Pharmaceuticals in Drinking Water. Water wars: 21st century conflicts? - Features. Click on the water conflict map to see some of Al Jazeera's coverage of an issue which could define 21st century strife The author Mark Twain once remarked that "whisky is for drinking; water is for fighting over" and a series of reports from intelligence agencies and research groups indicate the prospect of a water war is becoming increasingly likely. In March, a report from the office of the US Director of National Intelligence said the risk of conflict would grow as water demand is set to outstrip sustainable current supplies by 40 per cent by 2030. "These threats are real and they do raise serious national security concerns," Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said after the report's release. Internationally, 780 million people lack access to safe drinking water, according to the United Nations. Some analysts worry that wars of the future will be fought over blue gold, as thirsty people, opportunistic politicians and powerful corporations battle for dwindling resources.
Water scarcity 'now bigger threat than financial crisis' - Climate Change - Environment. The two reports – one by the world's foremost international economic forum and the other by 24 United Nations agencies – presage the opening tomorrow of the most important conference on the looming crisis for three years. The World Water Forum, which will be attended by 20,000 people in Istanbul, will hear stark warnings of how half the world's population will be affected by water shortages in just 20 years' time, with millions dying and increasing conflicts over dwindling resources.
A report by the World Economic Forum, which runs the annual Davos meetings of the international business and financial elite, says that lack of water, will "soon tear into various parts of the global economic system" and "start to emerge as a headline geopolitical issue". It adds: "The financial crisis gives us a stark warning of what can happen if known economic risks are left to fester. The Earth – a blue-green oasis in the limitless black desert of space – has a finite stock of water.
Feds help GMO salmon swim upstream. Photo by Isaac Wedin. AquaBounty Technology’s genetically modified salmon just got a hefty financial boost from the USDA: On Monday, the agency awarded the Massachusetts-based company $494,000 to study technologies that would render the genetically tweaked fish sterile. This would reduce the likelihood they could reproduce with wild salmon, should any escape into the wild — a scenario that has many environmentalists concerned. The Atlantic salmon, which is branded with the name AquAdvantage, has been genetically altered with a growth-hormone gene from a Chinook salmon and a “genetic on-switch” gene from an ocean pout that will allow the fish to grow all year round, reaching market size much faster than traditional salmon.
In mid-2010, AquaBounty’s salmon appeared to be on the fast-track for approval by the FDA, which would have made it the first genetically modified animal approved for human consumption. “They have done no quantitative risk and failure analysis,” says Leonard. Oxfam Warns of Looming Food Crisis in Afghanistan. WASHINGTON - September 20 - Nearly 3 million people across Afghanistan are facing severe food shortages as a result of drought, Oxfam warned today as it called on donor governments to act now before the crisis becomes a catastrophe.
The drought is affecting 14 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces in the north, north-east and west of the country where 80 percent of the non-irrigated wheat crop, which people rely on for food and income, has been lost1. Many people in these areas were already suffering from chronic hunger. Nearly three quarters of the people living in the affected areas say that they will run out of food in less than two months2. The agency called on donors to heed the lessons from the current drought in the Horn of Africa, where delays cost lives and resulted in avoidable hardship, and ensure that enough funds are made available to meet immediate humanitarian needs for food and water. Asuntha Charles, head of Oxfam in Afghanistan, said: Read more Crisis in Afghanistan. Is Wall Street Driving World Hunger? - Derek Thompson - Business. In the last five years, the price of commodities like rubber, corn, and cotton have doubled, crashed, and then quadrupled.
Is this a typical tango between limited supply and growing demand? Or have central banks and investors pumped the commodities markets with extra juice that makes their gyrations more violent? In July, the St. Louis Fed looked at this very question. This synchronization of price waves across many commodities (see above) might suggest that our commodity price boom is "a bubble driven primarily by near-zero interest rates and excessive speculation in commodity futures markets. " But it's more likely that market fundamentals are driving the high price of agricultural products and other resources, for at least three reasons: 1) Supply shocks: The 47 percent increase in wheat prices last year was largely attributable to "drought in Russia and China and to floods in Canada and Australia," the Fed reported.
The Federal Reserve wants banks to lend more money. Multistate Outbreak of Listeriosis Linked to Whole Cantaloupes from Jensen Farms, Colorado - Listeriosis. Point of a Million Connections. I have in my hands an advance copy of the book "Food Sovereignty in Canada" put out by Fernwood Publishing. I am very proud! I would tell you exactly what I did for this book, but then my thin veneer of anonymity would be blown. I will say that I did copy-edit half of it, and did substantive editing for three of the chapters. Please don't tell me about any typos I missed. That was probably the other copy-editor. The rest of you will have to wait until November to get a copy, but I'm going to whet your appetite: "Instead of the current construct of farmers producing and individual consumers buying food, where both the access to and production of food are determined by the market, food sovereignty begins from the position of citizens engaged in decisions about providing life-sustaining good food.
" Inside: "Advancing Agriculture by Destroying Farms?