Fault Lines – Colombia’s Gold Rush

AlJazeeraEnglish

Uploaded on Jul 4, 2011

Gold fever is sweeping across South America. Nowhere is it more lethal than in Colombia, where the gold rush has become a new axle in Colombia’s civil war. Turf wars are erupting between paramilitaries, and leftist rebel groups fighting to take control of mining regions. It’s fueling an old ideological conflict and has displacing hundreds of people.

Helicopter raids by the Colombian Army on small community mining collectives have become commonplace, and the Colombian government is accused of targeting poor workers to protect big business interests, and operating with impunity from human rights violations.

Thousands have fled their homes where land is violently contested, and others live in fear they’ll be removed from their land, arrested, or killed.

The multinationals are flooding in too. With gold now worth around $1,500 an ounce, everyone is getting in on the act, including North American mining companies. Colombia’s pro-business mentality has seen arbitrary concessions by the state sold to multinational companies, often on indigenous land.

Fault Lines traveled to Colombia to speak to the people caught in the middle. The rural workers and artisan miners who’ve mined for generations, and some whose ancestors were enslaved during the first gold rush centuries ago. Others are former coca farmers, put out of work by the US-led Plan Colombia.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Colombian coca farmers turn to gold-mining

AlJazeeraEnglish

Uploaded on Nov 18, 2011

Cocaine farmers in Colombia are leaving the drug business and moving into illegal gold-mining.

Authorities have shut down scores of mines in the northwestern province of Cordoba in a crackdown on illegal mining that started in September. About 400 police took part in the sweep.

Communities near the unregulated mines suffer from the “improper use of mercury and other contaminating substances” found in soil and bodies of water, officials said.

Al Jazeera’s Monica Villamizar reports from Norosi.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Africa Investigates – Ghana Gold

AlJazeeraEnglish

Uploaded on Dec 1, 2011

Ghana is experiencing a new gold rush but widespread corruption is causing illegal mining to flourish. A Ghanian investigative reporter uncovers corruption, even among those who are supposed to be stopping it.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Africa Investigates – Sierra Leone: Timber!

AlJazeeraEnglish

Uploaded on Nov 23, 2011

In this edition of Africa Investigates, reporter Sorious Samura exposes the high level corruption that is stripping his Sierra Leone bare.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Africa Investigates – Fool’s Gold

AlJazeeraEnglish

Uploaded on Nov 10, 2011

Ghana is the second-largest producer of gold on the continent and is now home to a large network of gold fraudsters. Investors have lost millions at their hands. Africa Investigates goes undercover to lift the lid on this illusory pot of gold.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Illegal Chinese Gold Mining in Ghana

NTDTV

Uploaded on Mar 14, 2011

The Chinese regime is Africa’s largest trade partner and miners in countries such as Ghana increasingly rely on Chinese equipment and capital. But there are concerns that Chinese entrepreneurs are involved in illegal mining activities beyond the view of Ghana’s regulatory regime, and locals say their share of the profits is shrinking.

Foreign gold seekers are nothing new in Ghana, but a new wave of prospectors are now making their presence felt, this time from China.

Ghana’s laws say foreign companies are only allowed to work on large, open-pit operations. But campaigners say Chinese entrepreneurs are also illegally controlling small-scale operations behind the scenes, typically through a local intermediary.

Ghana is Africa’s second largest gold exporter. More than 100,000 Ghanaians work in these small, dark mine shafts. Together they produce about 20 percent of the country’s gold.

The Chinese regime is Africa’s largest trade partner with two-way volume reaching $100-billion U.S. dollars in 2010.

Some welcome the Chinese because they bring necessary capital and equipment.

But some workers in Ghana’s pits accuse Chinese entrepreneurs of increasing their share of local profits.

[Joseph Ben, Former Illegal Miner]:
“The Chinese people bring their equipment which makes the work easy for you and they know the work too, but when you are sick they don’t pay your hospital bills you have to use your own money.”

Mr. Ben says he used to work in a Chinese run mine where he was paid 80 Ghana cedi, or about $50 U.S. dollars, per month. Now he’s paid twice as much in a mine owned by Ghanaians.

Last month the police arrested 25 Chinese miners said to be working illegally around the village of Wasa.

The association of communities affected by mining says Chinese companies have built networks of local people, including miners, local chiefs and security agents, to give them cover for illegal mining.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Africa Investigates – Promo: Ghana Gold

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Yex6YlF55yU
AlJazeeraEnglish

Uploaded on Nov 30, 2011

A Ghanian investigative reporter finds corruption flourishing, even among those who are supposed to be stopping it.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Wasted food could feed billions

AlJazeeraEnglish·

Published on Mar 25, 2013

The UN says there could be an extra three billion people in the world by the end of the century, presenting immense challenges to the world’s resources.
However, research shows that the world could feed nearly all of those people without increasing food production since more food is thrown away every year than would be required by the increased population.
As part of Al Jazeera’s Wasteful World series, Rory Challands looks at the extent of the wastage.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120
Food-Matters http://Food-Matters.TV

March 25 News: State Dept. Won’t Make Keystone Public Comments Public

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/03/25/1768591/march-25-news-state-dept-wont-make-keystone-public-comments-public/

By Ryan Koronowski on Mar 25, 2013 at 9:52 am

Secretary of State John Kerry and Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird (Photo: AP)

It will be very difficult for the public to access the public comments filed for and against the final decision on the Keystone pipeline. [InsideClimate
News]

When the State Department hired a contractor to produce the latest environmental impact statement for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, it asked for a Web-based electronic docket to record public comments as they flowed in each day. Thousands of comments are expected to be filed by people and businesses eager to influence the outcome of the intense international debate over the project.

But the public will not find it easy to examine these documents.

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Wall Street Journal: ‘More Droughts, Floods, Extreme Weather Expected With Warming Climate’

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/03/25/1632321/wall-street-journal-more-droughts-floods-extreme-weather-expected-with-warming-climate/

By Joe Romm on Mar 25, 2013 at 12:21 pm

On going through my old draft posts, I came across this unexpectedly accurate story in the Wall Street Journal from January:

More Droughts, Floods, Extreme Weather Expected With Warming Climate

Rising temperatures in the U.S. already have brought more frequent heat waves, droughts, floods and other extreme weather and scientists expect more of the same as a result of climate change, according to a government study released Friday.

Average U.S. temperatures have risen by about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1895, with most of the increase occurring in the past 30 years, according to a draft of the National Climate Assessment.

Climate Progress covered the story at the time with this headline “End Climate Silence Now: Draft Climate Assessment Warns Of Devastating 9°-15°F Warming Over Most Of U.S.”

If you are wondering how Rupert Murdoch’s WSJ, home of the worst opinion page on climate in the country, could get the story right, well, it was a wire story from Dow Jones.

And, purely coincidentally, the author’s name was Cassandra Sweet, which all too well suggests how Journal editors view all such prescient warnings:

• Error-Riddled Matt Ridley Piece Lowballs Climate Change, Discredits Wall Street Journal. World Faces 10°F Warming.
• Bjorn Legacy: Lomborg Urges Climate Inaction With Misleading Stats In Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal
• The Wall Street Journal Does It Again: Another Whopper Of A Lie On Climate Science

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120