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News archives

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

UN FAO Conference on Food Security in Rome from June 2-5
IATP will be attending the UN FAO Conference on Food Security in Rome from June 2-5. This will be the UN's largest gathering since the food crisis started. It will set the agenda for how the international community addresses the food crisis. Attending will be the heads of the WTO, World Bank and UN ... Continued...

Friday, May 30, 2008

The Real Tragedy Behind the Global Food Crisis
The United Nations is preparing to hold its largest gathering since the outbreak of the global food crisis. UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, has called on world leaders to attend a summit in Rome beginning June 3. The latest global forecasts show food prices are finally stabilizing after months of... Continued...

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Prices affecting trade
THE CURRENT GLOBAL PROBLEM of rising oil and commodity prices is having a negative impact on the viability of the current round of Doha Trade talks. So much so that it is off the table, so to speak, among most countries at this time. Whether the talks could be resuscitated is left to be seen... Continued...

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

U.S. CCSP RELEASES REPORT ON THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON AGRICULTURE, LAND AND WATER RESOURCES AND BIODIVERSITY
The U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) today released "Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.3 (SAP 4.3): The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United States." The CCSP integrates the federal research efforts of 13 agencies on cli... Continued...

Friday, May 23, 2008

Bottled Water Backlash: Environmental Concerns are Sending People Back to Their Taps
Jennifer Phillips always felt guilty that her large Nashville law firm didn’t recycle. So after big client meetings, she collected all the empty plastic water bottles, took them home and added them to her own curbside recycling bin. Now, she is proud to report that her firm, Bass, Berry & Sims, serv... Continued...

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Farmers are not to blame for food crisis
John Nichols: — 5/21/2008 12:50 pm When the Senate Foreign Relations Committee met last week to examine the global food crisis, Russ Feingold said something that might have sounded parochial coming from one of the chamber's few genuine internationalists. "Before I turn to the very seriou... Continued...

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Analysis: Oil and Gas Pipeline Watch
Iran puts May 26 deadline on IPI pipeline A top Iranian oil minister put a May 26 deadline for finalizing agreements on the $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. The 1,724-mile IPI gas pipeline is a proposed venture to transport gas from Iran to Pakistan and India. The pipeline, once... Continued...

Monday, May 19, 2008

WTO Deal Critical to Ease Food Crisis, Mandelson Says
A World Trade Organization agreement removing barriers to commerce is ``absolutely essential'' to bring down soaring food prices, European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said. ``We have to address the underlying problems of demand and supply of food,'' he said in a Bloomberg Television... Continued...

Over 2.6 million Somalis could go hungry, UN agency warns
More than 2.6 million Somalis – comprising 35 per cent of the Horn of Africa nation’s population – need food assistance due because of the deteriorating humanitarian situation triggered by skyrocketing food prices, the weak currency and worsening drought, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Orga... Continued...

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Food Crisis May Divide Middle East's Oil Haves, Have-Nots
The wealth gap among Middle Eastern nations may widen as countries with crude oil spend their way out of the food crisis and those without bust their budgets. The region's powers are pursuing different approaches to defusing the tensions unleashed by the jump in the cost of staples such as rice,... Continued...

Friday, May 16, 2008

Construction can begin on oil pipeline
BISMARCK – TransCanada can start building the Keystone crude oil pipeline through eastern North Dakota, a judge ruled Thursday. South Central District Judge Gail Hagerty denied a request by the Dakota Resource Council and six landowners who asked her to stay the Public Service Commission’s Feb. 2... Continued...

Scenes From the Tar Wars
At a small airport in the northern Alberta town of Fort McMurray, a rickety, single-engine Cessna hurtles off the ground with a roar. Dr. John O'Connor ignores the shuddering fuselage, the tail wiggle, the steep climb above the spruce trees at the end of the runway. For O'Connor, a bush doctor who h... Continued...

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Pipeline expansion thru Minnesota would boost oil flow from Canada
Permitting decisions are due early this summer and $3 billion in construction is slated to begin later this year. With oil prices at record highs, approaching $120 per barrel in late April, Enbridge’s big pipeline expansion projects between western Canada and the Midwest have an impeccable sense ... Continued...

