STWR - Share The World's Resources

23rd September 07 - Julio Godoy, IPS

Instead of providing positive incentives to tropical nations to conserve their rainforests and so reduce greenhouse gases emissions, the world indirectly gives "perverse incentives" to destroy them by demanding goods produced by intensive logging, a leading environmental activist says.

An active eco-state will never be the whole answer to the epic challenge of climate change, but it surely forms a bigger part of it than is yet recognised. As a sweltering summer fades to black, and an autumn chill descends, it is time to put government at the centre of the argument for sustainability.

18th September 07 - Press release for William Cline's new book: Global Warming and Agriculture: Impact Estimates by Country 

World agriculture faces a serious decline within this century due to global warming unless emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are substantially reduced from their rising path, and developing countries will suffer much steeper declines than high-income countries, according to a new study.

17th September 07, World Watch Institute

Every year, the oil industry burns off up to 170 billion cubic meters of natural gas released in the oil extraction process, according to a new report commissioned by the World Bank. The practice, known as gas flaring, not only harms the environment by emitting some 400 million tons of carbon dioxide globally, but is also wasteful of a cleaner energy source, the gas itself, notes Bent Svensson, manager of the Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction partnership. “In Africa alone about 40 billion cubic meters of gas are burned every year, which if put to use could generate half of the electricity needed in that continent,” he says.

Agrofuel development has arrived on the global stage. Just this year, the number of declarations, dollars, and development plans that have gone to agrofuels are unparalleled in any other sector. An idea that languished for decades has suddenly become the darling of politicians, big business, international financiers and the media.

11th September 07 - Ian Sample, The Guardian (UK)

Climate change and an increasing population could trigger a global food crisis in the next half century as countries struggle for fertile land to grow crops and rear animals, scientists warned yesterday. To keep up with the growth in human population, more food will have to be produced worldwide over the next 50 years than has been during the past 10,000 years combined, the experts said. But in many countries a combination of poor farming practices and deforestation will be exacerbated by climate change to steadily degrade soil fertility, leaving vast areas unsuitable for crops or grazing. Competition over sparse resources may lead to conflicts and environmental destruction, the scientists fear.