World food crisis severe and growing - Oxfam

photo from the 'Nature and Human: Friend or Foe' project by Indonesian youth group eighterscreativity.com
Urgent action is needed to prevent hundreds of millions more people slipping into hunger as a result of volatile food prices and increasing energy and water scarcity. Decades of underinvestment in agriculture coupled with the increasing threat of climate change mean that despite recent price falls, future food security is in jeopardy, Oxfam told a UN World Food Program conference.

Two new reports: Oxfam's A Billion Hungry People and the UK think tank Chatham House's The Feeding of the Nine Billion, call on political leaders, corporations and NGOs to deal with structural causes of chronic hunger: 1 in 6 people in the world.

They predict world food demand for food will increase almost 25% as the world's population grows by 2.5 billion, to 9.2 billion by 2050. As Frances Moore Lappé has stated many times, the problem is not absolute lack of food, but unfair trade created by market forces and maldistribution. And climate change will increase the undernourished by another 40 to 170 million.

Despite a fall in world food prices from 2008 highs, they are well above those of past years and are likely to rise sharply again in the future. Speculation, price volatility and corporate land grabs increase the hunger problem. (voir aussi l'article de Guy Debailleul en bas)

Current food shortages in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and Zimbabwe are evidence that the global food crisis is far from over. Even before recent price rises, over 850 million people were undernourished. Now, there are nearly a billion, as a result of the price rises, alongside other factors such as political instability and conflict.

"International institutions and donors must reverse decades of under-investment in agriculture and scrap blatantly distortionary polices such as biofuels," said Oxfam food researcher Carlos Galian. He called recent EU and USA subsidies "a retrograde step that calls into question their commitment to longer term reforms."

Oxfam urges the rich to improve humanitarian aid and demands that poor countries (with help from new carbon and mitigation funds) invest in agriculture, targeting women and small-scale producers, and increase social protection measures for the vulnerable, including cash payments and job-creation programs for those at risk of hunger. This is exactly the opposite of the World Bank's SAP/ PRSP policies for the last 20 years, backed by the Washington consensus.

The Food Crisis in Figures

• One in six of the world's population is hungry, almost a billion people.
• 13 million children are born annually with intrauterine growth restriction, meaning that stunting sets in even before children are born due to the hunger experienced by the mother.
• Between 50 and 60 % of all childhood deaths in the developing world are hunger related.
• The risk of death is 2.5 times higher for children with only mild malnutrition than it is for children who are adequately nourished.
• The proportion of overseas development assistance spent on agriculture has fallen from almost a fifth in 1980 to just 3 per cent today.
• Poor people are particularly vulnerable to changes in food prices, with many spending up to 80 per cent of their income on food.

Even before the recent crisis:

• More than 24,000 people died of hunger related causes every day
• Five million children under the age of 5 died every year of hunger related causes
• 16,000 children died every day of hunger-related causes - one every five seconds

See also Oxfam 24 Sep 08: rich countries have broken their promises on aid. Grain.org reports corporate land grabs in poor countries. Doctors with Borders warn that 10,000 children die of malnutrition each day. Pat Mooney's ETC group severely criticizes OECD countries in its H(a)LF a Loaf report. Frances Moore Lappé's Food First analyzes root causes of global hunger, poverty, and ecological degradation, and helps Third World projects. Canadian Foodgrains Bank is a similar aid group.
--
Main basse sur les terres agricoles du Sud
par Guy Debailleul (président, Plan Nagua) tiré du numéro d'Alternatives du 26 février 2009

Des États riches et des entreprises multinationales achètent ou louent à très long terme des superficies considérables de terres agricoles dans les pays en voie de développement. Portrait d’une véritable ruée, exacerbée par la crise alimentaire, qui a un fort relent de colonialisme et dont les conséquences pourraient être désastreuses.

L’Arabie Saoudite a pris le contrôle d’environ 1,6 million d’hectares de terres en Indonésie, soit à peu près les trois quarts des terres cultivées au Québec  ! Et conjointement avec les Émirats arabes unis, l’Arabie Saoudite s’est appropriée 1,4 million d’hectares dans des pays comme le Pakistan ou le Soudan. La Turquie, le Kazakhstan, le Cambodge, les Philippines, l’Ouganda sont également visés par les pays du Golfe Persique. Il s’agit là aussi d’assurer l’approvisionnement en céréales des pays investisseurs dans lesquels la rareté de l’eau limite la production agricole.

En Tanzanie, en moins d’un an, des compagnies internationales de production de biocarburants ont accaparé 11 millions d’hectares, soit pratiquement le huitième de la superficie du pays pour cultiver des plantes destinées à produire des biocarburants pour l’exportation. L’une d’entre elles, Sunbiofuels de Grande-Bretagne, a par exemple mis la main sur 40 000 ha pour produire du jatropha à des fins énergétiques, après avoir évincé les agriculteurs, qui ont reçu une maigre compensation. Comme le signale le Financial Times, qui rapportait l’événement, il sera très difficile pour le gouvernement tanzanien de récupérer ces terres afin d’y produire des aliments, puisque la concession est d’une durée de 99 ans.

