Global Uprisings and the Failure of Modern Economics and Modern Politics

By. Richard Heinberg - Oil Price.com

Media reports often fail to connect recurring demonstrations in Greece and Spain with those in the Middle East and North Africa (Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain). After all, the MENA demonstrations are ostensibly about democracy, while European countries already have functioning electoral systems. Protestors in Greece and Spain are instead decrying austerity programs resulting from governmental efforts to rein in deficits and debt burdens.

At the core, though, all of these uprisings are about the simultaneous failure of modern economics and modern politics—even though systems differ somewhat from country to country. People in all of the nations mentioned have one thing in common: crushed expectations. Economists and politicians have promised jobs and growth, but instead citizens are seeing spreading unemployment, rising food and energy prices, and increasing economic inequality. Nowhere are there realistic prospects for a political remedy to worsening economic conditions. Thus, while unrest seems destined to spread and intensify in the months and years ahead, it has no clear long-term strategy or goal.

For full article:

http://oilprice.com/Geo-Politics/International/Global-Uprisings-and-the-Failure-of-Modern-Economics-and-Modern-Politics.html

Population bomb: 9 billion march to WWIII Commentary: Can anyone halt this economic explosive?

By Paul B. Farrell from MarketWatch

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Sshh. Don’t tell anyone. But “while you are reading these words, four people will have died from starvation. Most of them children.” Seventeen words. Four deaths. That statistic is from a cover of Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 provocative “Population Bomb.”

By the time you finish this column, another five hundred will die. By starvation. Mostly kids. Dead.

But global population will just keep growing, growing, growing. Why? The math is simple: Today there are more than two births for every death worldwide. One death. Two new babies.

Bomb? Tick-tick-ticking? Or economic bubble? Population growth is a basic assumption hard-wired in traditional economic theory. Unquestioned. Yes, population is our core economic problem. Not a military problem. But the bigger this economic bubble grows, the more we all sink into denial, the closer the point of no return where bubble becomes bomb, where war is the only alternative.

Yes, folks, ultimately population growth is an economic nuclear bomb, tick-tick-ticking a silent countdown to global disaster. In denial, we march a self-destructive path to WWIII.

Simple math: One death + two births = America’s poison pill

For full article:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/population-bomb-9-billion-march-to-wwiii-2011-06-28?pagenumber=1

The author writes the column on behavioral economics. He's the author of nine books on personal finance, economics and psychology.

The Great Shale Gas Ponzi Scheme

By Dan Denning • June 29th, 2011

--Well today is the big day in Greece. The government meets in Parliament to vote on the austerity budget. Meanwhile, police fired tear gas at protestors outside the Parliament building.

--Judging by the positive action in share markets, most investors expect the Greek vote to be a done deal. And most expect the angry Greeks in the streets will go home after the vote and take their government-prescribed medicine. We’ll know soon enough.

--One safe prediction: this is not the last week you’ll read about sovereign debt problems destabilising markets. If not Greece, then Spain. If not Spain, then Italy. If not Italy, then America.

--Meanwhile, the energy market is giving a clear signal about shale gas: it’s looking for more. Reuters reports, "China issued its first shale gas exploration tender with an offer of four blocks to a group of Chinese energy companies, state media reported, as the country kicks off its search for potentially vast reserves of the unconventional resource."

--China’s state-owned oil companies are busy trying to diversify the nation’s energy resources. Shale gas is a natural place to look, if only because China is estimated to have large shale gas reserves. And every cubic foot of shale gas China could produce on its own is one it would not have to import from Russia...or Australia.

--The shale gas bandwagon is picking up new riders in Europe as well. A report in yesterday’s Financial Times says,

"The development of shale gas has transformed the North American energy landscape and its supporters believe unconventional gas has the ability to evolutionise the European market, which is also home to vast resources... The resources hold the potential to cover European gas demand for at least 60 years, according to a study by the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security."

--But stop the presses! And hold the bull market!

