While the world nervously watches the uprising in Iran, an even more important uprising has been passing unnoticed - yet its outcome will shape your fate, and mine.In the depths of the Amazon rainforest, the poorest people in the world have taken on the richest people in the world to defend a part of the ecosystem none of us can live without. They had nothing but wooden spears and moral force to defeat the oil companies - and, for today, they have won. Here's the story of how it happened - and how we all need to pick up this fight. Earlier this year, Peru's right-wing President, Alan Garcia, sold the rights to explore, log and drill 70 per cent of his country's swathe of the Amazon to a slew of international oil companies. Garcia seems to see rainforest as a waste of good resources, saying of the Amazon's trees: "There are millions of hectares of timber there lying idle." There was only one pesky flaw in Garcia's plan: the indigenous people who live in the Amazon. They are the first people of the Americas, subject to wave after wave of genocide since the arrival of the Conquistadors. They are weak. They have no guns. They barely have electricity. The government didn't bother to consult them: what are a bunch of Indians going to do anyway?
In the depths of the Amazon rainforest, the poorest people in the world have taken on the richest people in the world to defend a part of the ecosystem none of us can live without. They had nothing but wooden spears and moral force to defeat the oil companies - and, for today, they have won.
Here's the story of how it happened - and how we all need to pick up this fight. Earlier this year, Peru's right-wing President, Alan Garcia, sold the rights to explore, log and drill 70 per cent of his country's swathe of the Amazon to a slew of international oil companies. Garcia seems to see rainforest as a waste of good resources, saying of the Amazon's trees: "There are millions of hectares of timber there lying idle."
There was only one pesky flaw in Garcia's plan: the indigenous people who live in the Amazon. They are the first people of the Americas, subject to wave after wave of genocide since the arrival of the Conquistadors. They are weak. They have no guns. They barely have electricity. The government didn't bother to consult them: what are a bunch of Indians going to do anyway?
Wallabies snacking in opium poppy fields are getting "high as a kite" and hopping around creating crop circles. Tasmania is the world's largest producer of legally-grown opium for the pharmaceutical market. Tasmania attorney-general Lara Giddings told a budget hearing yesterday that she recently read about the wallabies in a brief on the state's large poppy industry. She said: "We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles.
Wallabies snacking in opium poppy fields are getting "high as a kite" and hopping around creating crop circles.
Tasmania is the world's largest producer of legally-grown opium for the pharmaceutical market.
Tasmania attorney-general Lara Giddings told a budget hearing yesterday that she recently read about the wallabies in a brief on the state's large poppy industry.
She said: "We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles.
Storing CO2 underground was supposed to be a cure-all for Germany's heavily coal-reliant power supply. But many are skeptical of the technology, and this week, a law designed to regulate carbon sequestration derailed amid bickering in Berlin. Anyone who plans to travel to the North Sea resort island of Sylt in early July can expect to get stuck in long traffic jams. Just in time for the Saturday changeover in vacation condos, environmental activists plan to block a highway that leads to the train station where vacationers' cars are loaded onto a train that travels across a causeway to Sylt. But their goal is not that of keeping vehicles off the island. An engineer at a CO2 sequestration test site near Berlin. Instead, the activists want to draw the public's attention to the plans of electric utility RWE, which intends to ship carbon dioxide (CO2) from a power plant near Cologne through a pipeline to the North Sea coast, where it will compress the greenhouse gas into sequestration sites hundreds of meters below the surface. The gas will be stored there for thousands of years, preventing it from escaping into the atmosphere. The way RWE sees things, the protests are counter to the lofty goals of climate protection.
Storing CO2 underground was supposed to be a cure-all for Germany's heavily coal-reliant power supply. But many are skeptical of the technology, and this week, a law designed to regulate carbon sequestration derailed amid bickering in Berlin.
Anyone who plans to travel to the North Sea resort island of Sylt in early July can expect to get stuck in long traffic jams. Just in time for the Saturday changeover in vacation condos, environmental activists plan to block a highway that leads to the train station where vacationers' cars are loaded onto a train that travels across a causeway to Sylt. But their goal is not that of keeping vehicles off the island.
An engineer at a CO2 sequestration test site near Berlin. Instead, the activists want to draw the public's attention to the plans of electric utility RWE, which intends to ship carbon dioxide (CO2) from a power plant near Cologne through a pipeline to the North Sea coast, where it will compress the greenhouse gas into sequestration sites hundreds of meters below the surface. The gas will be stored there for thousands of years, preventing it from escaping into the atmosphere. The way RWE sees things, the protests are counter to the lofty goals of climate protection.
Appealing to the fun side of Northwest beer enthusiasts, Full Sail Brewing is launching a bold bid to expand its successful Session brand with a dark lager. Session already stands out on the shelf or at the pub thanks to its 11-ounce bottle that makes older folks smile with fond memories of Olympia stubbies and makes younger drinkers feel as if they're not running with the herd. "Beer is a fun product," says Full Sail founder and CEO Irene Firmat, "and people shouldn't be put off if they aren't up to a beer with a lot of bitterness and malt."
Session already stands out on the shelf or at the pub thanks to its 11-ounce bottle that makes older folks smile with fond memories of Olympia stubbies and makes younger drinkers feel as if they're not running with the herd.
"Beer is a fun product," says Full Sail founder and CEO Irene Firmat, "and people shouldn't be put off if they aren't up to a beer with a lot of bitterness and malt."
I don't know if it's still true but when I first encountered US beers I was told they weren't allowed to say what the strength of the bers were. So this led to a lot of brewers creating strong beers because it was cheaper to make a strong beers than a full flavoured one; something that the fetish for practically frozen beer encourages - after all what's the point of putting care into producing a great flavoured beer if it's served too cold for anyone to taste it ?
So, this new beer makes sense as a product. I hope it'll be at the GBBF in 6 weeks and I can report back. keep to the Fen Causeway
Russia's energy giant Gazprom has signed a $2.5bn (£1.53bn) deal with Nigeria's state operated NNPC, to invest in a new joint venture.The new firm, to be called Nigaz, is set to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations in Nigeria. Analysts say the move could further strengthen Russia's role in supplying natural gas to Europe.
Russia's energy giant Gazprom has signed a $2.5bn (£1.53bn) deal with Nigeria's state operated NNPC, to invest in a new joint venture.
The new firm, to be called Nigaz, is set to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations in Nigeria.
Analysts say the move could further strengthen Russia's role in supplying natural gas to Europe.
