climate justice activists will demonstrate against their governments’ position at the climate change conference by joining the Via Campesina and Espacio Mexicano marches and sit-ins throughout Cancun today, then gather at the Cancun Messe this afternoon at 4pm to deliver a specific message to US & Canadian […]
Cancun Climate Conference: Some Key Issues
A year after the chaotic Copenhagen summit, the 2010 UNFCCC climate conference begins in Cancun. Expectations are low this time around, especially compared to the eve of Copenhagen. That’s probably both good and bad. The conference last year had been so hyped up beforehand, with so much hopes linked to it, that the lack of […]
Morales Laments Exclusion of His Proposal from Cancún Summit
Bolivian President Evo Morales lamented this Friday that his proposal as well as that of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, calling on the rich countries to halve their greenhouse gas emissions, has not been welcomed into the Cancún Summit on climate change to be held next week. Morales indicated at a press conference that the petitions […]
China’s Export Conundrum
In 2009, the European Union, United States and Mexico filed a complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against China’s export restrictions on certain raw materials, including bauxite, coke, fluorspar, silicon carbide and zinc. They said that, firstly, these constraints — in the form of export taxes, quotas, licences and so on — caused […]
From Field to Fork: Obama’s Agri Recipe for India
The government of the USA has planned for India to become an important consumer of its agricultural exports and crop science. India has also been planned as a host country for an agricultural research agenda directed by American crop-seed biotech corporations. This is to be achieved through a variety of programmes in India, some of […]
Merkel, Muslims, and Multi-Kulti
It’s those foreigners again! In June and July, during the World Cup, Germans cheered their soccer team’s every skilled pass, every goal — and seemed proud that so many of its players had immigrant backgrounds, from Tunisia, Nigeria, Brazil, Spain, Yugoslavia, Ghana, Poland, and Turkey. Hurrah! But now it’s October. The leaves have changed color […]
