Geoengineering

The World Torpedoes Ocean Fertilization

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ETC Group
News Release
Friday, May 30, 2008
www.etcgroup.org

The World Torpedoes Ocean Fertilization:

End of Round One on Geo-Engineering

191 countries agree to a landmark moratorium on ocean CO2 sequestration

As the ninth meeting of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) draws to a close in Bonn, Germany the world’s governments are set to unanimously agree a wide-ranging “de-facto moratorium” on ocean fertilization activities. This first-ever global decision on a geo-engineering technology should spell the end of commercial plans to sequester carbon dioxide by dumping nutrients into the open ocean. Nonetheless, one ocean fertilization company, Climos Inc. of San Francisco, appears to be moving full steam ahead in defiance of international consensus.
 
“The message from the UN...   Read More












Categories: Geoengineering

Global Moratorium on Ocean Fertilization?

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ETC Group
News Release
Friday, May 30, 2008
www.etcgroup.org

A Global Moratorium on Ocean Fertilization?

Delays, drama and diversions dog U.N attempts to reign-in commercial geo-engineers.
 
Stalled at the eleventh hour by three isolated countries that are attempting to block consensus, most of the world’s environment ministries and others are on the brink of reaching agreement on a worldwide moratorium on commercial ocean fertilization – controversial proposals to dump nutrients in the ocean to artificially alter the climate. The three blocking countries, Australia, China and Brazil have spent several days manipulating the process to avoid discussion and prevent progress, much to the exasperation of delegates and observers. The clock runs out on negotiations at 6pm today (Friday).
 
Following...   Read More











Categories: Geoengineering

Captain Hook Awards for Biopiracy 2008

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News Release
Coalition Against Biopiracy
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
www.captainhookawards.org
www.etcgroup.org

Captain Hook Awards for Biopiracy 2008

The Coalition Against Biopiracy* exposes Hooks and celebrates Cogs

Winners announced at the UN’s Biodiversity Convention in Bonn

Today the world learned which corporations, governments, institutions and individuals earned a spot in biopiracy’s hall of shame when the Coalition Against Biopiracy (CAB) announced the winners of the 5th Captain Hook Awards at a lunch-time ceremony during the Ninth Conference of the Parties (COP9) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Bonn, Germany.

“The Maritim Hotel, where the CBD meets this week and next,...   Read More













Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biopiracy, Biotechnology, Geoengineering, Human Genomics, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Other, Synthetic Biology, Terminator & Traitor

Backgrounder: Ocean Nourishment Corporation plans imminent urea dumping experiment in Southeast Asian seas

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Categories: Geoengineering, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Other New Technologies

Planktos’s commercial ocean iron fertilization carbon-trading gambit: Brakes on Flakes

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ETC Group
News Release
Friday, June 22, 2007
www.etcgroup.org

Planktos’s commercial ocean iron fertilization carbon-trading gambit

Brakes on Flakes

Intergovernmental scientific body fires shot across geoengineer’s bow

An intergovernmental scientific committee of the London Convention on ocean dumping agreed, earlier today, at its closing plenary in Spain, to a tough consensus “statement of concern” warning that iron fertilization of ocean surfaces – as an attempt at commercial carbon sequestration – has environmental risks and lacks scientific evidence of effectiveness. The statement was triggered by news that Planktos, Inc. a for-profit enterprise with offices in San Francisco, Budapest, and Vancouver is about to dump 100 tons of iron nanoparticles over a 10,000 km² stretch of Pacific...   Read More









Categories: Geoengineering

Dumping on Gaia

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Joint News Release - ETC Group and ICTA

June 19, 2007
News release

Dumping on Gaia

Claiming to protect the planet from greenhouse gases, geo-engineer, Planktos, Inc., is poised to dump iron in waters off the Galapagos Islands and thumbing its nose at the International Maritime Organization and the US government

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) London Convention (dealing with ocean dumping) should urgently launch investigations into the activities of Planktos, Inc., a private climate-engineering firm, according to ETC Group (Ottawa, Canada) and the International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA - Washington, DC). The two civil society organizations believe that the company may soon begin...   Read More









Categories: Geoengineering

Patenting Pandora’s Bug: Goodbye, Dolly...Hello, Synthia! J. Craig Venter Institute Seeks Monopoly Patents on the World’s First-Ever Human-Made Life Form

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Patenting Pandora's Bug

Goodbye, Dolly...Hello, Synthia!
J. Craig Venter Institute Seeks Monopoly Patents on the World's First-Ever Human-Made Life Form

ETC Group Will Challenge Patents on "Synthia" - Original Syn Organism Created in Laboratory

Ten years after Dolly the cloned sheep made her stunning debut, the J. Craig Venter Institute is applying for a patent on a new biological bombshell - the world's first-ever human-made species. The novel bacterium is made entirely with synthetic DNA in the laboratory.

The Venter Institute - named for its founder and CEO, J....   Read More

Categories: BANG/Convergence, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biological Warfare, Biotechnology, Geoengineering, Intellectual Property & Patents, Nanotechnology, Other New Technologies, Synthetic Biology

Geoengineers to Foul Galapagos Seas-Defying Climate Panel Warning

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Geoengineers to Foul Galapagos Seas

-Defying Climate Panel Warning

As the UN's top climate science panel, the IPCC, prepares to criticise the idea of geoengineering, one maverick geoengineering company, Planktos Inc, has announced it is about to dump several tonnes of tiny particles into the waters around the Galapagos Islands, covering an area larger than Puerto Rico. Doing so, they claim, will re-engineer the atmosphere, win them commercial carbon credits and perhaps a shot at the $25 million prize for greenhouse gas reduction put up by Richard Branson. Mainstream scientists are sceptical and environmental and social justice groups are crying foul.

"In a sensible world geoengineering fanatics like Planktos would have their license to operate taken away,"...   Read More








Categories: Geoengineering

ETC Group Warns that US Government’s Push for Geoengineering is Unacceptable

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Gambling with Gaia

On the Eve of the Release of UN Climate Change Report
ETC Group Warns that US Government’s Push for Geoengineering is Unacceptable

On the day before the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sounds its loudest alarm yet, ETC Group warns that some OECD states, led by the United States, are betting on a pie-in-the-sky techno-fix to address climate change. “Geoengineering” refers to the intentional, large-scale manipulation of the environment to bring about environmental change. With no hope for Kyoto, little political will to ask industry or...   Read More









Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, FAO, Geoengineering, Nanotechnology, Other New Technologies, Public / Private Relations

Gambling with Gaia

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ETC Communiqué
Issue # 93
January 2007                                             

Gambling with Gaia

With hopes for Kyoto dimming, some governments may conclude that
massive earth restructuring is the only feasible way out

Issue: Kyoto is fading and carbon trading is a farce. Recognizing this, OECD states can either “bite the bullet” and adopt socially-responsible policies to dramatically cut fossil fuel use and useless consumption or, they can hope for a...   Read More









Categories: BANG/Convergence, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biological Warfare, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Geoengineering, Human Genomics, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Nanotechnology, "New Enclosures", Other New Technologies, Public / Private Relations, Synthetic Biology