For full article:

http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/the-great-shale-gas-ponzi-scheme/2011/06/29/

Comment from the FT: In search of more resources to deplete

From Mr Derek White.

Sir, With due respect to Don Williams (Letters, June 23), exception must be taken to his claim that “the survival of the human species depends on the eventual development of real space travel, given resource depletion here on Earth”.

For full article:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d194ac20-a04f-11e0-a115-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1QkurKB5I

Why Al Gore Is A Failure: Part One - Business Insider

Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest

It must be as perplexing to his many admirers as it is frustrating to himself that a man of Vice President Gore’s many talents, great skills and strong beliefs is one of the most consistent losers in American politics.

“All political careers end in failure,” said Enoch Powell; Gore has not won an election on his own since his 1990 re-election to the Senate from Tennessee. 

His 1988 presidential bid ended well short of the nomination.  Many observers felt Gore was headed for defeat in a third Senate campaign as the south continued to swing Republican; Clinton’s offer of the vice presidential slot in 1992 gave Gore the opportunity to reach a national audience as his home state cooled. 

On his own again in 2000, gifted by the departing Clinton with the most bubbliciously expanding economy in American history and a comfortable budget surplus, and insulated from the innuendo and scandal of the Clinton White House by his still-vibrant marriage, he found the elusive road to defeat against a flawed and inexperienced challenger.  Tennessee voted for Bush; Florida or no Florida Gore would have gone to the White House if those who knew him longest and best had rallied to his support.

Once out of office, he assumed the leadership of the global green movement, steering that movement into a tsunami of defeat that, when the debris is finally cleared away, will loom as one of the greatest failures of civil society in all time.

Gore has the Midas touch in reverse; objects of great value (Nobel prizes, Oscars) turn dull and leaden at his touch.  Few celebrity cause leaders have had more or better publicity than Gore has had for his climate advocacy.  Hailed by the world press, lionized by the entertainment community and the Global Assemblage of the Great and the Good as incarnated in the Nobel Peace Prize committee, he has nevertheless seen the movement he led flounder from one inglorious defeat to the next.  The most recent, failed global climate meeting passed almost unnoticed last week in Bonn; the world has turned its eyes away from the expiring anguish of the Copenhagen agenda.

For full article: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-al-gore-is-a-failure-part-one-2011-6#ixzz1QgGsOrPG

David Cameron must speak out on climate change, says top scientist Sir David King, a former chief scientific adviser, writes in the Guardian to urge prime minister to fill 'leadership vacuum'

By Damian Carrington – The Guardian

David Cameron must end his silence on climate change and "step up to the plate" to provide international leadership, the former government chief scientific adviser Prof Sir David King says on Wednesday.

Writing in the Guardian, King also reveals that after his declaration that global warming was a greater threat than global terrorism in 2004, then US president, George Bush, asked Tony Blair, then prime minster, for to have him gagged.

King's warning made headlines around the world at the time. "But I refused to be gagged, and that statement and others spurred the UK to develop a leadership role on climate change among the international community," King writes.

For full article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/29/climate-change-david-cameron-king

Fewer people live in poverty but more are hungry, U.N. says

By Alexia Shaffer, Written for UPI

People who live in poverty are not necessarily living in chronic hunger. Statistics for people living in both circumstances are changing, according to a United Nations report released last week.

“Poverty is steadily declining over the last decade, but hunger is increasing over the last decade, except for 2010,” said Jomo Kwame Sundaram, assistant secretary general for economic development at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

“This brings up questions," Sundaram said. "What are we actually measuring?”

For full article:

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/06/29/Fewer-people-live-in-poverty-but-more-are-hungry-UN-says/UPIU-8571308750025/

Video: The Economist in three minutes - Urbanisation in China

China's citizens are moving from the countryside into cities in record numbers, boosting the economy but making party leaders uneasy

Video:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2011/06/urbanisation-china&fsrc=nwl

Pew Report On Fatherhood Finds Many Are Absent

Huffington Post   |  Ashley Reich Posted

The number of children living apart from their fathers has more than doubled in the last fifty years, from 11 percent in 1960 to 27 percent in 2010.

