Publications

ETC GroupNews Release20 May 2010www.etcgroup.org

Synthia is Alive … and Breeding: Panacea or Pandora's Box?

As Craig Venter announces lab-made life, ETC Group calls for Global Moratorium on Synthetic Biology.

In a paper published today in the journal Science, the J. Craig Venter Institute and Synthetic Genomics Inc announced the laboratory creation of the world's first self-reproducing organism whose entire genome was built from scratch by a machine.(1) The construction of this synthetic organism, anticipated and dubbed "Synthia" by the ETC Group three years ago, will stir a firestorm of controversy over the ethics of building artificial life and the implications of the largely unknown field of synthetic biology.

Panacea, or…? According to today’s publication, "Synthia" could be a boon to second-generation agrofuels making it – theoretically – possible to feed people and cars simultaneously. The article further suggests that... Read more

ETC GroupCommuniqué de presse20 mai 2010www.etcgroup.org

Synthia est bien vivante et elle est parmi nous : panacée ou boîte de Pandore ?

Alors que Craig Venter annonce avoir réussi à créer la vie en laboratoire, l'ETC Group appelle à un moratoire mondial sur la biologie synthétique.

Dans un article paru aujourd'hui dans la revue Science, l'institut J. Craig Venter et la société Synthetic Genomics Inc. ont annoncé la création, en laboratoire, du premier organisme autoreproducteur dont le génome a été assemblé de toutes pièces au moyen d'une machine. (1) Cet organisme synthétique, dont l'ETC Group avait déjà annoncé la création et qu'il avait baptisé "Synthia" il y a trois ans, va susciter de vives controverses sur la pertinence, sur le plan éthique, de créer la vie artificiellement et sur les implications de la biologie synthétique, qui constitue un domaine encore pratiquement... Read more

ETC Group News Release 18 May 2010www.etcgroup.org

United Nations science body calls for halt on climate-hacking experiments

Geoengineering moratorium proposal will go to UN Biodiversity Convention

http://www.handsoffmotherearth.org/Nairobi, Kenya - A formal recommendation for a moratorium on all climate geoengineering activities is being sent to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for consideration by its 193 member governments when the CBD gathers in Nagoya Japan this October. Governments attending the Nairobi meeting of the scientific subcommittee of the UN Convention (SBSTTA 14) agreed late last week to forward the groundbreaking recommendation after a high degree of consensus was reached. In a related move, the scientific subcommittee also reviewed and supported the ongoing global moratorium on one geoengineering technique, ocean... Read more

ETC GroupCommuniqué de presse10 mai 2010  Au moment où l’on apprend qu’une expérience à grande échelle en blanchissement des nuages est en préparation, une coalition mondiale exige un arrêt immédiat de la géoingénierieLes premières discussions de l’ONU sur ce sujet en trente ans commencent aujourd’hui http://www.handsoffmotherearth.org Dans le sillage des révélations, faites dans l’édition du week-end dernier du journal London Times (1), selon lesquelles une équipe de scientifiques et d’ingénieurs financés par le milliardaire Bill Gates prévoirait effectuer bientôt un essai, sur une superficie de 10 000 kilomètres carrés, d’une technologie controversée de « blanchissement des nuages », plus d’une centaine de groupes de la société civile exhortent les chefs de gouvernement qui sont présents à la rencontre sur la... Read more

ETC Group

News Release10 May 2010

As huge cloud-whitening experiment goes public, global coalition urges an immediate halt to geoengineering

First UN talks on issue in thirty years begin today

http://www.handsoffmotherearth.org

Amidst revelations in this weekend’s London Times newspaper{1} that a team of scientists and engineers funded by billionaire Bill Gates are planning to carry out a 10,000 square kilometer field trial of controversial “cloud-whitening” technology, over one hundred civil society groups are urging governments meeting on biological diversity in Nairobi to stop risky geoengineering experiments now. Geoengineering refers to large-scale technological schemes to intentionally alter the planet’s systems as a quick fix for climate change.

The San Francisco based “Silver Lining Project” directed by entrepreneur... Read more

Hands off Mother Earth!

Stop Geoengineering - Our home is not a laboratory

Industrial societies have produced unprecedented ecological crises: climate change, depleted fresh water, build-up of toxins, collapse of ecosystems and accelerating species extinction. The transgression of natural limits for private gain has compromised the integrity and survival of our living planet, Mother Earth. This way of living on the Earth has become unsustainable. Common sense says we must act to build a fairer civilization, one that steps more lightly on the planet – and fast.

