Politics

A people-centered approach to improve access to food

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Much has been made of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization’s FAO) 2009 recommendation that the world will need to produce 70 percent more food to feed the projected global population of 9.1 billion people in 2050. Policymakers and agricultural investors have focused on increasing supply for the global food market. And while 925 million people worldwide today remain chronically hungry—amidst unprecedented population growth, resource depletion, and climate change—meeting the needs of the future is an enormous challenge for the world food system.

The Shrinking Pie: Currency wars

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Since the economic crisis began, stresses in trade between the U.S. and China have led to unfriendly official comments on both sides regarding the other nation’s currency. Some financial commentators suggest that "currency wars," which might also embroil the European Union and other nations, may be in the offing, and that these could eventually turn into trade wars or even military conflicts. The U.S. dollar, as the world’s reserve currency and as the national currency of the country leading the world into the post-growth era, appears to be central to these "money wars."

Sierra Club goes totally peak oil — almost

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A veteran anti-corporate campaigner, Michael Brune is not your ordinary environmentalist. And now that’s he’s in charge, America’s oldest and largest green group is no longer your father’s Sierra Club. So it’s no surprise that his book “Coming Clean,” re-released after the Deepwater Horizon spill, presents peak oil as a major energy challenge. But as a big fan of the green economy, Brune is more optimistic than many peak oil writers about the ability of solar, wind and other renewables to replace oil and coal. Is he right?

Heeding the warnings of environmental Reveres

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Pathetically the media has been awash with New York Congressmember Anthony Weiner’s string of electronic sexual peccadillos. Punctuating the sensationalism, and between the TV commercials from the oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries, are story after story of extreme weather events. Herein lies the real scandal: Why aren’t the TV meteorologists, with each story, following the words “extreme weather” with another two, “climate change”?

Will the Transition movement be the Tea Party’s next target?

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Could Rob Hopkins become the US right wing’s next Van Jones? Could the Post Carbon Institute become the next ACORN? A new video from the Tea Party attacks the Transition movement and fingers both Hopkins and PCI as part of a United Nations plot to “take away your land.” Silly? For sure. But given how much money from big polluters is behind such attacks, we ignore them at our peril.

What should we tax?

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For some time a small group of ecological economists has been suggesting that we switch the tax base from income (value added to natural resources by labor and capital), and on to natural resources themselves. Value added to resources is something we want more of, so don’t tax it (either at each stage of production as in Europe, or at the final stage as income as in the U.S.). The resource throughput, beginning with depletion and ending with pollution (both real costs), is something we want less of in a full world economy, so let’s tax it.

The China Bubble: Economic Growth’s Last Stand?

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China is likely the site of world economic growth’s last stand. This nation, together with the other Asian “tigers,” comprises the main engine of expansion that remains after the faltering of the older, more established economies in North America and Europe. When China sputters, the quickening slide of the global economy will be clear and obvious to everyone.

Seymour Hersh on Iran’s nuclear capability, the Arab uprisings and Obama’s isolation

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The Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh is back in the news this week with another explosive article that is ruffling some feathers at the White House. Seymour Hersh says the United States might attack Iran based on distorted estimates of Iran’s nuclear and military threat—just like it did with Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq. Hersh reveals that despite using Iranian informants and cutting-edge surveillance technology, U.S. officials have been unable to find decisive evidence that Iran has been moving enriched uranium to an underground weapon-making center.

Also in this interview are Hersh’s views on the growing independence of US intelligence agencies, Obama’s isolation and the impact of the Arab Spring. [Excerpts]

The Peak Oil Crisis: An Announcement

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With little fanfare, a press release appeared last week on the website of the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security (ITPOES)…There are many implications buried in this seemingly innocuous announcement. First, American readers should note that the British government recognizes that energy policy and climate change are inextricably linked so that you cannot formulate policies for one without the other…