That’s one of the key findings from a new report on fatherhood in the United the States that was released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends project--just in time for Father’s Day.

For full article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/18/pew-report-on-fatherhood-_n_879629.html#s294303&title=Income_Influences_Absence

China told to reduce food production or face 'dire' water levels. Food must be imported and water use tightly regulated to protect dwindling supply, a leading groundwater expert has warned

Jonathan Watts in Zhengzhou

China needs to reduce food production on its dry northern plains or aquifers will diminish to a "dire" level in 30 years, one the country's leading groundwater experts has warned.

Zheng Chunmiao, director of the Water Research Centre at Peking University, said the world's most populous country will have to focus more on demand-side restraint because it is becoming more expensive and difficult to tap finite supplies below the surface.

"The government must adopt a new policy to reduce water consumption," Zheng told the Guardian. "The main thing is to reduce demand. We have relied too much on engineering projects, but the government realises this is not a long-term solution."

For full article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/28/china-food-water

UN official calls for empowering women to fight poverty & other social ills

UNITED NATIONS, June 28 (APP): Empowering women and advancing their rights can lead to progress on a range of issues, including the fight against poverty, hunger and violence, the head of the U.N. agency tasked with promoting women’s rights said Tuesday.“Promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment is not solely a plea for justice or for fulfilling human rights commitments. It is both of those things, but also so much more,” Michelle Bachelet said in her opening statement to the annual session of the Executive Board of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). “Where we fail to capitalize on the potential and talents of one half of the population, we also squander the potential to reduce poverty, hunger,disease, environmental degradation and violence,” she stated.

For full article:

http://ftpapp.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=143480&Itemid=39

Collapse: The Practical Paradigms

By Peter Goodchild

The entire global economy is collapsing, although very few people are aware of this: mainly the very rich and the highly educated. By understanding this, one becomes a member of the illuminati oneself, or if not at least an enlightened refugee.

The word “economy,” however, is a misnomer, because economics is based on a misconception, like alchemy or astrology. Economists think everything can be explained in terms of money, which is seen as a closed system, perfect and eternal, like pure mathematics. What is happening, though, is not a closed system: the decline in natural resources, especially petroleum, and conversely the terrible rise in global population.

For full article:

http://www.countercurrents.org/goodchild270611.htm

Peter Goodchild is the author of Surivival Skills of the North American Indians, published by Chicago Review Press. He can be reached at odonatus{at}live.com

Poverty in an overpopulated world

By David Briceno

Grass Valley

The United Nations recently reported there are now about seven billion people on Earth. Most live in poverty. More are on the way.

Population will greatly increase in Third World countries, which raises the question: Why are some nations rich while others are so poor? Is the disparity due to overpopulation?

There's complex answers to those questions with no single explanation. World inequality is a phenomenon that most people nowadays are well aware of. There's no question some have more than others. It's an unequal world, after all.

But inequality isn't really that important, right? No. Inequality can be very dangerous. Those who have much more have historically tried to convince those who have far less that they should take their inequality lying down.

For full article:

http://www.theunion.com/article/20110625/NEWS/110629837/1024

China establishes national lab for super grain (the race to feed the growing world)

CHANGSHA, June 25 (Xinhua) -- China established a national laboratory for hybrid rice research Saturday in central Hunan Province, aiming to cultivate rice that will bring yields of 15 tonnes per hectare.

The lab was established in Changsha City, capital of Hunan, with the support of Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center and Wuhan University. Yuan Longping, Zhu Yingguo and Xie Hua'an, top scientists in cultivating hybrid grains, will lead researches in the lab.

