The global economic shake-down of low oil prices continues apace, writes Alexander Reid Ross, causing environmentalists to celebrate the collapse of dirty energy projects. But the oil price collapse is the manifestation of a multi-layered conflict being fought out on the political, military and ideological battlefields of the Middle East - and it may not last much longer.
… January 2015 News Oil Energy Politics War Economics kuwait-oil-fire-cut.jpg The global …
According to classical economics Adam Smith's 'invisible' hand' of free markets produces the greatest good for us all, writes JP Sottile. But what happens when rip-roaring 'external costs' are left out of the equations? Wars, repression, pollution, resource destruction and climate change. And because that invisible hand is connected to Mother Nature, it's coming back to strike us.
… JP Sottile Truthout | 20th January 2016 News Economics Climate Change Corporations Energy … tornado-hit-cut.jpg According to classical economics Adam Smith's 'invisible' hand' of … for everything - whether it's in physics or economics or government. Nobel-winning …
Since 1948 Jordan has taken in millions of refugees from Palestine, Iraq and most recently Syria, writes Doug Weir. Politically and economically the country has proved astonishingly resilient - but the population increase has caused huge damage to its fragile environment. Ecological degradation, pollution and resource scarcity may cause political instability unless more is done to tackle the problems.
… of environmental degradation. Politics and economics take precedence over environment …
War would be the end for Trump, very bad for the American ruling class and ordinary Americans, and catastrophic for ordinary Iranians.
Iran and drought, Trump and war Jonathan Neale | 20th June 2019 News Donald Trump War USA Iran Thought Leaders donald_trump_29496131773.jpg War would be the end for Trump, very bad for the American …
After six decades of oil exploitation, Nigeria's failure to provide for its citizens and develop its economy has exposed a hollowed-out state that benefits only the politicians and plutocrats, writes Joshua Goldfond. This is the environment in which Boko Haram has flourished, and as Nigeria proves incapable of effective action or reform, there's no end in sight to the nation's misery.
Nigeria's resource curse: Boko Haram and the poverty of plenty Joshua Goldfond | 10th June 2015 News Nigeria Africa Oil Politics War Society boko-haram-refugees-cut.jpg After six decades of oil …
For all its obsession with international terrorism, Washington fails to see how the phenomenon is driven by its own model of globalisation – a model that is itself uniquely vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Fritjof Capra on security and sustainability
… realising that security, energy, agriculture, economics and climate change are not separate …
What was NATO's violent intervention in Libya really all about? Now we know, writes Ellen Brown, thanks to Hillary Clinton's recently published emails. It was to prevent the creation of an independent hard currency in Africa that would free the continent from economic bondage under the dollar, the IMF and the French African franc, shaking off the last heavy chains of colonial exploitation.
… Ellen Brown | 14th March 2016 News Finance Economics Africa Libya War Politics USA France …
Africa is being opened up like a tin of sardines to a new wave of resource extraction, writes Colin Todhunter. Masked under the soubriquets of 'investment', 'growth' and 'free trade', a handful of vast global corporations are systematically plundering the continent's mineral wealth and leaving desolation in their wake, backed to the hilt by that ever-faithful servant of capital - the UK government.
… July 2016 News Africa Mining Corporations War Economics Western Sahara Morocco …
Israel desperately covets Gaza's gas as a 'cheap stop-gap' yielding revenues of $6-7 billion a year, writes Nafeez Ahmed. The UK's BG and the US's Noble Energy are lined up to do the dirty work - but first Hamas must be 'uprooted' from Gaza, and Fatah bullied into cutting off its talks with Russia's Gazprom.
… 2014 News War Middle East Energy Fossil Fuels Economics UK US Corporations …
War on Iraq is about a lot more than boosting oil companies’ profits. It’s the latest battle in the ongoing war over who gets to control the earth’s remaining energy reserves. By Lutz C Kleveman.
The New Great Game Lutz C. Kleveman | 1st April 2003 News Iraq Oil Rights Oil Industry Oil Dependency War Oil Companies Oil Reserves Oil Oil War Military Boycotts US Fuel Energy Society …
Never mind the 'war on terror' rhetoric, writes Nafeez Ahmed. The purpose of Israel's escalating assault on Gaza is to control the Territory's 1.4 trillion cubic feet of gas - and so keep Palestine poor and weak, gain massive export revenues, and avert its own domestic energy crisis.
Gaza: Israel's $4 billion gas grab Nafeez Ahmed | 18th July 2014 News Middle East War Fossil Fuels Gas Human Rights Energy gaza-tanks-amir-farshad-ebrahimi-cut.jpg Never mind the 'war on terror' …
Revenues obtained from the often illegal extraction and supply of commodities such as timber and diamonds are directly bankrolling corrupt regimes and armed insurgency groups, and fund the purchase of weapons and other contraband goods that perpetuate cycles of conflict.
… Development War Free Trade Fair Trade Economics Justice Human Rights Military … Globalisation Privatisation Politics And Economics Socie Archive_237.jpg Revenues …
The best way to deal with embarrassing, inconvenient facts is to ignore them, writes Guy Horton. And this is precisely what the international community is doing over Burma's demographic anomaly - 9 million people who ought to be there, but aren't. Their absence is prima facie evidence of genocide - but as we all celebrate the 'brave new Burma', no one wants to know.
