Archives Bellaciao EN 1999-2016

The Adventures Of A Progressive In Redland - Chapter 1: Flushed

2010-12-18T13:58:43Z

I always knew that the Greedy Red Trolls would try to drown us in sorrow and financial misery, I could see it in their beady little glowing red eyes, and don't ask me about the foul smoke they continually blow out their posterior extruders!
I've heard it said that Red trolls have no heartbeat - if you put a stethoscope near their chest, it will freeze so badly your hand will turn to ice and fall off. There's a money-sucking black hole in there, powered by corporatite! (There's another (…)

- contributions / Water, USA

The Global Crisis, Food, Water and Fuel By Michel Chossudovsky*

2008-06-27T04:17:27Z

Global Research, June 5, 2008
The Global Crisis: Food, Water and Fuel Three Fundamental Necessities of Life in Jeopardy
* Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa
The sugar coated bullets of the "free market" are killing our children. The act to kill is unpremeditated. It is instrumented in a detached fashion through computer program trading on the New York and Chicago mercantile exchanges, where the global prices of rice, wheat and corn are decided upon. (…)

- contributions / Water, Food, Energy

Decorate, Water

2008-04-12T15:29:02Z

I really wanted to write about this first episode a week ago, before it first aired on The Sundance Channel, but it was just impossible to get to. Still, you can view it online at - the episode is entitled "Decorate." (Next Television Showing: Sun day, April 13, 3:00PM on the Sundance Channel)
Decorate follows the base format of the "Big Ideas For A Small Planet" series, using three examples of people following the principles it teaches. First, we see an interior designer who utilizes (…)

- contributions / Water, Environment

UN rejects water as basic human right

2008-03-30T16:40:21Z

OTTAWA - The Harper government can declare victory after a United Nations meeting rejected calls for water to be recognized as a basic human right.
Published on Wednesday, March 26, 2008. Source: CanWest News Service
Instead, a special resolution proposed by Germany and Spain at the UN human rights council was stripped of references that recognized access to water as a human right. The countries also chose to scrap the idea of creating an international watchdog to investigate the issue, (…)

- contributions / Water, International

one of africa's most dramatic waterfalls will be destroyed

2008-01-19T18:40:03Z

One of Africa's most dramatic waterfalls will be destroyed by a hydroelectric project in Gabon, according to reports from a Gabonese NGO and the Inter Press Service (IPS).
Kongou Falls, a 184-foot (5 6m) two-mile-wide (3.2 km) cataract on the Ivindo river in the Congo rainforest, will be flooded by a dam to provide power for a $3.5 billion plan to mine iron ore at Bélinga in northeastern Gabon. The project — financed by a Chinese consortium led by CMEC, a Chinese company — is scheduled to (…)

- contributions / Edito, Water, Africa

Fire, water and denial

2007-11-06T12:47:11Z

by Neal Peirce
Could there be a pattern here?
The San Diego and Los Angeles areas are hit by a raging series of high-impact wildfires — the worst in the state's history. Many of the blazes coincide with areas already scorched in 2003 by fires that themselves were declared California's worst ever.
But is there any move to get away from the areas where a century of firefighting has left many forests choked and overgrown, thick underbrush creating tinderbox conditions? Apparently not. (…)

- contributions / Water, Catastrophes, USA

IRAQ : Engineers Confirm a Real Surge Would Drown Half A Million People

2007-11-05T15:10:00Z

Gen. Petraeus & U.S. Engineers Confirm a Real Surge Would Drown 500,000 People
The Most Dangerous Dam in the World
By PATRICK COCKBURN
A catastrophic failure of the largest dam in Iraq would send a wave 65ft high hurtling down the valley of the river Tigris, killing up to 500,000 people, US engineers warned yesterday.
The dam, which is near Mosul in the north of the country, was built in 1984 on a bed of water-soluble rock and is in imminent danger of collapse. "In terms of the (…)

- contributions / Water, International, Catastrophes

Georgia declares drought emergency

2007-10-21T12:25:01Z

Georgia declares drought emergency White House says it will review Perdue's request for federal assistance
Updated: 4:46 p.m. ET Oct. 20, 2007
CUMMING, Georgia - With water supplies rapidly shrinking during a drought of historic proportions, Gov. Sonny Perdue declared a state of emergency Saturday for the northern third of the state of Georgia and asked President Bush to declare it a major disaster area.
Georgia officials warn that Lake Lanier, a 38,000-acre reservoir that supplies (…)

- contributions / Water, USA

War for Water on the Golan Heights

2007-08-26T15:00:24Z

QUNEITRA, Syrian Golan Heights— Trucks of every size were queued up for miles and some hadn't budged in days. At the end of the line, drivers resigned to a long, hot ordeal set up camp waiting for inspections.
At the border checkpoint on the Beirut-Damascus highway, each industrial vehicle must be searched in compliance with UN Resolution 1701 to insure it isn't smuggling missiles or weapons into Lebanon. Israel and the US repeatedly charge Syria with rearming Hezbollah, and if true it (…)

- contributions / Water, Wars and conflicts, International

South Asia Monsoon Crisis Presents An Opportunity To Learn And Prepare For Future Crisis.

2007-08-15T08:18:26Z

by Brian McAfee.
Is the South Asia monsoon a harbinger of things to come and will we be ready next time around? The perennial monsoon floods that have devastated parts of Bangladesh, India, and Nepal are said to be the worst in 30 years.
The death toll has surpassed 2,200. meanwhile, the event has made over twenty million people homeless and has resulted in massive crop failure, ensuring hunger, poverty and homelessness for millions of men, women and children in South Asia for some time (…)

- contributions / Edito, Water, International, Health, Catastrophes, Brian McAfee