À Madagascar, la compagnie sud-coréenne Daewoo avait négocié avec le gouvernement malgache la location pour 99 ans de près d’un million et demi d’hectares. Son projet était de cultiver du maïs, avec comme objectif une production annuelle de 5,5 millions de tonnes en 2023 destinées à être exportées en Corée du Sud. Ce pays asiatique importe actuellement 11 millions de tonnes de maïs par année, principalement des États-Unis. À cela, s’ajoutait la production d’huile de palme. Pour mener à bien son projet, Daewoo entendait faire venir de la main-d’œuvre principalement sud-africaine. La colère suscitée par les révélations entourant l’entente entre la compagnie et le gouvernement malgache, et par l’attitude arrogante dont la compagnie a fait preuve dans la justification de sa démarche, a eu raison du projet.

Ces exemples ne représentent qu’un petit échantillon dans une multiplication de transactions du même genre par des pays « accapareurs » (directement ou par le biais de certaines de leurs compagnies ou sociétés de placement). Ce sont aussi bien des pays européens (Grande-Bretagne, Suède), asiatiques (Chine, Corée du Sud, Japon dont les entreprises contrôlent déjà plus de 12 millions d’hectares à l’étranger), pétroliers (pays du Golfe Persique, Libye, etc.) que des compagnies de pays émergents (Brésil, Inde). Les pays cibles sont également répartis sur à peu près tous les continents : Amérique latine (Paraguay, Argentine), Asie (Birmanie, Cambodge, Laos, Indonésie, Philippines, Thaïlande, Vietnam), Europe centrale (Ukraine), Afrique (Sénégal, Mali, Malawi, Ouganda, Soudan, Tanzanie).

Ces listes non exhaustives ne font qu’illustrer un mouvement qui prend une ampleur préoccupante. Les pays et les compagnies qui investissent ainsi dans le contrôle de grandes superficies de terre agricole sont guidés par des raisons qui peuvent varier : s’assurer un approvisionnement en produits alimentaires pour les uns, accroître la production de biocarburants pour les autres ou simplement, en ces temps de débâcle financière, investir dans ce qui apparaît comme étant le meilleur véhicule de placement à long terme pour des fonds spéculatifs. Ces raisons relèvent toutes d’un même constat : la crise alimentaire et la crise énergétique ont mis en évidence le caractère limité des disponibilités en terres agricoles pour satisfaire à la fois les besoins énergétiques et les besoins alimentaires d’une population mondiale croissante et confrontée à l’épuisement des énergies fossiles. Il est ironique que les mêmes pays qui ont tenté de libéraliser le commerce des produits agricoles au cours de la ronde de Doha, en invoquant les vertus du libre-échange pour assurer les besoins de la planète, semblent soudain accorder une confiance limitée à une telle stratégie puisqu’ils optent pour le contrôle direct de la terre et des ressources productives.

Un nouveau colonialisme

Presque 50 ans après les grands mouvements de décolonisation, les terres agricoles des pays en développement sont donc en train de devenir l’objet d’une nouvelle prise de contrôle par des intérêts étrangers. C’est d’ailleurs au nom du rejet d’un néocolonialisme que le projet sud-coréen à Madagascar vient d’avorter. Mais ce recul, s’il montre qu’une mobilisation peut entraver l’aboutissement de tels projets, n’est encore qu’une exception dans un mouvement qui prend de l’ampleur.

Si le patrimoine agricole des pays en développement suscite tant de convoitise et donne lieu à de telles concessions, c’est naturellement en raison de la dépendance de ces pays à l’égard des investissements étrangers. Il est facile de faire miroiter aux agriculteurs locaux les retombées économiques et les avantages, notamment en matière de diffusion de nouvelles pratiques et technologies agricoles. D’autant plus que de nombreux pays n’ont toujours pas adopté de régimes fonciers qui assurent des titres de propriété aux paysans en place. Beaucoup d’entre eux n’ont encore accès à la terre que par le biais de droits coutumiers complexes et souvent arbitraires. Dans d’autres pays, c’est plutôt le contrôle de la plus grande partie des terres par une toute petite minorité qui empêche les paysans de disposer de quantités suffisantes de terres pour leur permettre d’en vivre. Ainsi au Paraguay, plus de 75 % des terres agricoles sont la propriété de moins de 1 % de la population. Dans de telles situations d’inégalité ou d’insécurité foncière, il est donc plus facile d’écarter les paysans au profit de grands projets.

