Red, Green, and Blue

Chinese protestors have partial success

One of last week’s protests appears to have borne results. The chemical plant in central Hunan that was the focus of protests by local residents has been closed ‘forever’ according to Chinese media. Production at the plant was halted in March but now the plant will not re-open. The Xianghe Chemical Factory was cited in a number of incidents in the region, and after the deaths of two villagers, who were discovered to have high cadmium levels during autopsy, around 500 of 3,000 residents were found to have high cadmium levels during urine tests. As well as the permanent closure of the plant, it seems that its directors have been detained by police and the head of the local Environment Protection Bureau has been dismissed. There is no information yet on free healthcare for those affected by the cadmium, but thirty local residents were hospitalised as a result of the urine testing programme.

Israeli citizens protest against air pollution

On 4 August Greenpeace protestors disrupted the running of a coal-powered electric plant in Ashkelon, Israel in protest at the proposed construction of two further coal-powered electricity production plants. They chained themselves to the plant’s entrance gate and sixteen activists were arrested some of them already inside the plant’s grounds. The protest is high profile within Israel with several well-known Israeli entertainers having taken part in a Greenpeace-sponsored short film that claims that the new plants will increase air pollution in the area, as well as reducing Israel’s chances of meeting its international commitment to reduce greenhouse gases.

Australian activists protest for Pacific islanders

On Thursday, four environmental activists spent the night chained to the coal loader of the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance’s Hay Point Export Coal Terminal in Queensland, Australia. Six Greenpeace protestors had already been arrested on Wednesday after chaining themselves to lower areas of the loader, but the four remained near the top of the fifty metre tall loader all night. Police had discussed removing the protestors but decided for safety reasons not to attempt a forced removal. The four finally came down voluntarily on Friday evening and gave themselves up to the police.

The protest is both about the failure of the Australian government to take tough enough action on climate change, and in support of Pacific Island groups who have asked for substantial emission cuts from Australia and New Zealand to help protect their land from rising sea levels.

Greenpeace activists courtesy of Greenpeace Media

The Food Standards Agency in the UK has declared that, “… there are no important differences in the nutrition content, or any additional health benefits, of organic food when compared with conventionally produced food.”

In a comprehensive study, researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine examined more than 50,000 studies on the nutritional value of foods going back to 1958. Of these, 55 met the criteria of the project. Dr Alan Dangour, the principal author, commented on the marginal differences found during the studies, “A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist … but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance. Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority.” Read the rest of this entry »

While there are many conservation issues that regularly top the policy bill, such as destruction of habitat, over-hunting, fisheries collapsing and so on, a new concern has recently emerged through scientific studies. Wildlife cancer. In a report entitled ‘Wildlife cancer: a conservation perspective’ Denise McAloose and Alisa L. Newton provide a range of evidence about pollution linked cancers in a number of species. Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s environmental protests all have the same key feature – scrutiny. In each case, the protestors are asking for a very specific response from those involved: a closer look at what’s going on, and what can be done to make things better.

Florida Swamp Protest

In Florida, Stevie Lowe has been convicted of resisting a law enforcement officer without violence. She chained herself to a tree as part of an environmental protest against Florida Power & Light (FP&L), whose Indiantown power plant is the focus of dispute. Environmentalists say that FP&L are draining the nearby Barley Barber swamp to service their plant – a claim FP&L deny. Lowe, who will spend ninety days in Martin County jail, said her action was designed to ‘instigate more public scrutiny of the Barley Barber Swamp’.

Indian Tribe protests - in London

In London, activists mounted a highly publicised protest at the AGM of Vedanta, a British mining company. Their concern is that a planned bauxite mine in Orissa, India will destroy a mountain and damage the habitat of a local tribe as well as that of indigenous animals and plants. Bauxite is strip-mined, leading to surface denudation and requiring the removal of features like lakes and forests. Around 90% of global bauxite is converted to aluminium.

The Kondh tribe wishes to stop the development and has enlisted the support of ActionAid and Survival International as well as celebrities like Bianca Jagger. ActionAid purchased a single share in Vedanta to allow tribal activist Sitaram Kulisika to attend the meeting on behalf of the Kondh. Kulisika says that a year ago Vedanta said it would not mine the area without tribal consent and that he wished all shareholders to keep the directors of the company to their promise.  Those shareholders include the Church of England which has shares worth over $4 million in the company. Vedanta claims the project is both ethically and environmentally sound.

