Japanese rice farmers won a reprieve last week when TTP negotiations in Hawaii ended without conclusion on opening Japan up to cheap US rice imports, writes Nicole L Freiner. But with Japan keen to export more cars to the US, the victory is a temporary one. At stake is a way of life, an ancient land-rooted religion, and the future viability of Japan's farming villages.
… | 3rd August 2015 News Japan Food Farming Society Trade USA …
The oil and gas industry is disrupting communities and damaging ecosystems worldwide, writes David Poritz. Tough, independent social and environmental standards for the industry can bring urgently-needed improvements to company practices - even where government regulation has failed.
… Oil Fossil Fuels Ecuador Amazon USA Nigeria Society david poritz hart hat-cut.jpg The oil …
The magnitude of Corbyn's victory today represents an irreversible seismic shift in British politics, writes Oliver Tickell. Finally the Tories face serious, principled opposition that will reveal them as the far-right ideologues they truly are. The reverberations will echo far, wide, long and deep, including to the US where the socialist Bernie Sanders is well on his way to winning the Democratic nomination.
… trades unions and cooperatives, and wider society including supposedly 'disengaged' …
As we remember the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki this month 71 years ago, we have largely forgotten the racist propaganda that made it possible, writes LINDA PENZ GUNTER. We have likewise sanitised history to exclude the voices of African Americans who loudly protested the use of nuclear weapons, connecting them to American colonialism abroad and racism at home.
… 2016 Activism Nuclear WMD War Japan USA Society Media Politics Books japanese-cut.jpg …
The 3,100km concrete wall Donald Trump plans to build along the US-Mexico border would be a disaster for the border zone's ecosystems, writes Shonil Bhagwat. Among the species at risk: ocelots, bears, Bighorn sheep, the US's last wild jaguars facing genetic isolation north of the border, and the Bald eagle, the US's national bird.
… going to happen. Its likely impact on human society has been well-noted, but in the …
On January 9 thousands of gallons of a toxic chemical used to produce “clean coal”, spilled into Elk River, leaving 300,000 with no water supply. Trish Kahle asks - how could this happen?
… 2014 News Coal Fossil Fuels USA Energy Society wva-water-distribution.png On January …
A powerful call has gone out the the US Export-Import Bank not to finance a massive coal mine, railway, port terminal and dredged 'canal' through Australia's Great Barrier Reef with $1 billion in loans and guarantees.
… Australian elected officials, and civil society groups from the US and Australia have …
For John Muir, founder of America's national parks, immersion in nature was a blessing providing direct communion with divinity, writes Tim Flinders, and the cause of a spiritual awakening that inspired his life's work: to preserve wilderness and communicate the beauty, wonder and fragility of nature, sharing widely the source of his own enlightenment.
… Natural World Conservation Religion USA Society yosemite-cut.jpg For John Muir, …
Campaigners for the labeling of GMOs in food are winning their battle against corporate America, writes Ralph Nader. No wonder the corporations are fighting back with lawsuits and scare stories ... they're on the back foot, and they know it.
… June 2014 Activism USA GMOs Food Corporations Society Law gmo-right2know-cut.jpg Campaigners …
When Shell decided to quit its Arctic oil exploration it cited 'insufficient quantities' of oil and gas, writes Louise Rouse. But that was not the whole story: what tipped the balance was a combination of investor discontent, reputational damage and public opposition on an unprecedented scale.
… Energy Fossil Fuels Oil Corporations Finance Society USA Climate Change shell-no-cut.jpg …
The lead poisoning crisis in Flint, Michigan is just the tip of a vast iceberg of lead contamination afflicting mainly urban black communities, writes Leif Fredrickson. A rigid 'race bar' on postwar suburban housing and mortgages left black families in inner cities, exposed to flaking lead paint in run down housing, leaded gasoline residues and lead pipework. Now is the time to correct this shocking historic injustice.
… Comment Cities Toxics USA Development Finance Society Racism suburbia-cut.jpg The lead …
Forget tariffs, forget Obama's promises. The whole point of modern 'trade agreements' is to whack pesky labor, environment and health laws, writes David Morris, and so empower capital and corporate power against regulators, governments and democracy itself. Unconvinced? Just imagine what these deals would look like if they were there to empower people.
… | 28th July 2015 News Trade Finance Health Society Politics USA Canada Mexico …
According to Trish Riley, it’s absurd to think that individuals can save the planet - only big business has the clout to make a real difference. Utter nonsense or perfectly sensible? Jeff Holman caught up with her to find out
… Business Trish Riley Q&A USA Journalism Society trish-edit.jpg According to Trish …
To understand how technology is used in the real world we must appreciate who owns and controls it, writes Colin Todhunter: whose interests it serves, and how it works in an economic system driven by profit, geopolitics and the compulsion to capture and control markets - while the monopolists proclaim a noble ideology of 'free choice' and 'democracy'.
… they established helped shape civil society both nationally and internationally, …
Monarch butterfly numbers are dwindling despite protection of their wintering forests in Mexico, and voluntary schemes to restore their food plant, milkweed, in US field margins, writes Eva Sirinathsinghji. These measures alone are insufficient: no less than an end to the mass spraying of glyphosate on crops, predicated by 'Roundup-ready' GM corn and soy, will do.
… on GMOs with the Institute of Science in Society (ISIS) . This article was originally … published by the Institute of Science in Society . Petition: ' Independent Scientists … on Glyphosate ' by Institute of Science in Society. Also on The Ecologist : ' …
The world is in the grip of a massive wave of militarism of which most of us are blissfully ignorant, writes John Pilger. When did mainstream media last tell you about the US's $1 trillion nuclear weapon renewal? NATO's massive build up of military power on Russia's eastern frontier? The encirclement of China by nuclear-armed US bases? The world is at war. Pass it on!
A World War has begun. Break the silence John Pilger | 23rd March 2016 Comment War Nuclear Media Politics USA China Russia Ukraine bikini-atoll-cut.jpg The world is in the grip of a massive wave of …
One the eve of the EU elections, 120 European campaign groups have rejected the TTIP trade negotiations between the EU and the US as a threat to democracy - and called on negotiators to ditch all, or at least key elements, of the proposed agreement.
… economic benefits are marginal to society at large even in the best case …
After a peaceful protest against nuclear weapons showed up shoddy security at a $19 billion nuclear bomb factory site, writes Kevin Alexander Gray, Uncle Sam got mad - against the protestors, now jailed for up to five years. Will Peace Prize winner Obama set them free?
… years probation. Rice is a sister in the Society of the Holy Child Jesus. She became a …
Dissent over the massive USA-EU TTIP trade deal is focused on the 'corporate courts' allowing investors to sue national governments, But largely neglected has been the equally serious issue of 'Regulatory Cooperation' - which would impose a huge burden of 'red tape' on EU and US legislatures, while forcing down health, safety, social and environmental standards.
… in principle also apply to citizens and civil society organisations, in reality it is mainly … to sustainability objectives, civil society will find very little value in using …
As President Trump gets on with dismantling and defunding environmental regulation in the US and withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, his top environmental advisor has branded the Green movement as 'the greatest threat to freedom and prosperity in the modern world.' We must resist now, writes Donnachadh McCarthy - while we still can!
… "threat" by working peacefully with civic society and democratic processes to protect …
An elite group of aid donors and agribusiness corporations met in London this week to plan the takeover of Africa's seeds, writes Ian Fitzpatrick, replacing traditional seed breeding and saving by small farmers with a corporate model of privatized, 'improved', patented, genetically uniform and hybrid seeds in a profit-driven market.
… sell new seed varieties? Why invite civil society representatives when your aim is to …