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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.
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  • 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

Aiko Stevenson: Rio+20: "We Are Made Wise by the Responsibility of Our Future" - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...rio20-summit_b_1526687.html

future climate change sustainability environmentalism

shared by Benno Hansen on 22 May 12 - No Cached
  • "Ecocide is in essence the very antithesis of life. It leads to resource depletion, and where there is an escalation of resource depletion, war comes chasing behind."
Mark Kabbbash

Combine a payment system retailers phone company the Cloud consumers - 0 views

www.equitygroups.com/...e-company-the-Cloud--consumers

coupons OTCBB Mobile stocks VGTL Investing iPhone EquityGroups

shared by Mark Kabbbash on 18 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Technological Convergence In the Digital Marketplace provides windows of opportunity.  The socialization of data with sufficient bandwidth for the mobile handheld devices enables video to enhance the users experience to a personal level like never before.  Constantly fueling an expanding, user base with disruptive technologies and solutions right to the local environments, while monetizing that traffic flow, is the goal.
  • Mr. Harris added, "As the market enters a new era that will be driven by audience connections with each other and with brands, we will be focused on personal technology and personal media. To that end, we have also entered into negotiations to strengthen our global capabilities in social media, video and global e-commerce." VGTel anticipates that the deals under discussion will be closed before the end of the second quarter.
  • In addition to purchasing MeCoupons, VGTel is continuing to look for opportunities to strengthen its mobile and social capabilities. The power of mobile to actively engage consumers via data, voice and sound is driving innovation industry-wide and creating opportunities for companies like VGTel to develop new and compelling offers that enhance connections between consumers, content and brands. Mr. Harris added, “Mobile, along with social, video and commerce will continue to be key areas of focus as we move forward. We will look to build, buy or grow these capabilities rapidly.” VGTel noted that the deal should be completed before the end of the second quarter.
  • ...1 more annotation...
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  • Mark Kabbbash on 18 Mar 11
     
    I am so sorry I did not want to put this here. I can not figure out how to delete it!
Joelle Nebbe-Mornod

The Super Chickpea, and the silent heroes in the war against hunger. | CCAFS - 0 views

www.ccafs.cgiar.org/...lent-heroes-war-against-hunger

chickpea

shared by Joelle Nebbe-Mornod on 19 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Joelle Nebbe-Mornod on 19 Feb 11
     
    Sufficient food, but also a balanced food intake are key to battle malnutrition. Often the world's attention goes to staple foods like rice, maize or wheat. We often forget it takes other crops too, to make a balanced diet, in a global fight against hunger. Chickpeas is one of those crops, and an important one, as they make up for more than 20 percent of the world pulse production. Chickpeas contain 22-25% proteins, and 2-3 times more iron and zinc than wheat. Chickpea protein quality is better than other pulses. … So understandably, agricultural researchers, like Dr. Pooran M.Gaur, a principal scientist and chickpea breeder at ICRISAT, make continuous efforts to develop new chickpea varieties, adapted to fast changing environmental conditions. "Super Chickpeas", as it were. Bred by -what I would not hesitate to call - "super scientists", in the quiet isolation of agricultural research centers.
Andy Sternberg

Forum For The Future - 0 views

www.forumforthefuture.org

future green forum environment sustainability uk

shared by Andy Sternberg on 04 Jan 11 - Cached
  • Andy Sternberg on 04 Jan 11
     
    Forum for the Future works with leaders from business and the public sector to create a green, fair and prosperous world
Benno Hansen

Apocalypse Not: Here's Why You Shouldn't Worry About End Times | Wired Science | Wired.com - 1 views

www.wired.com/...all

apocalypse environment apocaholism

shared by Benno Hansen on 20 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • The lesson of failed past predictions of ecological apocalypse is not that nothing was happening but that the middle-ground possibilities were too frequently excluded from consideration.
Mark Kabbbash

New Plant - Some of the highest quality diesel fuel in the world from Animal Fat. - 0 views

www.equitygroups.com/...-Advanced-Biofuels-Plant-Opens

renewable energy biofuel environmental

shared by Mark Kabbbash on 15 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Operations are underway at the new Dynamic Fuels plant, which is successfully converting animal fats and greases into high quality renewable fuels, officials from Syntroleum Corporation (NASDAQ: SYNM) and Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE: TSN) announced today. Production began in early October and the volume being produced is 2,500 barrels per day and growing.
  • Gary Roth, chief executive officer of Syntroleum, said, "Our U.S. plant is producing some of the highest quality diesel fuel in the world, and best of all, it is renewable with a carbon footprint 75% below that of petroleum diesel. We can also make renewable, high value specialty distillate products that can be used in a wide variety of applications such as dry cleaning, ink cartridges and drilling fluids, and we are actively pursuing these markets."
  • Mark Kabbbash on 15 Nov 10
     
