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ÉcologiePollutions

Quand l’administration Obama autorisait les pétroliers à rejeter des milliards de litres de résidus toxiques en mer

La technologie de la fracturation hydraulique n’est pas réservée au gaz de schiste. Elle est massivement utilisée pour les forages pétroliers dans les eaux du Golfe du Mexique et du Pacifique, au large de la Californie. Certains pétroliers envisagent d’y recourir en Arctique. Les autorités états-uniennes permettent même aux entreprises qui procèdent à ces forages de rejeter leurs résidus chimiques et leurs eaux usées directement dans l’océan. Et ce, sans véritable étude environnementale. C’est ce que démontrent une série de documents obtenus par le média indépendant Truthout.

Par Mike Ludwig

SociétéTravail

Derrière l’iPhone d’Apple : quatorze années de violation des droits des travailleurs en Chine

Alors qu’Apple se prépare à commercialiser son iPhone 7, des abus sérieux – bas salaires, temps de travail excessif, mise en danger des travailleurs... – sont une nouvelle fois signalés dans les usines de ses fournisseurs chinois, comme Foxconn ou Pegatron. Comme le montre une analyse réalisée par le média américain TruthOut, cela fait au moins quatorze années que journalistes d’investigation et ONG signalent ce type de problèmes dans la chaîne d’approvisionnement d’Apple, et quatorze ans que la marque à la pomme promet d’y mettre bon ordre. Les années passent et rien ne change.

Par Nicki Lisa Cole

International

Europe’s “Smart Borders” Would Automatically Monitor Individuals

Walls and wire fences are not all that’s being built at Europe’s borders. The European Commission and Security Companies dream of “smart borders”: a multitude of automated and interconnected files and control apparatuses able to follow each individual. The program’s objective? Counter-terrorism and keeping migrants out. But these structures — the effectiveness of which remains to be demonstrated — risk straining public finances, while threatening civil liberties and private life, should some states decide to pass from border control of each person to surveillance of everybody

By Aline Fontaine, Morgane Remy

International

How One French Town Combines Welcome for Migrants, Ecology and Social Emancipation

Grande-Synthe, in the north of France, is one of the very few French towns that welcome hundreds of migrants with dignity and respect. Despite 28 percent unemployment of its active population and a third of households living below the poverty line, Grande-Synthe is also a place where ambitious environmental and social policies are conducted. Mayor Damien Carême and his team support a popular university in the service of the town’s residents, have created the first renewable energy stadium in France and are building an eco-neighborhood accessible to the poor. Their political resolution is compounded by solidarity with refugees en route to the United Kingdom, making the experience of Grande-Synthe’s refugees very different from the fate reserved for migrants in Calais’ nearby seedy shantytowns.

By Olivier Favier

International

With community input, health centers in France experiment with a holistic model

Within the last few years, a little network of health centers unlike any other has been forged all through working-class neighborhoods in France. “Health Space,” “Health Square” and “Massilia Health System” are all projects conceived by social workers, doctors and residents who want to prove that it’s possible to provide health care in a different way, without endless prescriptions and assembly-line consultations. With a leitmotif: If health is determined by the social environment, then access to social rights and services is as important as health care. If it gets financing, this promising model could well have a significant impact.

By Sarah Bosquet

International

In France, a retirement co-op ensures seniors are not treated as commodities

They didn’t want to end up in a traditional retirement home. They wanted to remain the actors in their own lives. Seven years after their first discussions about how to age well, a group of retired people is starting to build the first co-op for the aging. Non-speculation, democracy and environmental concern are the foundations of the “Chamarel-Les Barges” project, located in a neighborhood of Vaulx-en-Velin, east of Lyon, France. The project is so inspiring that the bank has even conferred a 50-year loan to the founders, who are in their 60s.

By Sophie Chapelle

International

What if Tomorrow Your Insurance Company Controlled Your Lifestyle?

