Green Options » economic crisis

United Nations (UN) Shames Rich Nations for Climate Change Funding — Needs to Be About $500-600 Billion Higher

Zachary Shahan — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:57:48 +0000

The United Nations (UN) released a report on September 1 that gives their strongest criticism of climate change funding to date. They say that rich, developed nations really need to step it up in the battle to control and reduce climate change. They say that funding should be about 27 times higher than it currently is ($500-600 billion compared to $21 billion annually).

The UN states that it does not “shy away… from insisting that the advanced countries will have to deliver resources and leadership on a much larger scale than has been the case to date.” This is a bold statement and a humungous lead-in to the Copenhagen climate conference in December.

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The Global Wind Sector Weathers Financial Upheaval

Yael Borofsky — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:24:59 +0000

On the endless laundry list of markets that have struggled to muddle through the financial mess known as the global economic crisis, the wind sector seems to be showing signs of a rebound, albeit a small one. A recent article featured in the Financial Times highlighted the “period of calm” that wind producers and investors, alike, are more than relieved to see return in the market.

Prior to the global economic vortex that has sent the sensitive wind market spinning (as well as other renewables markets), wind had been showing strong growth in the first half of 2008. The market for turbine installation was worth $47.5 billion and global wind power capacity was 121 GW - more than twice the 48GW capacity in 2004.

Unfortunately, investors and analysts do not even need the figures from late 2008 and the first half of 2009 to know that the pleasant breeze of financial success had turned into a market maelstrom. In the aftermath, there is reason to hope that recent signs of improvement may lead to more growth.

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Personal Happiness and the Economy: A Sustainability Link

Zachary Shahan — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:14:24 +0000

In my previous post, I brought up the sustainability prism and the link between personal happiness or peace and the other three, traditional components of sustainability theory — economy, equity, and ecology. In this article, I explore the link between personal happiness and the economy in greater depth. Of course, this is just a taste of the full connection between the two since there are enough layers here to write a book on it all, but here is a start and there is plenty of comment space below!

Economy is at the forefront of society’s consciousness these days. It is always a, if not the, major societal issue for most people. With the current economic crisis, it has stepped up even another level of importance. We all have to wonder, these days, if we will be able to return to the affluence of just one or two decades ago, or, if, on the other hand, the whole economic system of America, and the world that depends on it, will collapse as a house of sand built on a thin board of wood on the ocean’s waves.

We can look to the specific failures of banks and immoral business practices to explain all of this. But these failures, and much more, were built on much more widespread and much less questioned norms than these.

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Hey America: You Can’t Eat Money

Bryan Nelson — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:44:37 +0000

I doubt anyone found it surprising when a recent Pew Research Poll revealed that the top policy priority for most Americans is currently the economy. Indeed, times are tough and wallets are thin, and most Americans are feeling the crunch. But what is alarming is how these polls indicate that the growing concern for the economy seems to be coming at the expense of concern for the environment.

As economic woes escalated, rankings for the environment plummeted 15 points over last year’s numbers, which was the biggest drop in priority among all of the issues polled.

This brings up an important question: Why are these two issues seemingly seen at such odds with one another?

The reason may stem from the fact that the structure of the American economy, and perhaps the American mindset itself, is fundamentally out of touch with reality.

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Plenty Magazine Folds Under Weight of Tough Economy

Adam Williams — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:34:58 +0000

The state of economics and print journalism have converged to send Plenty Magazine (tagline: “The World in Green”) into the it-was-fun-while-it-lasted category. Plenty published not only the hard copy version of the magazine, but had begun a digital version, as well.

Not all is lost, though. Plenty RSS feed subscribers are now automatically receiving content from Mother Nature Network.

As for those who, like me, had just subscribed to the magazine, having paid and yet to receive an issue? I don’t have an answer, but only hope the $12 went to good use in a time of financial difficulties.

Best of luck to members of the green journalism family who are without their Plenty home.

EU: Socialism Rises Again – But How Green?

Richard Elen — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:39:50 +0000

If you thought that the old Socialist Left was dead and gone, a look at France this week will tell you you otherwise. A wave of strikes has occurred in protest at what is seen by a growing number of French workers as the Sarkozy government’s mishandling of measures to limit the impact of the recession.

The administration is increasingly thought of as favouring large payments to the very bankers who got us into this mess, while being prepared to allow ordinary workers’ jobs to go en masse. Very likely the Left strongholds in the South will link up with disaffected urban youth across the country and particularly in Paris: a powerful combination. The people protesting this week have not been particularly encouraged by the opposition Socialist party, either, which they see as little different to Sarkozy’s centre-right administration, much as those on the traditional Left regard “New Labour” in Britain. Street protests have brought French governments down in the past: they will doubtless do so again.

That feeling – that bankers get enormous bailouts while ordinary people go to the wall – is not solely a working class concern. Jim Rogers (a former confederate of George Soros, one of the few people who in my view really knows what is going on) recently opined that it was wrong for the British government to be bailing out the banks and that instead they should be allowed to go bust. Only by doing so, he suggested, would the country be able to start with a clean slate; the present course, on the other hand, would lead to debts that could take a generation or more to pay off.

