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

More last drops of ancient sunlight...

No matter how deep the hole we're in, you can always find willing shovellers. The road lobby is pressuring New Labour for an abandonment of any and all things green. With a perspective that only stretches as far as the next election they may well capitulate. Funny how industries without electoral clout are allowed to go to the wall of "economic conditions" but Middle England can be as unsustainable as it likes as long as it keeps the balance of power.
Meanwhile, now that the ice is clearing, Governments and MultiNationals are free to squabble over who should drill the shit out of the Arctic seabed and push us all that bit closer to the edge.


http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/lastditch-bid-to-avert-arctic-freeforall-835200.html

The old ones are the best..?

I could only resist this joke for so long. I am but flesh and bone.
The recent hoo-ha concerning the tragic listing of the Polar-Bear as officiially endangered failed to emphasise the deliberate delay to this process whilst oil exploration and drilling rights for its habitat were auctioned off by the same U.S. Government department. Just thought I'd remind people.

Step one...

As the G8 fudges setting GHG reduction targets and the UK prepares to cave in to the motoring lobby after protests from road hauliers and nervous marginal MPs, Drax covers its arse with a biomass figleaf and Barcelona is forced to import Water from France as the whole region dries up and cracks into lifeless chunks . Meanwhile Brazil's Environment minister gives up the thankless task of defending the rainforest from Big Business in fatigue and disgust.
The good news is that now NASAs Mars lander can thoroughly investigate the chances of life on a barren, airless rock, we can plan for Earth's future on the basis of solid scientific evidence.
On a more positive note - the Germans have finally identified and banned the pesticides decimating their (and everyone else's) bee-hives, Barrats have started building affordable (?) eco-homes and a summit of world leaders in Rome calls for the establishment of a world food fund to address the ever- growing food crisis that their policies have created.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/i-give-up-says-brazilian-minister-who-fought-to-save-the-rainforest-828310.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/g8-frustrates-green-groups-834668.html


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/new-fuel-price-protests-test-ministers-green-resolve-834585.html

It transpires that even the alarmists are now deeply alarmed. All hands on deck.

Isn't DEMOCRACY wonderful

So the voters of our mighty capital have opted for an Etonian buffoon with no grasp of reality just because they're all cross about their house prices not doubling every five minutes. Words fail me.