industryterm:oil

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Visit Leon Trotsky in Mexico, 1938 | Open Culture
▻http://www.openculture.com/2012/07/vintage_video_diego_rivera_and_frida_kahlo_visit_leon_trotsky_in_mexico

http://cdn8.openculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/kahlorivera.png

Une vidéo indispensable pour celles et ceux qui ont lu « L’homme qui aimait les chiens ». Elle donne à voir ce que le roman avait décrit.

Here is some very rare footage of the great Mexican painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo paying a visit to exiled Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky and his wife, Natalia Sedova, in Coyocoán, Mexico, in 1938.

The Trotskys had arrived the year before, after Rivera petitioned the government of President Lázaro Cárdenas to grant the controversial Marxist leader and theorist sanctuary in Mexico. When the Trotskys arrived on a Norwegian oil tanker at the port city of Tampico in January of 1937, Rivera was not well, but Kahlo boarded the ship to welcome the Trotskys and accompanied them on an armored train to Mexico City. She invited the Trotskys to stay at her family home, La Casa Azul (the Blue House) in Coyocoán, now a section of Mexico City. By the time this footage was taken by a visiting American named Ivan Heisler, Trotsky and Kahlo had either had, or were about to have, a brief affair, and the friendship between the two couples would soon fall apart. In early 1939 Trotsky moved to another house in the same neighborhood, where he was assassinated in August of 1940.

#repérage #Trotsky #Diego_Riviera #Frida_Khalo

OPEC’s oil world flows
▻http://www.businessinsider.fr/us/opec-oil-trade-movement-map-2016-6

https://img.scoop.it/NuPSzYCs8WkWbuiOktvXkTl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9#.jpg

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Somali pirates hijack first commercial ship since 2012 | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-somalia-hijack-idUSKBN16L0EW

http://s2.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20170314&t=2&i=1176527906&w=780&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&sq=&r=LYNXMPED2D1MC#.jpg

Pirates have hijacked an oil tanker with eight Sri Lankan crew on board, Somali authorities said on Tuesday, the first time a commercial ship has been seized in the region since 2012.

Security forces have been sent to free the Aris 13, a regional police official said late on Tuesday.

“We are determined to rescue the ship and its crew. Our forces have set off to Alula. It is our duty to rescue ships hijacked by pirates and we shall rescue it,” Abdirahman Mohamud Hassan, director general of Puntland’s marine police forces, told Reuters by phone.

Puntland is a semi-autonomous northern region of Somalia. Alula is a port town there where pirates have taken the tanker.

Pirates demand ransom for oil tanker captured off coast of Somalia | World news | The Guardian

▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/14/pirates-demand-ransom-for-oil-tanker-captured-off-coast-of-somalia

Les affaires reprennent au large des côtes somaliennes

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4854c8b0f6a0bfc36b9606a2fd3a8d64cc35ac3f/0_163_3674_2205/master/3674.jpg?w=1200&h=630&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=crop&crop=faces%2Centropy&bm=normal&ba=bottom%2Cleft&blend64=aHR0cHM6Ly91cGxvYWRzLmd1aW0uY28udWsvMjAxNi8wNS8yNS9vdmVybGF5LWxvZ28tMTIwMC05MF9vcHQucG5n&s=917b6a34acf248920cbd5fbde01d5261

AP in Mogadishu

Tuesday 14 March 2017 22.44 GMT

Armed men are demanding a ransom for the release of an oil tanker they have seized off the coast of Somalia and the crew is being held captive, the European Union anti-piracy operation in the region announced late on Tuesday.

An EU naval force statement said the operation had finally made contact with the ship’s master, who confirmed that armed men were onboard the Comoros-flagged tanker Aris 13.
’We had to eat rats,’ say sailors held by Somali pirates for four years
Read more

Monday’s hijacking was the first such seizure of a large commercial vessel off Somalia since 2012. It came as a surprise to the global shipping industry as patrols by the navies of Nato countries, as well as China, India and Iran, had suppressed Somali pirate hijackings for several years.

