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Benno Hansen

Nasa-funded study: industrial civilisation headed for 'irreversible collapse'? | Nafeez... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...ible-collapse-study-scientists

environment collapse civilisation inequality crisis natural resources climate change food water energy population

shared by Benno Hansen on 16 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • By investigating the human-nature dynamics of these past cases of collapse, the project identifies the most salient interrelated factors which explain civilisational decline, and which may help determine the risk of collapse today: namely, Population, Climate, Water, Agriculture, and Energy.
    • Benno Hansen
      Benno Hansen on 16 Mar 14
       
      NASA har lavet Collapse 2 ?
  • These factors can lead to collapse when they converge to generate two crucial social features: "the stretching of resources due to the strain placed on the ecological carrying capacity"; and "the economic stratification of society into Elites [rich] and Masses (or "Commoners") [poor]" These social phenomena have played "a central role in the character or in the process of the collapse," in all such cases over "the last five thousand years."
  • The study challenges those who argue that technology will resolve these challenges by increasing efficiency: "Technological change can raise the efficiency of resource use, but it also tends to raise both per capita resource consumption and the scale of resource extraction, so that, absent policy effects, the increases in consumption often compensate for the increased efficiency of resource use."
    • Benno Hansen
      Benno Hansen on 16 Mar 14
       
      efficiency paradox
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  • the scientists point out that the worst-case scenarios are by no means inevitable, and suggest that appropriate policy and structural changes could avoid collapse, if not pave the way toward a more stable civilisation.
Benno Hansen

Do nations go to war over water? : Article : Nature - 1 views

www.nature.com/...458282a.html

war nature climate change water israel palestine nile egypt sudan ethiopia india pakistan conflict

shared by Benno Hansen on 25 Mar 09 - Cached
  • There are 263 cross-boundary waterways in the world. Between 1948 and 1999, cooperation over water, including the signing of treaties, far outweighed conflict over water and violent conflict in particular. Of 1,831 instances of interactions over international freshwater resources tallied over that time period (including everything from unofficial verbal exchanges to economic agreements or military action), 67% were cooperative, only 28% were conflictive, and the remaining 5% were neutral or insignificant. In those five decades, there were no formal declarations of war over water2.
  • it is foolish for Israel, a water-short country, to grow and then export products such as oranges and avocados, which require a lot of water to cultivate
  • water 'embedded' in traded products could be important in explaining the absence of conflict over water
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  • as poor countries diversify their economies, they turn away from agriculture and create wealth from industries that use less water. As a country becomes richer, it may require more water overall to sustain its booming population, but it can afford to import food to make up the shortfall
  • Israel ran out of water in the 1950s: it has not since then produced enough water to meet all of its needs, including food production. Jordan has been in the same situation since the 1960s; Egypt since the 1970s. Although it is true that these countries have fought wars with each other, they have not fought over water. Instead they all import grain.
  • Palestinian and Israeli water professionals interact on a Joint Water Committee, established by the Oslo-II Accords in 1995. It is not an equal partnership: Israel has de facto veto power on the committee.
  • Inequitable access to water resources is a result of the broader conflict and power dynamics: it does not itself cause war.
    • Benno Hansen
      Benno Hansen on 25 Mar 09
       
      From causation to hen/egg
  • although India and Pakistan have fought three wars and frequently find themselves in eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation, the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, arbitrated by the World Bank, has more than once helped to defuse tensions over water
  • predictions of armed conflict come from the media and from popular, non-peer-reviewed work
  • I offered to revise its thesis, but my publishers pointed out that predicting an absence of war over water would not sell.
  • most importantly, improve the conditions of trade for developing countries to strengthen their economies
Benno Hansen