Psst! Wanna Buy Some Black-Market Rice?
Sandy Peifer keeps a six-month supply of food in her home in Ashley, Ohio. It's in closets, cupboards and wherever else she can find space. That's her way of protecting her family against natural or personal disaster. When Peifer's husband Bryan was laid off two years ago, the couple relied on r... Continued...

HATCH ASKS ENERGY COMMITTEE TO LIFT MORATORIUM ON OIL SHALE DEVELOPMENT
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) today called on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to lift a moratorium that essentially bars the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from leasing land for commercial oil shale development. During his testimony, Hatch also presented a letter from Utah ... Continued...

HATCH ASKS ENERGY COMMITTEE TO LIFT MORATORIUM ON OIL SHALE DEVELOPMENT
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) today called on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to lift a moratorium that essentially bars the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from leasing land for commercial oil shale development. During his testimony, Hatch also presented a letter from Uta... Continued...

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Environmental Groups Go After Big Oil
Environmental advocacy organization EARTHWORKS is calling on the American Petroleum Institute to cease its multi-million dollar public-relations campaign designed to burnish the green credentials of the oil industry, while gearing up for a marketing campaign of its own. "The best public relations yo... Continued...

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

French assembly rejects proposal on GM crops
The Government's law proposal on GM crops was rejected by the French Assembly. French PM Fran篩s Fillon has appointed a commission of deputies and senators to find a consensus and put the proposal back on the table. (Analysis: D. Crossan) The French parliament rejected a bill on genetically m... Continued...

Farm Bill a Missed Opportunity
The 2008 Farm Bill to be voted on by the House and Senate this week includes incremental gains for conservation, renewable energy, food aid and healthier, local food systems. However, it fails to reverse decades of deregulation that have increased agricultural market volatility to the benefit of glo... Continued...

Monday, May 12, 2008

NOAA Reports Coastal Waters Show Decline in Contaminants: Concerns Remain with Continuing Chemical Inputs
NOAA scientists today released a 20-year study showing that environmental laws enacted in the 1970s are having a positive effect on reducing overall contaminant levels in coastal waters of the U.S. However, the report points to continuing concerns with elevated levels of metals and organic contamin... Continued...

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Cal-Water wins $49.7 million in gasoline-additive settlement
WATER COMPANY WINS $49.7 MILLION IN SETTLEMENT A San Jose-based water company will receive $49.7 million as part of a national deal to settle a lawsuit with oil companies over water contamination from the gasoline additive MTBE. California Water Service Co. is one of 156 plaintiffs in the case... Continued...

Friday, May 9, 2008

San Francisco to Test Drinking Water Security System
SAN FRANCISCO, California, May 9, 2008 (ENS) - Improving the security of U.S. drinking water systems has gathered urgency since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced an $8 million grant to San Francisco to help the city develop and evaluate a contam... Continued...

Oil prices: Another prediction
Last week Hamish McRae, one of the world's best economic journalists, declared in "The Independent" that "Hardly anyone a year ago successfully predicted the rise in the oil price to $120 a barrel --in fact I have not found a single forecast of that." Regular readers of this column may recall that I... Continued...

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Biodiversity: It's In The Water
ScienceDaily (May 8, 2008) — What if hydrology is more important for predicting biodiversity than biology? New research challenges current thinking about biodiversity and opens up new avenues for predicting how climate change or human activity may affect biodiversity patterns. Researchers have in... Continued...

Environmental Groups Fight Attempt to Repeal Crucial Climate Provision from 2007 U.S. Energy Bill
Today, the Natural Resources Defense Council and 26 other U.S. and Canadian environmental groups sent a letter to the Senate and House urging preservation of Section 526 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA). Section 526 prohibits the Federal purchase of dirty fuels (such as liq... Continued...

Japan Petroleum to expand Canada oil sands project
CALGARY, Alberta, - Japan Canada Oil Sand Ltd, a unit of Japan Petroleum Exploration Co (1662.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday it plans to expand its Canadian oil sands operation to produce an additional 35,000 barrels a day by 2014. The company, which has run a pilot project for the... Continued...

