Skip to main content

Home/ Save The Planet/ Group items tagged economics

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Benno Hansen

Naomi Klein: Economic Model Is at War With Life on Earth: Video - Bloomberg - 3 views

www.bloomberg.com/...th-xPrW95e6S8eBShzSV6i4qQ.html

climate change naomi klein capitalism

shared by Benno Hansen on 04 Oct 14 - No Cached
nehasharma786 liked it
  • Benno Hansen on 04 Oct 14
     
    7:23 video: Naomi Klein, author of "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate," discusses climate change and the economics of the energy industry with Pimm Fox on "Taking Stock."
Benno Hansen

IRIN Middle East | Middle East | Lebanon | LEBANON: Climate change and politics threate... - 0 views

www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx

water palestine drought israel

shared by Benno Hansen on 02 Feb 09 - Cached
  • rising temperatures, spiralling population growth and inefficient irrigation are severely straining resources and threatening renewed economic and social breakdown.
  • Lebanon has the highest annual rainfall in the region, averaging 827mm compared to 630mm in Israel, 252mm in Syria and just 154mm in Iraq
  • Yet experts estimate that demand for water in Lebanon will have increased by more than 80 percent by 2025 as Lebanon’s population is expected to grow from four to 7.6 million. In the same period, as a result of climate change, average summer temperatures in the country are predicted to increase by 1.2 degrees centigrade.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Across areas of the northern Bekaa with better irrigation, many farmers have turned land over to growing water-thirsty but economically lucrative hashish plants – totalling some 16,000 acres of land
  • The valley is an economically underdeveloped area where more than 40 percent of residents are dependent on agriculture as their main source of living
Skeptical Debunker

Italian oil slick reaches key farm center of Parma - Yahoo! News - 0 views

news.yahoo.com/...jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl9oZWFkbGluZV9sa

oil spill Itally Po River impacts

shared by Skeptical Debunker on 25 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Authorities say the spill began Tuesday, when someone opened the cisterns at an oil refinery turned depot near Monza, letting tens of thousands of liters (thousands of gallons)of oil pour unimpeded into the Lambro River, a tributary of the Po. Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the spill. Authorities say it's certain someone intentionally opened the cisterns. By Wednesday, despite efforts to contain the slick with absorbent pads and the closure of hydroelectric locks, the oil seeped from the Lambro into the Po, Italy's longest river, which flows west-to-east across the country. And Thursday, the country's disaster relief chief, Guido Bertolaso, said he expects most of the slick to be cleaned up over the next day. "I believe this is not an irreparable situation," Bertolaso said after meeting with regional officials amid criticism from environmental groups and opposition lawmakers that the government had been slow to respond. "I believe that in the next 24 hours most of this oily mass will be recovered and then, following the course of the river, before it reaches Ferrara and obviously before it reaches the delta, we will be able to recover all the rest," said Bertolaso, head of the civil protection agency. The World Wildlife Fund for Nature says thousands of birds — ducks, herons and others — are nesting and reproducing in the area, which it called one of the most important in Europe. In addition, several fish species — eel, shad and mullet — reproduce in the waters. "The entire ecological and economic system is at risk," WWF warned in a statement. Officials have said water in the area is safe to drink, but provinces have issued fishing and boating bans for affected parts of the Po. Coldiretti said food was safe since farm production is low anyway at this time of the year, and heavy rains have meant that the Po won't be needed for irrigation for some time. "There are no risks for food on the table or damage to cultivation," Coldiretti said in a statement, adding that the rain forecast in coming days means that the oil will be further diluted and the residue dispersed. But those same rains are worrying environmental groups, which have warned that high water levels in the Po mean the oil will spread to the Po's other tributaries and streams, causing broader environmental degradation. And the Confagricultura farm group said the repercussions of the spill will be felt in small tributary farm communities, particularly as water demands increase with the spring planting of rice.
  • Skeptical Debunker on 25 Feb 10
     