    This is an excellent means to create (reuse?) Check this video out ...
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.
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  • 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

BBC News - Kenya's largest forest under threat - 1 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...science-environment-11556561

kenya bbc video deforestation

shared by Benno Hansen on 20 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Benno Hansen on 20 Oct 10
     
    2 min video
Benno Hansen

Climate change action through the courts - 1 views

www.capitalfm.co.ke/...-through-the-courts-10042.html

climate climate change environment law

shared by Benno Hansen on 09 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • "A large part of the relevant legal literature suggests that the main polluting nations can be held responsible under international law for the harmful effects of their greenhouse-gas emissions," says the paper's author, lawyer Christoph Schwarte.
  • "Developing country governments are understandably reluctant to challenge any of the big donor nations in an international court or tribunal. But this may change once the impacts of climate change become even more visible and an adequate agreement remains wanting."
  • FIELD is a group of public international lawyers based in London working towards a fair, effective and accessible system of international law that protects the global environment and promotes sustainable development.
  • Benno Hansen on 09 Oct 10
     
    Foundation for International Environment Law and Development (FIELD)
Benno Hansen

Environmental progress looks south | Blog | Ode Magazine - 0 views

www.odemagazine.com/...ronmental_progress_looks_south

environment law kenya ecuador

shared by Benno Hansen on 27 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • the overdeveloped nations of the world need to follow the example of their poor neighbors to the south, which dump far fewer pollutants into the global commons
  • these are the places where precious biodiversity, rainforests and other ecological treasures still exist - the natural ecosystems of Europe and North American were largely ravaged a century ago
  • In 2008, Ecuador became the first nation in the world to enshrine the rights of nature in its constitution. The document now asserts that nature "has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution"
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  • Kenya adopted a new constitution that declares in Article 42, "Every person has the right to a clean and healthy environment, which includes the right - a) to have the environment protected for the benefit of present and future generations through legislative and other measures."
  • Article 69 of the new constitution also holds the state responsible for maintaining tree cover over at least ten percent of the nation’s land; for encouraging public participation in protecting and managing the environment; protecting indigenous knowledge of biodiversity; and establishing systems of environmental impact assessment.
Benno Hansen

Memory, The Most Important Overlooked Environmental Tool? : TreeHugger - 0 views

www.treehugger.com/...rlooked-environmental-tool.php

environmentalism sustainability environment food

shared by Benno Hansen on 11 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • what we consider normal levels of energy use, gadget use, clothing purchases, car usage, flying, et cetera etc etc in the really not so distant past were lower.
  • Just one example, air conditioning use. What once was considering a luxury is unquestioningly now called a necessity in more and more places--in the process ignoring entirely the fact that 1) air conditioning is a historically modern invention, 2) places used to be built with natural cooling in mind, 3) it simply isn't a necessity for the vast majority of people
  • How often people used to eat meat
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  • how to build communities not centered around de facto mandatory automobile ownership
  • how many fish used to swim in streams and the oceans, how many birds used to fly in the skies, how many bigger animals used to be in our forests
Benno Hansen

Big Drought Makes for a Small 'Dead Zone' - NYTimes.com - 0 views

green.blogs.nytimes.com/...ht-makes-for-a-small-dead-zone

drought dead zone usa climate change agriculture

shared by Benno Hansen on 06 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • this summer’s hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico – the oxygen-devoid area of water colloquially known as the dead zone – covers one of the smallest areas recorded since scientists began measuring the hypoxic zone in 1985
  • “Because of the massive drought in the Midwest, there’s a whole lot less fertilizer being flushed into the rivers and whole lot less water being flushed into the gulf,” said Don Scavia, an aquatic ecologist with the University of Michigan.
  • Benno Hansen on 06 Aug 12
     
    this summer's hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico - the oxygen-devoid area of water colloquially known as the dead zone - covers one of the smallest areas recorded since scientists began measuring the hypoxic zone in 1985
Benno Hansen