#piraterie_maritime #somalie

Opening Arctic for Drilling Is Trump Priority, Key Senator Says - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-10/opening-arctic-for-drilling-is-trump-priority-key-senator-says

Senator Lisa Murkowski said President Donald Trump is interested in opening up new coastal waters for oil and gas drilling and reversing Obama-era policies that restrict energy development in Alaska.

Both Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke are weighing ways to expand opportunities to drill in Arctic waters though the changes could take years to accomplish administratively, Murkowski said in an interview on the sidelines of the CERAWeek conference in Houston. 

“It’s fair to say we are looking at how we might be able to — how the administration might be able to — allow for opportunities within this important area, offshore Alaska,” Murkowski said.
[…]
Among her targets: making it easier to develop parcels in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a 23-million-acre (9.3 million hectare) region set aside 94 years ago because of its oil and gas potential, and allowing the activity in part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
[…]
The Trump administration also is weighing how to undo an executive order that President Barack Obama used to withdraw almost all U.S. Arctic waters and underwater canyons in the Atlantic Ocean from future oil and gas leasing. Environmentalists say it would be unprecedented for any president to rescind such a designation, and the reversal would almost certainly be challenged in court.

EPA chief unconvinced on CO2 link to global warming | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-epa-pruitt-idUSKBN16G1XX

The new head of the Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday he is not convinced that carbon dioxide from human activity is the main driver of climate change and said he wants Congress to weigh in on whether CO2 is a harmful pollutant that should be regulated.

In an interview with CNBC, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said the Trump administration will make an announcement on fuel efficiency standards for cars “very soon,” stressing that he and President Donald Trump believe current standards were rushed through.

Pruitt, 48, is a climate change denier who sued the agency he now leads more than a dozen times as Oklahoma’s attorney general. He said he was not convinced that carbon dioxide pollution from burning fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal is the main cause of climate change, a conclusion widely embraced by scientists.

“I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact,” he told CNBC.

Beyond Monsanto’s GMO Cotton: Why Consumers Need to Care What We Wear
▻http://ronnie.organicconsumers.org/beyond-monsantos-gmo-cotton-why-consumers-need-to-care-what

3. GMO and toxic cotton: You’re eating it. Keep in mind that most of the world’s highly contaminated cotton seeds and cotton gin trash end up in animal feed (especially non-organic dairy) and in low-grade vegetable cooking oils, purchased by consumers or used in fast food restaurants and school cafeterias. Non-organic cotton is one of the most toxic crops on the planet.

Government regulatory agencies, prompted by large cotton farmers and the garment industry, falsely claim that cotton is not a “food crop,” (in spite of the fact that 60 percent of what is harvested by weight ends up in the food chain). This means that super-toxic pesticides and herbicides are allowed to be sprayed, in copious quantities, on the cotton plant. So-called cotton by-products—cotton seeds, cotton seed oil and cotton gin trash—end up being sold and consumed as ingredients in both animal feed and human food. The pesticide residues in cottonseed accumulates in the fatty tissues of dairy cows, and are passed on in the milk and dairy products consumed by humans. Cottonseed oil is routinely laced into a variety of food products, from vitamins to potato chips, and is often addes to olive oil without being labeled. This means that GMOs and pesticide residues from cotton crops find their way into a wide range of non-organic food products, triggering health issues including food allergies, cancer and liver, kidney and immune system damage.

[...]

7. Chemical-intensive clothing poses dangers to human health. Skin is the body’s largest organ. One of its major jobs is to protect internal systems. But skin also acts as a conduit, a way of entering the bloodstream through absorption. Chemicals and #pesticides from synthetic materials and non-organic cotton make their way into human bodies through our skin. If you care about what you put in your body, you must also care what you put on your body. Health issues from such toxic chemical exposure range from headache to asthma to cancer.