For full article:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-06/25/c_13949869.htm

New World Heritage: Kenyan Lakes, Australian Coast, Japanese Islands

PARIS, France, June 26, 2011 (ENS) - Extraordinary natural areas in Kenya, Australia, Japan and Germany that deserve the highest level of protection have been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List by an international panel of government representatives at its annual meeting in Paris.

The Lakes System in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, the Ningaloo Coast in Australia and the Ogasawara Islands in Japan were all inscribed on the World Heritage List Friday.

A World Heritage forest site in Eastern Europe was expanded to include Germany, and cultural sites with strong environmental values in Senegal, Jordan and China were also listed by the World Heritage Committee.

A total of 35 nominations, including natural, cultural and mixed properties are under review by the committee, which is holding its 35th session at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris until June 29.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN, the independent advisory body on nature to UNESCO, recommended three sites for inscription after conducting comprehensive evaluations of the natural values of 13 nominated sites. All three were approved by the panel.

For full article:

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2011/2011-06-26-01.html

Impending Disaster: Marine Species Face Mass Extinction, Experts Say

By CHRISTINA CARON (@cdcaron)

Marine experts are now prophesying a perfect storm: a world where marine species could undergo unprecedented levels of extinction.

"The speed of change, particularly related to climate change is so great there simply isn't time for marine life to adapt to these new conditions," said Alex Rogers, a professor of conservation biology at the University of Oxford. "When we've seen mass extinctions in the past they've been associated with large disturbances in the carbon system of the oceans. That's what we're bringing about through our own actions today."

Earlier this year Rogers and 26 other researchers from six countries met for a three-day workshop in England to examine ocean stressors, such as overfishing. This week the panel of marine experts released a summary report from Oxford University -- and the full report is on the way. Their findings? A disturbing decline in the health of the ocean that is on track to get much worse.

For full article:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/marine-species-face-mass-extinction-report/story?id=13893627

Midterm abortion ban in six US states

New restrictions are making it harder for women in the US to get abortions. Photo: Michelle Smith

By Erik Eckholm

DOZENS of new restrictions passed by US states this year have chipped away at the right to abortion by requiring women to view ultrasounds, imposing waiting periods or cutting funds for clinics.

But a new kind of law has gone beyond such restrictions, striking at the foundation of the abortion rules set out by the US Supreme Court over the past four decades.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/midterm-abortion-ban-in-six-us-states-20110627-1gnix.html#ixzz1QUVrfwWq

Opinion: The great population shift from farm to city

By Doug Saunders

It is the little-noticed force behind the revolutions in the Arab world, the new protests in China and the economic booms in India, Turkey and South America: The largest population shift in human history, currently at its peak, is probably the most significant, and misunderstood, global event of our time.

In Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, hundreds of millions of people are rapidly moving from rural areas, where they practiced peasant agriculture, to cities -- a shift that makes itself felt in the rough-and-tumble transitional neighborhoods where rural migrants first land, both in their own countries and in places like the United States, where they make up the largest group of immigrants.

We need to pay attention to these neighborhoods, and to the huge demographic shift that is shaping them, for they are where either the next great economic opportunity or the next wave of violence and conflict will be born.

For full article: http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_18341048

DOUG SAUNDERS is the European bureau chief of the Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail and the author of "Arrival City: How the Largest Migration in History Is Reshaping Our World." He wrote this for the Los Angeles Times.

Understand the Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order

Book by Prof Michel Chossudovsky

In this expanded edition of Chossudovsky’s international best-seller, the author outlines the contours of a New World Order which feeds on human poverty and the destruction of the environment, generates social apartheid, encourages racism and ethnic strife and undermines the rights of women. The result as his detailed examples from all parts of the world show so convincingly, is a globalization of poverty.

This book is a skillful combination of lucid explanation and cogently argued critique of the fundamental directions in which our world is moving financially and economically.

In this new enlarged edition – which includes ten new chapters and a new introduction - the author reviews the causes and consequences of famine in Sub-Saharan Africa, the dramatic meltdown of financial markets, the demise of State social programs and the devastation resulting from corporate downsizing and trade liberalisation.


