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Conflict/Dispossession

Anti-mining activist Deba Ranjan Sarangi on the alarming situation in Odisha

4th May 2016

Activist, filmmaker and writer Debaranjan Sarangi, actively involved in the struggle of adivasis in Odisha’s Kashipur to protect their lands from bauxite mining, was arrested on March 18, 2016 on the basis of a 2005 case. In this interview with Countercurrents.org following his release on bail, he describes his experiences and the present situation in Odisha….

Pratham Books

ALTERNATIVES

Development is for the people: A talk by Madhav Gadgil

1st May 2016

The full text of a recent talk given by prominent ecologist Madhav Gadgil, a former member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India and the Head of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) of 2010. It tries to explore the significant issue of when and why people turn against conservation….

Riber Hansson

CLIMATE CRISIS

Study: Climate change takes from the poor, gives to the rich

17th April 2016

A new study finds that climate change is triggering a massive reallocation of resources to the world’s wealthiest countries. Fish and other important resources are moving toward the Earth’s poles as the climate warms, and wealth is moving with them, according to a new paper by scientists at Rutgers, Princeton, Yale, and Arizona State universities….

Conflict/Dispossession

Jungle Book: Tribes threatened with eviction as Disney movie opens

10th April 2016

As the new Jungle Book movie is released, tribes across India are being illegally evicted from their lands because they’ve been turned into tiger reserves. One of these places is the iconic Kanha Tiger Reserve, the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s original novel, from where hundreds of Baiga and Gond tribespeople were illegally evicted in 2014….

Frans Lanting

Conflict/Dispossession

An infrastructure tsunami is being unleashed on the environment in the name of ‘development’

9th April 2016

Bill Laurance writes: Some 25 million km of new paved roads, thousands of dams, and hundreds of thousands of new mining, oil and gas projects, are being planned, roughly 90% of them in developing nations. Their environmental impacts could easily dwarf climate change as thousands of projects penetrate into the world’s last surviving wild areas….

Conflict/Dispossession

How Goa’s mining lobby, government and media ganged up against a young tribal activist

4th April 2016

Nandita Haksar writes: Ravindra Velip, a 27-year-old tribal activist fighting mining in Goa, is facing the combined might of the state government, the mining lobby and a complicit media. A founding member of green activist group Rainbow Warriors, he was arrested and placed in judicial custody. When he was assaulted in jail, it went unreported….

Conflict/Dispossession

Video: Rice Bowl to Ashtray – Documentary on industrialisation and displacement in Chhattisgarh

22nd March 2016

Since its formation Chhattisgarh has become the new destination of domestic and foreign investment. Sunil Kumar’s award-winning documentary Daan Se Raakh (Rice Bowl to Ashtray) captures displacement and industrialization in Chhattisgarh. It critically investigates the impact of unbridled industrialization, privatization of water, and acquisition of agricultural land on the life and livelihoods of the rural population….

Development/Growth

On burning ground: The human cost of India’s push to produce more coal

20th March 2016

Fred Pearce reports: As part of India’s modernization program, Prime Minister Narenda Modi has called for doubling the nation’s coal production by 2020. If it moves forward, India seems set to create a mounting tide of victims — from the cycle-wallahs and refugees of Jharia’s coal fires, to the country’s air quality, to the planet’s climate….

Attackers threw a toxic substance on Adivasi leader Soni Sori

Conflict/Dispossession

Chhattisgarh: A ‘War without witnesses’ in the making?

26th February 2016

Sreekumar Kodiyath writes: The final phase of the Sri Lankan Government’s war with the LTTE in 2009 saw a systematic program to make the affair a private one, by expelling reporters and human rights activists from the war zone. Those who stubbornly remained either disappeared or were detained. The army called it a “War without witnesses”….

Dongria Kondh protest against the Vedanta mine appeal.