#OGM #santé #coton

Facebook blocks nude painting by acclaimed artist - BBC News
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-39099726

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/AE18/production/_94886544_mediaitem94886543.jpg

Facebook has blocked an Australian auction house from advertising an acclaimed artist’s painting depicting nude figures.

Charles Blackman’s oil work Women Lovers features two nude women resting on a bed beside a cat.

Art broker Mossgreen tried to promote it on Facebook, but the social media network rejected it for “advertising adult products or services”.

Mossgreen chief executive Paul Summer said the decision was “ridiculous”.

“This is a very beautiful image that is not overtly sexual in any shape or form,” he told the BBC.

“It’s like going back to the 1950s. It’s ridiculous to censor this sort of thing.”

Une histoire un peu répétitive non ? Impression de déjà vu ;-)

#censure #Facebook

The most toxic country in the world | The Eco Experts
▻http://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/most-toxic-countries?_ga=1.9054387.702319549.1486161397

Je ne sais pas ce que ça vaut mais j’avoue que je n’avais pas pensé à ce problème sous cet angle : en tête des pays les plus pollués du monde, les monarchies pétrolières du Golfe. Dans l’ordre : Arabie saoudite, Koweït, Bahreïn, Qatar, Emirats, Oman (Tuménistan, Libye, Kazakhstan et Trinidad pour la suite du palmarès).

Saudi Arabia is the most toxic country in the world, having the highest recorded air pollution, surpassing India and even China.

Neighbouring oil-rich countries including Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) dominate the top 10 most toxic countries in the world, and have some of the lowest renewable energy production despite having an ideal climate - low rainfall and prolonged daylight hours - for solar energy.

The research also shows that countries in the Middle East have some of the highest number of deaths attributable to air pollution; Turkmenistan witnesses 108 deaths per 100,000 every year.

▻http://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/sites/default/files/filemanager/most-toxic-countries-small-615

Al-Akhbar describes UAE-Saudi conflict playing out in Yemen | The Mideastwire Blog
▻https://mideastwire.wordpress.com/2017/02/21/al-akhbar-describes-uae-saudi-conflict-playing-out-in-yemen/?fb_action_ids=1037058189733565&fb_action_types=news.publishe

Yes, it is from the Anti-KSA monarchy daily Al-Akhbar, but nevertheless an important piece about intra-GCC conflicts: UAE vs. Saudi Arabia, with the emphasis on the anti-Wahhabi aspect of the conflict. Translated today by our Mideastwire.com (for a free trial, email info@mideastwire.com).

On February 21, the Al-Akhbar daily newspaper carried the following report: “The UAE views the southern and eastern governorates of Yemen as a new arena to enhance its religious, anti-Wahhabi methods… The competing between the “Gulf brothers” is not limited to the military authority, the economic weight and the political status. The competing exceeds all that to touch on the religious and spiritual leadership of the Muslims…

“This is how the situation currently looks like between Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The history of the hostility between the two countries dates back to 1971, the year that saw the unification of the princedoms at the western coast of the Gulf. Back then, the Al-Nahyan family was worried since the Al-Saud family had crossed their eastern borders and were threatening the oil rich princedom of Abu Dhabi. Since that time, the UAE has been trying to demolish the self-proclaimed Saudi leadership of the Islamic world…

“This strategy started to escalate following the September 11 events in light of the anger against Al-Riyadh felt at the level of the western public opinion. The UAE saw this as an excellent opportunity to pull the rug from under its neighbor’s feet and to enhance its own presence under the slogan of “moderation” and “confronting extremism…” The UAE worked on attracting sheikhs and scholars known for their “moderation” and their affiliation to Al-Azhar. The polarization reached a pinnacle in July 2014 upon the establishment of the “Muslim Council of Elders” in Abu Dhabi under Al-Azhar’s Sheikh Ahmad al-Tayeb…

“The UAE is working today in South Yemen based on this same strategy… The available pieces of information indicate that Abu Dhabi’s agents are enticing the southern sheikhs to travel to Al-Azhar by securing all the necessary financial, physical, and logistical facilitations to them with the aim of restricting the Saudi-affiliated circles and preventing their ability to act on the religious call level…

Saudi Arabia on Offensive With Attack-Minded Military Splurge
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-17/saudi-arabia-on-offensive-with-attack-minded-military-splurge

“Traditionally, military capabilities in the region have been focused on territorial defense,” IHS analyst Reed Foster said in the report. Now Mideast states are acquiring equipment that will allow them to build “the kind of capabilities required to conduct operations beyond their borders.”

