Quick Reads

El Campo Jurásico de los dinosaurios agrícolas aún no es realidad

Submitted by Joana Chelo on

El nuevo informe del Grupo ETC explica cómo el Sur global podría bloquear las megafusiones entre agronegocios

Si se consolidan sus nuevas propuestas de fusiones y adquisiciones, las seis más grandes empresas de insumos agrícolas, que concentran el 75% de la investigación y desarrollo globales, podrían reducirse a tres o cuatro. Si Dow y DuPont se unen y logran burlar a los reguladores anti monopolio, la nueva empresa resultante controlará el 25% de las ventas de semillas comerciales y 16% de las ventas de plaguicidas, lo que significa que junto con Monsanto, solo dos compañías controlarían el 51 % de todas las ventas de semillas y una cuarta parte del mercado de plaguicidas.

Global Agribusiness Mergers NOT a Done Deal

Submitted by Joana Chelo on

New ETC Group report, Breaking Bad, shows how Dow-DuPont, Monsanto and Syngenta seed and pesticide deals could be blocked by Global South

The $130 billion Dow-DuPont merger announced last week has rekindled ChemChina’s $44.6 billion bid for Syngenta which, in turn, may provoke a fourth takeover try by Monsanto. If ChemChina prevails, Monsanto is likely to look for a deal with either BASF or Bayer. If they get their way, the world’s Big Six agricultural input companies controlling 75% of global agricultural R&D may be reduced to three or four.

NO a la meta de 1.5°C con geoingeniería

Submitted by Veronica Villa on

Recolección de firmas

París, 12 de diciembre de 2015

Aparentemente de la nada (o más bien, a partir del humo negro del proceso de la COP21 sobre Cambio Climático), algunos de los responsables históricos más importantes del cambio climático, como Estados Unidos, Canadá y la Unión Europea, han decidido respaldar “una meta muy ambiciosa”: limitar el aumento de la temperatura global a 1.5 grados centígrados. Para lograrlo se necesitaría una drástica reducción de las emisiones de gases comenzando desde ya, pero en el caso de esos países, su intención es otra.

No to 1.5°C with geoengineering!

Submitted by Joëlle Deschambault on

Sign-on letter

Paris, 11 December 2015

Seemingly out of the blue (or rather, out of the black smog of the UNFCCC process), some of the largest historical culprits for climate change, countries including the United States, Canada and the European Union, have decided to back an "ambitious goal" of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C. To achieve this, radical emissions cuts would be needed from now, but in the case of these countries, that's not their real intention.

Report Release: Outsmarting Nature?

Submitted by Joëlle Deschambault on

New Report Questions Risky Synthetic Biology Developments Promoted Under “Climate-Smart” Guise

Paris, 27th November 2015 – Some of the world’s largest agro-industrial corporations will be flying the flag for ‘climate-smart agriculture’ at the upcoming Climate Summit. They will claim that hi-tech crops and intensive industrial agriculture are needed to rescue farmers (and the hungry) from a warming world – a claim widely dismissed by peasant movements and civil society groups.

Report Release: Extreme Biotech meets Extreme Energy

Submitted by Joëlle Deschambault on

New report exposes biotech’s big bet to prop up fossil fuels + International video release.

Paris, 24th November 2015 - At the upcoming Climate summit in Paris, some governments and much of civil society will be pushing for an urgent transition away from the carbon-rich fossil fuels responsible for climate chaos. However, one hi-tech sector, the multi-billion dollar Synthetic Biology industry, is now actively tying its future to the very oil, coal and gas extraction it once claimed to be able to displace. That’s the conclusion of a new report released jointly today from the ETC Group and Heinrich Böll Foundation. Titled “Extreme Biotech meets Extreme Energy”, the report predicts that as the extreme biotech industry and the extreme extraction industry move towards deeper collaboration, the biosafety risks and climate threats emanating from them will become ever more entangled.

Sortir des impasses du progrès

Submitted by Joana Chelo on

Soirée-Lancement du Numéro "Danger:Impasse du progrès" de la Revue RELATIONS

La notion de progrès est piégée. Si, à l’origine, elle désignait une aspiration légitime à l’amélioration des conditions de vie, elle semble aujourd’hui devenue la justification d’une démesure et d’une toute-puissance techniques qui étendent leur emprise sur le monde, jusqu’à compromettre la survie de l’humanité. Quels changements dans nos modes de vie implique le refus de voir dans l’idole technologique la solution à tous les maux ? Sur quoi, au Québec, devrait-on s’appuyer pour sortir de l’impasse technicienne et redonner du sens à un projet commun?
À Montréal
Jeudi 22 octobre 2015
CAFÉ L’ARTÈRE, 7000, AVENUE DU PARC
AVEC:
YVES-MARIE ABRAHAM, professeur de sociologie à HEC Montréal et co-directeur du livre Creuser jusqu’où?
Extractivisme et limites à la croissance (Écosociété, 2015) ;
JOËLLE DESCHAMBAULT, directrice des opérations, Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC Group) ;
ERIC MARTIN, professeur de philosophie au Cégep Édouard-Montpetit et membre du Groupe interuniversitaire d’études de la postmodernité (GIEP).
En collaboration avec: Écosociété

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