Les pays du Nord, eux, se protègent

La plupart des pays occidentaux ont au contraire eu tendance depuis déjà plusieurs décennies à adopter des législations plus ou moins restrictives en matière d’achat de terres agricoles par des étrangers. Aux États-Unis pas moins de 28 États ont des législations qui limitent les possibilités d’acquisitions de terres par des non-résidents. Il en est de même pour une majorité des provinces au Canada. Au Manitoba ou en Saskatchewan, un non-résident ou une compagnie étrangère ne peut posséder plus de 20 hectares de terres agricoles. On trouve des restrictions du même type en Australie, en Nouvelle-Zélande et dans certains États européens. Plus les terres agricoles sont vastes et la densité de population faible, plus les besoins de protection sont manifestes, ce qui explique que des provinces comme l’Ontario ou le Québec, à forte densité de population, ne se sont pas senties autant menacées par l’achat de terres par des étrangers.

Ce mouvement d’accaparement des terres agricoles par des intérêts étrangers, qu’ils proviennent des pays occidentaux, des pays du Golfe ou des pays émergents a incontestablement des allures de nécolonialisme. Au moment où - à la faveur de la crise alimentaire - la communauté internationale réalise enfin que l’on a trop longtemps négligé l’agriculture des pays en développement, cette confiscation d’une partie de leur patrimoine foncier pour satisfaire en priorité les besoins des pays les plus riches envoie décidément un signal contradictoire avec les efforts de concertation et de mobilisation pour redonner un nouvel élan à l’agriculture des pays pauvres.

Dans les récentes négociations commerciales de la ronde de Doha, de nombreux pays en développement ont commencé à opposer le principe de souveraineté alimentaire à celui de libéralisation des échanges. Ils revendiquent ainsi le droit de définir et de mettre en place les politiques agricoles qui leur semblent appropriées, et de prendre les mesures nécessaires pour protéger leur agriculture. C’est à ces conditions que leur propre sécurité alimentaire sera possible. Devant ce mouvement de ruée vers leurs terres agricoles, on observe que la souveraineté alimentaire implique de se donner les moyens pour contrôler la ressource fondamentale dont dépend la satisfaction des besoins alimentaires, c’est-à-dire les terres agricoles. Ce contrôle sera d’autant plus efficace que les paysans pourront disposer de droits garantis et stables sur cette ressource.

Winter brights - by Lorri Centineo

constellation of Leo

Layers of black polar fleece haven't been enough cover to get me out viewing the winter sky. These past few weeks have been much too cold for more than a few minutes of star gazing. But now even a few degrees warmer and I'm drawn to the night time flickerings. Earlier this evening I watched Venus set in the west, following the sun to its rest. Orion stands tall between Venus' steady gaze and Brightest Sirius' scintillating presence at the base of the array of bright stars of the Winter Hexagon...the winter star wall. And here come the spring stars...Leo leads them in. It's the same every year...same stars, same times, same places. there is comfort in that predictability. Is that so for you? There are more than enough surprises elsewhere, like the disappearance of my black polar fleece neck-up. Brrr.

illustrations: Leo in spring sky, northern hemisphere from BYU Idaho; starmap and old engraving from UCAR.
See also Google sky.

Food lobbyists vs your child / La malbouffe v. ton enfant

Nutrition standards for US school lunches haven't been updated since 1979 -- a porkbarrel worth $10b a year to food companies. Stephen Greenstreet's video shows their K Street lobbyists cooking the data at a "scientific" hearing which corporate-controlled media carefully ignored. The independent American News Project (ANP) was alone in covering this conference at the National Academy of Sciences.

US lobbies

Thanks to Stephen Greenstreet on DailyKos. See also NYTimes 19 Feb 09, Food First on the community food security movement, FF history and common security clubs, US CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest, Corpwatch reports about nutrition lobbyists.

Food lobbying in Canada
CTV: Health Canada fires outspoken scientists 15 July 04, privatization of Canadian Food Inspection Agency; CCFN Canadian Council of Food and Nutrition dominated by food companies; anti-lobbies: Consumers' Association of Canada and TFPC Toronto Food Policy Council, CBC news stories on food and nutrition.

La malbouffe au Québec

Le Devoir: sur les arnaqueurs juin 2002, SRC: le Québec essaie de bannir la malbouffe des écoles 14 sep 07 et d'autres nouvelles. Ateliers aux écoles québécois: Les cinq épices.

A real green revolution is needed – Achim Steiner of UNEP

Starving poor led food riots in at least 33 countries in 2008; the under-funded FAO warns they are happening again this year.

The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) Nairobi meeting from 16-20 February aims at solving world environmental, financial, food and energy crises by creating a Green Economy.