Saudi Arabia’s fleet of Panavia Tornado ground-attack aircraft and the 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jet fighters ordered from #BAE_Systems Plc are among likely beneficiaries of upgrades intended to project power over a distance. In dollar terms, the oil-rich nation had the fourth-biggest defense budget last year behind the U.S., China and India, after the pound’s collapse following last June’s Brexit vote relegated the U.K. to fifth spot from third.

Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will “start to spend heavily” over the next two years as the potential threat from Iran increases, with the former set to return to budget growth this year, IHS projects.

#Arabie_saoudite #Emirats_arabes_unis #armement

Saudi Arabia ‘deports 40,000 Pakistani workers over terror fears’ | The Independent
▻http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-deports-40000-pakistan-workers-terror-fears-attacks-coun

https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2017/02/13/17/rawalpindi-workers.jpg

The alleged mass deportations come after a year of strikes and other unrest in the kingdom due to unpaid wages following the oil market’s decline and subsequent blow to the Saudi economy.

#Arabie_saoudite

Iraq plans to acquire ’large fleet’ of oil tankers | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-shipping-oil-idUSKBN15W10M

Iraq plans to acquire a “large fleet” of oil tankers to transport the OPEC nation’s crude to global markets, Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said in a statement on Friday.

The nation’s tanker fleet was largely destroyed during the U.S.-led offensive to dislodge Iraq from Kuwait in 1991, according to the state-run Iraqi Oil Tankers Company’s website. The company owned as many as 24 tankers in the 1980s.

Amazon rainforest’s final frontier in Brazil under threat from oil and soya | John Vidal | Global development | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/feb/16/amazon-rainforest-final-frontier-in-brazil-under-threat-from-oil-and-so

Carlos’s land – along with hundreds of thousands more hectares across Amapá state – is the new frontier of global agribusiness. It lies unused for now but will almost certainly be sold on and used for soya production. The ubiquitous crop, which is part of most western diets and feeds billions of animals, will most likely be shipped as animal feed to the UK from a new Amapá port.

Having swept through Brazil and much of Latin America, causing ecological and social devastation by displacing people, ripping up the savannah and driving forest destruction, soya is now poised to do the same in Amapá, Brazil’s least developed and most forgotten state, says Sisto Hagro, a Catholic priest.

#Amazonie #déforestation #forêt #développement #agro-industrie

Indonesia - When a tree falls in Borneo, does it make a sound?
For a better Borneo, new map reveals how much terrain has changed | CIFOR Forests News Blog
▻http://blog.cifor.org/48167/for-a-better-borneo-new-map-reveals-how-much-terrain-has-changed?fnl=

https://i1.wp.com/blog.cifor.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/6237393768_40fd97f4bd_o-copy-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200

A new interactive atlas developed by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is making sure it does.

Incorporating 40 years of maps of Borneo (the world’s third largest island), the tool reveals both the forest remaining and what is being reshaped due to degradation and extraction industries. With the ability to search by oil palm or pulpwood concessions, and view the locations of intact peatland, as well as determine the speed with which forest is converted to plantation, the atlas offers the first significant opportunity to distinguish companies that are avoiding deforestation to a large degree.

In addition to providing data on deforestation and land use for individual land concessions, the tool allows users to search by company, as companies often own multiple concessions.