    Sludge from an oil spill snaked down the Po River on Thursday to reach the province of Parma, raising fears that the home of Italy's famed prosciutto, parmesan cheese and other agricultural staples might be at risk of water contamination. Italian farm lobby Coldiretti insisted Italy's food chain was safe since the Po is not being used for irrigation these days. But another group of farm owners, Confagricultura, warned that the spring planting season - particularly for water-intensive rice crops - might be at risk unless clean water is ensured. The Po River valley, which extends 71,000 square kilometers (27,400 square miles) across several northern regions, produces a third of Italy's agricultural output and represents 40 percent of the country's GDP. Because of its economic importance, officials are warning that farm output might be affected, in addition to the already extensive damage the slick has caused to the area's wildlife.
Benno Hansen

How the 1% Pillage the Environment | AlterNet - 1 views

www.alternet.org/..._the_1_pillage_the_environment

environmentalism sustainability climate change OWS economy

shared by Benno Hansen on 02 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • when there’s money to be made, both workers and the environment are expendable
  • If you are a CEO who skims millions of dollars off other people’s labor, it’s called a “bonus.”  If you are a flood victim who breaks into a sporting goods store to grab a lifejacket, it’s called looting.  If you lose your job and fall behind on your mortgage, you get evicted.  If you are a banker-broker who designed flawed mortgages that caused a million people to lose their homes, you get a second-home vacation-mansion near a golf course.
  • The 1% are willing to spend billions impeding democratic initiatives, which is why every so-called environmental issue is also about building a democratic culture.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • If you drag heavy fishnets across the ocean floor and pulverize an entire ecosystem, ending thousands of years of dynamic evolution and depriving future generations of a healthy ocean, it’s called free enterprise.  But if, like Tim DeChristopher, you disrupt an auction of public land to oil and gas companies, it’s called a crime and you get two years in jail.   
  • Tearing apart wildlife habitat to make a profit and doing the same at a workplace are just considered the price of doing business. Clearcutting a forest and clearcutting a labor force are two sides of the same coin. 
  • The desperate effort to grow the economy to solve our economic woes is what keeps Timothy Geithner at the helm of the Treasury and is what stalls the regulation of greenhouse gasses.  It’s why we are told we must sacrifice environmental quality for pipelines and why young men and women are sacrificed to protect access to oil, the lubricant for an acquisitive economic engine.
  • we have built an all-encompassing economic engine that requires unending growth.  A contraction of even a percent or two is a crisis, and yet we are embedded in ecosystems that are reaching or have reached their limits.
  • Like so much else these days, the crash, as it happens, will not be suffered in equal measure by all of us.  The one percenters will be atop the hill, while the 99% will be in the flood lands below swimming for their lives, clinging to debris, or drowning.
  • Degrading the planet’s operating systems to bolster the bottom line is foolish and reckless.  It hurts us all.  No less important, it’s unfair.  The 1% profit, while the rest of us cough and cope. After Occupy Wall Street, isn’t it time for Occupy Earth?
Joelle Nebbe-Mornod

BEarthright - Spiritual Economics - 0 views

www.geocities.ws/3046

economics spiritual

shared by Joelle Nebbe-Mornod on 25 Jun 16 - Cached
  • Joelle Nebbe-Mornod on 25 Jun 16
     
    "If you own no land to support yourself, you must rent, hire or buy it from those that do, so that you may both live and make a living If you cannot use the planet to feed, clothe and provide for yourself then to stay alive, you must choose to either work for those who own your planet, to become a thief or a beggar, or to die. This servitude has taken on many forms throughout history: slavery, serfdom, day-labour, employment. The only variation being the share of the wealth produced left to the planet borrowers by the planet owners This simple reality underlies much of today's poverty, inequality, lack of freedom, unemployment and powerlessness, experienced as the sheer struggle to get by that looms so large in so many peoples' lives These latter day pharaohs, the planet owners, the richest 5% - allow the rest of us to pay day after day for the right to live on their planet. And as we make them richer, they buy yet more of the planet for themselves, and use their wealth and power to fight amongst themselves over what each posesses ~ though of course it's actually us who have to fight and die in their wars"
Benno Hansen

