More than 900 million people in developing countries face starvation as food prices soar, a new report from Oxfam finds. Spiraling inflation in the cost of basic foods, such as rice and cereals, have pushed an extra 119 million people into hunger this year, according to the report, released to coincide with the UN International World Food Day. Oxfam's "Double Edged Prices" report found 967 million people are now officially living below the hunger line. It found there had been a 300% rise in the cost of wheat in Somalia, a 100% increase in the price of flour, and a doubling of the cost of rice in Cambodia and the Philippines in the past year. Oxfam chief executive Barbara Stocking said the effects of the price rises are "devastating." (Press Association, Oct. 15)

Oil prices posted the biggest one-day dollar gain ever Monday Sept. 22 as the dollar fell in response to Washington's $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan. October oil contracts surged in afternoon trading, reaching $130—a more than $25 gain. It dropped back down to settle at $120.92 a barrel, up $16.37 from Friday's close. The gain eclipsed the $10.75 spike in oil on June 6. (CNNMoney.com, Sept. 22)

The price of crude oil dropped below $100 per barrel for the first time in six months Sept. 15, closing at $95.71 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. With Lehman Bros. heading into bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch agreeing to a buyout, the market reacted to fears that a global economic decline would cut demand. Prices also slid because Hurricane Ike closed 14 refineries along the Gulf Coast, which together make about 22% of all the gasoline produced in the US. But the refinery closures triggered a jump in gasoline prices by as much as 10 cents overnight in some states. (San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 15)

Our August issue featured the story "Hokkaido: The Anti-Climate Summit" by Walden Bello of Foreign Policy in Focus, arguing that the G8 nations derailed meaningful efforts to address global climate change at the July summit in Japan. Bello protests that "like the United States and Japan, the European governments continue to hang on to the position that economic growth can be 'decoupled' from energy use. In other words, they think they can maintain current European consumption levels and only have to achieve the more efficient use of energy and replace oil with other energy sources." Our July Exit Poll was: "Is it possible to meaningfully address global climate change while maintaining current levels of economic growth?" We received the following responses:

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva said Aug. 4 he hopes an agreement may still emerge from the Doha round of World Trade Organization negotiations. "I don't believe the round has failed. We still have enormous possibilities to negotiate," said Silva in a weekly radio address. The round was initiated in 2001 in Doha, Qatar, but collapsed July 29 at a meeting in Geneva, when the US, India and China failed to agree on agricultural policy. (Forbes, Aug. 5)

Seattle Post-Intelligencer blogger Monica Guzman writes that local voices are calling for the Seattle Critical Mass to be banned following a violent incident at the last ride. For a study in contrasts, let's compare corporate and alternative media accounts of the affair. First this, from AP again via the Post-Intelligencer, July 27:

There's a lesson here. But how many people are going to get it? From AP, July 23:

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Rising prices at the gas pump appear to be having at least one positive effect: Traffic deaths around the country are plummeting, just as they did during the Arab oil embargo more than three decades ago.

The US Interior Department July 16 opened 2.6 million acres of potentially oil-rich territory in northern Alaska to exploration, but deferred for ten years a decision on opening 600,000 acres north of Teshekpuk Lake that is the summer home of thousands of migrating caribou and millions of waterfowl. Drilling leases will be sold later this year for much of the northeast section of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), holding an estimated 3.7 billion barrels of oil, according to Tom Lonnie, Alaska state director for the Bureau of Land Management, in a conference call with reporters.