One can also filter information by country, province and peat area remaining, which allows users to get the big picture of corporate land use on the island shared by Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

#Bornéo #forêt #déforestation #industrie_palmiste #industrie_papetière #catographie

The United States Used Depleted Uranium in Syria | Foreign Policy
▻http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/14/the-united-states-used-depleted-uranium-in-syria

Officials have confirmed that the U.S. military, despite vowing not to use depleted uranium weapons on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria, fired thousands of rounds of the munitions during two high-profile raids on oil trucks in Islamic State-controlled Syria in late 2015. The air assaults mark the first confirmed use of this armament since the 2003 Iraq invasion, when it was used hundreds of thousands of times, setting off outrage among local communities, which alleged that its toxic material caused cancer and birth defects.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Maj. Josh Jacques told Airwars and Foreign Policy that 5,265 armor-piercing 30 mm rounds containing depleted uranium (DU) were shot from Air Force A-10 fixed-wing aircraft on Nov. 16 and Nov. 22, 2015, destroying about 350 vehicles* in the country’s eastern desert.

#uranium_appauvri #armement #Syrie #États-Unis

Papuans still unhappy over Merauke food and oil palm project | Radio New Zealand News
▻http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/323368/papuans-still-unhappy-over-merauke-food-and-oil-palm-project

Jakarta has thrown high level support behind the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate, or MIFEE, a project in the far south east of Papua province

Eventually expected to cover 1.6 million hectares, MIFEE has attracted dozens of investors, looking to grow food crops and palm oil.

Billed as a project to address food security concerns for parts of the country, local Papuan communities have complained that MIFEE is alienating them from their land.

A member of the video-based advocacy organisation Papuan Voices, Wensi Fatubun, said young Papuans in Merauke have begun using video to convey their opposition.

“We try to empower the community to do how they can protect their own land, their own rights, from the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate project.”

However, the government said MIFEE was aimed at helping create improved living standards for Papuan communities.

#Indonésie #Papouasie #terres #industrie_palmiste #développement

Documenting the consequences of palm oil production beyond Southeast Asia
▻https://news.mongabay.com/2017/02/documenting-the-consequences-of-palm-oil-production-beyond-southeast-

https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/02/05183031/Gorilla-an-animal-threatened-by-palm-oil-in-C-and-W-Africa.jpg

Oil palm plantations are rapidly mushrooming throughout the tropics.
A new film, Appetite for Destruction: The Palm Oil Diaries, looks at some of the consequences of that expansion.
This is an interview with the film’s director, #Michael_Dorgan.

Most of the attention around palm oil production has focused on where the crop has the largest footprint: Southeast Asia. Yet oil palm plantations are rapidly mushrooming throughout the tropics, from the species’ ancestral home in West and Central Africa to Pacific islands to Latin America. A new film, Appetite for Destruction: The Palm Oil Diaries, looks at some of the social and environmental impacts of that expansion, by visiting communities, forests, and plantations in Cameroon, #Guatemala, and Colombia.

#industrie_palmiste #documentaire #Cameroun #Colombie

Frontiers | Ecological Role of Submarine Canyons and Need for Canyon Conservation: A Review | Deep-Sea Environments and Ecology
▻http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2017.00005/full?

Submarine canyons are major geomorphic features of continental margins around the world. Several recent multidisciplinary projects focused on the study of canyons have considerably increased our understanding of their ecological role, the goods, and services they provide to human populations, and the impacts that human activities have on their overall ecological condition. Pressures from human activities include fishing, dumping of land-based mine tailings, and oil and gas extraction. Moreover, hydrodynamic processes of canyons enhance the down-canyon transport of litter. The effects of climate change may modify the intensity of currents. This potential hydrographic change is predicted to impact the structure and functioning of canyon communities as well as affect nutrient supply to the deep-ocean ecosystem. This review not only identifies the ecological status of canyons, and current and future issues for canyon conservation, but also highlights the need for a better understanding of anthropogenic impacts on canyon ecosystems and proposes other research required to inform management measures to protect canyon ecosystems.

