For the first time, the United States has agreed to recognize the national mitigation measures proposed by the developing countries in the proposed climate treaty.

United States (and EU) have objected to the principles of Kyoto Protocol and demand that developing countries should also accept responsibility to reduce carbon emissions by accepting mandatory emission targets.

The developed countries are struggling to build national consensus for ambitious mitigation measures while the developing countries have gained the higher ground in the negotiations for the next climate deal by announcing voluntary sectoral emission reduction targets.

Life, Money and Illuision is not about the magical arts or wizardry, though it does demystify money and Wall Street’s greedy aspirations abetted by the global push for more growth and consumption (and jobs).

Life, Money and Illuision: Living on Earth as if we want to stay (New Society, 2009) by Mike Nickerson is a driving tome that reconciles how our economy operates in relationship to the ecological and social systems on which we all depend.

In this second revised edition of Life, Money and Illusion, Nickerson explains that “Life” refers to the biological processes by which living things maintain themselves over time. “Money” represents our economic ideology that claims that as long as the volume of money changing hands increases, all will be well. “Illusion” refers to the fact that these two perspectives are directly opposed in terms of how they would solve current problems.

As one might imagine, a book of this stature and ambition — if providing meaningful analysis and argumentation (which it does superbly) — is not a cursory or a casual read. Running 448 pages, Life, Money and Illusion is meticulously fashioned in easy-to-understand language that makes Nickerson’s arguments and ideas both compelling and provocative. It draws from numerous fields, including ecology, psychology, philosophy, mathematics, and, of course, economics.

Stan Ovinshisky graduated from high school and took machining courses at a technical school. With this formal education he has made significant contributions to solid-state physics, neurology, chemistry and cybernetics. He also invented an electric car battery. You may recall his appearance in, “Who Killed the Electric Car?”

GASP!     WOOT! YES!

President Barack Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize today for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples“; as well as for his ongoing work to free the world of all nuclear weapons.

Once upon a time, Obama’s plan called for cap-and-trade dollars to fund health care reform. Greens should be watching the health care fight, because the closer he gets to a bill, the more he will need cap-and-trade in order to pay for it.

The Texas American Federation of Teachers (AFT) cites the case of a widowed public school teacher that retired with a $900 monthly pension. She would have been eligible to receive $600 survivor benefits based on her husband’s Social Security contribution, but the windfall elimination provision (WEP) eliminated all of her survivor benefits.

Suddenly, “green business” is a little low on green and high on business. Companies that were built to take on Big Oil are now sharpening their elbows in the lobbying fight to make sure that the bottom line does not fall victim to grid enhancements that are built out by someone else.

By most accounts, the Obama administration’s “Cash for Clunkers” program is a resounding success.

Why did George Bush classify the spy satellite images of Barrow Alaska? What is making the ice up there melt? Why did Obama declassify these images? ENN (Earth Nightly News) has the story…