¿Suicidio en Carnaval? Terminator regresa al Congreso en Brasil
Submitted by Joëlle Deschambault on
Firme la petición para detenerla
Organizaciones de la sociedad civil brasileña alertaron ayer que una iniciativa de ley iniciada en 2007 para revertir la prohibición de uso de semillas Terminator podría reactivarse (nuevamente) en el Congreso de ese país. Existen dos iniciativas al respecto desde hace varios años, pero una de ellas, introducida en 2007 por el diputado Eduardo Sciarra del PSD (la PL 268/2007) comenzó a reactivarse en julio pasado y llegó a ponerse en primer plano en octubre 2013. La legalización de Terminator en Brasil tendría implicaciones globales, comenzando por la violación a la moratoria sobre Tecnologías de Restricción del Uso Genético (TRUG, apodadas tecnologías Terminator), vigente desde el año 2000 en el Convenio sobre Diversidad Biológica.
Suicide at the Carnaval? Terminator is back in the Brazilian Congress
Submitted by Joëlle Deschambault on
Push to Pass Suicide Seeds Legislation Could Come While Deputies Dance
Sign the petition to stop it!
Brazilian civil society organizations warned yesterday that a 2007 bill to end Brazil’s ban on Terminator seeds could soon be on the move (again) in the Brazilian Congress. While two bills have been on the congressional agenda for several years, a 2007 bill (PL 268/2007, filed by Rep. Eduardo Sciarra – PSD party) began moving through the Congress last July and came to a head last October. The legalizing of Terminator in Brazil would have global implications, including as a violation of the United Nations moratorium on Terminator technologies, in place since 2000 at the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Competencia para poner nombre a la vainilla artificial
Submitted by Veronica Villa on
El Grupo ETC y Amigos de la Tierra lanzaron una competencia internacional de diseño y mercadotecnia para llamar la atención sobre el uso de biología sintética (ingeniería genética extrema) en nuestra comida. Usen su creatividad para ayudarnos a denunciar un ingrediente, muy antinatural, que amenaza introducirse en nuestros platillos y otros productos: una nueva "vainilla". Ayúdenos a denunciarlo y a explicar lo que podría ocurrirles a los cultivadores de la verdadera vainilla en el mundo.
Fate of Pro-Terminator Bill Uncertain
Submitted by Joëlle Deschambault on
Confronted with 35,000 institutional and individual signatures on a petition growing by several hundred an hour, Brazil’s Judiciary Commission agreed to take the Pro-Terminator Bill off the agenda this week leaving open the possibility that the bill will not be passed until Congress reconvenes in early February. However, the Judiciary Commission also determined to sit again next Tuesday and could continue meeting even Wednesday and Thursday before adjourning for Christmas. The Chair of the Commission has reiterated his commitment to block the contentious bill but CSO observers understand that a majority of Commission members are in favor of the suicide seed legislation and could, regardless of a formal agenda, call for a vote at any meeting. Brazilian allies both in the Commission and among the civil society organizations attending the negotiations say that representatives and government officials have been shocked by the scale in ferocity of global opposition to the proposed legislation.
Comisión legislativa en Brasil “exterminaría” las semillas (y la agricultura) esta semana
Submitted by Joëlle Deschambault on
Después de comprometerse en el Día Mundial de la Alimentación (16 de octubre) a bloquear una iniciativa que legalizaría la siembra de semillas Terminator en Brasil, la Comisión de Justicia está nuevamente emplazada a aprobar las semillas suicidas, lo que sería un regalo navideño para Monsanto, DuPont y Syngenta.
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Recent Blogs
The Big Fix - 9 Tech controversies to watch for in 2009
Submitted by Jim Thomas on
Written for The Ecologist - February 2009
available online at http://www.theecologist.org/pages/archive_detail.asp?content_id=2053
Somebody somewhere has to have a cunning plan to fix our environmental problems and save the world – right? Jim Thomas sorts through the big tech ideas you’ll be reading about this year
TECHRECKONING: The Sugar Rush
Submitted by Jim Thomas on
Jim Thomas
Written for The Ecologist - February 2009
The next big hit fuelwise will have corporations falling over each other to claim plant life, but the comedown could leave us in a sticky mess
TECH RECKONING: A Green Whitewash
Submitted by Jim Thomas on
Jim Thomas
Written for The Ecologist- December/January 2009
The extreme climate technologists behind monochrome schemes to slow global warming are one colour short of a palette
TECH RECKONING: Cloudbusting
Submitted by Jim Thomas on
Jim Thomas
Written for The Ecologist - November 2008
Don’t be fooled by The Cloud – the world of the internet seems weightless, but it is leaving an increasingly heavy footprint behind it
Tech Reckoning: Life In The Mix
Submitted by Jim Thomas on
Written for The Ecologist 01/10/2008
Available online at http://www.theecologist.org/pages/archive_detail.asp?content_id=1978
If there is a video gamer in your life, chances are that you have heard of Spore, the latest creation from the super successful inventor of ‘The Sims’.
Hanging in Hong Kong with the Syn Bio Crowd
Submitted by Jim Thomas on
Apparently in some places they call Hong Kong "Disneyland". What better place than among the sci-fitowers of this gotham-city landscape for the brave new pioneers of Synthetic Biology to gather, plan and celebrate the next stage of artificial life. For the next few days Synthetic Biology 4.0, the fourth global congress of syn bio leaders, will be meeting at Hong Kong's University of Science and Technology to discuss synthetic organisms, whole genome construction, next generation biofuels and all manner of biohackery.
Plastic Plants
Submitted by Jim Thomas on
Henry Ford dreamed of making plastic cars out of soy. Now Dow, DuPont and other chemical giants are also dreaming of a ‘green’ future. But, as Jim Thomas argues, bioplastic is not the eco-solution it’s cracked up to be.
Article from New Internationalist Magazine September 2008 issue - available online here
Technofixes: Climate Solution Or Corporate Scam?
Submitted by Jim Thomas on
Can science save the planet or should we avoid putting our faith in high-tech fixes to deliver us from the ecological mess we‘ve made? Jim Thomas and Paul Fitzgerald push each other’s buttons.
Read the debate here in the latest issue of New Internationalist Magazine: http://www.newint.org/features/special/2008/08/01/technofixes/
TechReckoning: Mapping Macrobes
Submitted by Jim Thomas on
Mapmaking and conquest has a disturbingly close history. As indigenous people learned, the innocuous mapmaker may be followed by weapons, property claims and exploitation. So too for the recent rash of science projects using mapping
TechReckoning - The black hole of unknowing
Submitted by Charlie on
Written for The Ecologist - 20/06/2008
As to global annihilation, I’m stumped. Most of us wouldn’t recognise a strangelet if it casually devoured us in the street