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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
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • 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

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

British coal industry flack pushes geo-engineering "ploy" to give politicians... - 0 views

climateprogress.org/...h-a-smoke-and-mirrors-approach

geoengineering spin climate change Bjørn Lomborg

shared by Benno Hansen on 13 Aug 09 - No Cached
  • The geo-engineering option provides the needed viable reason to do nothing about AGW now….
  • “The ‘geo-engineering’ approaches considered so far appear to be afflicted with some combination of high costs, low leverage, and a high likelihood of serious side effects.“
  • they simply omit the costs of many of the potential negative aspects of producing a stratospheric cloud to block out sunlight or cloud brightening
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  • That the second author works for the American Enterprise Institute, a lobbying group that has been a leading global warming denier, is not surprising, except that now they are in favor of a solution to a problem they have claimed for years does not exist.
  • The American Meteorological Society (AMS) has just issued a policy statement on geoengineering, which urges cautious consideration, more research, and appropriate restrictions.
  • ignore the effects of ocean acidification from continued CO2 emissions
  • do not even mention several potential negative effects of SRM, including getting rid of blue skies, huge reductions in solar power from systems using direct solar radiation, or ruining terrestrial optical astronomy
  • cloud brightening would mainly cool the oceans and not affect land temperature much
  • cloud brightening over the South Atlantic would produce severe drought over the Amazon, destroying the tropical forest
  • Whose hand would be on the global thermostat? Who would trust military aircraft or a multi-national geoengineering company to have the interests of the people of the planet foremost?
  • threat to the water supply for agriculture and other human uses
  • benefits from SRM, including increased plant productivity and an enhanced CO2 sink from vegetation that grows more when subject to diffuse radiation
  • The real consensus, as expressed at the National Academy conference and in the AMS statement, is that mitigation needs to be our first and overwhelming response to global warming, and that whether geoengineering can even be considered as an emergency measure in the future should climate change become too dangerous is not now known.
Skeptical Debunker

Bloom Energy Promises Cheap, Emissions-Free Power From a Small Box | Popular Science - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...promises-free-homes-power-grid

Google FedEx eBay Walmart Bloom Box energy usage 60 minutes

shared by Skeptical Debunker on 22 Feb 10 - Cached
  • The Bloom Box idea came from K.R. Sridhar, a former NASA rocket scientist who once built a similar box device to generate oxygen on Mars for future colonists. Sridhar simply turned the concept on its head by pumping oxygen into the box, along with fuel. The oxygen and fuel combine within a new type of fuel cell to create the chemical reaction that makes electricity. There's also no need for power lines coming in from an outside source, and Sridhar envisions the box eventually providing energy wirelessly to homes and businesses. That could do away with traditional power plants and the power grid. Such transformative power may only come about if the Bloom Box fuel cells can work reliably and efficiently -- other fuel cell technologies have proven notoriously finicky. Sridhar makes his fuel cells based on cheap sand-based ceramics, coated with special green and black "inks" that allow for the chemical reaction which makes electricity. One of the simple disks can power a light bulb, and a stack of 64 disks with cheap metal plates in between them can supposedly power a Starbucks. And unlike fuel cells that require pure hydrogen, the Bloom Box can use fuels ranging from natural gas to bio-gas.
  • Skeptical Debunker on 22 Feb 10
     
    A boxy power plant that could one day produce efficient, inexpensive, clean energy in every home might sound like a pipe dream, but it's the very real product of a Silicon Valley startup called Bloom Energy. Twenty large corporations that include Google, FedEx, Walmart and eBay have already purchased and begun testing the Bloom Boxes. 60 Minutes recently got a sneak peek at this possibly game-changing energy device.
  • Skeptical Debunker on 22 Feb 10
     
    Here's SOME of the "rubs". How long will the device's last and what are the maintenance costs (if any)? What will the cost of the fuel be and how much is used? Will the manufacturing process "scale up nicely" (and easily) so that "economies of scale" will actually bring the price of a home-system down to around $3-5K? Will the price of the system, its maintenance, and fuel actually come out to be significantly less than the price of "grid delivered" electricity? Without "good enough" answers to such questions, this system may be more of a good remote generation facility than a grid replacement.
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