World is facing a natural resources crisis worse than financial crunch | Environment | ... - 1 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...imatechange-endangeredhabitats

environment resources climate change sustainability food energy

shared by Benno Hansen on 14 Jan 12 - Cached
  • humans are using 30% more resources than the Earth can replenish each year, which is leading to deforestation, degraded soils, polluted air and water, and dramatic declines in numbers of fish and other species
  • we are running up an ecological debt of $4tr (£2.5tr) to $4.5tr every year
  • populations and consumption keep growing faster than technology finds new ways of expanding what can be produced from the natural world
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  • by 2030, if nothing changes, mankind would need two planets to sustain its lifestyle
  • Sir David King, the British government's former chief scientific adviser, said: "We all need to agree that there's a crisis of understanding, that we're removing the planet's biodiverse resources at a rate which is as fast if not faster than the world's last great extinction."
  • 50 countries are already experiencing "moderate to severe water stress on a year-round basis"
  • 27 countries are "importing" more than half the water they consume - in the form of water used to produce goods from wheat to cotton - including the UK, Switzerland, Austria, Norway and the Netherlands.
  • A person's footprint ranges vastly across the globe, from eight or more "global hectares" (20 acres or more) for the biggest consumers in the United Arab Emirates, the US, Kuwait and Denmark, to half a hectare in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Afghanistan and Malawi.
  • The global average consumption was 2.7 hectares a person, compared with a notional sustainable capacity of 2.1 hectares.
  • Benno Hansen on 14 Jan 12
     
    2008
Benno Hansen

Learning From Past Civilizations : TreeHugger - 0 views

www.treehugger.com/...earning-past-civilizations.php

jared diamond collapse sustainability

shared by Benno Hansen on 12 Aug 09 - Cached
  • our early twenty-first century civilization is not the first to face the prospect of environmentally induced economic decline. The question is how we will respond.
  • Today, our successes and problems flow from the extraordinary growth in the world economy over the last century.
  • While the economy is growing exponentially, the earth’s natural capacities, such as its ability to supply fresh water, forest products, and seafood, have not increased. Humanity’s collective demands first surpassed the earth’s regenerative capacity around 1980. Today, global demands on natural systems exceed their sustainable yield capacity by nearly 30 percent. We are meeting current demands by consuming the earth’s natural assets, setting the stage for decline and collapse.
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  • In our modern high-tech civilization, it is easy to forget that the economy, indeed our existence, is wholly dependent on the earth’s natural systems and resources.
  • the carbon stored in the Amazon’s trees equals roughly 15 years of human-induced carbon emissions in the atmosphere
  • we will either mobilize together to save our global civilization, or we will all be potential victims of its disintegration
Benno Hansen

A Day to Prevent Exploitation of the Environment in War - 0 views

www.ens-newswire.com/...2008-11-06-02.asp

un congo ecowar environment war

shared by Benno Hansen on 10 Nov 08 - Cached
  • "The natural environment enjoys protection under Protocol 1 of the Geneva Conventions," Ban said. "But this protection is often violated during war and armed conflict. Water wells are polluted, crops torched, forests cut down, soils poisoned, and animals killed, all in order to gain military advantage."
  • Since the outbreak of fighting in August 1998, the conflicts have been rooted in struggles for control of natural resources such as water, timber, diamonds and other minerals as well as various political agendas.
  • "The United Nations attaches great importance to ensuring that action on the environment is part of our approach to peace," Ban stressed today. "Protecting the environment can help countries create employment opportunities, promote development and avoid a relapse into armed conflict.
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  • Ban said that the UN is studying the environmental impacts of conflicts around the world, from the Balkans to Afghanistan, from Lebanon to the Sudan.
  • Lasting peace in war-torn Darfur will depend in part on resolving the underlying competition for water and fertile land, Ban said, adding that there can be no durable peace in Afghanistan if the natural resources that sustain livelihoods and ecosystems are destroyed.
  • "We have seen how environmental damage and the collapse of institutions are threatening human health, livelihoods and security," he said. "These risks can also jeopardize fragile peace and development in post-conflict societies." "Let us renew our commitment to preventing the exploitation of the environment in times of conflict," said the secretary-general, "and to protecting the environment as a pillar of our work for peace."
Benno Hansen

