South Korea’s biggest is 1.3 million hectares in Madagascar. China’s is 1.24 million in the Philippines. With rich, resource-poor nations increasingly outsourcing their food production to less developed nations, a new website aims to expose the extent of the agricultural land-grab epidemic. It’s a simple if iniquitous equation: rich countries with limited land resources snap …
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Category:2 Geopolitics
Global military spending rose 45% between 1999 and 2008
Global military spending rose 45% between 1999 and 2008, fuelled by the US-led “war on terror” and by increased wealth in China, Russia and the Middle East. In Western and Central Europe, military spending increased at a much slower rate than in any other part of the world, while the US accounted for 58% of …
Continue reading Global military spending rose 45% between 1999 and 2008
The Copenhagen Call
Business leaders issued “The Copenhagen Call” at the close of the World Business Summit on Climate Change. In their introduction they state: We call upon our political leaders to agree an ambitious and effective global climate treaty at COP15 in Copenhagen. Sustainable economic progress requires stabilizing and then reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Success at COP15 …
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Can we go “cold turkey” on fossil fuels?
Scientists now warn that we must effectively halt fossil fuel use if we are to avoid global climate warming of 2 degrees C by 2050. That’s probably a realistic estimate. But we are unlikely to do it. In fact we probably won’t even try. (See previous post.) But we could take a big step in …
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Don’t stress about swine flu.
The scare of a potential pandemic of swine flu is newsworthy, but you shouldn’t get too concerned. While the rise in deaths (now ~150) makes headlines, these numbers are modest compared to historical pandemics and compared to other causes of death. The resources available to maintain health and cure illness are far better than they …
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The problem with optimism.
Some readers might be turned-off by my insistence on identifying risks. But if we assume everything is alright and do not focus on the problems, we are acting out the same folly that fed the economic crisis. We engender moral hazard and have no incentive to fix the system. I reiterate these concerns now because …
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Would you all please stop bickering.
It was never going to be easy. Before it had begun important participants, like the US, had already turned up their noses. The UN conference on racism had a patchy history and was bound to raise hackles. It is unfortunate that “diplomats” walked out of a speech by a President, even if they have difficulty …
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GM rice to poison the world?
In a few days the EU will decide whether or not to allow GM rice to be imported to the the EU. Most countries have shied away from allowing risky experimentation with the world’s most important staple crop and at present, no GE rice is grown commercially anywhere in the world. But Bayer, the German …
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G20 demonstrations map
An impressive map of proposed demonstration sites for tomorrow’s G20.
Economic crisis? The ecological crisis is looming.
Growing world population will cause a “perfect storm” of food, energy and water shortages by 2030, the UK government chief scientist has warned. Global crisis ‘to strike by 2030’