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Video & Report: More Confessions of an Economic Hitman

19th May 2016

Twelve years ago, John Perkins published his best-seller, ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit Man’, where he described his career convincing heads of state to adopt economic policies that impoverished their countries and undermined democratic institutions to promote U.S.’ interests. This new book is an updated version, and details how those methods have evolved since then….

Culture/Cognition

Anthropocene, or the art of living on a damaged planet

Donna Harraway: I’m going to propose that the Cthulucene might be a way to collect up the questions for naming the epoch, for naming what’s happening in the airs, waters, and places, in the rocks, oceans, and atmospheres. Perhaps needing both the Anthropocene and the Capitalocene, but offering something else, something just maybe more livable….

ALTERNATIVES

Video: Demain – The documentary that’s taking over France by storm

8th May 2016

The rise of the film ‘Demain‘ appears unstoppable. Viewed in France now by almost a million people, winner of the Cesar award for Best Documentary, the film has been received with standing ovations, and has inspired many to roll their sleeves up and do things. Rob Hopkins’ of the Transition Network’ interviews director Cyril Dion….

ALTERNATIVES

Video: Disobedience – The rise of the global fossil fuel resistance

27th April 2016

Disobedience is the story of the struggle to save the world. Disobedience tells the David vs Goliath tales of front line leaders around the world risking life and limb in the fight for a liveable climate. Interwoven with this riveting verité footage are the most renowned voices in the global conversation around social movements and climate justice…

Education/Awareness

Video: Learning from water – What if we need to disobey to survive?

13th April 2016

Nikhil VJ writes: Although water is a liquid, it breaks nearly all the rules that liquids follow, and has characteristics that are totally unique. It is precisely the rule-bending characteristics of water that make life possible. In what other systems can a little breaking of the rules be essential to making life possible, sustainable, thriving?…

CLIMATE CRISIS

Video: Bhutanese PM Tshering Tobgay on growth, happiness and carbon emissions

11th April 2016

Deep in the Himalayas, on the border between China and India, lies the Kingdom of Bhutan, which has pledged to remain carbon neutral for all time. In this illuminating talk by TED, Bhutan’s Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay shares his country’s mission to put happiness before economic growth and set a world standard for environmental preservation….

ALTERNATIVES

Special: Ringing Cedars and the new, silent revolution in Russia

10th April 2016

The Ringing Cedars of Russia series of books have sold over ten million copies in Russia, and has inspired a massive movement in earth consciousness there. Its part of a new, silent revolution in Russia, where more and more people are leaving the cities to live closer to nature. Interestingly, the Russian government actively supports it….

Digests/Specials

Special: A look back at Kerala’s endosulphan disaster

2nd April 2016

Valiya Chirakula Pakshikal (Birds With Large Wings), directed by Dr. Biju, has been declared 2015’s Best Film on Environment. It explores the disastrous environmental and public health consequences of pesticide use, based on real-life events in Kasargode, Kerala. On this occasion, here’s a look back at the manmade disaster that continues to haunt Kasargode residents….

CLIMATE CRISIS

Video: Climate science pioneer Hansen warns of disastrous climate shift

31st March 2016

The world may be much closer to an abrupt and catastrophic climate shift than previously thought. That’s the warning from modern climate science pioneer James Hansen. His latest research suggests that polar ice sheet disintegration may cause sea level rise enough to drown coastal cities, not in a few centuries, but in a few decades….

ALTERNATIVES

Video & Report: How renewable energy is already taking over the world

30th March 2016

Juan Cole writes: In 2015 energy companies invested more in new renewables power plants than in fossil fuel plants for the first time in history. The majority of these plants were planned for developing countries, a sign that the technology is now viewed as less expensive. It is clear there is a secular trend upwards….

Bookshelf

Book/Video: Thanatia – The destiny of the Earth’s mineral resources

24th March 2016

Is Gaia becoming Thanatia, a resource exhausted planet? For how long can our high-tech society be sustained in the light of declining mineral ore grades, heavy dependence on un-recycled critical metals and accelerated material dispersion? Thanatia presents a cradle-to-cradle view of Earth’s abiotic resources through a novel approach based on the Second Law of Thermodynamics….

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….

Corporate Watch

CLIMATE CRISIS

Series: Capitalism and Climate Change

Climate change is real, and it’s going to get worse. This video looks at how obstacles to solving the problem are intrinsic to our capitalist system. The growing strength of the climate movement around the world gives us great hope, but it’s going to take a revolution to make the world inhabitable for future generations….

Development/Growth

Video & Report: Is India’s 100 smart cities project a recipe for social apartheid?

9th March 2016

Shruti Ravindran reports: In a monograph for a conference on smart cities, the economist and consultant Laveesh Bhandari described smart cities as “special enclaves” that would use prohibitive prices and harsh policing to exclude “millions of poor Indians… For if we do not keep them out, they will override our ability to maintain such infrastructure.”…

CLIMATE CRISIS

Video: Al Gore makes the case for optimism on Climate Change

7th March 2016

Al Gore, former US Vice President and Founder, The Climate Reality Project, spoke at the recently concluded 2016 TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. According to him, the future of our planet looks very different today than it did when he last spoke on the TED stage nearly a decade ago….

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….

ALTERNATIVES

Blessed Unrest – How the largest social movement in history is restoring grace, justice, and beauty to the world

2nd February 2016

Environmentalist Paul Hawken has spent over a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice. From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person dot.causes, these groups collectively comprise the largest movement on earth, a movement that has no name, leader, or location, and that has gone largely ignored by politicians and the mainstream media. www.blessedunrest.com…

Conserve/Resist

Video & Report: India’s indigenous people are holding fast to food traditions against all odds

1st February 2016

Bowing To No One, the first film in a series by Sarah Khan, is about Satyavati, an indigenous woman farmer from Central India, who comes from a rich but rapidly eroding agro-ecological knowledge system. Also in this post is a report from Meghalaya’s Terra Madre festival, which brought together around 600 members of international indigenous food-making communities….

southasia.oneworld.net

Food/Farming

Video: Why are farmers dying?

29th December 2015

With the formation of WTO, a new international economic world order came into being. This has greatly affected the fate of farmers in developing countries. Writer and policy analyst Devinder Sharma elaborates on the impact of the continuing agrarian crisis in India and calls for a concerted effort in arresting the escalation of the crisis….

CLIMATE CRISIS

Video: The Great Derangement – Amitav Ghosh on climate change

10th December 2015

There is no threat to any society, anywhere, that is remotely comparable to that of climate change. How can people summon so much indignation on so many matters and yet remain indifferent to a process that threatens their very existence? Nowhere is the disjunction more confounding than in India, which will be among the worst-affected….