Big business goes to Rio -- New Internationalist - 0 views

www.newint.org/...ility-big-business-corporation

business green economy sustainability environment

shared by Benno Hansen on 18 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Harmless-sounding phrases like ‘green economy’ and ‘sustainable development’ have become grounds for bitter dispute, as different governments and business interests attempt to redefine these terms to meet their own agenda.
  • This row of well-meaning policy sandcastles have spent the past 20 years being eaten away by a rising tide of fundamentalist free-market economics, unfettered financial speculation, and consolidated corporate power.
  • any environmental and social gains from the first Rio summit look small next to the destruction wrought by a voracious corporate sector and by governments obsessed with growth in GDP before all else.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • A shift to a genuinely sustainable society will require us to challenge these negative forces, rein in the excesses of corporations and markets, and build an entirely different economy based on wellbeing for the many rather than profits for the few.
  • Silvia Ribeiro from the campaign group ETC Mexico points out: ‘Collapsing financial markets in Northern countries mean that banks and other investors are now looking desperately for new areas of expansion and speculation. We can see these desires leaving their mark on the Rio+20 process. The “Green Economy” now under discussion would unleash a wave of risky but lucrative new technologies such as synthetic biology, nanotechnology and climate technofixes. This isn’t about finding the best environmental solutions: it’s about creating profitable new investments.’
  • we cannot afford to live in a world where ecosystems are protected if, and only if, there is more profit to be made by protecting them than by trashing them.
  • Large polluting industries, business lobby groups and financial institutions are welcomed in as well-meaning ‘stakeholders’ – like mafia bosses invited to a meeting on reducing gang violence.
  • The businesses with the most wealth and power are those that have flourished in an economy based on the unrestricted use of natural resources and the exploitation of many of the world’s people. Those with the most to lose from a shift to true sustainability are therefore those with the most power to block that change.
  • the Stockholm Environment Institute calculated that the economic value of the oceans could be reduced by up to $2 trillion per year if climate change is left unchecked
  • Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of IEN, said: ‘Systems such as “payment for ecological services” and using forests in carbon offset markets do nothing but make Mother Earth into the World Trade Organization of nature.’
  • According to Lucia Ortiz of Friends of the Earth Brazil: ‘Trades Unions are getting very concerned about the “green economy” agenda, because it represents a deepening of neoliberal policies, and threatens to undermine the social rights already secured by past struggles. They are working in solidarity with environmentalists, indigenous peoples, farmers and women’s rights activists, calling instead for a transition to a sustainable and just society free from the exploitation of workers and of nature.’
Maluvia Haseltine

GreenSense- Family: homebirth, attachment parenting, green parenting, breastfeeding, un... - 0 views

www.greensense.com/GR_FAM.HTM

Parenting HomeSchooling Sustainability

shared by Maluvia Haseltine on 19 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Maluvia Haseltine on 19 Jul 09
     
    Green parenting is economical, conserving of resources, and by its nature, encourages children to love the earth.
Benno Hansen

Biodiversity loss matters, and communication is crucial - SciDev.Net - 0 views

www.scidev.net/...-communication-is-crucial.html

biodiversity biology

shared by Benno Hansen on 11 Feb 10 - Cached
  • at root is the conflict between the need to radically change our use of natural resources and the desire to maintain current forms of economic growth
  • enhancing the media's ability to communicate messages emerging from the underlying science
  • governments signed up to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have missed their 2010 target, set in 2002, of achieving "a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss"
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Finally the apocalyptic tone sometimes used in attempts to drive a message home can further hinder the case for constructive action. Too often, it promotes either cynicism or apathy among those who cannot relate these disaster scenarios to their own personal experience.
  • he issues scientists think most important often seem abstract and far removed from the day-to-day concerns of ordinary people
  • sloppy scientific reasoning can have a broad and lasting impact
  • embed this scientific evidence into viable but sustainable economic growth and development strategies
Maluvia Haseltine

