The Generator is founded on the simple premise that we should leave the world in better condition than we found it. The news items in this category outline the attempts people have made to do this. They are mainly concerned with our food supply and settlement patterns. The impact that the human race has on the planet.
Queensland Conservation has aligned with Biological Farmers of Australia, to re-instate claims organic farm methods can contribute to lowering Australia’s greenhouse emissions by locking up more carbon in soil. They also say organic production will become more competitive as oil and fertiliser prices climb. As part of its climate change campaign, Queensland Conservation has referred Continue Reading →
From the ministers officeÂ
Australia will spend A$12.9 billion ($12 billion) over the next 10 years to improve the way water is used and to ensure long-term supply in the face of a changing global climate, according to Climate Change and Water Minister, Penny Wong.
The government will spend A$5.8 billion to enhance the efficiency and productivity of water use and A$3 billion buying back water to be returned to rivers under its ‘Water for the Future’ plan, Penny Wong, minister for climate change and water, said today in notes prepared for a speech.
By ANDREW COCKBURN in Counter Punch
Six weeks ago, President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, “unprecedented in its scope.”
Bush’s secret directive covers actions across a huge geographic area – from Lebanon to Afghanistan – but is also far more sweeping in the type of actions permitted under its guidelines – up to and including the assassination of targeted officials. This widened scope clears the way, for example, for full support for the military arm of Mujahedin-e Khalq, the cultish Iranian opposition group, despite its enduring position on the State Department’s list of terrorist groups.
On top of record-breaking rice prices and corn through the roof on ethanol demand, wheat is now rusting in the fields across Africa.
Officials fear near total crop losses, and the fungus, known as Ug99, is spreading.
Wheat prices have been soaring this week on top of already high prices, and futures contracts spiked, too, on panic buying.
Experts fear the cost of bread could soon follow the path of rice, the price of which has triggered riots in some countries and prompted countries to cut off exports.
Investment newsletters are now featuring headlines like “How You Can Profit from the Global Food Crisis.” The recommended investments include agribusiness stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that speculate in agricultural commodities. These investments will no doubt do very well in the global food crisis; but before you put your money down, you may want to explore whether you will be helping to alleviate the problem or contributing to it.
Do you really want to “invest” in starvation? In an April 23 article in the German news source Spiegel Online called “Deadly Greed: The Role of Speculators in the Global Food Crisis,” Balzli and Horning note, “Many investors . . . are simply oblivious to the fact that by investing in the global casino, they could be gambling away the daily food supply of the world’s poorest people.”1
Rice prices in Thailand, the world’s top exporter, have surged to $US1,000 a tonne, feeding concerns about food security as far as the United States after export curbs by governments worldwide. The surging price of food and fuel has sparked riots in Africa and Haiti and raised fears that millions of the world’s poor will Continue Reading →