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A ‘Green New Deal’ can save the world’s economy, says UN
Geoffrey Lean, The Independent
Top economists and United Nations leaders are working on a “Green New Deal” to create millions of jobs, revive the world economy, slash poverty and avert environmental disaster, as the financial markets plunge into their deepest crisis since the Great Depression.
The ambitious plan – the start of which will be formally launched in London next week – will call on world leaders, including the new US President, to promote a massive redirection of investment away from the speculation that has caused the bursting “financial and housing bubbles” and into job-creating programmes to restore the natural systems that underpin the world economy.
It aims to convince them that, far from restricting growth, healing the global environment will be a desperately -needed driving force behind it…
(12 October 2008)
The broader issue of whether economic growth is possible in an energy constrained future is not addressed.-SO
Meltdown Strategies: Financial Disaster and Climate Change
Starhawk, ZNet
While the financial markets have been melting down around us, another sort of meltdown has been occurring, one even more frightening and dangerous. Climate change has been progressing, more quickly than anticipated, fueled even more rapidly by methane bubbles released from a warming Arctic sea, in just one of the self-reinforcing cycles that will trigger unstoppable cascades of devastation unless we act now.
None of the presidential debates have addressed the central question of our time: can we transform our energy, our economy, our food systems and our culture rapidly enough to forestall complete global meltdown?
The present economic woes are frightening, but the environmental crisis is truly terrifying. With all the furor about falling markets and frozen credit, nothing real has changed in the economy. Granted, the repercussions will be that many of us have less money in our pockets and fewer opportunities. But we still have the natural resources we had a month ago. We still have our skills, our knowledge, and our productive capacity. What we’ve lost is a towering edifice of icing with no cake underneath.
But environmental meltdown means we lose the real basis of economy and survival. We will see more and more devastation like we’ve seen in the Gulf Coast. We’ll see droughts, floods, lowered food supplies, huge losses in biodiversity and ecological resilience, rising seas that will take out major cities around the world, and all the associated problems of poverty, starvation, refugees and resource wars. Time is not running out-it’s out! What we do now and in the next ten years is absolutely crucial.
The good news is, we don’t have to take the path to disaster. We have the knowledge and technology we need to make the change. But our politicians, even the best of them, won’t do it unless we make it a top priority.
To do that, it helps to know what the solutions are. In November, I’ll be presenting at an interfaith conference on climate change called by the archbishop of Sweden. In preparation, I started writing a Climate Change Primer, trying to briefly list the most important technologies and approaches. It kept growing, and eventually became too big to send out as an email. But go to the link below and you can read it or download it as a PDF. If you want to better understand the issue and the spectrum of solutions we need to put into place, it’s a good introduction. If you are a policy maker or an activist who likes to hound and harass policy makers to do the right thing, it’s a good guide. And if you’re thinking about how to invest your own time and energy and/or such dwindling funds as you might have, it will suggest fruitful avenues and new approaches. And here’s the link:
(13 October 2008)
Wackernagel: Crisis leads to ecological crossroads
Rita Emch, Swiss Info
The current financial crisis presents an opportunity to re-examine the strain on natural resources, according to a Swiss expert.
Environmental economist Mathis Wackernagel tells swissinfo that it is time to rethink the concept of continuous growth.
Increased consumption of resources makes us poorer and undermines our future, he says.
Basel-born Wackernagel, who now lives in California, helped to develop the idea of the “ecological footprint”, which provides a way of calculating how human demands on natural resources compare with the biosphere’s ability to renew them.
swissinfo: Is there a direct connection between the financial crisis and our approach to natural resources?
Mathis Wackernagel: Yes, ecological shortages have an economic impact. Natural resources are at the beginning of every production chain. Pressure on resources is a driving force behind the global crisis, which started with the mortgage crisis in the US.
The collapse was inevitable. A shortage of resources leads to so-called stagflation. Everyday items become more expensive and the value of long-term investments falls. There is pressure from both sides
(13 October 2008)
Growth Economics on a Finite Planet
Andrew Revkin, Dot Earth, New York Times
Over the weekend, I asked Herman Daly, the specialist in “ecological economics” at the University of Maryland, about the recent financial turmoil. He pointed me to a short piece he wrote that was posted on the Oil Drum blog a few days ago and that he gave me permission to post below. It’s mostly about economic theory, but does get at one of the keystone concepts explored here — which is how many people, consuming how much stuff, can one livable planet support?
To Dr. Daly, the implosion after the burst of trading and investment in high-concept paper offerings was inevitable, and simply a reorientation of the market toward the only real economy — the one grounded in actual assets. In the end, the only economy that can’t be gamed is one that is grounded in the way the Earth works. That is where “real wealth,” and real limits, lie, he says.
This relates to the climate challenge. The atmosphere is not an infinite dump, so if a trading system for carbon dioxide credits — like the recent financial bubble — doesn’t actually lead to progress, we’ll know it. But the consequences are likely to be less reversible than those from a credit crunch. Carbon dioxide, unlike the kinds of pollution wealthy countries dealt with in previous decades, is a persistent gas. It builds like unpaid credit card debt. The longer societies delay action, the bigger the climatic debt. Maybe it’ll all work out and the greenhouse warming from the buildup will be on the low end. But maybe not. The world tried a big financial gamble in recent years and the consequences are clear now. How will the current climate bet play out?
… Below you’ll find Professor Daly’s short piece, The Crisis: Debt and Real Wealth:
(13 October 2008)
Reprinting of a Dr. Daly’s article, originally posted October 7 on The Oil Drum. Recommended by Bill Becker who writes: “Here’s mainstream drawing directly from TOD.”
From energy efficiency to war: thinktank sees 2030 climate future
AFP
The challenge posed by climate change could be resolved by a peaceful switch to a low-carbon economy, or alternatively inflict stresses that could include war and desertification of swathes of the US and Australia, a thinktank said on Monday.
The provocative report is published by a British NGO, Forum for the Future, which carries out strategic analysis on sustainable development on behalf of business.
It sketches a wide range of social consequences from today’s global warming crisis, derived from published studies and consultations with more than 60 climate-change specialists. It is published in collaboration with the technology giant HP.
“What we do now could determine the fate of billions of people. These could be the most important years in history,” said Peter Madden, Forum for the Future’s chief executive, explaining the point of the document.
(12 October 2008)
The Climate Futures report is available on the Forum for the Future website.
Related article from Forum for the Future: New Year’s Day 2030. -BA