Bikash Khemka/Survival

ALTERNATIVES

Power in India: radical pathways to local self-rule

15th February 2016

Ashish Kothari & Pallav Das write in State of Power report: People are recognizing that the current power dispensation is frozen in an intellectual paradigm defined by free-market orthodoxy and will change only if confronted by worldviews such as swaraj or Radical Ecological Democracy. India (and the world) needs that change in order to continue to thrive….

Conflict/Dispossession

Video & Report: The jungle gangs of Jharkhand

14th February 2016

Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava reports: Groups like JJMP and TSPC thrive on a levy collected from mining. Jharkhand accounts for nearly a third of India’s coal, a quarter of its iron ore and 16% of copper. In return, the armed groups provide protection to mining companies and intimidate villagers to facilitate land acquisition for the companies….

CLIMATE CRISIS

Map shows India leads the world in ecological conflict

12th February 2016

SciDev Net reports: India, Colombia and Nigeria have the most cases of conflict caused by climate change and environmental disputes, according to a map of global ecological conflict. The Environmental Justice Atlas shows that more than 200 conflicts in India are caused by ecological disputes and scarcities of basic resources such as water and forests….

CLIMATE CRISIS

NEWS UPDATE #81

30th January 2016

India, Colombia and Nigeria have the most cases of conflict caused by climate change and environmental disputes, according to a map of global ecological conflict. The Environmental Justice Atlas, released last month, shows that more than 200 conflicts in India are caused by ecological disputes and scarcities of basic resources such as water and forests….

Frans Lanting

Bookshelf

New book: Elemental India : The Natural World in Crisis

24th January 2016

From the blurb: Around the world, people are increasingly facing a future that is crowded and hot, subject to violent weather extremes and a changing climate, where the rich and poor inhabit separate spheres and governments are unable or unwilling to confront these most vital challenges. For India, this reality is the very tangible present….

CLIMATE CRISIS

NEWS UPDATE #80

22nd January 2016

The Economic Times reports: The Central government has unveiled a new Crop Insurance Scheme with the premium to be paid by farmers as low as 1.5 per cent of the sum assured for all rabi crops and 2 per cent for kharif crops. The scheme comes without any cap on overall premium rate to ensure full claims….

Reuters

Digests/Specials

Alert: Global financial crash ahead?

16th January 2016

The Guardian reports: Investors face a “cataclysmic year” where stock markets could fall by up to 20% and oil could slump to $16 a barrel, the Royal Bank of Scotland have warned. In a note to clients, it said: “Sell everything except high quality bonds. This is about return of capital, not return on capital.”…

A Guarani family mourns the death of a member

Survival international

Conflict/Dispossession

Why a Brazil tribe has the world’s highest suicide rate

10th January 2016

According to a new report published by Survival International, the rate of self-inflicted deaths within the Guarani tribe is 34 times the Brazilian national average, and statistically the highest among any society anywhere on earth. Suicide rates among many other indigenous peoples such as Aboriginal Australians and Native Americans in Alaska also remain exceptionally high….

From the comic Syria's Climate Conflict, written by Audrey Quinn and illustrated by Jackie Roche

Yearsoflivingdangerously.tumblr.com

CLIMATE CRISIS

Kurt Cobb: Syria, climate change and the horror in Paris

16th November 2015

Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights As the world mourns those who died in Paris last week in a killing spree for which the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has claimed responsibility, reporters and commentators have been discussing the motivations behind the attacks. I’m not sure that any so far has considered whether one can…

CLIMATE CRISIS

Syria’s Climate-Fueled Conflict, In One Stunning Comic Strip

15th September 2015

How climate change helped spark a bloody civil war By Audrey Quinn and Jackie Roche, Mother Jones This comic was produced by Years of Living Dangerously and Symbolia Magazine. You can read more of their comics exploring the impacts of climate change here.

ALTERNATIVES

Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Climate Change – Selected Excerpts

20th June 2015

The Encyclical by Pope Francis is being hailed by environmentalists as the second coming. It’s hardly that, in my view. Nonetheless, I was struck within minutes of starting it, by the incisive and accurate commentary it offers on our true predicament. Here are some passages that resonated with me and that I found highly insightful. Manu…