Green Options » globalization

What is a Global Citizen? Are You One?

Zachary Shahan — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:45:58 +0000

We live in a “global” world now. Corporate globalization is prevalent nearly everywhere. Travel is more common than ever before. We get news in our homes about anyplace in the world seconds after it happens. The internet allows us to connect with people all over the world. It allows us to stay in touch with people as we move all over the world as well — (a friend of mine is in Antarctica and he keeps in touch with people through Facebook everyday). We even have an international language! English is spoken (by at least some portions of the population) nearly everywhere you go.

BUT, what does it mean to be a “global citizen”?

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Meanwhile, Peak Oil Still Looms as Potential Economic Disaster, Part Deux

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:14:29 +0000

While an overwhelming amount of media attention has been focused (rightfully so) on the past week’s financial meltdown on Wall Street and beyond, another looming crisis is getting center-stage focus this week in Sacramento, California: peak oil.

A slew of speakers and experts in everything from geology and energy to finance and business is meeting through tomorrow to address what could one day make the Lehman Brothers collapse look like a picnic in the park: declining oil production coupled with rising demand and prices on a global scale. The 2008 Sacramento Peak Oil Conference kicked off yesterday.

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Five Flaws in the New U.S. ‘Country of Origin’ Food Labeling

Alex Felsinger — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 19:32:46 +0000

On September 30^th, six years after Congress originally passed the law, the United States will implement a country of origin labeling program for supermarket foods. But due to industry pressure, some of the most important and potentially dangerous products are exempt from being labeled.

Only 1.3% of imported food is inspected by the FDA, and of that small fraction, many hazardous items are confiscated. The average American consumes an estimated 260 pounds of imported food every year, which is roughly 13% of their diet. Food safety will always be a concern. Arming consumers with the knowledge of where their food comes from will not only help with everyday shopping, but also help in the case of a recall of a food from a specific region (like jalapeños from Mexico). While the new law has some benefits, many recent examples of food contamination and safety concerns show that it won’t do enough.

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Is Free Trade the Solution to Climate Change?

Jennifer Lance — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:01:59 +0000

Globalization is a fact of modern times, and supporters of “free trade” tout it is good for the US economy and supports world peace. Given that it will take a global effort to solve the climate crisis, free trade has a new spin: The solution to global warming. In fact, Republican presidential candidate John McCain thinks that a free-market provides solutions to climate change, such as capping carbon emissions, which contradicts the very notion of free trade’s elimination of government imposed regulations. Even Rush Limbaugh’s not buying free trade is the solution (mostly because he doesn’t believe in global warming).

Free trade puts corporations and profits first, ahead of environmental and social concerns. McCain thinks this is not a problem, “As never before, the market would reward any person or company that seeks to invent, improve, or acquire alternatives to carbon-based energy…” Will the market reward alternative energy companies with profit? The US and EU are already calling on the elimination of tariffs for goods and services that protect the environment and fight climate change to help these companies profit.

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Why I Localize

The Dave Room — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:08:29 +0000

As you may know, blogging on ecolocalizer.com is relatively new for me. Its been fun, but hey I think it could be better with a little more back and forth. So I thought I’d introduce myself one post at a time as I talk about localization here in the Bay Area. And I invite you to ask questions, make comments, and tell me what you think needs to be covered. If you’ve got a localization project in the Bay Area and you want folks to know, post a comment or send me an email at daveroom (at) gmail dot com. I aim to please.

Without further adieu… My name is Dave Room (and that’s my daughter in the photo). I have been working on localization for the past four years. Sometimes it has felt like I am swimming upstream. Actually it still feels like that - the difference is that now the current is not quite as strong. As the financial underpinnings of our society unravel, as food prices soar, as oil prices regularly hit new highs - it seems like I am living a prophecy. Everything that is happening now has been more or less accurately predicted by a large International community of people who have been following our oil predicament. Another name for our oil predicament is peak oil, but its really all about the oil depletion and the coming imbalance between supply and demand. Sometimes I call these folks “the depletionista”.

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If Things Fall Apart, What Will You Eat?

Carla Wise — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:56:02 +0000

Maybe we really have reached our limits. David Korten, author, lecturer, and founder of Yes magazine, believes we have. He believes that climate change, peak oil, and the meltdown of the U.S. dollar are all symptoms of the impending fall of our modern, globalized way of life. And he has a point. The stock market is crashing, gas and food prices are skyrocketing, and our economy is faltering. Of course, if you are an optimist, you might say, well, we will survive, as we have before. Except for one thing: what will we eat?