Our personal information is targeted not only by benevolent or malevolent espionage agencies. Insurance companies have launched a real race in attempting to collect as much information as possible about your lifestyle. Social networks, the “Internet of Things” [a proposed development of the internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data] and leisure applications on smartphones are sources of information about the state of your health and diet - and a gold mine for evaluating the risks insurance companies and cooperatives would run - as well as about the premium you should pay. In the future, will your insurer dictate the way you have to live in order for you to pay less?

By Morgane Remy

International

In Europe, Are the Chemical Industry’s Interests Taking Precedence Over People’s Lives?

The European Union has still not regulated usage of endocrine disruptors, chemical substances with colossal health impacts utilized in many common consumer products. Yet endocrine disruptors are the source of many disorders: birth defects, cancers and obesity. This regulatory delay, which has just been condemned by the European justice system, owes nothing to accident. The chemical industries - manufacturers of pesticides and plastics - are lobbying intensively and hamper any serious regulatory advances. Journalist Stéphane Horel deciphers what is going on in her book, Poisoning, the Lobby and Its Objectives. We interview her below.

By Nolwenn Weiler

International

How multinationals use climate change to impose an industrial agricultural model

Governments are keeping an eye on the agricultural sector’s greenhouse gas emissions. A new concept is emerging: “climate-smart agriculture,” with the objective of producing more, better. In the arena of climate negotiations, multinational corporations are getting set to promote “smart fertilizers” and plants genetically modified for heat tolerance. While industrial agriculture is about to win the battle with organic agriculture, researchers and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are trying to overturn the deal.

By Sophie Chapelle

Chroniques

Lettre ouverte à Wall Street

Avant toute chose, je voudrais m’excuser pour le désordre devant vos bureaux. Cela fait trois semaines que tous ces hippies et ces punks, ces étudiants et ces syndicalistes, ces mères qui travaillent et ces pères célibataires, ces pilotes de ligne et ces enseignants, ces employés de magasin et ces militaires, ces victimes de saisie ont décidé de camper sur votre gazon. Et je suis sûr que cela a été un désagrément pour vous.

Par William Rivers Pitt

ÉcologiePollutions

Quand l’administration Obama autorisait les pétroliers à rejeter des milliards de litres de résidus toxiques en mer

La technologie de la fracturation hydraulique n’est pas réservée au gaz de schiste. Elle est massivement utilisée pour les forages pétroliers dans les eaux du Golfe du Mexique et du Pacifique, au large de la Californie. Certains pétroliers envisagent d’y recourir en Arctique. Les autorités états-uniennes permettent même aux entreprises qui procèdent à ces forages de rejeter leurs résidus chimiques et leurs eaux usées directement dans l’océan. Et ce, sans véritable étude environnementale. C’est ce que démontrent une série de documents obtenus par le média indépendant Truthout.

Par Mike Ludwig

SociétéTravail

Derrière l’iPhone d’Apple : quatorze années de violation des droits des travailleurs en Chine

Alors qu’Apple se prépare à commercialiser son iPhone 7, des abus sérieux – bas salaires, temps de travail excessif, mise en danger des travailleurs... – sont une nouvelle fois signalés dans les usines de ses fournisseurs chinois, comme Foxconn ou Pegatron. Comme le montre une analyse réalisée par le média américain TruthOut, cela fait au moins quatorze années que journalistes d’investigation et ONG signalent ce type de problèmes dans la chaîne d’approvisionnement d’Apple, et quatorze ans que la marque à la pomme promet d’y mettre bon ordre. Les années passent et rien ne change.

