Discontent, unrest and agitation engulf the coasts of our country. Fisherpeople, under severe duress, have no other way but to launch a national campaign to conserve the coastal and marine resources and to protect their lives and livelihood. The campaign begins on 1st May 2008. A central (...)
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The digital dump : exporting re-use and abuse to Africa
The Basel Action Network, October 2005, 85 p., pdf
The electronics and information technology industry is the world’s largest and fastest growing manufacturing industry. As a consequence of this remarkable growth, combined with the phenomenon of rapid product obsolescence, discarded electronic equipment, or e-waste, is now recognized as the (...)
Key social impacts of electronics production and WEEE-recycling in China
Andreas Manhart, Öko-Institut e.V., June 2007, 33 p. (pdf)
Both, electronics production and WEEE-recycling have major social impacts on workers, neighbouring communities and the Chinese society: While electronics production is a major driver for the country’s economic development and makes up almost two thirds of the country’s export surplus, the (...)
Blue alert: Climate migrants in South Asia, estimates and solutions
Sudhir Chella Rajan, March 2008, 24 p. (pdf)
Climate change is the biggest environmental threat faced by South Asia and may well be the biggest humanitarian and economic challenge that the developing world will have to face in the coming decades. While the world has woken up to the threat of climate change, the true enormity of what this (...)
The Last Straw: a new generation of biofuels turns out to be another environmental disaster
Now they might start sitting up. They wouldn’t listen to the environmentalists or even the geologists. Can governments ignore the capitalists?
A report published last week by Citibank, and so far unremarked by the media, proposes “genuine difficulties” in increasing the production of crude oil, (...)
After Bali: Time for a Different Kind of Climate Politics
By ANGUS Ian
In a narrow and formal sense, last month’s Climate Change conference in Bali achieved its objectives. The Kyoto Protocol is due to expire in 2012: the Bali gathering’s purpose was to adopt a roadmap for negotiating a new treaty — and that was done. A new roadmap, called the Bali Action Plan, was (...)
Agroenergy: Myths and Impacts in Latin America
by Pastoral Land Commission and Network for Social Justice and Human Rights
Recent studies on the negative impacts of fossil fuels have contributed to agrofuels becoming one of the most important issues of the day. Currently, the global energy matrix is composed of petroleum (35%), coal (23%), and natural gas (21%). Just ten of the wealthiest countries consume close to (...)
Biofuel: good idea, bad practice
Sunita Narain
Now that the reality of climate change has been accepted even by its strongest sceptics, there is a rush to find answers. The latest buzz is to substitute the use of greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels with biofuels-fuel processed from plants. Unfortunately, the way we are going about (...)
Persistent organic pollutants can render vaccines ineffective
Researchers from usa and Denmark have confirmed an association between increased exposure to persistent organic pollutants (pops) like polychlorinated biphenyls (pcb) and decreased antibody production in children vaccinated against tetanus and diphtheria. Action against pops was initiated in (...)
Fuel inefficient India heading towards energy crisis
Energy insecurity is India’s latest tryst with her post-liberalised destiny. It began in July 2006. Crude oil prices rose to all time peak, at US $79 a barrel. In India, retail prices of petrol and diesel rose, respectively, 59.6 per cent and 78.8 per cent from 2002 levels. A compelled (...)
The end of farm-saved seed ?
GRAIN Briefing, february 2007, 14 p. (pdf)
The big players in the world seed industry are grumbling about loopholes in the plant variety protection system, which was the alternative to patenting that they set up in the 1960s. The Europeans want to get rid of farmers’ limited entitlement to save seed. The Americans want to restrict the (...)