Explaining Burma's missing 9 million people - evaporation, or genocide? Guy Horton | 20th November 2014 News Burma Indigenous Peoples Genocide War Human Rights burma-massacre.jpg The best way to deal …
Honduras has endured six years of violence and land grabs after the 2009 US-backed military coup made the country a playground for Hillary Clinton's billionaire friends, write Eric Draitser & Ramiro S. Fúnez - and a hell for the country's indigenous and small scale farming communities, whose leaders are routinely murdered with impunity by US-trained forces.
Honduras under Occupation - murders, land grabs, and Hillary Clinton's 'hard choices' Eric Draitser Ramiro S. Fúnez | 2nd July 2015 News Honduras USA War Politics Human Rights Land Grabs Indigenous …
Erdogan's horrific 'war on terror' in the Kurdish cities of Eastern Turkey may have a silver lining, writes Defne Kadıoğlu Polat - at least for property developers and ruling party insiders. Plans are already under way for 'urban renewal' projects that will see the valuable real estate cleansed of buildings and people by the war developed into luxury apartments and shopping malls.
Turkey's war on Kurdish cities - clearing the way for 'urban regeneration'? Defne Kadıoğlu Polat | 3rd February 2016 News Turkey Indigenous Peoples War Cities Society Politics Consumerism …
A victory for the Kurds and their allies in Syria would be a victory for all who seek a future dictated by neither fundamentalists nor imperialists, writes Derek Wall. Is that why NATO members' have taken no effective action to help Syria's Kurds resist Islamic State - even as Kobane is set to fall, and with 160,000 Kurdish refugees trapped at the Turkish border?
… whose last book was ' The Sustainable Economics of Elinor Ostrom ', Routledge 2014. … is completing his new book for Pluto ' The Economics of anti-capitalism ' which will be …
Civil war in Syria is the result of the desertification of the ecologically fragile Syrian steppe, writes Gianluca Serra - a process that began in 1958 when the former Bedouin commons were opened up to unrestricted grazing. That led to a wider ecological, hydrological and agricultural collapse, and then to a 'rural intifada' of farmers and nomads no longer able to support themselves.
… can change them. It makes no sense to elevate economics above the biosphere." Certainly - …
Thousands of small farmers were forced from their lands and homes by paramilitaries in Colombia's Santa Maria mountains, writes Paula Álvarez. But now as a welcome peace allows their return from involuntary exile, they find a new enemy that has come to stay - huge plantations of oil palm that have obliterated the mixed, patchwork landscape of small fields, villages, and swathes of forest on steep-sided hills that they used to inhabit.
Palm oil engulfs Colombia's 'mountains of the jaguar' Paula Álvarez Forest Peoples Programme | 23rd May 2017 News The Land War Colombia Farming Land Grabs oil-palm-colombia-cut.jpg Thousands of small …
Botum Sakor national park is one of Cambodia's biodiversity hotspots, where indigenous tribes have long lived in harmony with the forest and its wildlife, writes Rod Harbinson. But now they are being violently evicted as the park is being sold off piecemeal to developers for logging, plantations, casinos and hotels. Now local communities are defending themselves and their land.
Cambodia: local people risk everything to defend national park sold off to highest bidders Rod Harbinson | 24th March 2015 News Forests Cambodia Development Corporations Indigenous Peoples …
The UK government is punishing renewable energy for its success in generating 25% of the country's electricity, writes Stuart Parkinson. But there's no austerity when it comes to the bloated military-nuclear industrial sector, no matter how egregious its failures or extreme its cost overruns. Our future prosperity is being sacrificed - and its costing taxpayers billions.
… 2015 News Nuclear Energy Renewables Politics Economics Corporations War wind-sunset-cut.jpg …
Isabel Hilton, writer, broadcaster and editor of Open Democracy magazine, tells the Ecologist what the results of the mid-term elections mean for America and the world…
… US Bush Midterm Elections US War Politics And Economics Interview_12.jpg Isabel Hilton, …
Amid the human suffering caused by terror attacks, it's easy to forget the economic dimensions, writes Paul Mobbs. But after the 13th November attacks in Paris defence industry shares soared, while a host of connected think tanks, lobbyists and politicians dominated the media in pushing for military responses. Is it time to expose and confront the terror industrial complex?
'The terror dividend' - how traders and lobbyists made a killing from the Paris attacks Paul Mobbs | 25th November 2015 News War Media Politics Society France excel-copter-cut.jpg Amid the human …
Mads Gilbert, a renowned 67-year old doctor and human rights activist who has saved innumerable lives in Gaza by working right through Israel's two most recent military attacks, has been banned by Israel from entering the territory for life. His 'crime'? Apart from healing the shattered bodies of Palestinians, he has dared to speak out about the horrors he witnessed.
Israel bans heroic Norwegian doctor from Gaza for life Ben Norton | 16th November 2014 News War Human Rights Land Grabs Middle East mads-gilbert-cut.jpg Mads Gilbert, a renowned 67-year old doctor …