Par Nicki Lisa Cole

International

Europe’s “Smart Borders” Would Automatically Monitor Individuals

Walls and wire fences are not all that’s being built at Europe’s borders. The European Commission and Security Companies dream of “smart borders”: a multitude of automated and interconnected files and control apparatuses able to follow each individual. The program’s objective? Counter-terrorism and keeping migrants out. But these structures — the effectiveness of which remains to be demonstrated — risk straining public finances, while threatening civil liberties and private life, should some states decide to pass from border control of each person to surveillance of everybody

By Aline Fontaine, Morgane Remy

International

How One French Town Combines Welcome for Migrants, Ecology and Social Emancipation

Grande-Synthe, in the north of France, is one of the very few French towns that welcome hundreds of migrants with dignity and respect. Despite 28 percent unemployment of its active population and a third of households living below the poverty line, Grande-Synthe is also a place where ambitious environmental and social policies are conducted. Mayor Damien Carême and his team support a popular university in the service of the town’s residents, have created the first renewable energy stadium in France and are building an eco-neighborhood accessible to the poor. Their political resolution is compounded by solidarity with refugees en route to the United Kingdom, making the experience of Grande-Synthe’s refugees very different from the fate reserved for migrants in Calais’ nearby seedy shantytowns.

By Olivier Favier

International

With community input, health centers in France experiment with a holistic model

Within the last few years, a little network of health centers unlike any other has been forged all through working-class neighborhoods in France. “Health Space,” “Health Square” and “Massilia Health System” are all projects conceived by social workers, doctors and residents who want to prove that it’s possible to provide health care in a different way, without endless prescriptions and assembly-line consultations. With a leitmotif: If health is determined by the social environment, then access to social rights and services is as important as health care. If it gets financing, this promising model could well have a significant impact.

By Sarah Bosquet

International

In France, a retirement co-op ensures seniors are not treated as commodities

They didn’t want to end up in a traditional retirement home. They wanted to remain the actors in their own lives. Seven years after their first discussions about how to age well, a group of retired people is starting to build the first co-op for the aging. Non-speculation, democracy and environmental concern are the foundations of the “Chamarel-Les Barges” project, located in a neighborhood of Vaulx-en-Velin, east of Lyon, France. The project is so inspiring that the bank has even conferred a 50-year loan to the founders, who are in their 60s.

By Sophie Chapelle

International

What if Tomorrow Your Insurance Company Controlled Your Lifestyle?

Our personal information is targeted not only by benevolent or malevolent espionage agencies. Insurance companies have launched a real race in attempting to collect as much information as possible about your lifestyle. Social networks, the “Internet of Things” [a proposed development of the internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data] and leisure applications on smartphones are sources of information about the state of your health and diet - and a gold mine for evaluating the risks insurance companies and cooperatives would run - as well as about the premium you should pay. In the future, will your insurer dictate the way you have to live in order for you to pay less?

By Morgane Remy

International

In Europe, Are the Chemical Industry’s Interests Taking Precedence Over People’s Lives?

The European Union has still not regulated usage of endocrine disruptors, chemical substances with colossal health impacts utilized in many common consumer products. Yet endocrine disruptors are the source of many disorders: birth defects, cancers and obesity. This regulatory delay, which has just been condemned by the European justice system, owes nothing to accident. The chemical industries - manufacturers of pesticides and plastics - are lobbying intensively and hamper any serious regulatory advances. Journalist Stéphane Horel deciphers what is going on in her book, Poisoning, the Lobby and Its Objectives. We interview her below.

By Nolwenn Weiler

International

How multinationals use climate change to impose an industrial agricultural model

Governments are keeping an eye on the agricultural sector’s greenhouse gas emissions. A new concept is emerging: “climate-smart agriculture,” with the objective of producing more, better. In the arena of climate negotiations, multinational corporations are getting set to promote “smart fertilizers” and plants genetically modified for heat tolerance. While industrial agriculture is about to win the battle with organic agriculture, researchers and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are trying to overturn the deal.

By Sophie Chapelle

Chroniques

Lettre ouverte à Wall Street

Avant toute chose, je voudrais m’excuser pour le désordre devant vos bureaux. Cela fait trois semaines que tous ces hippies et ces punks, ces étudiants et ces syndicalistes, ces mères qui travaillent et ces pères célibataires, ces pilotes de ligne et ces enseignants, ces employés de magasin et ces militaires, ces victimes de saisie ont décidé de camper sur votre gazon. Et je suis sûr que cela a été un désagrément pour vous.

Par William Rivers Pitt