Japan's fishing industry, one of the world's largest, will stage a mass strike July 15 to protest soaring fuel costs. Some 200,000 fishing boats will cancel their trips for one day to demand government action. "Many fishermen cannot make ends meet. The industry as a whole is falling apart," said an official of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations. "We are asking for emergency measures from the government, just for one or two years, to help us pull through this difficult period." Fuel now accounts for up to half of the fishermen's operating costs, compared with just 10% a few years ago, he said. (Thomson Financial, July 14)

In the new "Failed States Index" compiled by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, Somalia has displaced Sudan at the top of the list. Sudan is number two, followed by Zimbabwe and Chad. Iraq, which ranked second last year, has retreated to fourth. Israel, ranking 58, for the first time appears in the top 60. The US ranks 161. Norway ranks last at 177.

A new Energy Department report says much about how elites view the oil shock—and why the US is in Iraq. It actually mentions the impacts of biofuels, but that's a sideshow to the inexorable threat of China's economic rise. This synopsis does not even mention Iraq—but effective US control of the Persian Gulf will be a lever of control over China's access to energy. From Oil Voice, June 25:

The National Intelligence Council (NIC) has completed a new classified assessment that explores how climate change could threaten US security in the next 20 years, causing political instability, mass movements of refugees, terrorism, and conflicts over water and other resources. The House Intelligence Committee was briefed June 25 on the main findings.

The Supreme Court on June 25 dealt a blow to victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, cutting the $2.5 billion in punitive damages award for the worst oil spill in US history to $507 million. The court ruled 5-3 that the damages were excessive under maritime law. The ruling in Exxon Shipping v. Baker, No. 07-219 brings to a close a long-running legal battle between Exxon and a group of 33,000 fishermen, cannery workers, Native Alaskans and others affected by the disaster.

From the Global Forest Coalition, June 5:

A Black Day for the Environment: False Solutions to Food Crisis will Escalate Starvation,
Accelerate Climate Change and Devastate Biodiversity
Rome — The Global Forest Coalition, a worldwide coalition of environmental NGOs and Indigenous Peoples' Organizations, has called World Environment Day 2008 a black day for the environment, now that it appears the FAO Summit on World Food Security will fail to agree on an immediate halt to all forms of support for agrofuels. Instead, countries like the U.S. seem eager to exploit the current human tragedy for the promotion of a new 'Green Revolution,' which will have devastating impacts on both the climate and biodiversity.

In the last six months, food riots in virtually every continent have made headlines, with angry protests reported in India, Mexico, Egypt, Indonesia, Haiti, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mauritania, Cote d’Ivoire, Morocco, and the Philippines. Now impacts are being felt in "first world" countries like Japan, where food prices have risen by an average of 15% in the last year. (Nation Media, Kenya, April 24) Several Asian countries, including India and Vietnam, have halted all rice exports. (China Daily, Spril 28) The "global rice panic" has also hit the Asian-American community in California, as the retail price for a 50-pound sack of Thai jasmine rice has doubled from roughly $20 to $40 in recent weeks. (McClatchy Newspapers, April 24) Panic-buying has exhausted stocks at supermarkets in the Bay Area and Sacramento. A Costco Wholesale store in San Francisco has limited rice purchases to two bags per customer. Wal-Mart Stores' Sam's Club has limited purchases of jasmine, basmati and long-grain white rice to four bags a visit in all US outlets. (Bloomberg, April 25)

Gee, good thinking, science geeks. There's too much junk in the atmosphere...so let's throw even more junk into the atmosphere. Anything to avoid fat Americans having to give up their precious automobiles. From AP, April 24:

Using chemicals to cut global warming may damage ozone layer
WASHINGTON — The rule of unintended consequences threatens to strike again. Some researchers have suggested that injecting sulfur compounds into the atmosphere might help ease global warming by increasing clouds and haze that would reflect sunlight.