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2017: The Year of Bits, Bots and Blockchains

Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on

ETC Group’s Irreverent Year in Review... again

“The future has arrived — it’s just not evenly distributed yet.” —William Gibson, 1992

As the year careens to a close, summing up the trends, portends and hairpin bends of 2017 feels like a Pandora’s unboxing of mashed up dystopias. Call it technological convergence or the fourth industrial revolution, but the familiar cyberpunk themes of robotics, Artificial Intelligence and bioengineered economies are now becoming cyber-industrial fact.

Global Wins from Early Warnings

Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on

Seven key ETC victories from the first 40 years

It's usually the case at ETC that when we encounter success, we've usually already moved on to the next campaign. But in our 40th year, we decided to take a moment to celebrate by looking back at some of our favourite wins. We like them all, so they are presented here in roughly chronological order.

7. Seed Treaty

The 2040 Fund

Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on

Illuminating pathways out of the current mess

As 2017 draws to a close, we’re excited to announce our 2040 Fund. As technologies and corporate power gain critical mass, ETC’s contribution will shift from from fighting technologies one by one to defining the “positive possible” of the longer term, and illuminating pathways out of the current mess.

To make that possible, our goal is to build a base of donors to our 2040 fund who contribute an average of $20.40 per month. Want to be part of it? Click here to donate now.

Or read on to find out more.

The Gene Drive Files

Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on

Disclosed emails reveal military as top funder; Gates Foundation paying $1.6 million to influence UN expert process

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Over 1,200 emails released under open records requests reveal that the U.S. military is now the top funder and influencer behind a controversial genetic extinction technology known as “gene drives” – pumping $100 million into the field.

Mapping Geogengineering Projects

Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on

Interactive map from ETC Group and Heinrich Boell Foundation shows growth of climate control efforts

This interactive geoengineering map, prepared by ETC Group and the Heinrich Boell Foundation, is an attempt to shed light on the worldwide state of geoengineering by showing the scope of research and experimentation. There is no complete record of weather and climate control projects so this map is necessarily partial.

ETC 2017 Survey

ETC is is undertaking a process of reflection and transition, and we want to hear your thoughts on our work so far. Your responses will help us prioritize and communicate going forward. 

Everyone who fills out the survey will be entered to win a special prize. Thank you!

Who Will Feed Us? The Industrial Food Chain vs the Peasant Food Web

Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on

New report from ETC Group tells a shocking tale of two food systems

We are told that it is big agribusiness, with its flashy techno-fixes and financial clout, that will save the world from widespread hunger and malnutrition and help food systems weather the impacts of climate change. However, a new report from ETC Group shows that in fact, it is a diverse network of small-scale producers, dubbed the Peasant Food Web, that feeds 70% of the world, including the most hungry and marginalized people.

Who Will Feed Us?

Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on

The Peasant Food Web vs. the Industrial Food Chain

(Read the news release about the report launch.)

Who Will Feed Us, now in its third edition,  compares the industrial food system with peasant farming. Industrial farming gets all the attention (and most of the land). It accounts for more than 80% of the fossil fuel emissions and uses over 70% of the water supply used in agriculture, but it actually produces only about 30% of the world's food.

Related Issues: 
Seeds & Genetic Diversity
Farmers' Rights & Food Sovereignty
Biodiversity & Cultural Diversity
Genomics & Biotechnology
Climate & Geoengineering
Corporate Concentration
Related Fora: 
Food and Agriculture: FAO, CGIAR, CFS
Social Movements: World Social Forum
Regional: EU, Asia Pacific, Africa, Americas
Climate: UNFCCC, IPCC
Sustainable Development: Rio+20, CSD

Riding the Geostorm

Submitted by Veronica Villa on

A briefing from civil society on Geoengineering Governance

Is it possible to govern Geoengineering?

When speaking about geoengineering governance, a sensible first question is whether geoengineering, with its inherently high risks, unequal impacts, long term effects and broad geopolitical, military, environmental and global justice implications, is even possible to “govern.”

