Another day another warning that humanity is pushing its luck, overstressing this Earth, our one and only biosphere. For those of you who can’t handle stress, don’t fret. It’ll be down the Memory Hole by the end of the weekend at the outside. Dirt. Who gives a damn about dirt?
Continue readingTag: food insecurity
The Disaffected Lib: Connecting the Dots on Climate Change
One of the biggest failures in climate change reporting is the tendency to focus on particular aspects without considering the bigger picture. What does sea level rise have to do with droughts or floods? What is the role of changing ocean circulation patterns? How do these impacts all factor into
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Your Global Warming Surcharge Coming Soon
Reservoir, What Reservoir? So, you see, you’ve got this conjunction of forces. There are more of us by the day, about 220,000 every 24-hours and that’s a net increase. And then our ever larger population is also movin’ on up. We’re making progress on reducing poverty and those mega-populated, emerging economies
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Cult of Living Large
2015, we’re told, is the year the developed world (that’s us) and the emerging economies (China, India, etc., etc., etc.) will close ranks to formulate an effective plan of action to fight climate change. It’s going to be Kyoto on steroids, a true hallelujah moment, a meeting of minds, a
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Every-Country-For-Itself Face of the Global Food Insecurity Crisis
Consider these two realities. (1) The United Nations World Food Programme toils to keep millions of people alive (2) in the same African nations where affluent grain-importing countries like Saudi Arabia, China and South Korea are busy buying or negotiating long-term leasing rights on key agricultural lands. As of mid-2012,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: When Pigs Float
Shanghai has a water problem. Somehow more than 2,800 dead pigs wound up floating in one of the main rivers that supplies drinking water to the mega-metropolis of 23-million. Local authorities claim the river water is still safe to drink but they are local authorities and this is China. Nobody
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: When The Rich Eat the Poor
You might think that Ethiopia is a country that would take its food supply very, very seriously. We’re regularly greeted by appeals for donations to help relieve starvation in the Horn of Africa – Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Eritrea. It’s a bit disconcerting to learn that Indian investors are now snapping
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Can You See Where This is Headed?
Apparently the world is on the cusp of the “Consumption Revolution.” The developing economies are surging, opening up what could be a $30-trillion a year demand for, well, stuff – stuff that affluent consumers sometimes buy. A report by McKinsey’s business and economics research arm, McKinsey Global Institute, calls it
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Drought – America Isn’t Alone
Russian wheatfield ravaged by locusts and drought Another giant grain exporter, Russia, is also being hammered by drought leaving Brits fearful of major food price increases. Farmers in Russia are being crippled by severe drought, which has caused a potentially devastating drop in the country’s grain production.Fears are mounting that
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