"This concise, provocative book reveals the negative effects of imposed economic structural reform, privatization, deregulation and competition. It deserves to be read carefully and widely."

- Choice, American Library Association (ALA)

"The current system, Chossudovsky argues, is one of capital creation through destruction. The author confronts head on the links between civil violence, social and environmental stress, with the modalities of market expansion." 
- Michele Stoddard, Covert Action Quarterly

Click here to learn more: http://globalresearch.ca/globaloutlook/GofP.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Chossudovsky

Michel Chossudovsky is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), which hosts the critically acclaimed website www.globalresearch.ca . He is a contributor to the Encyclopedia Britannica. His writings have been translated into more than 20 languages.


Ted Turner: Climate Change Humanity's Most Serious Problem

Northern Polar Institute Research Director Kim Holmen, left, with UN Foundation Board Chairman Ted Turner and President Timothy Wirth, June 23, 2011 (Photo by Stuart Ramson courtesy UN Foundation)

SVALBARD, Norway, June 23, 2011 (ENS) - Today, on a warm day very close to the Arctic Circle, board members of the UN Foundation, including Founder and Chairman Ted Turner, got a close look at what effects climate change is having on the Arctic.

After their annual Board of Directors meeting in Oslo, several directors traveled to Svalbard, the world's northernmost community. They journeyed up a fjord to the foot of a receding glacier with scientists from the Norwegian Polar Institute.

Turner told reporters on a teleconference today, "They pointed out to us while looking at the glacier that it is receding every year due to global climate change. The temperature here at the high latitudes changes more rapidly than it does in the temperate zones."

For full article:

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2011/2011-06-23-01.html

Rapidly growing Central Africa cannot be ignored for long

BY DON CAYO, VANCOUVER SUN

If Africa keeps growing at its current rate for the rest of this century, it will be home to 15 billion people -well over twice the population of the whole world today.

And even if the African birthrate, the highest on Earth, suddenly falls to the level that balances births with deaths, its current population is so disproportionately young that the total number will still nearly double to 1.8 billion.

Of course, it isn't a matter of eitheror, and both these scenarios are unlikely.

Even a resource-rich continent like Africa can't indefinitely support its high level of growth, particularly in the middle regions where the fertility rate is the highest on the continent and where most countries have trouble feeding the people who live there.

The odds are just as long that Africa will miraculously transform into a low-growth part of the world. Although experience elsewhere, especially in Asia, shows birthrates can fall dramatically and fast, 180-degree changes don't happen overnight.

For full article:

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Rapidly+growing+Central+Africa+cannot+ignored+long/5005501/story.html

Al Gore's rallying call: 'Climate crisis is a struggle for the soul of America'. Gore evokes the Iraq war, credit crunch, civil rights and emancipation to argue the US electoral system is broken and only a mass movement can deliver reason on global warming

Al Gore, pictured in Florida in September 2010, argues in a news article that people pressure on politicians is key to solving the climate crisis. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Let's start at the end, with Al Gore's final paragraph in his long and fascinating piece for Rolling Stone magazine:

The climate crisis, in reality, is a struggle for the soul of America. It is about whether or not we are still capable — given the ill health of our democracy and the current dominance of wealth over reason — of perceiving important and complex realities clearly enough to promote and protect the sustainable well-being of the many. What hangs in the balance is the future of civilization as we know it.

The doom-laden last line will annoy as many as it pleases, true or not. But, writing from the other side of the Atlantic (though not out of reach of the effects of US carbon emissions, or anyone else's), it is the critique of the current US electoral system that stands out: "crass, degrading and horribly destructive to the core values of American democracy".

Gore argues that, through now unlimited and secret campaign finance, "Polluters and Idealogues" have captured US politics to the extent that reason and the common good can no longer win out in debates. He cites powerful examples: how, on the verge of the second Gulf war, 75% of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 atrocities; how the deregulation of Wall Street led the world's economy to the brink of collapse.