Earth Summit is doomed to fail, say leading ecologists - environment - 10 February 2012... - 0 views

www.newscientist.com/...il-say-leading-ecologists.html

biodiversity earth summit environment sustainability climate change

shared by Benno Hansen on 13 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • "We are disillusioned. The current political system is broken," said Bob Watson, the UK government's chief environmental science advisor
  • "Last time in Rio we had an unreasonable faith in governments. Since then we've lost our innocence in believing government was wise and benevolent and far-sighted. That's been blown completely out of the water," said Camilla Toulmin, director of the International Institute for Environment and Development, a non-profit organisation based in London.
  • "The UN text [for the summit declaration] is weak," said energy researcher José Goldemberg, who was Brazil's environment secretary at the time of the first summit.
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  • Syukuro Manabe, a climate modeller at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "the political system is not motivated to worry about the future".
  • "Decision-makers should learn from and scale up grass-roots action and knowledge in areas like energy, food, water and natural resources," the panel declared.
Benno Hansen

British town grows all of its own vegetables, witnesses improved civic life and reduced... - 1 views

www.naturalnews.com/egetables_civic_buildings.html

vegetables food crime sustainability

shared by Benno Hansen on 30 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • Fresh herbs, succulent greens, and tasty fruits can be found growing near civic buildings, college campuses, supermarket parking lots, and various other places. Small garden plots, raised planting beds, and even small soil strips in these areas can be found brimming with fresh produce, all of which are free to anyone who want it, and at any time.
  • 70 large planting beds located all around the town to plant raspberries, apricots, apples, blackcurrants, redcurrants, strawberries, beans, peas, cherries, mint, rosemary, thyme, fennel, potatoes, kale, carrots, lettuce, onions, vegetables, and herbs
  • "If you take a grass verge that was used as a litter bin and a dog toilet and turn it into a place full of herbs and fruit trees, people won't vandalize it. I think we are hard-wired not to damage food," said Warhurst
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  • the Incredible Edible program has improved community relations, and reduced crime by an incrementally higher amount every single year since it first started
Benno Hansen

Jared Diamond Video: With Climate Change, Americans Have Unique Chance to Avoid the Fat... - 0 views

thinkprogress.org/...te-change-fate-of-ancient-maya

climate change Jared Diamond environment

shared by Benno Hansen on 19 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Jared Diamond talks about climate change, drawing parallels between modern Americans and the Classic southern lowland Maya – who failed to take the actions that might have avoided the collapse of their civilization
  • we must not only slow its pace by reducing emissions, but we must prepare for its impacts and adapt
Maluvia Haseltine

Be Happy, Be Authentic, Make a Bamboo Bike : Planet Green - 0 views

planetgreen.discovery.com/...ppy-authentic-bamboo-bike.html

GreenTechnology

shared by Maluvia Haseltine on 01 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Maluvia Haseltine on 01 Feb 10
     
    Another brilliant idea!
Benno Hansen

Arctic warming spurs record melting : Nature News - 0 views

www.nature.com/...news.2008.1314.html

shared by Benno Hansen on 17 Dec 08 - Cached
  • Record melting in northern Greenland and the widespread release of methane gas from formerly frozen deposits off the Siberian coast suggest that major changes are sweeping the Arctic
  • The study found methane bubbling up from the seafloor over hundreds of square kilometres in the Laptev and East Siberian Seas
  • Water measurements indicate that methane concentrations were up to 200 times higher than the background levels
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The submerged permafrost is on the threshold of melting, and air temperatures in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf have increased by as much as five degrees Celsius over the last decade
  • In most summers, temperatures rise enough to permit melting in that region on only 10–15 days on average. But in 2008, the melt period totalled 35 days.
  • Estimates based on satellite measurements of the entire ice cap suggest that the island is now losing hundreds of billions of tons of ice each year.
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.
Benno Hansen

North American tree deaths accelerate : Nature News - 0 views

www.nature.com/...news.2009.45.html

shared by Benno Hansen on 22 Jan 09 - Cached
  • Mortality increase correlates with climate change.
  • The mortality rates, which are of the order of 1%, have in many cases doubled in just a couple of decades.
  • This subtle trend correlates with climate change in the region, which has warmed by between 0.3 and 0.4 degrees Celsius every decade since the 1970s.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The team ruled out a number of competing explanations for the trend.
  • The actual mechanism, he speculates, could vary between different forests.
    • Benno Hansen
      Benno Hansen on 22 Jan 09
       
      Generalized mechanism: individual trees effectively "teleported" to foreign ecosystem.
  • "If you attempted to go out and mess around with the forests, you'd probably end up accelerating [mortality rates],"
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