May 23, 2007

“Leper ship” company Trafigura caught cleaning up Wikipedia

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 3:01 pm

[logo Wikipedia]The press office of Trafigura, the company which leased the leper ship Probo Koala at the time it dumped 500 tons of toxic waste in Ivory Coast last year, was caught red-handed “cleaning up” the Dutch Wikipedia entry about the ship. Specifically, it removed the sentence that said the ship had even transported toxic waste, and added a sentence claiming that the company had done nothing wrong, according to Dutch daily De Volkskrant (Dutch). Trafigura also used sock puppets to try and make further changes, after which the page was temporarily blocked from further editing.

Wikipedia itself is not adverse to poisining — the discourse that is. Editor Tom Ordelman said to De Volkskrant: “It is unusual […] to interfere with an entry about yourself, but in reality it happens a lot.” I guess “unusual” is Wiki Admin Speak for “verboten!”.

(Via: FEMBusiness.)

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May 3, 2007

Dutch scientist receives prize for wastewater system

Filed under: Science,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 10:33 am
gatze1.jpg

Dutch scientist Gatze Lettinga has been awarded the Tyler Environmental Prize for a wastewater treatment system that is making an impact in the developing world. The process offers inexpensive treatment of industrial waste and sewage in countries that cannot afford centralised systems. The system was developed for agricultural industries in the Netherlands and is currently used in industrial installations around the world. Lettinga refuses to patent the system in order for it to be freely available throughout the developing world. He wants sustainable systems like this to become the norm.

(Link)

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