When I take stock, I realize I can do without most of the things I buy. Yesterday I bought gas, printer cartridges, and mad libs for my daughter. Food was the only necessity I spent money on. But if David Korten is onto something, access to most of that food is in danger.

Consider: by most estimates, 98% of the food consumed by Americans comes from the industrial food system.

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The Sound of the British Summer: Gone in 10 Years?

Pem Charnley — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:26:01 +0000

Globalization brings with it many threats to endemic island species.

Certainly, as an example, food air miles often makes the news, with consumers urged to buy locally, in a bid to cut down trade reliant on kerosene and its resultant CO2 emissions.

But importing foreign foods brings with it additional risks and uncertainties. One can never know for sure what else is being imported along with their food.

I use this, I stress, as merely a clue as to what may have caused the varroa mite, which carries a number of viruses and which has wreaked havoc on UK bee colonies.

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Wal-Mart’s “Company of the Future”: Supply Chain

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:26:18 +0000

As I noted in Thursday’s post, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott’s “Company of the Future” speech to executives and store managers contained some intriguing visions for moves that Wal-Mart could make on helping its customers conserve energy. As I expected, several commenters expressed concern about other areas, particularly product sourcing. Conventional business thinking has heralded the efficiency of the company’s supply chain; activists, on the other hand, have noted that Wal-Mart (along with most major retailers) has benefited from more open global trade policies that, generally, have placed little or no emphasis on workers’ rights, occupational safety, or environmental impact.

Numerous companies have taken a beating for problems with factory conditions in the developing world, while the retail sector in general has had to face both PR and legal nightmares related to the movement of American operations to “cheaper foreign markets” (yeah, I’m paraphrasing Lou Dobbs here). Combine that with recent revelations that some goods from Chinese factories have been tainted with everything from lead to antifreeze, one might wonder why more multinationals aren’t racing back to the US and other more regulated markets. But that’s a different post…

Suppliers

Supply chain issues took up roughly a third of Scott’s speech last week, and, again, the CEO presented some bold concepts for how Wal-Mart might address problems raised by sourcing products from the developing world. The first concerned the company’s relationships with its suppliers:

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Starbucks Backs Down, Allows Ethiopia Trademark Rights To Its Own Names

Brady Swenson — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 14:57:54 +0000

Starbucks announced yesterday that it has reached a licensing agreement with the Ethiopian government regarding the marketing use of Ethiopia's well-known coffee producing regions, most notably Sidamo, Yirgacheffe and Harar.

This is the resolution to a row that Starbucks began last year when the Ethiopian government filed applications to trademark its most famous coffee names. Securing the rights to these names would enable Ethiopia to capture more value from trade, by controlling their use in the market and thereby enabling farmers to receive a greater share of the retail price. Ethiopia’s coffee industry and farmers could earn an estimated $88 million USD extra per year, no small pittance when you consider that millions of Ethiopian coffee farmers bring home less than $300 USD per year for their crops.

In response, Starbucks successfully blocked Ethiopia's trademark applications in the US through some crafty maneuvering. According to Oxfam, the global coffee giant enlisted the support of the National Coffee Association to assist in blocking Ethiopia's bid. And it worked. In refusing Ethiopia its trademark, the US Patent and Trademark Office cited a position directly from the Starbucks' sponsored NCA letter of protest: The names Ethiopia wanted to trademark were "generic."

This move was good for Starbucks, which had been using the names of Ethiopia's famous coffee regions to sell roasted Ethiopian coffee for up to $26 per pound while farmers in Yirgacheffe were receiving as little as $0.60 to $1.40 per pound for their coffee. This angered international activist groups, including UK-based OxFam, which started a campaign to embarrass Starbucks for its blatant attempt to get richer off the backs of the poor and disadvantaged farmers who have lived for thousands of years in the regions that bear the profitable names in question. I participated in the campaign last November by handing out information to Starbucks employees in my hometown about the shameless profit-seeking, and having them and passers-by sign a petition. The campaign, which created consumer and even employee pressure, worked, and Starbucks announced a mutual agreement on Wednesday.

The agreement gives Ethiopia the marketing rights to the names of its coffee-producing regions while agreeing to contract out those rights to Starbucks for an undisclosed amount. Starbucks has also agreed to build a cupping laboratory in Ethiopia to help farmers improve the taste and quality of their coffee, which should help increase the value of Ethiopia's vital export. The company has also pledged to double purchases of coffee from East Africa by 2008. Starbucks currently buys 2% of Ethiopia’s $400 million coffee crop.

Sources: A Hot Cup of Money, Starbucks in Ethiopia coffee row, Starbucks in accord with Ethiopia