What is the US government's real agenda in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Is it engaged in anything that contradicts its official alliance with Pakistan? And how big of a factor is natural resources in what the US war machine is doing? Kiren Chaudhry has gone to the region to investigate. In a conversation this past August, she characterized the US military/security effort as chaotic.

California has 1100 miles of coastline; most of it is eroding and all of it is changing in myriad ways. Gary Griggs has written a book about the coast's history, geology, climate, and resources. He also addresses the impact of rising sea levels and the history of oil extraction off California's coast.

What is the US government's real agenda in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Is it engaged in anything that contradicts its official alliance with Pakistan? And how big of a factor is natural resources in what the US war machine is doing? Kiren Chaudhry has gone to the region to investigate. She characterizes the US military/security effort as chaotic.

A number of post-Soviet states are bent on exploiting their natural resources to drive their economies. This has momentous implications both for natural environments and for environmental justice struggles. Kate Watters and Susie Crate describe the efforts of communities and indigenous people to address environmental degradation caused by extractive operations and nuclear tests.

In Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, Michael Klare argues that a global political realignment of historic proportions is under way, based on ever-more-intense competition for reliable energy supplies. Klare describes emerging Big Power alliances and rivalries in energy-rich sites like the Caspian basin and Africa. (Holiday encore presentation.)

The impact of oil exploitation on residents of the Niger Delta is explored in Curse of the Black Gold, which features the photos of Ed Kashi. Kashi describes social misery as well as grassroots resistance to the designs of Big Oil and the Nigerian government. George Caffentzis is encouraged by an emerging emphasis on petroleum as common property.