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Arabica Robusta

Fair Trade or food miles? « Brussels Development Briefings - 0 views

brusselsbriefings.net/...organic-or-fair-trade

agriculture fairtrade food foodmiles international trade

shared by Arabica Robusta on 20 Apr 08 - Cached
  • The food miles debate is increasing the demand for local foods, which could become a threat to air freighted Fair Trade products.
eyal matsliah

No Impact Man: When the lights go out…Gulp! - 0 views

noimpactman.typepad.com/...when_the_lights.html

alternate-energy electricity fridge lifestyle noimpactman simple-living sustainable-technology

shared by eyal matsliah on 07 May 07 - Cached
  • As for lighting, strategically placed candles with mirrors behind them shine more brightly than people give them credit for.
  • A suggestion for those who find it financially difficult to be green. Search in your areas for Trade and Barter organizations. I'm sure most big cities have them. But you don't have to join a group, but people you know that you can barter with. I have done this before, traded my time with a friend who is a carpenter who builds energy efficient off-grid homes. It saved me a lot of money. Everyone has a skill they can trade. You can still be green even if you have a low-income. I've managed to do it, and having a low-income has taught me to be responsible with money. Grow your own food, or find someone who has a space you can start a garden. I live in a bachelor suite and grow culinary herbs, and baby lettuce, romaine, spinach. Also grow sprouts in jars. There is lots of info on the net about sprout growing. Posted by: dare | April 21, 2007 at 12:46 PM
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.’
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
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  • 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
Mark Kabbbash

ZAAP Stock News : Cash for Clunkers Available on ZAP Electric Car - View Message - 0 views

www.equitygroups.com/...150647.html

electric cars

shared by Mark Kabbbash on 09 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Mark Kabbbash on 09 Aug 09
     
    ZAP Answers Federal "Cash for Clunkers" Program With Its Own Trade-In Program Good on the Xebra 100% Electric Sedan, Total Value up to $4,500 and 90% Fewer Carbon Emissions
Mark Kabbbash

WM Stock News : Waste Management and Shanghai Chengtou Holding Partner in China's Fast ... - 0 views

www.equitygroups.com/...150658.html

alternative energy Investing Stock Trading chengtou Renewable reduce carbon footprint

shared by Mark Kabbbash on 09 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Mark Kabbbash on 09 Aug 09
     
    "SC Holding and SEG are great partners for us as we venture into the growing Chinese market," said David Steiner, CEO of Waste Management. "We see waste as a resource, and we see international expansion of our waste-to-energy business through our subsidiary, Wheelabrator Technologies Inc, as a growth engine for us in the future. Wheelabrator's operational excellence coupled with SEG's market position and local expertise provides a strong competitive advantage. Through this joint venture, SEG can bring increased operating and technical efficiencies and solutions to the rapidly growing Chinese waste-to-energy market."
Benno Hansen

Industrialized Farming Endangers World Food Supply - 0 views

www.ziopedia.org/...ng_endangers_world_food_supply

shared by Benno Hansen on 20 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Multi-national food corporations are increasingly using global food insecurity as a tool for political control.
  • rich countries are buying poor countries’ fertile soil, water and sun to ship food and fuel back home.
  • “USAID is actually an arm of the US-Department of Defense; it serves US foreign policy interest and has little to do with humanism.”
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  • South Africa repeats the pattern of Iraq and of Afghanistan, where new laws prohibit farmers to save or trade their own seeds.
  • The Oil-for-Food program in Iraq forced the large-scale importation of food after the first Gulf War. Devastated Iraqi farmers then became the victims of USAID.
  • Under US occupation, Iraqi farmers must pay a “technology fee” plus an annual license fee to agribusinesses supplying the seeds and equipment. Similar policies exist in Afghanistan
  • “The war provides these corporations with both a lucrative short-term market in the blossoming “reconstruction” industry and an opportunity to integrate Afghanistan into their global production networks and markets in the long term.”
Benno Hansen

Chevron fined $8bn over Amazon 'contamination' | Dominic Rushe | Environment | The Guar... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...chevron-contaminate-ecuador

oil chevron

shared by Benno Hansen on 15 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • An Ecuadorian judge has ruled that Chevron was responsible for widespread contamination of the country's Amazon basin and fined the company $8bn (£5bn).
  • far below the $27.3bn sought by the plaintiffs – and they may appeal
  • The epic and bitterly fought lawsuit over the "Amazon Chernobyl" has been going on for 18 years. It was brought on behalf of 30,000 people whose health and environment were allegedly damaged by chemical-laden waste water dumped by Texaco's operations from 1972 to 1990. Chevron bought Texaco in 2001.
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  • Chevron had claimed that Ecuador was violating the terms of a 1997 trade pact with the US.
  • According to a report by Sweden's Umeå International School of Public Health more than 30bn gallons of toxic wastes and crude oil had been discharged into the land and waterways of Ecuador's Amazon basin - or "Oriente". This compares to the 10.8m gallons spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 in Alaska or 205m gallons spilt in BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster. The report claims there are at least two big oil spills per week in the area. Printable version Send to a friend Share Clip Contact us larger | smaller Environment Pollution · Oil · Energy Business Oil · Commodities World news Ecuador More news Related 7 Jun 2010 Exxon Mobil argues against knee-jerk reaction to Gulf oil spill 31 Aug 2010 Greenland's prime minister lambasts Greenpeace for raiding Arctic oil rig 7 May 2010 Chevron wins access to film-maker's Amazon pollution footage 1 Dec 2010 A climate journey - The Andes: Ecuador's rainforests
Alex Parker

Healthcare savings trump the cost of halting climate change - so why the delay? - 1 views

www.power-technology.com/...hange-so-why-the-delay-4356743

environment energy sustainability climate change environmentalism green

shared by Alex Parker on 05 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Alex Parker on 05 Sep 14
     
    A detailed study by MIT has found the health cost savings of some climate change mitigation policies, such as cap-and-trade, greatly out-weigh the cost of the policy's implementation. Will this new research influence leaders at this months' UN Climate Summit?
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