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Water and Space: Perchlorate, a major ingredient in rocket fuel found in the water supply
Of all the things to worry about in a glass of tap water -- rust from old pipes, giardia and that strange, recurring mossy taste -- perhaps the last thing that comes to mind is the possibility of rocket fuel and aircraft-engine cleanser. Yet America's commitment to flight, space exploration and inte... Continued...

Will the Food Crisis Finally Get the Attention of Presidential Candidates?
As we head into another round of presidential primaries, the specter of a growing world food crisis looms on the horizon. Fueled by rising apprehension over increasing price volatility in agricultural commodity markets, the debate continues to escalate over what are the underlying causes of rising f... Continued...

Greed behind food price rises-development bank head
BRUSSELS, - The food price crisis is caused largely by greed and speculation rather than food shortages, the head of Southern Africa's development bank said on Tuesday. Spiralling food costs -- called a "silent tsunami" by the World Food Programme -- have ignited fury and a rash of protests from... Continued...

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Play It as It Dries
Last December, I got a taste of what golfers are likely to experience, if not quite so starkly, in the years ahead. I played a course in Georgia whose fairways, due to strict drought restrictions across the northern third of the state, hadn't been watered in months. The look was a little eerie. ... Continued...

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Canadians Investigate Death of Ducks at Oil-Sands Project
OTTAWA — Canadian federal and provincial government officials were conducting an investigation Wednesday into Syncrude Canada, a large oil-sands project operator, after hundreds of migrating ducks that landed in a company tailings pond died. Water used to separate and process the oil-bearing tar ... Continued...

Florida takes issue with plan to keep more water in Georgia
Florida told the federal government Wednesday it "strongly opposes" a proposal to store more water in Georgia while limiting flows into Apalachicola Bay, saying to do so would harm oysters and federally protected sturgeon and mussels. In a letter, Florida Department of Environmental Protection Se... Continued...

The Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force approves a revised Action Plan for addressing hypoxia
Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan 2008 Approved The Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force approved a revised Action Plan for addressing hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico following a comprehensive reassessment of the 2001 Action Plan. The 2008 Action Plan will be released and ... Continued...

Summary of North Dakota ballot initiatives
Summaries of the eight ballot measures being circulated or prepared for North Dakota's November general election ballot: BUDGET GROWTH: Says annual state and local government spending increases may not rise beyond the Midwestern inflation rate unless 60 percent of the voters approve higher spendi... Continued...

Monsanto's Harvest of Fear
Monsanto already dominates America?s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation?s tactics?ruthless legal battles against small farmers?is its decades-long history of toxic contamination. No thanks: An anti-Monsanto ... Continued...

Canada caught on its own tar baby. Tar sand investments now a dead duck?
As one Canadian newspaper put it. Ducks in Alberta died a crude death. One of the species of ducks that died on a pond filled with crude oil polluted water: Bufflehead. Here’s a picture of a gorgeous male Bufflehead in fine fettle. Most of the ducks who died in the tar sands “tailings pond” s... Continued...

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Proposal would block construction of some ND oil pipelines
A proposed ballot initiative would block construction of some new oil pipelines in North Dakota. The measure is being promoted by opponents of the Keystone oil pipeline. TransCanada Corp. of Calgary, Alberta, is developing the pipeline to transport Canadian crude to refineries in the Midwest. ... Continued...

Norway: Law against Private ownership of drinking water
On 3rd April, the Norwegian Parliament passed a law to ensure that water and sanitation infrastructure be publicly owned for the indefinite future. The French water company, Veolia, is clearly disappointed, and will not be able to invest in Norway as they have planned. Fagforbundet, PSIs affi... Continued...

Water victory for SA township
The South African High Court has ruled that it is illegal to forcibly install prepaid water meters. The decision comes after township residents took Johannesburg's water authority to court for forcing them to buy water. Lawyers for the residents of Phiri in Soweto said the metres infringed the... Continued...