ETC Group
News Release
12 January 2006
www.etcgroup.org

New from ETC Group - January 2006
* New Publications
* ETC at World Social Forum in Caracas
* Coming Soon: ETC Blog

New Publications: The Worldwatch Institute's State of the World 2006  
includes a chapter on nanotechnology written by ETC Group. "Shrinking  
Science: An Introduction to Nanotechnology" provides an overview of  
tiny tech and its colossal societal impacts. ETC's chapter concludes:  
"In the coming decades, technologies converging at the nanoscale will  
revolutionize the design and manufacture of new materials, blur the  
distinction between living and non-living matter, and change the very  
definition of what it means to be human. The challenge is to go beyond  
the tired and familiar approach of technocratic regulations related to  
'risk' and to gain an innovative capacity for democratic control and  
assessment of science and technology."
Copies of the State of the World 2006 can be ordered here:  
http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/sow/2006/
State of the World 2006 will be translated into more than 20 languages.  
Spanish and French copies will be available in March.

In November 2005 ETC Group prepared a report for the Geneva-based South  
Centre entitled, "The Potential Impacts of Nano-Scale Technologies on  
Commodity Markets: The Implications for Commodity Dependent Developing  
Countries." The South Centre is an intergovernmental body of developing  
countries that promotes South solidarity and publishes and distributes  
information, strategic analyses and recommendations on international  
economic, social and political matters of concern to the South. The  
report by ETC Group was presented to a South Centre seminar in Hong  
Kong, 12 December 2005, in advance of the WTO ministerial and is  
available at  
http://www.southcentre.org/publications/researchpapers/ 
ResearchPapers4.pdf.

The South Centre's report examines the potential impacts of  
nanotechnology on two sectors - agriculture and mining - in commodity  
dependent developing countries. Cases studies on rubber, textiles,  
platinum and copper provide early examples of how economies and workers  
in the global South could be affected by nanotech's emerging R&D and  
products.

The report concludes: "History shows that there will be a push to  
replace commodities such as rubber, cotton and strategic minerals with  
cheaper raw materials that can be sourced or manufactured by new  
processes closer to home. Nanotech's new designer materials could  
topple commodity markets, disrupt trade and eliminate jobs.  
Worker-displacement brought on by commodity-obsolescence will hurt the  
poorest and most vulnerable, particularly those workers in the  
developing world who don't have the economic flexibility to respond to  
sudden demands for new skills or different raw materials."


ETC Group at the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela - January  
25-29, 2006:
ETC Group and partner organizations will participate in four workshops  
at the World Social Forum in Caracas. (Check our website,  
www.etcgroup.org, or www.forosocialmundial.org.ve for updates on times  
and locations of workshops.)

Workshop activities include the following:

 From Biotechnology to Nanotechnology: Science for Whom?
Organized by ETC Group
A panel discussion with Pat Mooney (ETC Group, Canada), Andrés Barreda,  
(CASIFOP, Mexico), Elizabeth Bravo (Acción Ecológica, Ecuador), Edgardo  
Lander (Universidad Central de Venezuela), Silvia Ribeiro (ETC Group,  
Mexico):
Panel followed by questions, debate and strategy session, focusing on  
the social, economic and environmental impacts of biotech on local  
communities and what we can expect with the advance of nanotechnology -  
the manipulation of matter, both living and non-living, at the scale of  
atoms and molecules. Where are we now after two decades of biotech and  
life patenting? We'll consider the current state of affairs, including  
control and ownership of nanoscale technologies, unanswered questions  
about the impacts on health, safety and the environment, and the  
implications for commodity production and trade in the global South.  
We'll also examine the meaning of converging technologies (B.A.N.G -  
bits, atoms, neurons and genes). What will technological convergence  
mean for democracy and human rights?

Biopiracy and Human Genomics
Organized by ETC Group
This workshop will include presentations and debate on the human  
Genographic Project (IBM and National Geographic), Craig Venter's  
global expedition to "sequence the genome of the seas," the creation of  
novel life forms (synthetic genomics) and the implications of the  
global effort to collect human DNA through the "HapMap" Project.

Issues at stake at the Convention on Biological Diversity, Brazil 2006:  
Strategy session for civil society
Organized by ETC Group, Centro Ecológico (Brasil), CBDC (Community  
Biodiversity Development and Conservation), Via Campesina.
A workshop to discuss issues and strategies leading up to the March,  
2006 meetings of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Curitiba,  
Brazil. Brief presentations on new forms of biopiracy, new technologies  
that affect biological and cultural diversity, and the international  
campaign to ban Terminator seed technology (suicide seeds).

Ban Terminator!
Organized by The Ban Terminator Campaign (www.banterminator.org)
A report on the biotech industry's revitalized quest to commercialize  
genetically engineered "homicide seeds." Members of the Ban Terminator  
Campaign will discuss national and international strategies to ban  
Terminator seed technology: AS-PTA (Assessoria e Serviços a Projectos  
em Agricultura Alternativa), ETC Group, GRAIN, Indigenous Peoples  
Council on Biocolonialism, Third World Network, PAN Asia Pacific.

Coming Soon: ETC Group Enters Blogosphere
Stay tuned for news of ETC's blog launch later this month. ETC's blog  
will allow us to provide frequent bits of news, views, insight and  
analysis on emerging technologies, corporate power, ETC.

For more information:

Pat Mooney
tel: +1 (613) 241-2267 (Canada)
etc@etcgroup.org
Jim Thomas
jim@etcgroup.org

Hope Shand and Kathy Jo Wetter
tel: +1 (919) 960-5223 (USA)
hope@etcgroup.org
kjo@etcgroup.org

Silvia Ribeiro
tel: +52 55 55 632 664 (Mexico)
silvia@etcgroup.org