For full article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2011/jun/23/al-gore-climate-us-politics-protest

Farmers must boost sustainable crops to feed world: FAO

(Reuters) - The ravages from half a century of intensive farming must give way to a more sustainable approach if farmers are to feed the world in 2050, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Monday.

Global farm output must increase 70 percent, including a nearly 100 percent jump in developing countries, to feed the world in 2050, the FAO said.

At the same time, farmers must conserve resources and protect environment, said the FAO, which expects the world's population to rise to about 9.2 billion in 2050 from 6.9 billion in 2010.

Climate change and growing competition for land, water and energy with industries mean agriculture can no longer rely only on intensive crop production.

For full article:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/13/us-food-fao-idUSTRE75C19820110613

Climate Change: It's bad and getting worse. Severe weather events are wracking the planet, and experts warn of even greater consequences to come.

Flooding in China is currently affecting approximately five million people [GALLO/GETTY]

By Dahr Jamall - Aljazeera

The rate of ice loss in two of Greenland's largest glaciers has increased so much in the last 10 years that the amount of melted water would be enough to completely fill Lake Erie, one of the five Great Lakes in North America.

West Texas is currently undergoing its worst drought since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, leaving wheat and cotton crops in the state in an extremely dire situation due to lack of soil moisture, as wildfires continue to burn.

Central China recently experienced its worst drought in more than 50 years. Regional authorities have declared more than 1,300 lakes "dead", meaning they are out of use for both irrigation and drinking water supply. 



Floods have struck Eastern and Southern China, killing at least 52 and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands, followed by severe flooding that again hit Eastern China, displacing or otherwise affecting five million people.

Meanwhile in Europe, crops in the northwest are suffering the driest weather in decades. 

Scientific research confirms that, so far, humankind has raised the Earth's temperature, and the aforementioned events are a sign of what is to come.

"If you had a satellite view of the planet in the summer, there is about 40 per cent less ice in the Arctic than when Apollo 8 [in 1968] first sent back those photos [of Earth]," Bill McKibben, world renowned environmentalist and fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences told Al Jazeera, "Oceans are 30 per cent more acidic than they were 40 years ago. The atmosphere is four per cent more wet than 40 years ago because warm air holds more water than cold air. That means more deluge and downpour in wet areas and more dryness in dry areas. So we're seeing more destructive mega floods and storms, increasing thunderstorms, and increasing lightning strikes."

So far human greenhouse gas emissions have raised the temperature of the planet by one degree Celsius.


"Climatologists tell us unless we get off gas, coal, and oil, that number will be four to five degrees before the end of this century," said McKibben, "If one degree is enough to melt the Arctic, we'd be best not to hit four degrees."


For full article:

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/2011622132049568952.html

Al Gore: Stabilize population to combat global warming - Los Angeles

From the safety of the political sidelines, former Vice President Al Gore is venturing into a touchy topic, presenting his holistic view of how to curb the buildup of greenhouse gases warming the planet. Besides improving technology to reduce fossil fuel emissions, he is advocating "educating and empowering girls and women."

"That's the most powerful leveraging factor," Gore said in a speech Monday in New York. "When that happens, then the population begins to stabilize and societies begin to make better choices."

For full article and video:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/06/al-gore-climate-change-population-contraception-fertility.html

Water worry threatens peace process (Water dispute can cast shadow over Pakistani-Indian talks)

Islamabad, June 22: US is not very hopeful about the long-term prospects of Pakistan and India easily resolving their disagreements about the “emotional issue” of water, especially given “Pakistani anxiety over access to water”.

According to secret US diplomatic cables accessed by WikiLeaks, Washington feared that the water-related disputes would cast a long shadow over the ‘Composite Dialogue’ process, the latest round of which begins in Islamabad on Thursday.

“Even if India and Pakistan could resolve the Baghliar and Kishanganga projects,” wrote US Ambassador to New Delhi David Mulford in a confidential cable dated February 25, 2005, “there are several more hydroelectric dams planned for Kashmir that might be questioned under the IWT (Indus Water Treaty).”

