Register!
Custom Search
shadow

Archive for the ‘Business & Politics’ Category



It’s capitalism or a habitable planet - you can’t have both

Published by Simon Leufstedt on February 21st, 2008 in Green Quote.

Robert Newman, a British stand-up comedian, author and political activist, urges for a “major” social political change to combat global warming. Newman says that “our economic system is unsustainable by its very nature.” And he believes that “the only response to climate chaos and peak oil is major social change.”

There is no meaningful response to climate change without massive social change. A cap on this and a quota on the other won’t do it. Tinker at the edges as we may, we cannot sustain earth’s life-support systems within the present economic system.

Capitalism is not sustainable by its very nature. It is predicated on infinitely expanding markets, faster consumption and bigger production in a finite planet. And yet this ideological model remains the central organising principle of our lives, and as long as it continues to be so it will automatically undo (with its invisible hand) every single green initiative anybody cares to come up with.

Read the whole article over at the Guardian.

Burning letter

Published by Artemis Mindrinou on February 19th, 2008 in Green Quote.

Greece on FireThe following touching text is a letter written by a fireman, some months after the one thousand fires Greece endured last summer, and addresses to people all over the world.

I would like to forget:
- Those 3-4 sheeps we didn’t make it to save and heard them terrified as the flames reached them.
- Those birds that didn’t make it to leave their trees as the flames circled them, and were falling all over us like leaves in autumn…
- The terrified faces of my colleges when we saw 50-metres-high all around us.
- The panicked voices of other firemen on the phone, telling people got burnt in their houses…

(more…)

Sweden fails to agree on strong actions against climate change

Published by Simon Leufstedt on February 18th, 2008 in Business & Politics.

Today the Swedish parliamentary climate commission failed to set up tough emissions reduction goals to combat climate change.

The Swedish climate commission was created to set up guidelines, emissions reduction goals and to create unanimity between all the major political parties in Sweden regarding climate change. Even though the opposition, as well as the currently ruling right-wing alliance government called for “tough” emission reduction targets the commission failed to create unanimity.

Hans Jonsson, chairman of the climate commission, said during a press conference today that “we are in agreement on 300 pages worth of text. There is a half-page left on which we cannot find agreement. It has to do with Sweden’s emissions targets for 2020.”

(more…)

Spain aims high, wants to plant 500 million trees

Published by Simon Leufstedt on February 11th, 2008 in Business & Politics.

Spain aims high, wants to plant 500 million treesWe all know that politicians try to flatter everyone to vote for them. They promise and they promise but it’s not every time that their promises come to reality. Cause in the end they have usually promised too much than they can handle in their quest for power.

For the right-wing opposition in Spain, this should have been crystal clear before they launched their climate saving plans.

The Spanish political party, Partido Popular, have started their election campaign by promising to plant 500 million trees to combat climate change and stop the devastating effects it will have on Spain.

(more…)

“Why do you think Adam and Eve were naked?”

Published by Simon Leufstedt on January 30th, 2008 in Business & Politics.

Yesterday George Bush had his final State of the Union as the president of the United States of America. If you are interested, the Washington Post has fact checked key statements in the speech.

This video is not from that speech. And it is completely not unrelated: (more…)

USA to ban incandescent light bulbs

Published by Simon Leufstedt on January 29th, 2008 in Business & Politics.

USA to ban incandescent light bulbsThe USA recently passed its energy bill for 2008. The new energy bill has a section where it’s states that incandescent light bulbs will be banned for traditional use. The ban will begin in 2012 and, as planned, be fully in power by 2014.

The energy wasting light bulbs will be replaced with either CFLs or LEDs.

According to the US congress the incandescent light bulb ban will save around $40 billion and USA would need about 14 fewer coal-fired power plants, thus reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 million tons.

Image credit: Cabezadeturco. Image licensed under a
Creative-Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.

Green Quote of the Week: Andris Piebalgs

Published by Simon Leufstedt on January 24th, 2008 in Green Quote.

Green Quote of the Week: Andris PiebalgsThe European Commissioner for energy policy, Andris Piebalgs, said yesterday during the press conference where the EU unveiled its plan of action against climate change:

In a time of growing oil prices and climate change concerns, renewable energy sources is an opportunity that we cannot miss. They will help us to reduce our CO2 emissions, strengthen our security of supply and develop jobs and growth in a high tech developing sector. If we do the effort now, Europe will be the leader in the race towards the low carbon economy that the planet so desperately needs.

Press Release: Boosting growth and jobs by meeting our climate change commitments

EU agrees on a plan of action against climate change

Published by Simon Leufstedt on January 24th, 2008 in Business & Politics.
EU agrees on a plan of action against climate change

Yesterday the European Union agreed on a plan of action against climate change. The aim is a 20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 from the European countries. But the aim could be increased to 30% if other countries follow suite.