United Nations News Centre - On international day, Ban underscores bond between peace a... - 0 views

www.un.org/...story.asp

united nations peace environment

shared by Benno Hansen on 06 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • “War and armed conflict shred the fabric of sustainable development,” Mr. Ban said
  • “There can be no peace if the resource base that people depend on for sustenance and income is damaged or destroyed – or if illegal exploitation finances or causes conflict,”
  • “Let us reaffirm our commitment to sustainably managing and safeguarding vital natural resources in times of peace and war,” Mr. Ban said in his message. “Let us do more to prevent conflicts over natural resources and maximize their benefits for maintaining and building peace.”
Benno Hansen

Climate Change Could Be Impetus For Wars, Other Conflicts, Expert Says - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...080821164304.htm

change climate conflict global war warming

shared by Benno Hansen on 26 Aug 08 - Cached
  • discussion has ensued among international-security experts who believe climate-change-related damage to global ecosystems and the resulting competition for natural resources may increasingly serve as triggers for wars and other conflicts in the future.
  • most possibly destabilizing populations and governments: degradation of freshwater resources, food insecurity, natural disasters and environmental migration.
  • the number of world regions vulnerable to drought was expected to rise
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  • “Most critical for human survival are water and food, which are sensitive to changing climatic conditions,”
  • “The associated socio-economic and political stress can undermine the functioning of communities, the effectiveness of institutions, and the stability of societal structures. These degraded conditions could contribute to civil strife, and, worse, armed conflict.”
  • “Large areas of Africa are suffering from scarcity of food and fresh water resources, making them more vulnerable to conflict.
  • “Although climate change bears a significant conflict potential, it can also transform the international system toward more cooperation if it is seen as a common threat that requires joint action,”
  • the seeming conflict between environment and the economy will be best overcome with the recognition that protecting the climate in the best interest of the economy.”
  • “History has shown how dependent our culture is on a narrow window of climatic conditions for average temperature and precipitation,”
Alex Parker

X2 Resources: Mick the Miner's big comeback - 0 views

www.mining-technology.com/...he-miners-big-comeback-4296792

energy

shared by Alex Parker on 26 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Alex Parker on 26 Jun 14
     
    After resigning from Xstrata in the wake of bitter merger negotiations with Glencore, Mick Davis is on the comeback trail with his new venture X2 Resources. Mining Technology recounts the fractious months leading up to Davis's departure from Xstrata and analyses his plans for X2, a new and well-backed force in the natural resources sector.
Benno Hansen

Big business goes to Rio -- New Internationalist - 0 views

www.newint.org/...ility-big-business-corporation

business green economy sustainability environment

shared by Benno Hansen on 18 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Harmless-sounding phrases like ‘green economy’ and ‘sustainable development’ have become grounds for bitter dispute, as different governments and business interests attempt to redefine these terms to meet their own agenda.
  • This row of well-meaning policy sandcastles have spent the past 20 years being eaten away by a rising tide of fundamentalist free-market economics, unfettered financial speculation, and consolidated corporate power.
  • any environmental and social gains from the first Rio summit look small next to the destruction wrought by a voracious corporate sector and by governments obsessed with growth in GDP before all else.
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  • A shift to a genuinely sustainable society will require us to challenge these negative forces, rein in the excesses of corporations and markets, and build an entirely different economy based on wellbeing for the many rather than profits for the few.
  • Silvia Ribeiro from the campaign group ETC Mexico points out: ‘Collapsing financial markets in Northern countries mean that banks and other investors are now looking desperately for new areas of expansion and speculation. We can see these desires leaving their mark on the Rio+20 process. The “Green Economy” now under discussion would unleash a wave of risky but lucrative new technologies such as synthetic biology, nanotechnology and climate technofixes. This isn’t about finding the best environmental solutions: it’s about creating profitable new investments.’
  • we cannot afford to live in a world where ecosystems are protected if, and only if, there is more profit to be made by protecting them than by trashing them.
  • Large polluting industries, business lobby groups and financial institutions are welcomed in as well-meaning ‘stakeholders’ – like mafia bosses invited to a meeting on reducing gang violence.
  • The businesses with the most wealth and power are those that have flourished in an economy based on the unrestricted use of natural resources and the exploitation of many of the world’s people. Those with the most to lose from a shift to true sustainability are therefore those with the most power to block that change.
  • the Stockholm Environment Institute calculated that the economic value of the oceans could be reduced by up to $2 trillion per year if climate change is left unchecked
  • Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of IEN, said: ‘Systems such as “payment for ecological services” and using forests in carbon offset markets do nothing but make Mother Earth into the World Trade Organization of nature.’
  • According to Lucia Ortiz of Friends of the Earth Brazil: ‘Trades Unions are getting very concerned about the “green economy” agenda, because it represents a deepening of neoliberal policies, and threatens to undermine the social rights already secured by past struggles. They are working in solidarity with environmentalists, indigenous peoples, farmers and women’s rights activists, calling instead for a transition to a sustainable and just society free from the exploitation of workers and of nature.’
Maluvia Haseltine