“We need a Green Revolution in a Green Economy but one with a capital G”, says UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. “We need to deal with not only the way the world produces food but the way it is distributed, sold and consumed, and we need a revolution that can boost yields by working with rather than against nature. Over half of the food produced today is lost, wasted or discarded as a result of inefficiency in the human-managed food chain. There is evidence within the report that the world could feed the entire projected population growth alone by becoming more efficient while also ensuring the survival of wild animals, birds and fish on this planet. Simply ratcheting up the fertilizer and pesticide-led production methods of the 20th Century is unlikely to address the challenge. It will increasingly undermine the critical natural inputs and nature-based services for agriculture such as healthy and productive soils, the water and nutrient recycling of forests, and pollinators such as bees and bats.”

UNEP's just-released report The Environmental Food Crisis: The environment’s role in averting future food crises states:

• food prices may increase by 30-50 per cent within the next few decades, due to drought, biofuels, high oil prices, low grain stocks and commodity speculation
• the food supply of the poor has already been hit by rich countries' overfishing and ethanol subsidies
• global warming threatens 25% of world food production
• meat consumption is rising rapidly, depleting grain stocks, deforesting the tropics, and chasing the poor off the land
• “green” biofuels should be produced from food wastes, switchgrass, straw and even nutshells
• 30 million tonnes of “trash fish” and “bycatch” are dumped annually. These could be used to increase fish farming and aquaculture production, without increasing pressure on wild fish stocks.

Climate change is a key threat to feeding earth's 9 billion people by 2050 -- yet another reason, says UNEP, that “Governments at the UNFCCC negotiation in Copenhagen in 300 days’ time must agree on a deep and decisive new global deal.” UNEP proposes mechanisms to

• control global food prices
• set up an international micro-finance fund for small-scale farmer productivity in developing countries.
• end rich counties' agricultural subsidies and dumping
• develop second generation biofuels based on wastes rather than on primary crops
• mitigation measures to adapt to extreme rainfall and drought on continents such as Africa
• aid to diversified and organic farming [see below - Ed.]
• enhance the “nature-based” inputs and “environmental services”: natural pollinators, water supplies, genetic diversity.

Organic farm in Africa: courtesy of Urban Sprout blog.

UNEP cites wasteful business-as-usual practices:

• US losses and food waste are estimated at 40-50%
• US markets are not working: while food banks go empty, ~25% of freshfruits and vegetables are lost between the field and the table
• food waste is half of Australia landfill
• 30% of food purchased in the UK is not eaten
• 30% of fish landed in Africa is lost, discarded, or spoiled
• similar losses elsewhere in developing countries
• 20-40% of the potential harvest in developing countries is lost to pests and pathogens
• this will increase with global warming
• also, rotting food gives off methane, one of the worst greenhouse gases
• land degradation will reduce African yields by another 1-8 per cent
• need for regional R&D in agriculture: only 13% of global investment is in Africa, versus 33%+ in Latin America and 40%+ in Asia. What should be done? for example, Nigeria is researching use of solar dryers to preserve the onion crop
• a threat to irrigation for 50% of Asia’s cereal production, Himalaya glaciers are receding
  
• water scarcity may reduce future world crop yields by ~12 %
  
• croplands are swallowed up by urban sprawl
• Sub-Saharan Africa population will grow from o.77 to over 1.7 billion by 2050
• the phony “Green Revolution”: artificial fertilizers, pesticides, increased water use and cutting down of forests, will result in massive decline in biodiversity.
• 80 per cent of all endangered species are threatened by agricultural expansion; Europe has lost over 50 per cent of its farmland birds; similar impacts are felt in N America

Organic farming in Africa

A UNEP / UNCTAD study of 114 small-scale farms in 24 African countries found:

• organic farming doubled yields, reaching more than 125% in east Africa
• this outperformed both traditional methods, and chemical-intensive conventional farming
• environmental benefits: improved soil fertility, water retention, drought resistance
• organic markets will continue to grow from $23 billion in 2002 to $70 billion in 2012
• improved local education and community cooperation.

Similar studies have been made by FAO and IAASTD. Here is an example from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia -- TenaKebena video of a small-scale community agriculture and reclamation project.

See also 8 other UNEP videos and graphics on climate change impacts; Sustainable Land Use Forum Jan 2009 in Ethiopia; IDRC study Cities Feeding People (1994) on urban agriculture; City Farmer links; Sidewalk Sprouts blog; FAO – GIEWS Global Information and Early Warning System; Miguel Altieri, Small farms as a planetary ecological asset: five reasons...; corporate funding of African organic farms; previous posts tagged food.
Photo by John Morgan: urban agriculture project in Havana.

Green buildings: a new frontier - by Grace Barrasso

This BC home was the first built in Canada to LEED platinum standards. It consumes 1/4 of the energy of a conventional house: photo courtesy of Greenbilt

In Canada [and the USA], buildings generate approximately 30 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions. The Human Development Report notes that “with 0.5 percent of the world’s population, Canada accounts for 2.2% of global emissions - an average of 20.0 tonnes of CO2 per person. These emission levels are above those of high-income OECD countries. If all countries in the world were to emit CO2 at levels similar to Canada’s, [humanity] would exceed our sustainable carbon budget by approximately 799 percent”.

