A roundup of the latest news, views and ideas from the main stream press and the blogosphere. Click on the headline link to see the full article.
Bank of England governor: capitalism doomed if ethics vanish
Mark Carney issues strong critique of City behaviour and warns of growing sense that basic social contract is breaking down…
The Impossibility of Growth
Why collapse and salvation are hard to distinguish from each other…
To succeed is to destroy ourselves. To fail is to destroy ourselves. That is the bind we have created. Ignore if you must climate change, biodiversity collapse, the depletion of water, soil, minerals, oil; even if all these issues were miraculously to vanish, the mathematics of compound growth make continuity impossible…
Staying in the environmental frying pan only gets us hotter
Green capitalism is destined to fail: You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results. We can’t shop our way out of global warming nor are there technological magic wands that will save us. There is no alternative to a dramatic change in the organization of the global economy and consumption patterns.
Such a change will not come without costs — but the costs of doing nothing, of allowing global warming to precede is far greater. Therefore it is healthy to approach with a dose of skepticism the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that concludes the annual reduction in “consumption growth” on a global basis would be only 0.06 percent during the course of the 21st century. Almost nothing!…
Rothschilds look for $30tn capitalism fix
There was no bald supervillain stroking a white cat, but other than that the City of London hosted a conspiracy theorists’ perfect scenario yesterday: a meeting organised by the Rothschilds, sponsored by the Rockefellers and with managers of $30tn, or more than a tenth of all financial assets worldwide, in the room. Even the British royal family was represented…
Savage capitalism is back – and it will not tame itself
Back in the 90s, I used to get into arguments with Russian friends about capitalism. This was a time when most young eastern European intellectuals were avidly embracing everything associated with that particular economic system, even as the proletarian masses of their countries remained deeply suspicious. Whenever I’d remark on some criminal excess of the oligarchs and crooked politicians who were privatising their countries into their own pockets, they would simply shrug…
All Hail Piketty, But Props for Pickett, Too
A bold new egalitarian take on our modern economy from France joins a powerful already published rendering of inequality’s toll — on our daily lives — from the UK. Blend the two into our politics and watch plutocracy start shaking…
Cooperatives give new meaning to sharing economy
On the face of it, Loconomics and Bring It Local sound like typical tech startups.But behind the scenes, both companies are fomenting a quiet revolution in their business structures. They are organizing themselves as cooperatives – for-profit enterprises owned by the people who work for and use the services…
Planting potatoes into policy: why town planners must think about local food
Given the headline above you’d be forgiven for not jumping out of your seat to get your hands on a copy of our latest report, Planning sustainable cities for community food growing. Perhaps even less so when you learn that it is aimed primarily at planners, to help them build on the government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). Still with me in the back row?…
Haiti slum blooms into urban oasis
Jaden Tap Tap initiative helps foster sense of pride in Cité Soleil, where residents tend and cultivate their own green spaces.
It is proof, if any were needed, of the powerful example set by the Jaden Tap Tap, Haiti’s largest urban garden with aspirations to link up with American urban agriculturist Will Allen’s Growing Power movement. "We want to give the people of Cité Soleil a model of success. Something to do. And something to eat too," says Tillias…
France experiments with paying people to cycle to work
France has started a six-month experiment with paying people to cycle to work, joining other European governments in trying to boost bicycle use to boost people’s health, reduce air pollution and cut fossil fuel consumption…
In France, some 20 companies and institutions employing a total of 10,000 people have signed up to pay their staff 25 euro cents (34 U.S. cents) per kilometer biked to work, the transport ministry said in a statement on Monday…
Renewable sources key to lower energy costs
The world could provide energy at a lower cost by doubling the share that comes from renewable sources such as wind and solar power, according to the international agency [IRENA] for supporting those technologies…
Is Natural Gas Sucking Investment from Renewable Energy?