#canyon #océan #écosystèmes #activités_humaines #destruction

Shell Sells $4.7 Billion of Fields as Disposals Accelerate - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-31/shell-sells-some-north-sea-oil-assets-for-up-to-3-8-billion

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, looking to pare debt swollen by last year’s acquisition of BG Group Plc, accelerated its drive to shed assets on Tuesday by agreeing to the sale of fields in the North Sea and Thailand for as much as $4.7 billion.

The disposals include the sale of about half the company’s North Sea oil and gas assets for as much as $3.8 billion to Chrysaor Holdings Ltd., Shell said. Earlier Tuesday, Europe’s largest oil producer agreed to sell its stake in an offshore Thai gas field to a unit of Kuwait Petroleum Corp. for $900 million.

Russian Defense Ministry’s photos of reindeer in the Arctic hold a coded message to the world — Quartz
▻https://qz.com/898248/the-russian-defense-ministrys-photos-of-reindeer-in-the-arctic-hold-a-coded-mess
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/russia_army_reindeer-e1485799877369.jpg?quality=80&strip=all
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/russia_army_reindeer_03.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=940

As Reuters notes, Russia is engaging in its largest military expansion since the fall of the Soviet Union, focusing heavily on Arctic regions. Up for grabs are massive deposits of oil and gas. While oil prices worldwide remain low, Russia is laying the groundwork for regional dominance, including building up a fleet of nuclear-powered ice breaker ships.
Russia’s buildup hasn’t gone unnoticed: This week, US troops are conducting exercises with Poland. Two weeks ago, US Marines arrived in Norway.

#rennes #arctique #russie #pétrole #extractivisme

How to fuck up America :
#Trump has a brilliant plan to turn Silicon Valley into a desert.
(by a sarcastic Kevin Maney)

▻http://europe.newsweek.com/donald-trump-trolls-silicon-valley-543327

1. Humble the Technology Industry

Well, apparently we need to stop immigrants from coming here so there’s more room for Americans to start tech companies. That’s how it works, right? Why would we want people with good ideas from India or Ireland or Israel coming over to build tech companies? Let them do it at home.

2. Dismiss Alternative Energy

In the new regime, oil is better. So is coal. There’s no global warming. No carbon-burning problem. That’s why it’s brilliant to make Rex Tillerson the secretary of state, so he can negotiate better oil deals for us, and give the Department of Energy to Rick Perry, who would like to kill it. You can’t spell America without carbon—or at least some of it.

3. Derail Health Care

New artificial intelligence technology can help doctors sift through millions of pages of medical research and match it to data about a patient to diagnose diseases way better than ever. If U.S. companies get this stuff right and lead such tech advances, they will drive the economy for years.

But that seems to weird out the new regime. Better to preserve traditions: the swamped family doctor, the half-day sitting in waiting rooms reading old copies of O magazine, the prostate exam.
[...]
If millennials want to stay healthy, the new regime is singling, they can abandon the uninsured path of entrepreneurship and instead work at a company that offers health benefits

4. Ignore Russian Hacking

the Russians are now our friends. They wouldn’t steal our data or harm our systems. And other countries like North Korea or Iran can’t possibly be smart enough to follow Russia’s lead and do damage. So there’s no data security threat to address. We’ll be fine.

5. Shift Resources From Cities to Small Towns and Rural Areas

Cities have a lot of wealthy folks and artists and people who were born in other countries. The trend is toward moving to cities
[...]
But the new regime doesn’t want the future. It won by promising the past.

So too bad, cities. Rural and small town America kicked your butts this time. Cities can bend over and kiss their federal resources goodbye.

Gabon: The battle over palm oil - African Business Magazine
▻http://africanbusinessmagazine.com/region/west-africa/gabon-battle-palm-oil

The campaign against palm oil could have profound implications for the sector’s development in Africa. Palm oil cultivation has become controversial because ecologically diverse areas of rainforest are often cut down to allow cultivation to take place. Huge areas of forest have been felled in Indonesia and Malaysia, affecting flora and fauna, and producing air pollution caused by forest fires when land is being cleared for palm oil plantation.