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Buffet: ‘No Magic Bullet’ on Credit System

Rob Yunich — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:24:29 +0000

In a wide-ranging interview with “Nightly Business Report” on Jan. 22, Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett addressed the economy, credit crisis, government stimulus bills, the Madoff scandal and his own investing strategy.

“Well we’ve had to get the credit system partially fixed in order for the economy to have a chance of starting to turn around. But there’s no magic bullet on this,” he said. “They’re going to throw everything from the government they can in. As I said, the Treasury is going all in, the Fed and they have to and that isn’t necessarily going to produce anything dramatic in the short term at all. Over time the American economy is going to work fine.”

Several times during the interview, Buffet spoke about devoting every resource to fixing the economy.

“All you know is you throw everything at it and whether it’s more effective if you’re fighting a fire to be concentrating the water flow on this part or that part. You’re going to use every weapon you have in fighting it. And people, they do not know exactly what the effects are,” he said. “Economists like to talk about it, but in the end they’ve been very, very wrong and most of them in recent years on this. We don’t know the perfect answers on it.”
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Obama Asked to Waive Environmental Protection Requirements by Gov. Schwarzenegger

Jerry James Stone — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:48:34 +0000

Schwarzenegger Sends Letter To Obama Asking For A Waiver On National Environmental Policy Act Requirements.

On Monday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger asked President-Elect Barack Obama to waive the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements to help jump start the Nation’s flailing economy.

Schwarzenegger met with Obama last month in Philadelphia, where he urged the Federal government to invest in infrastructure. Something he’s been peddling alongside New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg since early 2008.

The Governor’s administration has identified four key areas where they “can work together” in stabilizing and expanding California’s economy: investment in infrastructure, energy security, stabilization of the housing market, and assistance to states to help meet the needs of the medically indigent.

>>More on Schwarzenegger’s environmental policy

During their meeting Schwarzenegger had identified $28 billion in infrastructure projects ready to break ground, that number is now $44 billion! The projects are in communities across California and include:

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What to do About the Auto Industry?

Richard Elen — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 08:01:17 +0000

First the US auto-makers went cap in hand (by private plane no less) to Washington to ask for a bailout. Now we hear talk of support being requested for British car-makers too - initially for the luxury Land Rover/Jaguar group now owned by India’s Tata Motors.

Car sales are down dramatically - in the UK, November sales were around 35% down on the same time last year - and it is hardly surprising. Big purchases like cars are not on most people’s shopping lists at the moment. This leaves the industry in big trouble.

As readers will be aware, the auto industry is a major employer on both sides of the Atlantic, both with an enormous chain of suppliers employing a vast workforce, all of whom will be affected by the failure of the industry.

>>More about the auto industry bailout at Green Options

So what is to be done? There are obviously those on the Right whose view is that the industry (and other industries) should stand or fall in a free market - one presumes they were the people who formed the US Senate opposition to bail-out plans. Equally, there are plenty of environmentalists on the Left who are not conceptually very concerned about a reduction in production capacity for the quintessential fossil-fuel-guzzling consumable that is the automobile.

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World Survey: 43% of People Believe Global Warming is of More Concern than the World Financial Crisis

Ben Robinson — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:35:36 +0000

A study commissioned by the bank HSBC which set out to gauge public opinion about climate change in nine of the world’s major markets reveals that people in developing countries are more concerned about the potential impacts of climate change, and more willing to do something about it.

The study, which questioned a thousand people in each of the nine countries (UK, France, Germany, USA, Mexico, India, Brazil, China and Hong Kong) reveals much about how people perceive the threat of climate change, and the role of government and the individual in addressing the problem.

“Concern about climate
change is high, especially in
developing economies, and
so is people’s individual
commitment to address it.” - HSBC Climate Confidence Index

The difference in opinion can be stark. For example, in the United States of America where per capita CO2 output is very high, only 23% of people questioned believed they were making a significant effort to help reduce the effects of climate change. Contrast this with 43% in Mexico which has less than 1/4 of the CO2 output per capita.

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Shale Development Suffering Due to Economic Crisis

Heidi Suydam — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:54:53 +0000

Earlier this year excitement and promise surrounded the possibilities of developing a domestic oil source through shale oil. Due to the current economic crisis much of these plans have been put on hold. The companies that were initiating these efforts are finding it difficult to borrow funds for their projects. In a November 10th EarthNews article Louis D’Amico, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of Pennsylvania states:

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Prop H Protesters Construct Wind Turbines at PG&E Offices [PHOTOS]

Jerry James Stone — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:58:07 +0000

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.

This post contains additional media. Click here to view the full post.

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!

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The Steady State Economy: A New Financial Architecture

Chris Milton — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:50:41 +0000

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.