KickStart :: About Us - 0 views

www.kickstart.org/about-us

Sustainability

shared by Maluvia Haseltine on 24 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Maluvia Haseltine on 24 Feb 10
     
    KickStart's mission is to help millions of people out of poverty. We promote sustainable economic growth and employment creation in Kenya and other countries. We develop and promote technologies that can be used by dynamic entrepreneurs to establish and run profitable small scale enterprises.
Benno Hansen

Off the Shelf - 'Green Gone Wrong' - Can Capitalism Save the Planet? - Review - NYTimes... - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...04shelf.html

climate change capitalism environmentalism

shared by Benno Hansen on 06 Apr 10 - Cached
  • corporate America has led us into thinking that we can save the earth mainly by buying things
  • ‘lazy environmentalism,’ is geared toward the masses that aren’t willing to sacrifice,”
  • armchair activism actualizes itself most fully in the realm of consumer goods; through buying the right products we can usher our economic system into the environmental age.”
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • many of the small organic producers who are expected to lead the reinvention of the food system can barely make ends meet
  • If there was ever a time to ponder the long-term consequences of our spending habits, it’s in the wake of the worst economic crisis in decades, which was fueled by rampant consumer borrowing.
Benno Hansen

We Need Sustainable Capitalism - WSJ.com - 1 views

online.wsj.com/...SB122584367114799137.html

economy economics capitalism

shared by Benno Hansen on 25 Oct 09 - Cached
  • market capitalism has arrived at a critical juncture
  • sustainable development will be the primary driver of economic and industrial change over the next 25 years
  • sustainability issues are central to business and should be incorporated in the analysis of business and management quality
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • "Nature does not do bailouts."
Alex Parker

The UK - a role to play in developing clean African energy? - 1 views

www.power-technology.com/...g-clean-african-energy-4454517

environment energy

shared by Alex Parker on 16 Dec 14 - No Cached
  • Alex Parker on 16 Dec 14
     
    While sub-Saharan Africa has seen robust economic growth, access to electricity is lagging behind. Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna has called on British industry to support the development of renewable energy in Africa, highlighting the economic value of establishing a firm base in the continent.
Benno Hansen

New Report issues a warning about humanity's ability to survive without a major change ... - 0 views

www.clubofrome.org/?p=4211

report climate change sustainability Jørgen Randers Club of Rome

shared by Benno Hansen on 12 May 12 - No Cached
  • The Report says the main cause of future problems is the excessively short-term predominant political and economic model.
Benno Hansen

Nasa-funded study: industrial civilisation headed for 'irreversible collapse'? | Nafeez... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...ible-collapse-study-scientists

environment collapse civilisation inequality crisis natural resources climate change food water energy population

shared by Benno Hansen on 16 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • By investigating the human-nature dynamics of these past cases of collapse, the project identifies the most salient interrelated factors which explain civilisational decline, and which may help determine the risk of collapse today: namely, Population, Climate, Water, Agriculture, and Energy.
    • Benno Hansen
      Benno Hansen on 16 Mar 14
       
      NASA har lavet Collapse 2 ?
  • These factors can lead to collapse when they converge to generate two crucial social features: "the stretching of resources due to the strain placed on the ecological carrying capacity"; and "the economic stratification of society into Elites [rich] and Masses (or "Commoners") [poor]" These social phenomena have played "a central role in the character or in the process of the collapse," in all such cases over "the last five thousand years."
  • The study challenges those who argue that technology will resolve these challenges by increasing efficiency: "Technological change can raise the efficiency of resource use, but it also tends to raise both per capita resource consumption and the scale of resource extraction, so that, absent policy effects, the increases in consumption often compensate for the increased efficiency of resource use."
    • Benno Hansen
      Benno Hansen on 16 Mar 14
       
      efficiency paradox
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • the scientists point out that the worst-case scenarios are by no means inevitable, and suggest that appropriate policy and structural changes could avoid collapse, if not pave the way toward a more stable civilisation.
Benno Hansen