According to Friends of the Earth and numerous other environmental NGOs, palm oil plantations are the fastest growing cause of rainforest destruction and an increasingly important cause of climate change.

Palm oil produces almost quadruple oil yeild compared to sunflower or rapeseed oil, and the majority of the palm oil is produced in Indonesia and Malaysia. However, African countries have also been targeted for cultivation more recently.

Olam is a major player in the global palm oil sector and a big investor in African agri-business. The company currently sources more than 99% of its palm oil from third-party suppliers. In 2011, it set up a palm oil and rubber cultivation joint venture with the government of Gabon, with equity shared 60:40 in favour of the Singaporean firm.

#industrie_palmiste #plantations #Gabon #Afrique

Action Alert: NYT Turns to Oil Consultant to Minimize Trump’s Climate Damage
▻http://fair.org/home/action-alert-nyt-turns-to-oil-consultant-to-minimize-trumps-climate-damage

... for confirmation of the claim that the Keystone XL pipeline will not have a substantial impact on global warming, the Times turns not to an environmentalist or a climate scientist, but to an energy industry consultant—one “who also works as an attorney at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP, a go-to law firm for the oil and gas industry,” and is “an outspoken advocate for…oil exports,” as DeSmog Blog (11/19/14) noted.

#climat #new_york_times #Peter_Baker #Coral_Davenport #sans_vergogne

Rien qu’un matin avec Trump sur WSWS ...

1. Trump veut interdire aux Chinois l’accès à leurs îles (artificielles ou non) en Mer de Chine méridionale.

Trump threats on South China Sea heighten risk of nuclear war - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/25/pers-j25.html

Trump threats on South China Sea heighten risk of nuclear war
25 January 2017

Just days after taking office, the Trump administration has set course for a conflict with China over the South China Sea that threatens military clashes and war.

President Donald Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, on Tuesday backed up an earlier assertion by the administration’s nominee for secretary of state, former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, that Washington would bar Chinese access to islets being built up by Beijing in the South China Sea.

–— --- ---

2. Trump confirme la nomination d’une milliardaire au poste de ministre de l’éducation, opposée à l’école publique.

Senate moves toward confirmation of billionaire opponent of public schools - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/25/devo-j25.html

Senate moves toward confirmation of billionaire opponent of public schools
By Isabelle Belanger
25 January 2017

The confirmation of Trump’s pick for education secretary, billionaire proponent of school privatization Betsy DeVos, is being rushed through despite blatant conflicts of interest and her ignorance of basic federal education laws. In a letter Monday, Tennessee Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, rejected Democratic Party requests for a second hearing. The Republican-controlled Senate will vote on the confirmation January 31.

–— --- ---

3. Trump veut attaquer et détruire des fragile systèmes de santé.

Trump nominee defends administration’s assault on health care - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/25/pric-j25.html

Trump nominee defends administration’s assault on health care
By Kate Randall
25 January 2017

In his final appearance before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday, Rep. Tom Price (Republican of Georgia), Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), arrogantly dismissed questioning from committee Democrats about the new administration’s planned assault on Medicare, Medicaid and health care in general.

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4. Trump va relancer Keystone XL et Dakota Access pipelines et en même temps empêcher l’EPA (agence pour l’environnement) de surveiller et analyser les effets environnementaux de ces projets.

Trump’s pro-corporate rampage of reaction
Executive orders approve Dakota, Keystone pipelines
By Patrick Martin
25 January 2017

President Donald Trump has ordered US government agencies to expedite approval of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, running roughshod over opposition by environmentalists and Native American tribes.

The Dakota Access Pipe Line (DAPL) has encountered impassioned opposition, with thousands gathering despite the deep freeze of the North Dakota winter to block completion of the 1,200-mile-long pipeline, which is to bring oil from the Bakken fields to refineries in the Midwest and South. The pipeline’s final link would cross the Missouri River just north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, threatening its water supply and tearing up land deemed sacred in tribal culture.

#trump #misère #décadence