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Voices of Peace
Vol V
Water War?
The issues of water and food may, in
the future, make the energy shortage seem petty in comparison as a cause of war.
Water may already be an issue in the present Middle East horror.
We can and should do something about overuse of water in agriculture. What about
water in tourism and recreation (e.g. golf courses, pools in the desert etc.)? How
much are we doing to stop paving everything which increases run off? It should be
easy to do something about our personal water use just by changing our habits. How
often is water use considered in considering different forms of energy or in different
products? The water use as well as the energy use of all products we consume should
be considered.
- UN warns of looming water crisis
- A UN report released on World Water Day warns that two thirds
of the world's population are likely to face water shortages by 2025. Full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/hi/english/world/newsid_1887000/1887451.stm
More than 2.7 billion people will face severe water shortages
by the year 2025 if the world continues consuming water at the same rate, the United
Nations has warned.
There are two reasons to question biotech: 1. What is the effect of GMO crops on
the environment? The scientific jury is still out on this to some extent. 2. The
monopolization of food crops by private interests and the effect on the production
of essential food. One example of this is below.
Rice: 250 patents have been granted
by BBC News Online's Helen Briggs
A row has broken out over public access to the complete DNA sequence of the rice
plant. Scientists fear there will be restrictions over who can use the data when
it is published in an academic journal. .... Leading geneticists, including two British
Nobel Prize winners, have written to the journal Science to complain.
They claim a multinational company will have control over the most important food
crop in the developing world if an alleged publication deal goes ahead.
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