A bad idea whose time has come

But common sense isn't the only option on the table. A group of increasingly influential scientists, corporations and think tanks, backed by some of the governments that carry the largest climate debt, are proposing a different path out of this crisis: a Plan B. Rather than changing harmful... Read more

Ne touchez pas à notre Terre mère!

Arrêtons la géoingénierie : notre planète n’est pas un laboratoire

Les sociétés industrielles ont donné lieu à des crises écologiques sans précédent : changements climatiques, épuisement des réserves d’eau potable, accumulation de toxines, effondrement des écosystèmes et accélération de l’extinction des espèces. La transgression des limites naturelles dans le but de réaliser des profits a compromis l’intégrité et la survie de notre Terre. Cette façon de vivre sur Terre est devenue insoutenable. Le bon sens nous dicte de passer à l’action afin de bâtir, au plus vite, une civilisation plus juste ayant une empreinte moins profonde sur la planète.

News Release - 21st April 2010 - For Immediate Release

 Hands Off Mother Earth!

Civil Society Groups announce new global campaign against geoengineering tests – urge public to join in.

www.handsoffmotherearth.org

Cochabamba Bolivia  - On the eve of UN Mother Earth Day, over sixty national and international organizations today threw their weight behind a common statement launching a global campaign to prevent real world deployment of geoengineering experiments.

Geoengineering refers to large-scale intentional tinkering with the climate and earth systems to counteract global warming. The ‘Hands Off Mother Earth’ campaign (or H.O.M.E. campaign) regards such geoengineering schemes as dangerous and unjust. It is urging individuals and organizations to speak out in opposing them.

“With rich... Read more

MEDIA ADVISORY

For Immediate Release

April 19, 2010

ETC Group attends Cochabamba Climate Change Conference: Presses for a Ban on Geoengineering.

Cochabamba, Bolivia - To advance meaningful international action on confronting the climate crisis, the Bolivian government is this week hosting a Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and The Rights of Mother Earth featuring close to 10,000 attendees. These include government representatives, social movements, non-governmental organizations and Indigenous Peoples from around the world.

WHAT: Civil society organizations are increasingly alarmed that the world's most powerful governments, corporations and individuals are moving to initiate real world experiments in geoengineering. These are large-scale proposals to deliberately alter the climate, for example by creating artificial volcanoes to pollute the atmosphere with sulphur particles. Proponents of... Read more

Press Advisory

Contact: Charles Margulis, 510-697-0615 (cell);

Diana Bronson, ETC Group, (514)-273-6661, (514) 629-9236 (cell)

Environmental Watchdogs Raise Concerns About San Francisco Company and its International Geoengineering Conference in California This Week

Climate Experiments Pursued for Profit Pose Serious Environmental Risks, Warns More Than 70 Groups

WHAT:            Press Briefing on concerns around this week’s “International

Conference on Climate Intervention Technologies”

WHERE:            San Francisco Foundation

                        225 Bush St (entrance closest to Sansome... Read more

Dr. Margaret Leinen, 

Climate Response Fund

71 Stevenson Street, Suite 400

San Francisco, CA 94105

Dr. Michael MacCracken,

Chef du comité organisateur scientifique

Climate Institute

900 17th Street, NW, Suite

Washington, DC 20006 

Objet : Conférence internationale d’Asilomar sur les technologies de modification du climat 22-26 mars 2010

En tant qu’organismes de la société civile et que mouvements sociaux cherchant à trouver des solutions constructives pour contrer les changements climatiques, nous désirons exprimer notre profonde inquiétude face à la rencontre organisée de façon privée  sur la géoingénierie qui se... Read more

4 March 2010

Dr. Margaret Leinen,Climate Response Fund71 Stevenson Street, Suite 400San Francisco, CA 94105

Dr. Michael MacCracken,Head of the Scientific Organizing CommitteeClimate Institute900 17th Street, NW, SuiteWashington, DC 20006

Open Letter to the Climate Response Fund and the Scientific Organizing Committee

RE: Asilomar International Conference on Climate Intervention Technologies: March 22-26 2010