GreenSense- Family: homebirth, attachment parenting, green parenting, breastfeeding, un... - 0 views

www.greensense.com/GR_FAM.HTM

Parenting HomeSchooling Sustainability

shared by Maluvia Haseltine on 19 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Maluvia Haseltine on 19 Jul 09
     
    Green parenting is economical, conserving of resources, and by its nature, encourages children to love the earth.
Benno Hansen

Deadly Environment - 6 views

www.globalwitness.org/deadlyenvironment

murder environmentalism

shared by Benno Hansen on 17 Apr 14 - No Cached
nehasharma786 liked it
  • Benno Hansen on 17 Apr 14
     
    This report looks at known killings of people defending environmental and land rights. It identifies a clear rise in such deaths from 2002 and 2013 as competition for natural resources intensifies. In the most comprehensive global analysis of the problem on record, we have found that at least 908 people have died in this time. Disputes over industrial logging, mining and land rights are the key drivers, and Latin America and Asia-Pacific particularly hard hit.
Benno Hansen

Earth Summit is doomed to fail, say leading ecologists - environment - 10 February 2012... - 0 views

www.newscientist.com/...il-say-leading-ecologists.html

biodiversity earth summit environment sustainability climate change

shared by Benno Hansen on 13 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • "We are disillusioned. The current political system is broken," said Bob Watson, the UK government's chief environmental science advisor
  • "Last time in Rio we had an unreasonable faith in governments. Since then we've lost our innocence in believing government was wise and benevolent and far-sighted. That's been blown completely out of the water," said Camilla Toulmin, director of the International Institute for Environment and Development, a non-profit organisation based in London.
  • "The UN text [for the summit declaration] is weak," said energy researcher José Goldemberg, who was Brazil's environment secretary at the time of the first summit.
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  • Syukuro Manabe, a climate modeller at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "the political system is not motivated to worry about the future".
  • "Decision-makers should learn from and scale up grass-roots action and knowledge in areas like energy, food, water and natural resources," the panel declared.
Benno Hansen

Biodiversity loss matters, and communication is crucial - SciDev.Net - 0 views

www.scidev.net/...-communication-is-crucial.html

biodiversity biology

shared by Benno Hansen on 11 Feb 10 - Cached
  • at root is the conflict between the need to radically change our use of natural resources and the desire to maintain current forms of economic growth
  • enhancing the media's ability to communicate messages emerging from the underlying science
  • governments signed up to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have missed their 2010 target, set in 2002, of achieving "a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss"
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  • Finally the apocalyptic tone sometimes used in attempts to drive a message home can further hinder the case for constructive action. Too often, it promotes either cynicism or apathy among those who cannot relate these disaster scenarios to their own personal experience.
  • he issues scientists think most important often seem abstract and far removed from the day-to-day concerns of ordinary people
  • sloppy scientific reasoning can have a broad and lasting impact
  • embed this scientific evidence into viable but sustainable economic growth and development strategies
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