Chinese protestors win one battle, but face another

In Hunan Province, China, a series of protests have taken place. The first were demonstrating against pollution problems caused by a chemical plant that has already closed owing to health and environment problems. The second protests, in the streets of Zhentou township, followed the detention of protestors who’d taken part in the first protest. Local government buildings were targeted, as people demanded to be fairly treated following health problems by the Xianhe Chemical Plant. The plant opened in 2004 and had a poor track record from the beginning –poor environmental management and the stockpiling of solid waste. Local people claim the plant was harming the environment by keeping the waste which had high concentrations of toxic heavy metals such as cadmium and indium, which were leaching into local drinking water.

Their complaints appear to have had substance, as the plant was ordered to cease production in March 2009 – now the local people want free health checks and treatment for those found to have excessive heavy metal levels because they fear that now the plant has closed, their situation will be ignored by officials.

Florida Swamp courtesy of chaunceydavis at Flickr under a creative commons licence

Between 16 and 18 November 2009, a World Summit to consider issues of food security will take place at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome.

The Summit has three interlinked aims:

• To reverse the downward trend of investments in agriculture by returning them to the  17% of Official Development Assistance (ODA) achieved in 1980
• To insure this investment works to remove hunger which is now considered to be a daily experience for more than one billion people
• To double food production for a world population set to reach nine billion in 2050.

Food in crisis, food as conflict

In addition to Summit meetings on these issues, there will be roundtables and break-out meetings on the relationship between financial and economic crises and food security (especially in light of the current global economic downturn), the governance of food security on an international and global scale (an increasingly troubling subject, especially for Africa where the relationship between richer and poorer nations can become strained at borders where ‘food migrants’ cross, particularly, at present, in the case of Zimbabwe) and establishing an early reaction fund for food security.

Invited guests will include Heads of State and Government as well as many FAO and UN dignitaries and representatives of advocacy and third sector groups, and the costs of the summit, which are estimated to be around $2.5 million, will be met by Saudi Arabia.  

FAO Director General, Jacque Diouf said, “I am very grateful to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah, for his generous offer to fund this important meeting …There are more than a billion hungry people in the world today and Saudi Arabia continues to be at the forefront of the fight against hunger and poverty.”

African child with kwashiorkor, a hunger related condition, courtesy of venetia joubert at Flickr under a creative commons licence

Leeds University has resumed field trials of genetically modified potatoes just a year after protesters tore up the previous crop.

400 potato plants are being grown to test their modified resistance to a microscopic parasitic worm called a nematode. The failure to inform the public has led to environmental groups claiming the project is ‘underhand’. However, the original three-year permission, granted by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is valid, so the crops can be replanted without having to provide further notice. The land has been protected by fencing and CCTV cameras surrounding the crop and by not telling the public the exact location of the potatoes. DEFRA also says that an independent advisory committee on releases to the environment has said that the experiment will not compromise human health or the environment. Plants on land alongside the research crop will be destroyed when the experiment has finished and the actual field will be left fallow to stop cross-pollination into subsequent crops.

Environmentalists fear contamination and cross-pollination

However, Friends of the Earth (FOE) has said that the potatoes could contaminate other plants near the research site and that farmers, gardeners and people living nearby should know about it the trials.

Food security drives experimentation

This is part of a much wider issue in which the British Government is being heavily lobbied by biotechnology companies who say that warnings of food shortages caused by population increase and climate change mean that biotechnology offers the best chance of food security for the future.

Potatoes courtesy of ColinD40 at Flickr under a creative commons licence

Trouble in various kinds of paradise is the theme of this week’s environmental protest round up. Often, this kind of protest seems to happen in areas where low rates of employment and lack of other natural resources means that local residents are ‘forced’ to accept environmental projects that might be unacceptable in richer regions. But this week there is evidence that even Edens have their devils.

Thermal Power a non-goer in Goa?

A procession of thousands, including fishermen, political activists and local residents marched through local villages to complain about the proposed establishment of a thermal power project in the village of Hankon, Goa. Local fishermen object to the plan as it will be built on a riverbank known for its abundant marine life, and that the plant could damage the ecosystem in Goa Wildlife Sanctuary which was only 5 kilometres away.  Also the nearby Anashi National Park could be affected and the Indian Forest Conservation Act forbids the establishment of this kind of project so close to ecologically sensitive areas. People also fear that eco-tourism in Goa could be affected.