BBC News - Placing a value on Kenya's largest forest - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...science-environment-11564773

kenya deforestation

shared by Benno Hansen on 20 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Prized as a "natural water tower", the forest has also been the target for aggressive clearance and timber logging in recent decades and its size has been cut by at least 40%.
  • Research by the Kenya Forest Research Institute (KEFRI) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates the economic benefit of the forest to be more than $1.3bn per year.
  • Bordering the trees are some of Kenya's largest tea plantations - tea is one of the country's key exports and the research calculates that it benefits from the forest to the tune of $163m a year.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • half of the country's power is driven by water
  • The study calculates that the Mau Forest's value to the electricity sector is $131.6m.
  • This blaze of lurid colour helps to make tourism one of Kenya's biggest earners, and the study reckons this industry receives $65 million in benefits from the forest.
  • Further services provided by the forest include an estimated $89million in storing carbon, $98million in controlling soil erosion and $21million in support for fisheries.
Benno Hansen

Do nations go to war over water? : Article : Nature - 1 views

www.nature.com/...458282a.html

war nature climate change water israel palestine nile egypt sudan ethiopia india pakistan conflict

shared by Benno Hansen on 25 Mar 09 - Cached
  • There are 263 cross-boundary waterways in the world. Between 1948 and 1999, cooperation over water, including the signing of treaties, far outweighed conflict over water and violent conflict in particular. Of 1,831 instances of interactions over international freshwater resources tallied over that time period (including everything from unofficial verbal exchanges to economic agreements or military action), 67% were cooperative, only 28% were conflictive, and the remaining 5% were neutral or insignificant. In those five decades, there were no formal declarations of war over water2.
  • it is foolish for Israel, a water-short country, to grow and then export products such as oranges and avocados, which require a lot of water to cultivate
  • water 'embedded' in traded products could be important in explaining the absence of conflict over water
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • as poor countries diversify their economies, they turn away from agriculture and create wealth from industries that use less water. As a country becomes richer, it may require more water overall to sustain its booming population, but it can afford to import food to make up the shortfall
  • Israel ran out of water in the 1950s: it has not since then produced enough water to meet all of its needs, including food production. Jordan has been in the same situation since the 1960s; Egypt since the 1970s. Although it is true that these countries have fought wars with each other, they have not fought over water. Instead they all import grain.
  • Palestinian and Israeli water professionals interact on a Joint Water Committee, established by the Oslo-II Accords in 1995. It is not an equal partnership: Israel has de facto veto power on the committee.
  • Inequitable access to water resources is a result of the broader conflict and power dynamics: it does not itself cause war.
    • Benno Hansen
      Benno Hansen on 25 Mar 09
       
      From causation to hen/egg
  • although India and Pakistan have fought three wars and frequently find themselves in eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation, the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, arbitrated by the World Bank, has more than once helped to defuse tensions over water
  • predictions of armed conflict come from the media and from popular, non-peer-reviewed work
  • I offered to revise its thesis, but my publishers pointed out that predicting an absence of war over water would not sell.
  • most importantly, improve the conditions of trade for developing countries to strengthen their economies
Benno Hansen

We're on the brink of disaster | Salon - 0 views

www.salon.com/...klare

shared by Benno Hansen on 27 Feb 09 - Cached
  • Every outbreak of violence has its own distinctive origins and characteristics. All, however, are driven by a similar combination of anxiety about the future and lack of confidence in the ability of established institutions to deal with the problems at hand.
  • The riots that erupted in the spring of 2008 in response to rising food prices suggested the speed with which economically related violence can spread.
  • The cost of food is now closely tied to the price of oil and natural gas because petrochemicals are so widely and heavily used in the cultivation of grains
Benno Hansen