For full article:

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2011/Jun/23/water-worry-threatens-peace-process-39.asp

Palestine in grip of water shortage (The root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict)

By Ibrahim Husseini, Press TV, Jordan Valley

As the combined population of Palestinians and Israelis nears the 12 million mark, a considerable challenge looms ! To sustain a steady water source for drinking and agriculture.

That's the less known story of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the water aspect of it. Water resources in the Palestinian territories are not enough, and while the drought lingers on; water becomes a fiercely contested issue.

The main fresh water source in the area comes from the Jordan river and the sea of Galilee or Lake Tiberias providing roughly 630 billion cubic meters of water per year.

The sea of Galilee or Lake Tiberias is situated south of the Golan Heights. At 209 meters below the sea level it is the lowest fresh water lake on earth and the second lowest lake in the world after the Dead sea. But a 10 year below average rainfall has caused the Lake's water level to drop well below the red line mark.

For full article and news video: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185883.html

Crop growers brace for more violence in Egypt. Farmers are afraid that there may be more brawls like last year's over the lack of irrigation water.

By Mohssen Arishie - The Egyptian Gazette

CAIRO - As the nation starts to sweat under a scorching sun, Egyptian farmers are afraid that there may be more brawls like last year's over the lack of irrigation water.

Soothing statements by the Government about the resumption of cordial relations with other Nile Basin states haven't persuaded infuriated farmers to stop cursing water officials.

      Every summer, crop growers get involved in nasty fights with their neighbours over who should irrigate their land first, saving their crops from dying.

      Sometimes, farmers' crops in hard-hit areas do in fact shrivel up and die. The tragedy can be more disastrous, when some growers ignore the public's health and use sewage water to irrigate their land.

      Many citizens have died as a result of eating contaminated fruit and vegetables. The Government is also suffering, as health officials complain that the medical treatment for people who get sick from eating contaminated agricultural produce is very expensive.

For full article:

http://213.158.162.45/~egyptian/index.php?action=news&id=18928&title=Crop%20growers%20brace%20for%20more%20violence%20in%20Egypt

Plan B Updates - When the Nile Runs Dry*

By Lester R. Brown

A new scramble for Africa is under way. As global food prices rise and exporters reduce shipments of commodities, countries that rely on imported grain are panicking. Affluent countries like Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China and India have descended on fertile plains across the African continent, acquiring huge tracts of land to produce wheat, rice and corn for consumption back home.

Some of these land acquisitions are enormous. South Korea, which imports 70 percent of its grain, has acquired 1.7 million acres in Sudan to grow wheat—an area twice the size of Rhode Island. In Ethiopia, a Saudi firm has leased 25,000 acres to grow rice, with the option of expanding this to 750,000 acres. And India has leased several hundred thousand acres there to grow corn, rice and other crops.

These land grabs shrink the food supply in famine-prone African nations and anger local farmers, who see their governments selling their ancestral lands to foreigners. They also pose a grave threat to Africa’s newest democracy: Egypt.

Egypt is a nation of bread eaters. Its citizens consume 18 million tons of wheat annually, more than half of which comes from abroad. (See data.) Egypt is now the world’s leading wheat importer, and subsidized bread—for which the government doles out approximately $2 billion per year—is seen as an entitlement by the 60 percent or so of Egyptian families who depend on it.

As Egypt tries to fashion a functioning democracy after President Hosni Mubarak’s departure, land grabs to the south are threatening its ability to put bread on the table because all of Egypt’s grain is either imported or produced with water from the Nile River, which flows north through Ethiopia and Sudan before reaching Egypt. (Since rainfall in Egypt is negligible to nonexistent, its agriculture is totally dependent on the Nile.)
 

For full article: http://www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2011/update97

Lester R. Brown is President of the Earth Policy Institute and author of "World on the Edge."