Quick Reads

l 3 de mayo de 2007, el Grupo ETC (organización internacional de la sociedad civil con sede en Canadá, conocida anteriormente como RAFI) junto con “No Patents on Life!” y Greenpeace continuarán una batalla legal de 13 años contra una de las patentes de biotecnología más tristemente célebres. En una audiencia que tendrá lugar en la Oficina Europea de Patentes, en Munich, organizaciones de la sociedad civil argumentarán que la patente de Monsanto (EP No. 301-749) sobre todas las variedades de soya transgénica —sin precedentes por su rango tan amplio— debe revocarse. “Ninguna patente simboliza la falibilidad del sistema de patentes mejor que la de Monsanto que cubre toda una especie, los frijoles de soya diseñados genéticamente”, dijo Hope Shand de el Grupo ETC. “La patente de Monsanto tiene graves fallas técnicas y es inaceptable del punto de vista moral”, afirmó Shand.

ETC Group released a 16-page review of five new initiatives intended to launch what ETC dubs “Green Revolution 2.0” in Africa. Leading the charge is a plan to construct four Centers of Excellence together with a second initiative called the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. “The Green Revolution that followed World War II focused on semi-dwarf, high-yielding plant varieties” says Pat Mooney, ETC Group’s Executive Director. “It was a one-size-fits-all, take-it-or-leave-it silver bullet,” Mooney adds, “Africa left it.” In other words, Green Revolution technologies were inappropriate for the needs and resources of African farmers. ETC Group’s communiqué warns that, in Green Revolution 2.0, “big-box” science is being buttressed by a strategy to restructure African agriculture. Although the cornerstone of the new revolution will still be high-tech seeds, the G-8 and private foundations also want continental changes in market structure, intellectual property laws, and seed regulation so that agribusiness suppliers can profitably sell seeds, chemicals, and other inputs to farmers. “Big-box science will be linked to small box suppliers,” Mooney argues, “This time, the silver bullet has a gun.”

On the day before the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sounds its loudest alarm yet, ETC Group warns that some OECD states, led by the United States, are betting on a pie-in-the-sky techno-fix to address climate change. “Geoengineering” refers to the intentional, large-scale manipulation of the environment to bring about environmental change. With no hope for Kyoto, little political will to ask industry or voters to change lifestyles and a growing recognition that carbon trading is a farce, some governments are concluding that massive earth restructuring is the only way out. The Guardian reported earlier this week that the US government is lobbying the IPCC to promote geoengineering activities, such as deliberately polluting the stratosphere to deflect sunlight and lower temperatures. (1)

Cientos de las 30 mil personas reunidas en el Foro Social Mundial celebrado esta semana en Nairobi, Kenya, votaron por su símbolo favorito para advertir contra el peligro nanotecnológico o los materiales diseñados con nanotecnologías (un nanómetro es inconcebiblemente pequeño: equivale a una mil millonésima parte de un metro).