As civil society organizations and social movements working to find constructive solutions to climate change, we want to express our deep concerns with the upcoming privately organized meeting on geoengineering in Asilomar, California. Its stated aim, which is to «develop a set of voluntary guidelines, or best practices, for the least harmful and lowest risk conduct of research and testing of proposed climate intervention and geoengineering technologies,» is moving us down the wrong road too soon and without any speed... Read more

ETC GroupNews release (revised)Friday, February 26, 2010www.etcgroup.org

FAO's Biotech Meeting Dubbed “Biased for Business” as Steering Committee Member Resigns in Protest

On the eve of a major intergovernmental conference on Agricultural Biotechnologies in Developing Countries (ABDC) in Guadalajara, Mexico, a civil society member of the international steering committee has resigned, calling the preparations for the gathering of governments and scientists “hopelessly biased” and “foolishly sidestepping key socioeconomic and scientific issues.”

Pat Mooney, Executive Director of ETC Group, a Canada-based international civil society organization with a long history of work with FAO and biotechnology issues, resigned from the steering committee on Tuesday, February 23. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization conference, hosted by Mexico, runs from March 1- 4 in Guadalajara.

“The overwhelming thrust of the guiding documents for the meeting are... Read more

Communiqué de presse

Le 12 février 2010

www.etcgroup.org

Les partisans de la géoingénierie préconisent l’expérimentation de technologies à haut risque

Des normes volontaires pour prendre la planète en otage

Si la plupart des scientifiques ont quitté la Conférence de Copenhague sur le climat plutôt déprimés quant à la force de leur influence, un petit groupe de défenseurs de la géoingénierie en sont sortis enhardis par l’absence de résultats et l’incertitude qui en découle face à l’avenir. Ce groupe de scientifiques souhaite procéder à des recherches et à des expérimentations sur des technologies de géoingénierie controversées, et la « gestion du rayonnement solaire » (GRS) suscite chez eux un réel enthousiasme. La GRS est un type d’intervention permettant de « faire baisser le thermostat de la planète » en réfléchissant une portion des rayons solaires dans l’espace,... Read more

ETC Group

News Release

February 11, 2010

www.etcgroup.org

Top-down Planet Hackers Call for Bottom-up Governance

Geoengineers Bid to Establish Voluntary Testing Regime Must be Opposed

While most scientists left the Copenhagen Climate Summit feeling gloomy about their influence, a small group of geoengineering advocates came away emboldened by the summit’s weak outcome and uncertain road ahead. This group of scientists aims to get on with research and experimentation in controversial geoengineering technologies. Their real excitement is over “solar radiation management” (SRM). This is a way of “cooling down the planet’s thermostat” by reflecting a portion of the sun’s rays back to outer space, through a variety of techniques ranging from sunshades in space, to aerosol sulphates in the stratosphere, to whitening clouds. These high-risk, planet-altering schemes affect global warming without changing... Read more

Qui-nous-nourrira? Réflexions sur les crises alimentaire et climatique

La chaîne et le réseau : des dénominateurs peu communs

D’ici 2050, ou plus tôt encore, la terre sera cultivée dans des conditions jamais expérimentées; il faudra se faire à l’idée qu’une météo « normale » ne sera plus qu’une illusion. Et pourtant, on veut à tout prix nous convaincre qu’il y a tout à gagner de l’accaparement mondial des terres et de la plantation des agrocarburants. Mais une chose est sûre : les décideurs n’en savent pas assez sur l’approvisionnement alimentaire. Nous ignorons tout de la provenance des denrées et de la manière dont les personnes affamées se nourrissent. Nous ne savons pas non plus qui nous nourrira en 2050. La vertu de ce rapport est qu’il pose plus de questions qu’il n’apporte de réponses. Il se demande qui de la chaîne alimentaire industrielle ou du réseau alimentaire paysan nous aidera le mieux à affronter... Read more

Retooling  the Planet:  Climate Chaos in a Geoengineering Age, a Report Commissioned and Published by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.

This critical overview of geoengineering technologies examines the history, politics and social and ecological implications of attempts to add large-scale, intentional manipulation of the planet to the menu of possible responses to climate change.   The report contests the notion that more funding, research and experimentation is needed into geoengineering technologies, and provides a series of recommendations on how these controversial technologies should be regulated.

To read the full report, click on "Download PDF" above.

To view the webcast of ETC Group's press conference in Copenhagen announcing the release of this paper, go to: http://tiny.cc/5BnqI