To be able to reach the 20% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by year 2020 the European Commission have outlined four measures that will help them achieve the goal:

(more…)

One ton of carbon dioxide currently costs €24

Published by Simon Leufstedt on January 22nd, 2008 in Business & Politics.

One ton of carbon dioxide currently costs €24The European market for carbon dioxide emissions rights increased with 30% during January and September last year. Currently one ton of carbon dioxide emissions rights will cost you €24 (about $35).

The price for the same ton of emission rights during the period of 2005 and 2007 is currently €1 (about $1,46). This is due to the fact that the European Union has, as planned, lowered the number of emissions rights, and thus the demands on the market have increased the price for the emission rights.

(more…)

Climate Emergency and Sustainability Emergency: Part 2

Published by Dr Gideon Polya on January 21st, 2008 in Business & Politics.

This is the final part of Climate Emergency and Sustainability Emergency, a two part article.

A few days ago at a social function I was asked by a top US atmosphere scientist - in Australia to work with top Australian atmospheric scientists - what would I do NOW. My answer in short was as follows: Australia has 50 Gigawatt (50 billion watt) electricity generating capacity (85% fossil fuel-driven at present); it currently spends about A$10 billion pa on fossil fuel subsidies; the installation cost for large-scale wind farms is about A$2 per watt of installed capacity; simply diverting this unconscionable fossil fuel subsidy to wind farm installation would yield A$10 billion pa /A$2 per watt = 5 billion watt capacity pa = 50 billion watt (50 Gigawatt) wind power electricity capacity in a mere 10 years, i.e. by 2017.

As detailed below, stated and committed Rudd Government policy means that it will INCREASE Australia’s fossil annual fuel-derived per capita CO2 pollution (already over 10 times higher than the world average if you include our fossil fuel exports) by about 50% by 2050. Every year is important. We must act urgently NOW. “Waiting for Godot” or, with the utmost respect, “waiting for Garnaut” is not an option.

(more…)

Pages: Prev 1 2 3 ...4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next

Popular Tags

Categories

Voice Your Opinion

Have Your Say

Will Obama do enough to combat the current climate and energy crisis?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Recent Comments

  • Brian Townsend Hi, This report is both eye-opening and frightening. We are looki...
  • Chemical Free You know, a number of years ago a similar situation occured in Briti...
  • ForEverGreen This is an interesting comment on the disparity between differing po...
  • Justin Allison This is an interesting posting to me, an American. It's great to see...

RSS Subscribe to our comment feed.

Interact With Green Blog

StumbleUpon Green Blog on StumbleUpon
Digg Green Blog on Digg
Digg Green Blog on MySpace
Digg Green Blog on Reddit

Today

stumbleupon (feed #4) 12:24am Favorited a website on StumbleUpon.

Yesterday

stumbleupon (feed #4) 9:55am Favorited 2 websites on StumbleUpon. (Show Details)

December 1st

stumbleupon (feed #4) 9:34pm Reviewed a website on StumbleUpon.
stumbleupon (feed #4) 12:10am Favorited 2 websites on StumbleUpon. (Show Details)

November 30th

stumbleupon (feed #4) 11:54pm Reviewed a website on StumbleUpon.
stumbleupon (feed #4) 6:15am Favorited 26 websites on StumbleUpon. (Show Details)
stumbleupon (feed #4) 4:33am Reviewed a website on StumbleUpon.

November 28th

stumbleupon (feed #4) 8:18am Favorited a website on StumbleUpon.

November 26th

stumbleupon (feed #4) 10:37pm Favorited a website on StumbleUpon.
digg (feed #2) 4:12pm Dugg 8 links on Digg. (Show Details)

Recommended Reading

Possibly the most graphic treatment of global warming that has yet been published, Six Degrees is what readers of Al Gore's best-selling An Inconvenient Truth or Ross Gelbspan's Boiling Point will turn to next. Written by the acclaimed author of High Tide, this highly relevant and compelling book uses accessible journalistic prose to distill what environmental scientists portend about the consequences of human pollution for the next hundred years.

Review the book on Enviro Space
Buy the book on Amazon

Archives

Green Links

Please contact us if you want to exchange links with Green Blog.

Blogroll

Friends & Partners

  • Enviro Space is the ultimate green community! This is a place to meet, discuss and interact with other people who share your interests and ideas.
  • Earth Promise is an online community dedicated to bringing people together who want to take better care of the environment. We provide an easy way for people to make, track and keep promises about actions that will benefit the earth. Together, we will be a caring and positive voice for the environment.

Linklist