The potential for efficiency gains via Green Buildings is therefore huge as it reduces or eliminates the negative impact on both the environment and the occupants. Despite numerous nvironmental, economic and social benefits, green building represents only a small fraction of new construction.

Commercial (office buildings, shopping centers) and residential buildings (single family dwellings, apartment buildings) have significant environmental impacts. In the U.S., it is estimated that commercial and residential buildings consume approximately 65 percent of all electricity generated, 12 percent of fresh water supplies and 40 percent of all raw materials, as well as contributing about one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions.

See Grace Barrasso’s Blog for the full text, Wikipedia article on LEED, UNEP Year Book 2009.

India climate ride 2009

Cyclists Vinay Jaju and Huub Dekkers of Why New Coal? rode 1800 km in 18 days from Kolkata to Delhi to protest the government's emphasis on fossil fuels. Vinay explained on the Eurotope environmental youth blog:

The Government of India has approved 213 new coal plants in the next 8 years. This does not make sense at a time when

• 2/3 of India's CO2 emissions come from coal use in power generation.
• we face a climate emergency and all life on earth is at threat.
• coal reserves finish in 30-40 years, whereas the approximate life of a coal plant is about 50 years.
• renewable alternatives are cheaper, as compared to the massive social and environment cost of coal.

This decision will leave a mess for future generations to deal with -- making India vulnerable [in] energy security, jeopardizing the economy and leaving the planet unlivable. So why new coal, when we have alternatives that exist?

The riders crossed and photographed India's coal mining areas.

Excerpt from their Climate Ride diaries:

We were really pushed - but we ended up doing 165 Km. The first 50 km went well, but the next 40 as we crossed Allahabad and the surrounds were nightmare. It was Uttar Pradesh traffic and roads at its worst - but we managed unharmed, shouting our way out of the hole...

Then we were in for a very strong head wind (we have been getting a moderate head wind through the ride but yesterday was a toughy (it went on until about sunset). i would have never imagined i could do 165 km a day – in fact we exceeded our expectation, our target.

We should not set boundaries for what can be done and what cant be - we can just about achieve anything we want. With india's future energy needs -- if we push ourselves, challenge ourselves and stretch -- i have no doubt that a low carbon even a zero carbon future with no new coal or even no coal is possible.

See also Green-India, Vandana Shiva's Navdanya.org, YP Foundation , Youth Climate Network , Resource Development Center, India Resource Center, YouthClimate.org, and 3 videos by Vinay Jaju's Switch On campaign for renewable energy: one, two, three.

Vélo d'hiver au Québec

Québec: 78 jeunes cyclistes d’ENvironnement JEUnesse ont parcouru près de 300 km et se sont retrouvés devant l’hôtel de l'Assemblée nationale pour demander une politique écolo.

Partis de Montréal, Trois-Rivières, Chicoutimi, Québec, Gaspé, Rimouski et Rivière-du-Loup, ils éprouvaient un temps plutôt chaud pour un hiver québécois, signe d’un climat en réchauffement. Au cours de leur périple, les cyclistes se sont arrêtés dans les écoles primaires et secondaires de la province afin de sensibiliser les élèves sur les modes de transport responsables.

Parcours le Monde - l'Afrique en vélo

Près des sources du Nil, à Jinja, Ouganda
Parcours le Monde est une collaboration du gouvernement de Québec avec TV5, Environnement Jeunesse et plusieurs autres partenaires de la francophonie mondiale. Depuis 2003, ce réseau de collaboration éducatif les professeurs des écoles, collèges et lycées à travailler avec des classes à l’étranger et à mettre en place avec elles une démarche de collaboration en ligne. Ces programmes touchent déjà 6 continents.

Par exemple, citons le journal d'un voyage en vélo d'Alexandra et Florence, depuis France en sep 2008 à travers l'Afrique jusqu'en Ouganda ce février 2009, trajet truffé de rencontres, réflexions et questions, et bien illustré. Un petit exemple tiré de leur journal:

Le Nil prend sa source huit kilometres en amont dans le lac Victoria, le plus grand lac d'Afrique. Ici le fleuve s'élargit sur plusieurs centaines de mètres et forme îles et îlots au milieu des cataractes d'écume blanche et vert pâle. À l'est, la rivière forme une grande boucle depuis la ville de Jinja qui jouxte sa source et le lac... Guère de répit donc avant les deux niveaux suivants où l'eau est si malmenée qu'elle s'échappe en volutes vaporeuses, poussant force cris et sifflements. L'inlassable grondement se propage sur les rives qui en tremblent d'effroi. Au pied de ces rapides, la force de l'eau paraît incommensurable. Les fragments végétaux charriés par la rivière disparaissent, se désagrègent dans le combat titanesque du fluide, de la roche et de la pesanteur.

