bg

Archive for the ‘Business & Politics’ Category



UN says that the current financial crisis could hasten green growth

By Simon Leufstedt on October 24th, 2008

Yvo de Boer, who heads the Bonn-based U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, is a bit more optimistic about the current financial crisis than George Monbiot is. Yvo de Boer says that the current financial crisis could “hasten” countries efforts to create a greener and more sustainable economy.

“The credit crisis can be used to make progress in a new direction, an opportunity for global green economic growth,” Yvo de Boer told a news conference.

“The credit crunch I believe is an opportunity to rebuild the financial system that would underpin sustainable growth,” and that “governments now have an opportunity to create and enforce policy which stimulates private competition to fund clean industry”, Yvo de Boer said.

Yvo de Boer said that to be able to “create new markets, investment opportunities and job creation” the climate meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009 must be successful.

Read the whole interview over at wbcsd.org

Sarah Palin can’t name a single man-made cause to climate change

By Simon Leufstedt on October 24th, 2008

DSCF0189
Creative Commons License Photo credit: masonvotes

Sarah Palin, Republican candidate for the Vice Presidency and running mate with John McCain, ignores basic climate science by claiming that climate change is not man-made and that weather patterns are to be blamed instead. And during an interview in Las Vegas two days ago Sarah Palin couldn’t name a single man-made cause that contributes to climate change.

Q: I’ve also heard you hint that you do think there might be some man-made causes that are contributing to this. Can you describe what those are?

PALIN: Right, well what I have said about this is really the debate at some point, had better shift to, no matter the cause, whether it all be attributed to man’s activities or just the natural cycle of climate changes in our earth’s history. We have seen this before.

Watch the interview below: (more…)

Canada re-elects climate wrecker Stephen Harper

By Simon Leufstedt on October 23rd, 2008

As most of the political spotlight is on the presidential election in USA you might have missed the election in Canada last week. Unfortunately not much changed there. Stephen Harper and his Conservative party remained in power, the Liberals lost 19 seats and the Greens failed to even win a seat.

The outcome of the election was a blow to the environment and anyone who wants tough actions against climate change. Mitchell Anderson, from the DeSmogBlog, said that “the Canadian election saw little talk of dealing with climate change since stock markets tanked in the final week of the campaign.”

(more…)

“There is no need to spend a penny of public money on greening the motor industry”

By Simon Leufstedt on October 16th, 2008

Highway Insomnia
Creative Commons License photo credit: Nrbelex

George Monbiot says that the motor industry has long sabotaged eco-innovations and that they are now demanding billions to cut its carbon emissions. The green subsidy for car makers, Monbiot says, is just a disguised corporate bail-out.

“Their sabotage of green technology has been both subtle and comprehensive. The film Who Killed The Electric Car? shows how the manufacturers, working with oil companies and corrupt officials, sank California’s attempt to change vehicle technologies. Having bumped off battery power, they persuaded the federal government to pour money instead into hydrogen vehicles, aware that the technological hurdles are so high that a cheap, mass-produced model might never be possible. Electric cars, by contrast, have been ready for the mass market for almost a century. The $1.2bn that the US government is spending on research and development for hydrogen cars – like the €2bn pledged to the same quest by the European Union – is a subsidy for avoiding technological change.”

Continue to read over at the Guardian.

Blog Action Day: You can’t solve climate change or poverty without dealing with the other

By Simon Leufstedt on October 15th, 2008

Al Gore have said, during the annual World Economic Forum Meeting in 2008, that you can’t solve climate change or poverty in the developing world “without dealing with the other”:

“Earlier this year, Bono and I spoke about the intersection between the extreme poverty in the developing world – especially in Africa – and the climate crisis. It is impossible to solve one of these issues without dealing with the other.”

A video from the event can be found below:

(more…)

Blog Action Day: The Memo from Lawrence Summers

By Simon Leufstedt on October 15th, 2008

On December 12, 1991, Lawrence Summers, the chief economist for the World Bank, wrote an internal memo that was leaked to the British publication the Economist on February 8, 1992.