…Chinese clean-energy companies already raised $1 billion in equity so far this year, 46 percent more than last year and 2 percent more than their U.S. rivals, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
U.S. clean-energy companies did raise an unprecedented $2.9 billion in equity last year. Yet fossil-fuels companies sold shares valued at more than 14 times as much, also a record, data compiled by Bloomberg show….
The Ethics of Fracking
This film explores the ethics of fracking though different professional and religious backgrounds. It also takes a look at the deceiving advertising the gas industry heavily relies on. It is for educational purposes only.
3.4-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Colorado Less Than 2 Miles From Fracking Site
A 3.4-magnitude earthquake struck northern Colorado Saturday night, and environmentalists weren’t surprised to learn that the epicenter was near a fracking site.
There were no reports of damage, but anti-fracking activists say there is not a lot of math to add up in this incident…
Russia, Ukraine hope for gas deal this week
Russian and Ukrainian energy companies tried again on Tuesday to settle a dispute over unpaid gas bills that is threatening supplies to Europe and stoking a political conflict setting Moscow against Kiev and the West.
Russian state-owned exporter Gazprom gave Kiev some respite on Monday by allowing it six more days to pay its debts, averting the risk of an immediate cut in supplies under an advance payment system that had been due to come into force…
Extreme Energy and Climate – A critical review of the UK Government’s policy on unconventional fossil fuels and climate change
This report provides a critical analysis of the evidence supporting Government’s recent policy announcements on the issue of ‘extreme energy’ sources (tight oil and gas, shale gas, coalbed methane and underground coal gasification) in the UK – and the implications that the development of these energy sources may have on climate change.
Although it has been written as a general review of the evidence concerning extreme energy sources and their impact upon climate, the content of this report is addressed specifically towards the administrative responsibilities of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) – and how those responsibilities have been discharged by the ministers of that department…
Commodity prices and resource scarcity
How has the world managed to increase both population and living standards on a finite planet?
A recent paper by Hiroshi Yamada and Gawon Yoon (2014) revisits this question, looking at the behavior of relative prices of a number of commodities over the last century. Rather than insist that one influence (technology or diminishing returns) dominates over the entire sample, the authors used a method that allows the possibility that different broad trends may characterize different subsamples…
The IEA weighs in on stranded assets – not just a green conspiracy?
Demand for fossil fuels would fall dramatically if the world gets serious on climate change, according to projections from the International Energy Agency.
That would leave major oil firms unable to recoup money invested in new supplies, the IEA says. Their fossil fuel assets could lose all value and become ‘stranded’….
China plan to cap CO2 emissions seen turning point in climate talks
China will set an absolute cap on its CO2 emissions from 2016, a senior government adviser said on Monday, a day after the United States announced new targets for its power sector, signalling a potential breakthrough in tough U.N. climate talks.
Progress in global climate negotiations has often been held back by a deep split between rich and poor nations, led by the United States and China, respectively, over who should step up their game to reduce emissions…
Policy Notebook: How to interpret China’s talk of a carbon "cap"
If China does indeed add a “CO2 cap” into its 13th Five Year Plan, it is an effort that should be welcomed. For regulators, it is no small step to add in a new CO2 dimension, which would not only require a new line of reporting but also force improved measurement, reporting and verification at all levels of jurisdiction. The international implications are also worth noting. Following a step-by-step logic, it is reasonable to expect a domestic absolute CO2 control measure in the 13th Five Year period to be translated into some type of absolute CO2 rule internationally in the 14th Five Year period, or the post-2020 period…
Policy notebook: Why Obama’s new rules on air pollution matter, and aren’t that exciting
Why it matters?
1) It shows the President can act alone to tackle climate change (kinda)…
2) The EPA has given the world a new way of cutting emissions…
3) Efficiency gets a proper look in…
Why it doesn’t matter?
1) It really isn’t very ambitious…
2) It’ll be really hard to enforce…
News clippings image via shutterstock. Reproduced at Resilience.org with permission.
