Transition Island Blog

Even as it enriches Arab rulers, the recent oil-price boom is helping to propel an extraordinary rise in the cost of food and other basic goods that is squeezing this region’s middle class and setting off strikes, demonstrations and occasional riots from Morocco to the Gulf.

In Jordan, the soaring price of oil led the government to remove almost all its costly fuel subsidies this month, pushing the price of some fuels up 76 percent overnight. In a devastating domino effect, the cost of basic foods like eggs, potatoes and cucumbers doubled or more.

In Saudi Arabia, where the inflation rate had been virtually zero for a decade, it has reached an official level of 6.5 percent, though unofficial estimates put it much higher. Public protests and boycotts have followed, and 19 prominent clerics posted an unusual statement on the Internet in December warning of a crisis that would cause “theft, cheating, armed robbery and resentment between rich and poor.”

A sneaky peek at our own future?
Read more on “High oil prices take a toll on the Gulf’s middle class“

Killer heatwave risk ‘high’

There is a 25 percent chance that a severe heat wave will strike England and kill more than 6,000 people before 2017 if no action is taken to deal with the health effects of climate change.

The report for the Department of Health was written by a panel of scientific experts commissioned by the Department of Health and Health Protection Agency. They estimate more than 3,000 people could die in an intense summer hot spell in southeast England. Just as many more could die from heat-related deaths over the summer.

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The pharmaceutical industry was critised by senior figures in medical research recently.

They say multinationals withhold information to protect profits, and expose patients to drugs which could be useless or harmful.

Biased results, under-reporting of negative findings and selective publication are rife, they say.

This accusation has also been made quietly by complementary therapists, who feel excluded by unfair competitive practices. The reason for the quiet is that these multinationals have the ear of governments around the world, enormous budgets, and the pseudo-credibility of scientific comparisons. Scientific methods are not felt to be valid with treatments that work in different ways to mainstream drugs, and experiments reported - especially in the popular press & TV - are ‘bad science’. 

As Einstein said:
“Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it.”

This latest attack was triggered by an analysis of published and unpublished trials of modern antidepressants, including Prozac and Seroxat. This showed they offer no clinically significant improvement over placebos (dummy pills) in most patients. It is notable that rewearchers had to use the US ‘freedom of information’ laws to gain access to the data.

Opinion:

The drugs market was worth £10.1bn in the UK in 2006, amounting to 11 per cent of total NHS costs. This figure is bound to rise with the cost of oil, as most pharmaceuticals are derived from petrochemicals. This cannot be allowed to stay a simple ‘market forces’ issue.

The world’s largest tropical glacier is in danger of disappearing within five years.

Glaciologist Lonnie Thompson and a team of scientists said this time last year in San Francisco they have found evidence the Qori Kalis glacier in the Peruvian Andes could lose half its mass in 12 months and could be gone five years from now.

The rate of retreat has increased tenfold over the last 15 years. Artic retreat is also of concern, and recently Antarctic retreat has been found to have increased 75% in the last ten years.

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Banish The Bags:
How the world shames Britain in dealing with ‘plastic poison’ bags

Britain lags behind the rest of the world in dealing with the ‘plastic poison’ caused by the distribution of billions of single-use carrier bags, says the Daily Mail.

Three billion bags given away annually by retailers, creating long-lived litter and life-threatening traps for wildlife.

Consumers, governments and retailers around the globe have moved to banish the bags, a symbol of urban waste.

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Dirty water kills.
Today, there are still almost 1.1 billion people without adequate access to water.

More than 25,000 people die every day because of water-borne disease.

On 22 March 2008, World Water Day aims to raise public awareness, and focus attention on the vital need to protect and conserve water resources and supplies of drinking water.

First organised in 1993, the idea arose from the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro the previous year.

Davos warning

This January the UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon spoke out at Davos, warning the private sector of the ‘looming water crisis’. As water becomes increasingly scarce, greater priority must be given to the sustainable and equitable management of water resources.

Greater competition through the demands of agriculture and industry, along with the effects of climate change, are exacerbating drinking water shortages in the developing countries where WaterAid works.

Access to drinkable water must now be considered a basic human right.

Action:
Write a poem about water and submit it for website publication to the International Water Poetry Contest - ‘Water Voices from Around The World’.

Two Isle of Wight schools may show a lead to others across the South East.

Gurnard and Cowes Primary schools introducing more local produce and are making their meals healthier. They also encourage pupils and the community to engage in cooking activities.

This is harder than it seems, as modern timetabling prevents most practical cooking by ringing the bell just as it’s getting interesting. There just isn’t time to finish within a period.

The Soil Association promotes organic food growing in the UK. Their ‘Food for Life Campaign’ helps pupils learn about seasonal foods and understand the ‘food miles’ issue.

A team from the Soil Association visited the schools on 25 February where they sampled the food, met teachers and students including the school cooks and othos involved in the project.

The schools hope to be recognised as one of the nine Flagship Schools by the end of March.

Opinion:
We are really pleased at this project -
it will help parents as much as children.

Growing your own will help families become more independent when food prices start to spiral. This will be due to the cost of oil increasing as we hit Peak Oil, and causing fertiliser, pesticide, and transport costs to rise. 

Converting land for biofuels could actually worsen the problem of global warming.

Although proposed as a viable alternative to fossil fuels, it will create more major carbon emissions, a report has warned.

But there are alternative sources of biofuel, and today (26/2/08), the news is that biofuels should only be produced if they meet strict internationally agreed environmental standards.

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You are invited to join an energy-saving experiment tomorrow, 27th February.

During E-Day (27th February), the National Grid will assess what difference it makes to electricity consumption

big difference

“The small things in life can make a big difference”

Energy Saving Day (E-Day) will be happening between 6pm on Wednesday 27 February 2008 and 6pm on Thursday 28 February.

Over 24 hours, E-Day will be trying to show how even small energy saving measures can be made to add up, and potentially play a part in tackling climate change.

Everyone who wants to take part in E-Day is being asked to leave off household electrical items, which do not need to be on, and to leave these items off for as long as possible.

These might include lights in rooms that are not being used, televisions left on standby, mobile phone chargers left plugged in, unused printers, etc, etc.

leave it off

During this experiment everyone in the country will be invited to see if they can save energy in their home, school or office, by leaving off electrical items which are not in use, and then offered direct feedback on the results of their actions on national electricity demand via the E-Day website (www.e-day.org.uk).

The cumulative effects of millions of energy saving measures will be updated on the E-Day website on a minute-by-minute basis.

Energy Saving Day (E-Day) is an editorially and financially independent and apolitical organisation which aims to make action to tackle climate change fun, positive, evidence-based and inclusive.

half power

You can cut your electricity consumption in half by updating elderly kitchen appliances, that use more power to do their job.

Action
1. Leave it off
2. Make a list of upgradable appliances

The world is only ten weeks away from running out of wheat supplies

The crisis has pushed prices to an all-time high.

It could lead to further increases in the price of bread, beer, biscuits and other basic foods.

Two successive years of disastrous wheat harvests have lead to this. Even though production has fallen by only 6.25%, this is significant, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation.

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