DATE: December 12, 1991
TO: Distribution
FR: Lawrence H. Summers
Subject: GEP

‘Dirty’ Industries: Just between you and me, shouldn’t the World Bank be encouraging MORE migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs [Less Developed Countries]? I can think of three reasons:

1) The measurements of the costs of health impairing pollution depends on the foregone earnings from increased morbidity and mortality. From this point of view a given amount of health impairing pollution should be done in the country with the lowest cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages. I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that.

(more…)

Blog Action Day: Poverty and Environment

By Artemis Mindrinou on October 15th, 2008

During the last few years societies familiarise quickly with environmental issues. The First and the Second World residents get gradually informed about problems such as climate change and the greenhouse effect, that take place due to human activity.

Wealthy people from the upper classes of society have many opportunities to get involved in these problems, to raise their own and other people’s awareness, and to contribute financially. However, this is not the case when it comes to lower ranks. It seems that poverty is a barrier in taking part in solving environmental problems.

For example, it is said that we should prefer bio-eco products for a greener life. Those products can be recycled or/and recyclable, manufactured in environmental friendly ways, without the use of toxic substances or chemicals. But all these features make them very expensive as well. So, the poorer people have to keep buying the cheapest products, and thus promoting the continuous manufacture and use of unhealthy and pollutant products.

(more…)

ABC Refuses To Run Ad That Attacks Big Oil

By Simon Leufstedt on October 10th, 2008

ABC, the American Broadcasting Company, seems to be bought up by big oil and the coal industry as they refuse to run the Repower America ad from the We Campaign. The ad attacks the dirty coal and oil industry while promoting green renewable energy as the real solutions to the energy crisis and climate change.

“Did you notice the ads after last night’s presidential debate? ABC had Chevron. CBS had Exxon. CNN had the coal lobby. But you know what happened last week? ABC refused to run our Repower America ad — the ad that takes on this same oil and coal lobby”, said Cathy Zoi, CEO of the We Campaign, in an email newsletter to the campaigns member two days ago.

(more…)

Sarah Palin Wins 2008 Rubber Dodo Award

By Simon Leufstedt on October 2nd, 2008

The former unknown Alaskan Governor who is now running mate with John McCain and, maybe, soon even Vice President of the USA has been awarded the 2008 Rubber Dodo Award.

It is the Center for Biological Diversity that this year gives their unflattering Dodo Award to Sarah Palin. Why? Because she “has sought to remove endangered species act protection for the polar bear, suppressed and lied about state global warming studies, and denied that global warming is caused by greenhouse gas emissions.”

“Governor Palin has waged a deceptive, dangerous, and costly battle against the polar bear” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Her position on global warming is so extreme, she makes Dick Cheney look like an Al Gore devotee.”

(more…)

Al Gore urges civil disobedience in the fight against climate change

By Simon Leufstedt on September 29th, 2008

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 30JAN05 – Al Gore at the Annual Meeting 2005 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 30, 2005. Photo by Severin Nowacki.

Last week, during the Clinton Global Initiative, Al Gore encouraged young people to use civil disobedience to stop the construction of CO2 emitting coal plants.

“If you’re a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration.”

(more…)

Pages: Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ...14 15 16 Next
Advertisement
RSS

Subscribe to Green Blog

Green Blog has daily updates and posts from authors around the world. Get our latest posts, commentaries and articles by RSS-feed or by adding your Email to our newsletter.

Latest Comments

Latest Forum Topics

Green Blog on Twitter

We are not twittering about any special topic today. Follow Green Blog on Twitter.

Green Blog on Reddit

You can also find Green Blog on StumbleUpon StumbleUpon, Newsvine Newsvine, Digg Digg, Twitter Twitter, MySpace MySpace and Reddit Reddit.

Top Links:

Newest Links:

Green Blog ♥ Reddit

Archives

Browse our archive of over +2 years worth of blog posts, articles and commentaries:

Browse Archives by Author

bg
bg
Powered by WordPress. Green Blog is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license.
Creative Commons License
bg