søndag 2. august 2009

Populistiske sammenkoblinger

Oljekatastrofe på Sørlandet kobles til oljeutvinning i Lofoten:

KrFU-leder Kjell Ingolf Ropstad mener oljesølet i Sør-Norge er et godt eksempel på hvorfor det ikke må drives oljeutvinning i Lofoten. (...) - Været og forholdene i Lofoten er mye vanskeligere enn her i sør, og ulykker kommer garantert til å skje også i Nord-Norge


Svineinfluensaepidemi kobles til industrilandbruk:

Det har lenge vært akseptert blant vitenskapsfolk at store ansamlinger av dyr - enten gris eller fjørfe - i nærheten av hverandre, skaper perfekte forhold for at virus og andre potensielle humanpatogener formerer seg, muterer og blir enda mer dødelige.

The average size of U.S. hog operations grew from 945 head in 1992 to 4,646 head in 2004. The share of the hog inventory on operations with 2,000 or more head increased from less than 30 percent to nearly 80 percent, with operations having 5,000 or more head accounting for more than 50 percent of the hog inventory by 2004.

The 500,000 pigs at a single Smithfield subsidiary in Utah generate more fecal matter each year than the 1.5 million inhabitants of Manhattan. The best estimates put Smithfield’s total waste discharge at 26 million tons a year. That would fill four Yankee Stadiums. Even when divided among the many small pig production units that surround the company’s slaughterhouses, that is not a containable amount.

In Romania, the number of hog farmers has declined 90 percent — to 52,100 in 2007 from 477,030 in 2003 — according to European Union statistics, with ex-farmers, overwhelmed by Smithfield’s lower prices, often emigrating or shifting to construction. In their place, the company employs or contracts with about 900 people and buys grain from about 100 farmers. (...) The impact on the environment is even more marked. With almost 40 farms in western Romania, Smithfield has built enormous metal manure containers to inject waste into the soil. “We go crazy with the daily smell,” said Aura Danielescu, the principal of a school in Masloc, who closes her windows tight.


Er det slik at om man ønsker billig kjøtt og billig bensin så må man regne med litt miljømessig og menneskelig svinn?

Utrivelig politisk utnyttelse av kriser og katastrofer - eller videreformidling av underkommuniserte fakta om hvordan markedskreftene og systemet vårt fungerer?

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