Green Options

While some companies are backing off the development of shale oil due to the economic crisis, there are still those who are cautiously continuing with the development of this domestic energy source.

San Francisco’s Prop H is taking on their biggest opponent today - PG&E! The utility company has spent more than $9.9 Million to prevent San Francisco from having cheaper and renewable energy.

Come join the rally at: PG&E’s downtown headquarters at 77 Beale St at noon.

They’ll be erecting three twelve-foot “Yes on H” wind turbines and showing support for green jobs and an affordable green energy future. They’ll have signs ready for you to carry if you want to protest!

An introduction to the Steady State Economy. Should this be the way globalisation goes? Read the article then add your thoughts below.

Previous posts in the “New Economic Architecture Required” series have looked at Wealth & Value, Money & Debt and Growth & Competition.

What these very brief analyses have shown is that we, the human race, are living beyond our means.

A Steady State Economy may be a way of bringing our consumption back into line, eliminating boom and bust in the process.

Certain to take notice was British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell, who heads into an election of his own in the spring having to defend an unpopular carbon tax.

The world’s economy is suffering more from the loss of forests than from the current crisis on Wall Street, according to a new EU-commissioned study.

The study says that the cost of deforestation annually is between $2 and $5 trillion dollars.  These numbers were arrived at after researchers put value on, and then added together,  the many ways in which forests “work” for us, including absorbing CO2 from the air, and providing potable water.

The idea behind the study is that as forests disappear, the natural world no longer provides services which it used to provide for free.

So, the human economic system must step in and find a way to provide these same services, for example  through building reservoirs or building infrastructure to catch carbon dioxide.

“Whereas Wall Street by various calculations has to date lost, within the financial sector, $1-$1.5 trillion, the reality is that at today’s rate we are losing natural capital at least between $2-$5 trillion every year,” Pavan Sukhdev, who led the study, told the BBC.

The review is called The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb), and was initiated by Germany, although the European Commission provided the funding.

At a campaign stop, Sen. Barack Obama said certain spending programs are critical components of an economic recovery, and should not be abandoned by any means.

Thank you getthebigpicture.net. Video source: MBelinkie on YouTube

After announcing yesterday that he would be suspending his campaign to work on the ongoing economic crisis, many in the room at the morning plenary session of the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative on Thursday were surprised to hear Senator John McCain basically give a version of the stump speech he’s been giving over the last several months.