First Contact, Last Chance.

The World Food Summit convenes in Rome next week to try to address some of the staggering problems that a few hundred years of greed and mismanagement have heaped upon us.
On the Brasil/Peru border, Illegal loggers - neoliberalism's shock troops in the region - are rushing to welcome the last free people on Earth into the loving arms of the twenty first century.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/31/food.internationalaidanddevelopment

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/30/brazil.conservation

Structurally re-adjusted hunger

It's the song of the World Trade Organisation - "Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me". Be of good cheer.

A little technical difficulty

A "Stern-like" report into loss of biodiversity (death on an unprecedented scale) is released, bringing the Ka-Ching factor into play to focus the minds of the world's policy makers. Meanwhile, as even the US feels the sting, the WORLD BANK decides to plump for more of the same mono-cultured, debt-ridden, dead-end cash-croppery that got us into the mess in the first place.
Will the media identify the villains correctly this time, or simply play out the same tired stereotypes we all know and love so as not to scare off the sponsors?

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/loss-of-biodiversity-threatens-livelihoods-of-worlds-poorest-836754.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/29/climatechange.usa

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080530/tts-uk-worldbank-food-d1d4700.html

Shine a light...

As we all know we live in a world where the INCENTIVES that the wealthy so richly deserve are much more important and generally wonderful than the SUBSIDIES that the poor so cynically abuse. Mobile International capital is the only force on Earth worth paying any attention to. So stop your snivelling and build yourself a spaceship ya whining hippy scum.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/may/29/exxonmobil.oil

More bogus techno magic

If it aint broke, break it - and then fix it, to show just how clever you are.
If you'll excuse me I'll just go over there and bang my head against that wall until it's a bloody shredded mess. Not to worry - because reconstructive surgery can do wonders nowadays

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/29/greentech.geoengineering

Food Crisis - what Food Crisis?

Thanks to Craig MacIntosh for the hard work
http://www.celsias.com/2008/05/05/the-food-crisis-misery-is-profitable/

Dear Prudence

Gordon (sort of) comes clean about what we've all known about for years. But he's not ready to risk frightening the horses yet. But at least the conversation can begin...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/28/gordonbrown.oil