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Environment a Tough Sell for Liberals in Canadian Election

Timothy B. Hurst — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:18:06 +0000

Last week’s federal election in Canada saw the Conservatives returned to power, partly on the back of Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion’s “muddled message on the environment,” reports the Globe and Mail. Dion’s proposed “Green Shift” failed to resonate in the federal election campaign and his Liberal Party lost a quarter of its seats.

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.

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Financial Impact From Deforestation “Dwarfs” Failing Banks Says New Study

Meg Hamill — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:23:20 +0000

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.

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Obama would Continue to Make Clean Energy Top Priority Amidst Financial Crisis

Timothy B. Hurst — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 08:34:31 +0000

In last week’s presidential debate, Democrat Senator Barack Obama declared his intention to link energy and the environment to the solutions that will help us out of our current economic mess. Kate Sheppard reports at Grist that Barack Obama has expanded on how and why he will continue to focus on energy, despite the current economic downturn.

At a campaign stop in Reno, Nevada, Obama said that in light of the current economic situation, some portions of any platform would have to be pared, simply because there is less money flowing into the Treasury. But he also said other programs are critical components of an economic recovery, and should not be abandoned. Obama said:

“To create new jobs, I’ll invest in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure — our roads, schools, and bridges. We’ll rebuild our outdated electricity grid and build new broadband lines to connect America. And I’ll create the jobs of the future by transforming our energy economy. We’ll tap our natural-gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I’ll help our auto companies re-tool so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here the United States of America. I’ll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I’ll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy — wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels — an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can’t ever be outsourced.”

Image credit: transplanted mountaineer via flickr under a Creative Commons License

Meanwhile, working people across Europe are starting to rise up, and this is one of the reasons why. Unfortunately, labour’s goals have seldom been environmentally friendly. One of the reasons the Right was able to wreak such damage from the late 70s to the present was that the unions, particularly in Britain, were too closely wedded to the inevitably disappearing world of mid-20th century heavy industry and too unwilling to face the realities of the time. As a result they became an easy target for the Right and were largely wiped out, at least in the UK. Remaining union power is still located in the areas of heavy industry that are left, such as the auto industry.

The trouble is, the last thing we need now are loads of taxpayer-sponsored gas-guzzlers. The only justification for propping up the car industry should be on condition that it moves over now to focusing on emissions-free vehicles and other environmentally-sensible products like sorely-needed wind turbines. Neither do we need additional fossil-fuel extraction and processing – both, once again, former union strongholds. Nor do we need additional airport runways and motorways: instead we need more emphasis on rail transport (but for some reason British rail companies are laying people off. Why?).

There is a significant danger here – but also a significant opportunity. Obviously there needs to be an emphasis on limiting the rise of mass unemployment, and given the opportunity I would far rather bail out ordinary people than bankers – by all means let the latter go to the wall and nationalise the hell out of the remaining useful assets. But we cannot simply reduce mass unemployment by supporting old-fashioned industries whose products we can no longer environmentally justify. Instead they must be obliged to convert to environmentally-friendly products at once to qualify for support. And again, nationalise them if necessary.

The danger is support without change. The opportunity is to convert giant ancient industries to making environmentally-sound products – wind and ocean turbines, for example; or building railways and rolling stock instead of roads, cars and trucks.

Meanwhile, in mainland Europe at least, the Old Left is rising again. Governments must heed the warning that the wave of strikes in France represents, and make sure that the anger underlying them is channelled into support for environmentally-friendly infrastructure and industry investment. And then Governments must take the action required to bring environmentally-suitable projects about.

The building anger among ordinary people should not be underestimated, and it must be channelled in a positive direction to be dissipated. Because at the same time, there is something else to watch. There has been a wave of protest in the UK, too. But that protest has not exactly been from the Old Left – which was largely pulverised out of existence by Thatcher. Instead, it has started with anger against EU workers being (ill-advisedly) drafted in from elsewhere in the EU to work on a Lincolnshire refinery building project. Prime Minister Brown is being called upon to stand by his pledge of “British jobs for British workers”. But this seemingly reasonable concern should raise another potential warning flag: the spectre of right-wing extremism, aka Fascism, with hatred of immigrants at its heart. We must not forget what happened in Europe, specifically Germany, as a result of economic collapse last time – in the 1930s.

Image: French labour organisations take to the streets in 2006 to oppose a new work contract. Source: Wikimedia.

Bush Plays the Joker in The Dark Knight Bailout (VIDEO)

Jerry James Stone — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 22:48:39 +0000

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

Image: French labour organisations take to the streets in 2006 to oppose a new work contract. Source: Wikimedia.

McCain Suspends Campaign and then Gives Version of Stump Speech in New York

Timothy B. Hurst — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:37:12 +0000

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.

The event, which is being held at the Sheraton New York to coincide with the opening of the UN General Assembly, was already the site of impressive amounts of security - for Heads of State and foreign dignitaries - saw several additional steps taken in and around the Sheraton New York to protect Republican Senator McCain and his entourage. McCain’s entourage included Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, but not surprisingly, neither Senator McCain nor Governor Palin were made available to the press for questions.

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