Sometimes researchers are blamed of being alarmists stirring up fears of a fictional dystopia by the business-as-usual crowd. But it seems a forewarning of conflict over oil in Peru is proceeding according to exactly such a warning. The news first…

40+ dead at protest

In extension of free trade agreements the Peruvian government has plans for ‘developing’ the Amazon homelands of many indigenous communities – opening it for oil, mineral, logging, and agricultural exploitation. Locals have been protesting some of these initiatives claiming they are unconstitutional and in violation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. When police intervened fighting erupted. Body counts wary; one is as high as 81.

President Alan Garcia Perez is claimed to have been behind a massacre on suspects of being Maoist guerrillas in 1986. A former army colonel turned politician is siding with the protesters. An arrest warrant has been issued on protest leader Alberto Pizango who has gone into hiding.

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If you are looking for a way to save trees by reading books on an e-reader but you don’t like the Sony Reader or can’t use the Amazon Kindle you might want to check out the Cool-er e-reader.

The Cool-er (Yes, that the actual name of the e-reader. And no, it’s not cool.) e-reader looks like one of those colorful ipods, although it’s a bit bigger. The Cool-er e-reader will offer a larger library of books than the Amazon Kindle and will sell the digital books in the open EPub format.

In USA the Cool-er user will be able to choose from around 260,000 paid-for titles at launch from all the major publishers. In Europe we will initially only have around 60,000 titles to choose from.

The e-reader will be available in the USA and Europe early June this year and cost $249.

According to the Amazon Defense Coalition the petrochemical company Chevron has hired Douglas Southgate, a so called “scientist” and an “environmental economist”, who is affiliated with the Heartland Institute, a climate change denying think tank.

“Based in Chicago, Heartland promotes the idea that there is a “debate” about global warming despite the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity is responsible for it. The Institute also creates research that downplays the dangers of secondhand smoke.”

“Contributions to the Heartland Institute have flowed from the likes of Exxon, Phillip Morris, and the ultraconservative Scaife Foundation. The Institute stopped disclosing its funders in 2006 after it came under attack for producing tailor-made research in support of its industry supporters.”

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The Danish design agency Saatchi & Saatchi has made this pretty simple and straightforward environment ad:

To make people realize that saving the planet starts with them saving paper, we took a standard paper dispenser and made a simple modification with green foil and the silhouette of South America. This allowed us to prove that the survival of the forest is directly connected to what people consume.

You can see a larger version of the ad here. You can also check out this clever ad on a bridge in Amsterdam.