On touche au sublime que n'hésitent pourtant pas à braver nombre de touristes dans des raftings ou en kayak pour les plus courageux. Ces derniers restent cependant l'apanage des guides locaux qui excellent à exécuter des figures acrobatiques dans leurs embarcations courtes et visiblement très maniables. Certains locaux défient la raison en se faisant payer cinq mille Uganda Shillings (~2€) pour descendre les chutes armés d'un seul bidon en plastiques faisant office de bouée.

Car les eaux ne sont pas seules à combattre. Sur la rive où nous nous trouvons se livre une autre lutte, pour la survie cette fois-ci. Lutte qui concerne sans réellement les opposer, touristes et guides. Pour un sociologue, je ne doute pas que la scène présente quelque intérêt. La survie est bien évidemment le sujet des seconds, dont la majeure partie de la journée s'écoule à l'ombre des quelques arbres préservés sur le campement à attendre les clients potentiels, tandis que les premiers, qui arrivent par vagues de 4x4 ou de mini-bus, sont là pour vivre un moment de frisson et d'exaltation....

In Chiapas - by Rolene Walker

Rolene is now visiting Friends in Chiquimula, Guatemala, and raising funds for international scholarships. See her web journal Walk With Earth | Caminata Por La Tierra from which this is an excerpt:

Dec 2: Here I am in southern Mexico, walking through pine forests near San Cristobal de las Casas. It’s cold! I wear long underwear, turtle necks, fleece and have a fleece blanket over me just to sit and read at night. It gets down to about 50 degrees F. In San Cristobal I visited the Museum of Mayan Medicine, and went to a workshop on green building, including making one of the famous dry toilets, the ones that separate urine from excrement, and use them as fertilizer and compost, eliminating the need for sewers.
When I left Zanatepec, I had my spare tire firmly attached on a great triangle to my bumper. I went to the high school to talk to three classrooms,
and drove a small distance to Tepanatepec, the last town in Oaxaca. When I got there, the tire was gone. So I drove back and forth and couldn´t see it anywhere. The next three days in Tuxtla Gutierrez I went to the Toyota dealer, four tire places, and had two people scouring the deshuesaderos (junk yards). Nothing. The truck has dual wheels in the back, but they are very small, and there are no rims anywhere in Chiapas. So I guess I`ll have to have one sent from the US.

Walking from Tuxtla to Chiapas de Corso, my tooth starthing aching, so I caught a bus back to Tuxtla, and the driver wouldn´t charge me after I told him about the Walk. I got the name of a dentist from Antonio Lopez, and went to her just before she closed for lunch. She checked out the tooth (it`s fine) but said we would have to wait to see what was up underneath (meaning a root canal if the pain doesn’t go away). So I´m staying close to San Cristobal instead of taking off into the mountains. I will l still get to the border, but by the coast instead of inland. I told my son I could have had a toothache or lost my spare tire in San Francisco, but here I am, having an adventure too. So I´m not complaining, just kvetching a little bit.

This last month I have been given such wonderful hospitality in Oaxaca and Chiapas. I stayed with the Reyes Vera family in Juchitan, after their son in law referred me to them. I stayed at a roadside restaurant in Zanatepec with Adelma, who used to be the mayor of the town. I had left my harp in Juchitan but really didn´t want to drive back there since the winds across that isthmus are so strong I already lost one sky light. So the mayor of town who was going there for a meeting, brought me my harp!

5-minute preview of a video whose final title is No Son Invisibles: Maya Women and Microfinance, by Melissa Eidson. See also Mariano Estrada's Mujer indígena: la vida olvidada | Indigenous Woman: The Forgotten Life (2003); Chiapas Media Project; the Canadian NGO Inter Pares.

World fisheries threatened

map: Worldfish Center
33 of the poorest countries of the world, where fish is a key source of protein, are threatened by climate change, says a study just released by the Worldfish Center. The world’s least developed countries are twice as dependent on fish: they get 27% of protein from lakes, coasts and reefs compared to 13% elsewhere.

Photo: women are half of Africa's fishers: UN Africa Renewal program

Climate change is drying lakes, killing ocean reefs, pushing salt water into freshwater habitats and producing more coastal storms. Over a billion of the hungry poor in Africa, Asia and South America will be affected. The survey of 132 countries says Malawi, Guinea, Senegal, Uganda, Peru, Colombia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, and Yemen are most at risk. Climate change will be devastating, but without international aid (which has been stingy or nonexistent for decades) they will be unable to cope.

Somalia is an example of the conflict that can result. With government unable to control its waters, unscrupulous international fleets cleaned out its coastal fisheries. Desperate fishermen turned to piracy, attacking and seizing ships, whose ransoms cost millions of dollars. Now piracy has become big business, and will be difficult to eradicate. What will happen when 33 countries start fighting over scarce resources, and their climate refugees search desperately to survive?