Reuters AlertNet - CLIMATE CHANGE BLOG: Does poverty equal vulnerability? - 0 views

www.alertnet.org/...27-133355-1.htm

climate change economics development colonialism

shared by Benno Hansen on 28 Oct 08 - Cached
  • 'poor people are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change'
  • But is it the state of being poor that makes people vulnerable to climate change, or the processes that lead to their impoverishment?
  • if you have access to a clean and healthy environment that provides for your needs - meaning you don't need two dollars a day (or perhaps even one) - then you aren't living in poverty!
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • most of those who are poor and face the biggest threat from climate change are descended from people who had indigenous adaptation strategies to climatic and other environmental hazards which would - if they hadn't been colonised - have made them far less vulnerable than the 'rich' to the impacts of climate change.
  • If some of the worst-case climate change scenarios do come to pass, then the rich are also going to be extremely vulnerable and, if push comes to shove, I'd prefer to have knowledge of my land and how to grow food in inhospitable environments
  • the very wisdom that could help make us all less vulnerable to climate change is being lost as more and more people are sucked into a global economy that values only certain types of knowledge and beliefs.
Benno Hansen

Climate Change Could Be Impetus For Wars, Other Conflicts, Expert Says - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...080821164304.htm

change climate conflict global war warming

shared by Benno Hansen on 26 Aug 08 - Cached
  • discussion has ensued among international-security experts who believe climate-change-related damage to global ecosystems and the resulting competition for natural resources may increasingly serve as triggers for wars and other conflicts in the future.
  • most possibly destabilizing populations and governments: degradation of freshwater resources, food insecurity, natural disasters and environmental migration.
  • the number of world regions vulnerable to drought was expected to rise
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • “Most critical for human survival are water and food, which are sensitive to changing climatic conditions,”
  • “The associated socio-economic and political stress can undermine the functioning of communities, the effectiveness of institutions, and the stability of societal structures. These degraded conditions could contribute to civil strife, and, worse, armed conflict.”
  • “Large areas of Africa are suffering from scarcity of food and fresh water resources, making them more vulnerable to conflict.
  • “Although climate change bears a significant conflict potential, it can also transform the international system toward more cooperation if it is seen as a common threat that requires joint action,”
  • the seeming conflict between environment and the economy will be best overcome with the recognition that protecting the climate in the best interest of the economy.”
  • “History has shown how dependent our culture is on a narrow window of climatic conditions for average temperature and precipitation,”
Benno Hansen

Learning From Past Civilizations : TreeHugger - 0 views

www.treehugger.com/...earning-past-civilizations.php

jared diamond collapse sustainability

shared by Benno Hansen on 12 Aug 09 - Cached
  • our early twenty-first century civilization is not the first to face the prospect of environmentally induced economic decline. The question is how we will respond.
  • Today, our successes and problems flow from the extraordinary growth in the world economy over the last century.
  • While the economy is growing exponentially, the earth’s natural capacities, such as its ability to supply fresh water, forest products, and seafood, have not increased. Humanity’s collective demands first surpassed the earth’s regenerative capacity around 1980. Today, global demands on natural systems exceed their sustainable yield capacity by nearly 30 percent. We are meeting current demands by consuming the earth’s natural assets, setting the stage for decline and collapse.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • In our modern high-tech civilization, it is easy to forget that the economy, indeed our existence, is wholly dependent on the earth’s natural systems and resources.
  • the carbon stored in the Amazon’s trees equals roughly 15 years of human-induced carbon emissions in the atmosphere
  • we will either mobilize together to save our global civilization, or we will all be potential victims of its disintegration
1 - 20 of 26 Next ›
Showing 20▼ items per page