Will Unicorns Save us from Climate Change? (BECCS won’t.)

Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on

IPCC’s latest recommendations based on dangerous “magical thinking”: observers
OCT 31, COPENHAGEN — It’s hallowe’en at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s 40th plenary session, but as the world’s premiere climate science body releases its latest report, observers are wondering if the planet has been played a very nasty trick indeed. The IPCC appears to have embraced carbon geoengineering in the form of CCS and BECCS (Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage), which it now claims can achieve “net zero emissions” somewhere in the second half of the century. But critics are calling the move a case of dangerous “magical thinking”. 

Video Animation Explores Risks of Treating Life as a Machine

Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on

Synthetic Biology Explained
MONTREAL, 29 Oct. 2014–On the eve of the largest annual gathering of synthetic biologists in the world, ETC Group and the Bioeconomies Media Project are launching a new animated explanation of the workings of this emerging “SynBio” industry, often dubbed extreme genetic engineering. Thousands of scientists, students and vendors will converge at the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) Jamboree in Boston to share the latest advancements in what has become a multi billion dollar industry based on the industrialization of life at the molecular level.
 

Fate of Pro-Terminator Bill Uncertain

Submitted by Joëlle Deschambault on

Brazil’s Judiciary Commission in Confusion: Charges, Counter-Charges and Confrontations

Confronted with 35,000 institutional and individual signatures on a petition growing by several hundred an hour, Brazil’s Judiciary Commission agreed to take the Pro-Terminator Bill off the agenda this week leaving open the possibility that the bill will not be passed until Congress reconvenes in early February. However, the Judiciary Commission also determined to sit again next Tuesday and could continue meeting even Wednesday and Thursday before adjourning for Christmas. The Chair of the Commission has reiterated his commitment to block the contentious bill but CSO observers understand that a majority of Commission members are in favor of the suicide seed legislation and could, regardless of a formal agenda, call for a vote at any meeting. Brazilian allies both in the Commission and among the civil society organizations attending the negotiations say that representatives and government officials have been shocked by the scale in ferocity of global opposition to the proposed legislation.

Who Will Feed Us? Text and poster

Submitted by Anonymous on

The Industrial Food Chain or the Peasant Food Webs?

The Food Systems We Don’t Know We Don’t Know – Fifty years ago, at the first World Food Congress in June 1963, the UN was told that, “We have the means, we have the capacity, to wipe hunger and poverty from the face of the earth in our lifetime – we need only the will.” These words have been the mantra of every food conference since. Yet governments still face major gaps in their knowledge about our food supply and consumption. This became horribly apparent in 2007 when governments failed to recognize that a global food crisis was at hand. Fifty years after policymakers committed to end hunger they need to sort out why governments don’t have the means, the capacity, or the will to end hunger.

Related Issues: 
strengthening diversity
Seeds & Genetic Diversity
Farmers' Rights & Food Sovereignty
Biodiversity & Cultural Diversity
Genomics & Biotechnology
Climate & Geoengineering
Corporate Concentration
Related Fora: 
Biodiversity: CBD, SBSTTA, IPBES
Food and Agriculture: FAO, CGIAR, CFS
Sustainable Development: Rio+20, CSD

Putting the Cartel before the Horse...and Farm, Seeds, Soil and Peasants etc: Who Will Control the Agricultural Inputs?

Submitted by Joëlle Deschambault on

The State of Corporate Concentration, 2013

In this Communiqué, ETC Group identifies the major corporate players that control industrial farm inputs. Together with our companion poster, Who will feed us? The industrial food chain or the peasant food web?, ETC Group aims to de-construct the myths surrounding the effectiveness of the industrial food system.

Related Issues: 
Seeds & Genetic Diversity
Farmers' Rights & Food Sovereignty
monitoring power
Patents & Biopiracy
Corporate Concentration
Related Fora: 
Biodiversity: CBD, SBSTTA, IPBES
Food and Agriculture: FAO, CGIAR, CFS

A solar geoengineering Trojan horse at UNEA-6

Submitted by Laura Dunn on

A controversial proposal was shut down by Global South countries and broad civil society resistance

Nairobi, Kenya – On the surface, the Swiss resolution on Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) at UNEA-6 could appear to be a neutral call to constitute an expert group on SRM. But whether it was intentional or not, the proposed expert group could act as a Trojan horse for the advancement of solar geoengineering, creating a base for geoengineering advocates to set themselves as the main reference in global discussions on SRM. 

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