In addition, the Hankon Panchayat (village council) hasn’t given permission for construction activities and has launched an action against the company planning to build the plant. Local activists said that if the illegal construction wasn’t stopped in a fortnight, the action of the protestors would be ‘intensified’

Hippos, drugs and the protection of large estates

Pablo Escobar was one of Colombia’s biggest drug dealers. It’s claimed he was the originator of half the cocaine smuggled to the USA and when he died in a gun battle in 1993 he left behind a huge estate – literally. His Hacienda Napoles sits between Bogota and Medellin and is stocked with a bizarre range of creatures including elephants, zebra, giraffe and ostrich – and some hippopotami. Escobar apparently used them as giant bodyguards, confident that people would not break into the estate while he had such huge and aggressive wildlife roaming free. There were four hippos originally, but conditions suited them and they bred, so that now there are at least twenty, maybe nearly thirty: it’s hard to tell because the state, which seized the Hacienda Napoles as part of the proceeds of the drug trade, has let the place fall into disrepair after relocating many animals to zoos around the world.

Not the hippos though. Two of them broke out in 2006 and have been rampaging around the Bogota region ever since. But last week one was shot by professional hunters operating under a licence from the Environment Department.

Protestors, led by animal rights activists, mounted a demonstration outside the Environment Ministry, saying that it was unacceptable that Colombia, which allows bullfighting and cockfighting, could also allow hippopotami to be killed at will. The remaining escapee has had a calf since she got out of the estate and now a brewing company has said it will hire wildlife experts to capture them both and return them to the estate.  The Environment Ministry in Bogota was unrepentant although it agreed to work with the experts, claiming the animals were dangerous (they have killed calves) and could be harbouring diseases that threatened the Colombian eco-system. They appear to have no plans to use the estate either as a tourist resource or a wildlife reserve, instead they are happy for it to become a ruin, including the full size airship that sits on a purpose-built plantform outside the hacienda itself.

Hippo courtesy of wwarby at Flickr under a creative commons licence

Energy didn’t get a sniff in last night’s Obama press conference. That wasn’t really a surprise given the way that health care has elbowed its way into the political spotlight. You can count climate change among the “priorities” now in the shadows. Health care is all touch-and-feel…it plays with everyone.

Climate change? Not so much. If Jon Stewart is snoozing, we know that the rest of America - a goodly percentage of which is far across the spectrum from Stewart and outwardly hostile to climate change arguments - is tuned all the way out. That is partly because climate change, energy and the environment still are considered Birkenstock and granola issues. The Obama operatives that are still engaged on climate change have finally started to tweak the message in a way that might help sell a bill even to science skeptics and the generally apathetic.

Read the rest of this entry »

Traditional farming is about to make a come-back across Uganda, according the country’s Agriculture Minister, Hope Mwesigye. Traditionally, Ugandan’s rich soil and fairly abundant rainfall allowed farmers to grow a range of staple foods, from plantains, cassava and sweet potatoes through to grains like millet, sorghum and corn as well as beans, and groundnuts.

Since the 1980s, the major cash crop in Uganda has been coffee, closely followed by tobacco, and then tea and cotton, although the ‘70s and ‘80s saw collapses in the infrastructure which meant that cotton and tea in particular lost their markets and farmers started to sell their staple crops for cash in regional and local markets instead.

Diversification was the message of the 1990s and many non-traditional exports were attempted, supported by the World Bank and the Ugandan Development Bank. So why now does the government want to return to traditional farming practices? Read the rest of this entry »

Experts appearing before a Senate Foreign Relations hearing on Tuesday told legislators that climate change should be treated as a grave national security threat, with retired Navy Vice Admiral Lee F. Gunn saying “climate change poses a clear and present danger to the United States of America.”

The hearing, entitled Climate Change and Global Security: Challenges, Threats, and Diplomatic Opportunities, was chaired by Senator John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts with John Lugar as the ranking minority member on the committee. Witnesses on the hearing panel included former senator John Warner of Virginia; Sharon Burke, vice president of the Center for a New American Security; retired Navy Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn, a member of the Center for Naval Analysis Advisory Board; and retired Navy Vice Admiral Lee F. Gunn, president of the American Security Project.

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