Earth Grab

The Rise of Geopiracy, The New Biomassters and Capturing Climate Genes

Diana Bronson, Hope Shand, Jim Thomas, Kathy Jo Wetter

’Geopiracy’ analyses how Northern governments and corporations are cynically using growing concerns about the ecological and climate crisis to propose geoengineering ‘quick fixes’. These threaten to wreak havoc on ecosystems, with disastrous impacts on the people of the global South. As calls for a ‘greener’ economy mount and oil prices escalate, corporations are seeking to switch from oil-based to plant-based energy.

’The New Biomassters’ exposes how a biomass economy based on using gene technologies to reprogramme living organisms to behave as microbial factories will facilitate the liquidation of ecosystems. This constitutes a devastating assault of the peoples and cultures of the South, accelerating the wave of land grabs that are becoming common in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

’Capturing Climate Genes’ shows how the worlds largest agribusiness companies including Monsanto, BASF, Dupont and Syngenta are pouring billions of dollars into, and claiming patents on, what are claimed to be ‘climate-ready crops’. Far from helping farmers adjust to a warming world – something peasant farmers already know how to manage – these crops will allow industrial agriculture to expand plantation monocultures into lands currently cultivated by poor peasant farmers. These crops are not a solution to growing hunger, they will feed only the gluttony of corporate shareholders for profits.

Contents

• Part One – Geopiracy
• Overview: Geopiracy: the case against geoengineering
• Introduction: defining geoengineering
• Section I: The context: technology to the rescue
• Section 2: Geoengineering: the technologies
• Section 3: Governing geoengineering or geoengineering governance?
• Part Two – Biomaassters
• Introduction: Beware Biomass
• Section 1: Here Comes the bioeconomy
• Section 2 – The Tools and Players
• Part Three – Capturing Climate Genes
• Notes
• Index

About the Authors

Diana Bronson is Programme Manager and a Researcher for the ETC Group. She is trained as a political scientist and sociologist and has a professional background in journalism (CBC radio current affairs) and human rights (Rights & Democracy).

Hope Shand is Research Director for the Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC Group). She has has written extensively on the topic of agricultural biodiversity, and on the social and economic impacts of new biotechnologies.

Jim Thomas is a research programme manager and writer for the ETC Group. His background is in communications, writing on emerging technologies and international campaigning.

Kathy Jo Wetter works for ETC Group as a researcher. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.