News & blogs

Filter the news by type

Global Wins from Early Warnings

Seven key ETC victories from the first 40 years

It's usually the case at ETC that when we encounter success, we've usually already moved on to the next campaign. But in our 40th year, we decided to take a moment to celebrate by looking back at some of our favourite wins. We like them all, so they are presented here in roughly chronological order.

7. Seed Treaty

The 2040 Fund

Illuminating pathways out of the current mess

As 2017 draws to a close, we’re excited to announce our 2040 Fund. As technologies and corporate power gain critical mass, ETC’s contribution will shift from from fighting technologies one by one to defining the “positive possible” of the longer term, and illuminating pathways out of the current mess.

To make that possible, our goal is to build a base of donors to our 2040 fund who contribute an average of $20.40 per month. Want to be part of it? Click here to donate now.

Or read on to find out more.

The Gene Drive Files

Disclosed emails reveal military as top funder; Gates Foundation paying $1.6 million to influence UN expert process

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Over 1,200 emails released under open records requests reveal that the U.S. military is now the top funder and influencer behind a controversial genetic extinction technology known as “gene drives” – pumping $100 million into the field.

Mapping Geogengineering Projects

Interactive map from ETC Group and Heinrich Boell Foundation shows growth of climate control efforts

This interactive geoengineering map, prepared by ETC Group and the Heinrich Boell Foundation, is an attempt to shed light on the worldwide state of geoengineering by showing the scope of research and experimentation. There is no complete record of weather and climate control projects so this map is necessarily partial.

Who Will Feed Us? The Industrial Food Chain vs the Peasant Food Web

New report from ETC Group tells a shocking tale of two food systems

We are told that it is big agribusiness, with its flashy techno-fixes and financial clout, that will save the world from widespread hunger and malnutrition and help food systems weather the impacts of climate change. However, a new report from ETC Group shows that in fact, it is a diverse network of small-scale producers, dubbed the Peasant Food Web, that feeds 70% of the world, including the most hungry and marginalized people.

“Bleeding” veggie burger has “no basis for safety,” according to FDA

Documents show that makers of the “Impossible Burger” ignored FDA’s warnings about safety of burger’s key GMO ingredient

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Creators of a fake-meat burger made with a high-profile genetically engineered ingredient may have landed their experimental industry in a sizzling food safety mess, casting doubt on a Silicon Valley foodtech investor bubble. Joint Press Release from ETC Group and Friends of the Earth.

Civil society: “Oil companies should not author IPCC report”

108 organizations urged IPCC to review flagrant conflict of interest of allowing two oil company employees to co-author a crucial report on global warming

12 May 2017 

On 27 April 2017, 108 civil society organizations signed a letter requesting the IPCC to reconsider its list of authors for the upcoming Special Report on keeping global warming below 1.5°C. Two senior employees from major oil companies were selected among the authors for the Report, which the letter considers a major hurdle to make a fair report, and a violation of the IPCC's conflict of interest policy. 

Trump Administration Inflates Geoengineers’ Balloon

Harvard scientists in Washington talk up stratospheric geoengineering experiments that would violate UN decision

Washington, DC – The Trump administration’s repudiation of the UN’s 2015 Paris agreement on climate change and its rollback of the EPA and other US agencies on monitoring and mitigating global warming has created an unexpected opportunity for a rogue group of climate researchers to seek support for an alternative climate change strategy.

2016: The Year that Wasn't Normal

ETC Group's Long-Awaited 2016 Year-in-Review

So you say you want a (fourth) revolution, well you know…

Fashionably late and just in time for the Chinese New Year of the Rooster, ETC Group once again offers a tonque-in-cheek wake-up call and look-back at the last thirteen months (spoiler: despite our best hopes, waiting the extra month didn’t make the news any cheerier)

Four Steps Forward, One Leap Back on Global Governance of Synthetic Biology

UN Biodiversity Convention grapples with threats posed by extreme biotech industry

CANCUN, MEXICO — This week, 196 countries meeting at the 2016 UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) Conference of the Parties made progress on the global governance and oversight of synthetic biology. Synthetic biology (syn bio) has become one of the most fiercely debated topics at the Biodiversity Convention, almost 7 years after civil society first brought the need for precaution and regulation of the new set of biotechnologies to this UN body.

Pages

Subscribe to News & blogs