Fact Sheets: Europe

Europe Fact Sheet: New drilling and fracking techniques have been a boon for the oil and gas industry in the United States, making it possible for companies to extract large quantities of oil and gas from shales and other “tight” rock formations. However, shale development has been a nightmare for those exposed to the resulting pollution.

Łączny areał upraw genetycznie modyfikowanych w Unii Europejskiej zmniejszył się w 2009 roku o połowę w porównaniu do 2006 roku, a tendencja spadkowa utrzymuje się nadal. W 2009 roku rośliny genetycznie modyfikowane uprawiane były na 0.05 procenta pól uprawnych Europy.

Offshore aquaculture is factory fish farming of the sea, growing fish in huge, often over-crowded cages out in ocean waters. It can be problematic for both
the environment and the economy. The waste – fecal matter, uneaten food, and any chemicals or drugs used in the operation – flows directly into the ocean, and the result could be long-term damage to the seafloor. Despite its negative impacts, the following groups push for, or would profit from, factory fish farming in the United States and Europe.

Major GM-producing countries, agribusinesses, biotech companies and the World Trade Organisation relentlessly pressure the European Union to lower regulatory legal and political landscape. Here is an overview of EU regulation of GMO cultivation and sales as of Summer 2011.

Prowadzone obecnie w Stanach Zjednoczonych odwierty gazu łupkowego to nowość dla przemysłu energetycznego. Można powiedzieć, że technologia tych odwiertów jest pionierska, a jej skutki nie do końca przewidywalne. Stanowi ona poważne zagrożenie dla zasobów wody pitnej w wielu miejscach świata.

Bluefin tuna is a top-level predator of the seas that has been part of the human diet for centuries. Thousands of years ago this fish was so revered throughout the Mediterranean that it was painted on cave walls and minted onto coins. These massive creatures can grow to be 12 feet (about 3.5 meters) long and up to 1,500 pounds (680 kg). But today, several bluefin tuna populations are teetering on the brink of collapse and suffering from unsustainable industrial fishing practices. Ineffective international management has exacerbated their dire situation. What must be done to address the bluefin tuna crisis?

Basée à Paris, en France, Veolia Environnement est la première entreprise mondiale dans le secteur de l’eau et de traitement de l’eau usée, générant en 2009 un chiffre d’affaires de 50 milliard $ et un revenu d’exploitation de 2,9 milliard $. La société offre un service de distribution d’eau dans 66 pays et détient Veolia Water North America, le plus important fournisseur en eau aux Etats Unis, servant plus de 14 millions de personnes dans environ 650 communautés nord américaines.

In early 2008, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it considered meat and milk from cloned animals to be safe to eat despite years of controversy and a long list of unresolved ethical, health and animal welfare concerns. In concert with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), regulators asked the livestock industry to continue a voluntary moratorium on allowing meat and milk from cloned animals into the food supply. As early as January 2008, the USDA identified potential concerns about clones entering “export channels,” saying, “industry will implement its livestock cloning supply chain management program which will establish protocols for tracking animal clones” — although this does not appear to yet be in place. Equally disconcerting, animal products derived from clones have no labeling requirements, depriving consumers of their right to choose or the ability to avoid cloned products if they are concerned about this technology.

The open water aquaculture and salmon industries tout fish farms as an opportunity to create jobs. Given current economic struggles worldwide, any potential for a new industry to increase job opportunities is hard to dismiss. Viable, gainful employment is badly needed. So we decided to investigate these claims. Unfortunately, we found that the jobs created by fish farms are unstable, in some cases undesirable, and are very few in number related to the number of fish produced. In fact, the trend in the industry has been to cut jobs to increase “efficiency” (meaning profit), and to abandon communities if better sites arise elsewhere. Moreover, due to pollution, escapes of farmed fish, and other problems that negatively impact wildlife or aesthetic values of the area, open water fish farms can threaten previously existing jobs in tourism, recreational fishing and commercial fishing. Open water finfish farming (including salmon farming) is a failed promise that offers nothing more than some short-term advantages to the local economy at the cost of long-term environmental, social and economic damage.

Over the past five years, a little-noticed wave of investors has been snapping up fields and forests in some of the poorest developing countries. Governments, sovereign wealth funds and companies from rapidly industrializing or oil-rich developing nations have purchased or leased millions of acres of land in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The trend is likely to continue. In June 2009, representatives from 200 financial and agribusiness firms gathered in New York to discuss agricultural investments in the developing world. These investments in some of the most productive agricultural land threaten to further undermine food security and sustainable rural economic development in the developing world.