Red indicates overfished, yellow fully exploited: FAO graph.

Note: Somalia was overfished by rogue commercial fleets, bankrupting their domestic fishers and encouraging piracy. Similar problems are reported in Senegal and other West African coasts, where half of the EU's fish supply is taken. Tanzania, Somalia, Papua New Guinea and Tuvalu are also targeted. The rich are eating up the food of the poor. International regulation of rogue fleets is still being "negotiated" 27 years after the Law of the Sea was agreed. See the FAO list of endangered fish stocks, Wikipedia on IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing) and Greenpeace IUU Blacklist which states: "International enforcement could shut down this trade. The owners and operators are not impossible to track down. 80 different countries play host to them – including the European Union and Taiwan, Japan, EU member states, Korea, the US, and increasingly China and the Philippines." Panama, Belize and Honduras offer flags of convenience. International financiers of the rogue fleets have yet to be named or held responsible.

See also: Andrew Purvis updates in UK Observer 26 Apr 09 and 27 Apr 09; the World Wildlife Fund, The Coral Triangle and Climate Change: Ecosystems, People and Societies at Risk (May 2009) warns that Asia's coral reefs from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia down to Australia are dying, threatening the food supply of 100 million.

Winter thaw - by Martha Younger

break in the blizzard: photo Chris Hoare There are no adjectives or expressions to describe this day! The house shakes, the flue tiles rattle, at times the roof hums like a boat on a tight tack and, all around us, it sounds like horror-movie banshees angrily screaming and swooping to get in the house.

I have just come inside from battling the elements. It is, in a word, exhilarating and a bit scary. I am proud of myself as I man handled – woman handled - a forty foot, 10cm diameter tree off a broken fence, only to watch another – even bigger one - slowly rip its roots out of the sodden ground and at first, hesitate, stop frame, then crash down on the fence not fifteen feet from me. As I looked around at the trees waving like grass above me, retreat seemed the better part of valour and I moved the horses to a safer paddock away from flying debris.

Two days of rain has all but melted the waist-deep snow cover and the pond has overreached its banks forming a moat around the higher parts of our lawn. Even the several inches thick ice has melted. I am glad that our house is built up the hill.

At 6:30 am, when I went down to the barn to feed the horses, it was 10C, fully thirty degrees warmer than it has been for the last three weeks. I opened the door to let fresh air into the dank, moist barn. The horses have been in since winter came to an abrupt halt two days ago causing treacherous footing for both equine and human. I went up to the house to get a cup of coffee and an hour later the wind came screaming in causing the temperatures to dive and when I returned to the barn for morning chores it was -2C.

Rising temperatures and high winds: this weather is enervating and the children’s voices are pitched higher. The ponies' tails are flagged and eyes are bright as they dash around – not chest deep in snow – for the first time since mid-November. I am afraid for their safety and have carefully chosen paddocks without trees and some snow cover for footing. Difficult when you live on a former pine plantation. They won’t be out for long today – but after two days in they needed to move about. Even a crow seemed to be flying backwards as its body was tossed up then abruptly down as it battled towards a solid tree.

My face is still tingling from leaning into the wind as I pushed heavy wheel barrows up the muck heap, dragged hay, safely stowed in hay nets, to the ponies and buckets of water to the paddocks. It is a relief to sit for a moment. I feel like I need a nap, but the continued rattling and Wizard of Oz scenes of debris flying by the window make me think that perhaps I better not.

-- Martha Younger raises horses on the Niagara Escarpment in Flesherton, Ontario

Extreme weather events

The scientific data are clear: the exponential increase of extreme weather events, compared to earthquakes, is due to human-caused climate change -- even after making allowances for improved natural disaster reporting.

graphs courtesy of UNEP / GRID-Arendal

A 2004 study by SwissRE forecast yearly losses due to climate change will soon reach $150 billion. With costs skyrocketing, it should be no surprise that multinational insurance companies are leading the movement to climate change awareness and green capitalism -- or that homeowners at risk of coastal flooding are discovering no company will insure them.

Some examples:

2003 - heatwave in Europe leaves 10,000 dead; record heat in Southern USA

2004 - freak snowstorm in Southern USA

2005 - hurricane Katrina, W. India floods, hottest northern summer ever

2006 - deadly cold across Europe and Russia, killer typhoons and floods in Ethiopia, Pakistan, India, Thailand, N. Korea; heatwave deaths in USA

2007 - killer heatwave in Japan

2008 - California & Australia wildfires, increase in Atlantic hurricanes, Southeast USA drought

2009 - Australia wildfires, N. China drought, floods and snow in southern France, cold wave in Europe

See Wikipedia on extreme weather, UNEP / GRID-Arendal discussion of its costs.