“Bleeding” veggie burger has “no basis for safety,” according to FDA

Submitted by Veronica Villa on

Documents show that makers of the “Impossible Burger” ignored FDA’s warnings about safety of burger’s key GMO ingredient

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Creators of a fake-meat burger made with a high-profile genetically engineered ingredient may have landed their experimental industry in a sizzling food safety mess, casting doubt on a Silicon Valley foodtech investor bubble. Joint Press Release from ETC Group and Friends of the Earth.

A civil society briefing on Geoengineering

Submitted by Anonymous on

Climate change, smoke and mirrors
For the past decade, a small but growing group of governments and scientists, the majority from the most powerful and most climate-polluting countries in the world, has been pushing for political consideration of geoengineering, the deliberate large-scale technological manipulation of the climate.
 
This briefing, prepared by ETC Group and Heinrich Böll Foundation in May 2017, gives an overview of what geoengineering is and why it is dangerous, as well as up-to-date information on proposed geoengineering technologies and governance.
 

Civil society: “Oil companies should not author IPCC report”

Submitted by Anonymous on

108 organizations urged IPCC to review flagrant conflict of interest of allowing two oil company employees to co-author a crucial report on global warming

12 May 2017 

On 27 April 2017, 108 civil society organizations signed a letter requesting the IPCC to reconsider its list of authors for the upcoming Special Report on keeping global warming below 1.5°C. Two senior employees from major oil companies were selected among the authors for the Report, which the letter considers a major hurdle to make a fair report, and a violation of the IPCC's conflict of interest policy. 

Trump Administration – A Geoengineering Administration?

Submitted by Trudi Zundel on

Geoengineer David Keith first made his intention to launch a geoengineering trial public back in 2012 – saying then that it would take place “within a year” and naming Fort Sumner in New Mexico as the likely location.[1] All indications were that he was ready to move forward, but was first waiting to get a signal of public support from the US government, ideally in the form of funding. Tellingly, the experiment never came.

Why SRM experiments are a bad idea

Submitted by Trudi Zundel on

Solar Radiation Management (SRM) describes a set of geoengineering techniques that aim to counter human-made climate change by artificially increasing the reflection of heat from sunlight (solar radiation) back into space. Some advocates have started using the term “solar geoengineering” – but these techniques are not related to solar power production.

Trump Administration Inflates Geoengineers’ Balloon

Submitted by Trudi Zundel on

Harvard scientists in Washington talk up stratospheric geoengineering experiments that would violate UN decision

Washington, DC – The Trump administration’s repudiation of the UN’s 2015 Paris agreement on climate change and its rollback of the EPA and other US agencies on monitoring and mitigating global warming has created an unexpected opportunity for a rogue group of climate researchers to seek support for an alternative climate change strategy.

2016: The Year that Wasn't Normal

Submitted by Anonymous on

ETC Group's Long-Awaited 2016 Year-in-Review

So you say you want a (fourth) revolution, well you know…

Fashionably late and just in time for the Chinese New Year of the Rooster, ETC Group once again offers a tonque-in-cheek wake-up call and look-back at the last thirteen months (spoiler: despite our best hopes, waiting the extra month didn’t make the news any cheerier)

Four Steps Forward, One Leap Back on Global Governance of Synthetic Biology

Submitted by Trudi Zundel on

UN Biodiversity Convention grapples with threats posed by extreme biotech industry

CANCUN, MEXICO — This week, 196 countries meeting at the 2016 UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) Conference of the Parties made progress on the global governance and oversight of synthetic biology. Synthetic biology (syn bio) has become one of the most fiercely debated topics at the Biodiversity Convention, almost 7 years after civil society first brought the need for precaution and regulation of the new set of biotechnologies to this UN body.

UN Convention still says “No” to manipulating the climate

Submitted by Trudi Zundel on

UN Convention on Biological Diversity reaffirms its moratorium on climate-related geoengineering

CANCUN, MEXICO – The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which gathered at its 13th Conference of the Parties (COP 13) in Mexico from December 4-17, decided to reaffirm its landmark moratorium on climate-related geoengineering that it first agreed to in 2010.

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