Greening capitalism - Tim Flannery

Australian climate change activist Tim Flannery spent over 20 years in zoological research in Papua New Guinea, Pacific islands and Australia where he witnessed the growing impact of climate change. He wrote a series of warnings to lay audiences The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People (1994), Throwim Way Leg (1998), and The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and its Peoples (2001) calling attention to the rapid destruction of species.

His 2005 book The Weather Makers defended scientific evidence of climate change against the fossil fuel lobby and rightwing deniers. He says global warming could destroy the world economic system, causing riots, wars and millions of environmental refugees. If business refuses to find a "green capitalist" solution, the alternative is a "global carbon dictatorship". He has since attracted considerable support from progressive multinationals such as the WCSBD for his Copenhagen Climate Council, which will publish a series of Thought Leadership papers by business, science and government stakeholders. But for their real goals see Oscar Reyes' report on the CCC/WBCSD World Business Summit on Climate Change in May 2009.

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See a summary of The Weather Makers online, Flannery's biography. The WBCSD is a major backer of UNEP's Sustainable Production and Consumption program, aka "The Marrakech Process" which may in the absence of international agreement on Kyoto2 targets, become a weaker but de facto system of carbon governance. UNEP's Green Economy Initiative supports this and other market mechanisms.

Everything, we perceive, is God...

beach at solar eclipse, Terengganu Island,Malaysia: photo by shutterhack
Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn al-'Arabi :
“Everything we call other than God, everything we call the universe, is related to the Divine Being as the shadow to the person. The world is God's shadow. . . . The shadow is at once God and something other than God. Everything we perceive is the Divine Being in the eternal hexeities [archetypes] of the possibles.”
-- quotation in Gaia.com

Lao Tzu:
The tao [Way, Word] that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnamable is the eternally real. -- from the Tao Te Ching.

Meister Eckhart:
The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me. My eye and God's eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love. We are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born. - in wikiquote.

See

• Wikipedia on panentheism.
  
• biography of Andalusian Sufi master (1165-1240 CE) Ibn Arabi; Ayeesha Saeed, The role of the heart in Al-Arabi's religious doctrine; the explanation of "hexeities" by Henry Corbin in The One and Many Gods.
• Wikipedia Laozi (ca. 551-479 BCE) and previous post on Tao.
• Wikipedia on the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart (ca. 1260–1328), and The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Spring comes to China

Hainan rice paddies: photo by Meng Zhongde, Xinhua/China News.

This is the year of the Ox. Instead of 12 months, the Chinese calendar has 24 divisions. When the first greens appear, it is the Lichun: "spring begins". Rice is planted in the south. In Shanxi people fly kites. In Beijing they eat Spring Festival pancakes made with wheat flour, eggs, bean sprouts and leek -- a tradition called yaochun: "biting the spring." Mongols tie red cloth on their doors. Other regions hang red lanterns and scrolls. In the mountains of the southwest the Miao and Yi dance and play flute songs.

Bird and cherry blossom 5 Feb 2009: photo by Ren Zhenglai, Xinhua

There are lion dances in Henan, ancient temple dramas in Anhui, visits to home towns, feasts and fireworks everywhere.

But the President of China has just declared a drought emergency, the most severe since 1951, threatening more than two-thirds of the winter wheat crop in the north. Water is imported by truck and tractor, farmers are desperately digging new wells and irrigation canals, the aquifer is dropping and the deserts are expanding.
---------------------------------- Compiled from stories on Xinhuanet.
Yangtze drought 2008: photo AP

See also the exceptionally frank Interview with China’s Deputy Minister of the Environment Pan Yue, Der Spiegel 7 Mar 2005.
Birders: see C A Macdonald's World Bird Gallery to identify the bird shown above, and comment.
See Wikipedia on Spring Festival or Chinese New Year.

The globalization of toxic waste

Photo: courtesy The Sun (UK)
Mutant births are soaring in China due to pollution, especially in chemical, manufacturing, and coal-mining regions, both rural and urban, reports the China Daily -- accounting for a good part of China Family Planning Commission statistics in a previous study: a 40% birth defect increase since 2001, years that coincided with uncontrolled economic growth.

Worldwide imports of toxic waste, frequently illegal, have caused scandals in the developing world. A Current.tv video shows imported computer waste poisoning villagers in Guangdong. The action group Toxiclinks exposed similar problems with e-waste, child labour, and toxic burdens in India; in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, the 2006 Probo Koala incident 2006 revealed open dumps, illegal imports, and corruption; in 2008, similar problems were found in Accra, Ghana. Pesticide Action Network and Via Campesina are campaigning against continued exports by chemical corporations of banned pesticides to farms in the Third World.

Greenpeace has for years led a campaign against the toxic waste trade, and compiled reports. See also Wikipedia on electronic waste and body burden, Ariana Baliestri's 2006 paper on contraband capitalism, Dr Sandra Steingraber's research into body burdens in US families and  mothers, and impacts abroad due to war.