Παρουσίαση του βιβλίου

Η ΟΙΚΟΤΟΠΙΑ – Εταιρεία Περιβαλλοντικής Έρευνας & Ενημέρωσης και η Πανελλήνια Ένωση Εκπαιδευτικών για την Περιβαλλοντική Εκπαίδευση (Π.Ε.ΕΚ.Π.Ε.) σε συνεργασία με τη Ευώνυμο Οικολογική Βιβλιοθήκη και τη ΔΗΩ – Οργανισμός Ελέγχου & Πιστοποίησης Βιολογικών Προϊόντων, παρουσιάζουν την ελληνική έκδοση του βιβλίου: «Η Κατάσταση του Κόσμου 2009 – Η Κλιματική Αλλαγή Μόλις Άρχισε», την ετήσια έκθεση του Ινστιτούτου Worldwatch, στον ημιόροφο του κτιρίου της Ε.Δ.Ο.Θ. (Ένωση Δημοσιοϋπαλληλικών Οργανώσεων Θεσσαλονίκης), Προξ. Κορομηλά 51, την Παρασκευή 20 Νοεμβρίου 2009, στις 8 μ.μ.

Σύμφωνα με όλες τις υπάρχουσες μέχρι σήμερα επιστημονικές έρευνες και διαπιστώσεις, δεν είναι υπερβολή να λέμε ότι η κλιματική αλλαγή είναι η μεγαλύτερη περιβαλλοντική, οικονομική και κοινωνική κρίση στην ιστορία της ανθρωπότητας. Η κλιματική αλλαγή τείνει να λάβει ανεξέλεγκτες διαστάσεις. Ήδη οι πρώτες επιπτώσεις πλήττουν εκατομμύρια συνανθρώπους μας σε κάθε γωνιά του πλανήτη, ενώ ορισμένες μελλοντικές επιπτώσεις είναι μάλλον αναπόφευκτες.

Η εφετινή Κατάσταση του Κόσμου του Ινστιτούτου Worldwatch είναι αφιερωμένη στην κλιματική αλλαγή και στις προοπτικές διεξόδου από την παγκόσμια κρίση, με έμφαση να δίνεται αφενός στους κινδύνους και τους τρόπους αντιμετώπισης της κλιματικής αλλαγής και, αφετέρου, στη λήψη συγκεκριμένων πολιτικών προς την κατεύθυνση του μετριασμού και της ανθεκτικότητας στην επερχόμενη αλλαγή του κλίματος.

Οι μελετητές του Ινστιτούτου Worldwatch, το οποίο εκδίδει τις ετήσιες εκθέσεις του ανελλιπώς από το 1984, έχοντας επιτύχει το State of the World να είναι η περισσότερο αναγνώσιμη έκδοση στο χώρο της περιβαλλοντικής βιβλιοπαραγωγής διεθνώς, και με την φετινή έκδοση επιμένουν να θέτουν επί της τράπεζας της δημόσιας συζήτησης τα μεγάλα και επείγοντα θέματα του κόσμου μας, υποστηρίζοντας ότι η ανθρωπότητα έχει ακόμη το χρόνο να αλλάξει πορεία. Ταυτόχρονα το Ινστιτούτο καταθέτει βιώσιμες και ρεαλιστικές προτάσεις για πολιτικές σε μεγάλη και μικρή κλίμακα.

«Εάν ο κόσμος δεν αναλάβει δράση έγκαιρα και σε επαρκή βαθμό, τότε οι επιπτώσεις της κλιματικής αλλαγής θα αποδειχτούν εξαιρετικά βλαπτικές και θα υπερκεράσουν τις δυνατότητές μας για προσαρμογή», τονίζουν οι καταξιωμένοι στη διεθνή επιστημονική κοινότητα συγγραφείς του τόμου και παρουσιάζουν τις τεκμηριωμένες επιστημονικά προτάσεις τους στο αναγνωστικό κοινό.

Το βιβλίο παρουσιάζουν οι:

• Μιχάλης Τρεμόπουλος, Ευρωβουλευτής Οικολόγων – Πράσινων
• Μιχάλης Προμπονάς, επιμελητής – συντονιστής της ελληνικής έκδοσης,

Τη συζήτηση συντονίζει ο Κώστας Στυλιάδης, αντιπρόεδρος του Παραρτήματος Κεν. Μακεδονίας της ΠΕΕΚΠΕ

Θα ακολουθήσει συζήτηση με τους παρευρισκόμενους.

Danielle Nierenberg from the Worldwatch Institute recently visited Ethiopia as part of a project evaluating environmentally sustainable ways of alleviating hunger and poverty, and tellong stories of hope and success in food production from all over Africa.

Her Ethiopia visit began at ILRI. She blogs …

Farmers confront more challenges than ever before: climate change, increasing malnutrition, urbanization, conflict, and gender inequity all make their jobs harder than ever before. But along with these challenges, there are enormous opportunities for creative innovations that can help lift farmers’ incomes, protect the environment, and increase food security.

One way is by making mixed crop-livestock systems better for farmers, animals, and the environment. In fact, raising animals may be the one of the best ways to cope with climate change. “It’s a good coping strategy to have legs,” said Shirley Tarawalia, Theme Director of the People, Livestock, and the Environment program at ILRI. Crops, unlike livestock, can’t get up and move around to where there’s more water.

Read more … [Nourishing the Planet Blog]

Picking up where I left off with my last post – thinking of ways to make a personal difference. Below is a quote from worldwatch.org that makes you want to quit beef and become a vegegatarian. (Scroll all the way down.)

BTW, I encourage all readers to go to http://worldwatch.org aka Worldwatch Institute for excellent research and reporting on global warming and other environmental issues. I started reading WW Magazine in 1993. At about the time, I read Bill McKibben’s “The End of Nature“.

So while I’m at it, I’d like to recommend Bill McKibben’s “Deep Economy“, the best ‘environmental’ book I’ve read in the past few years. It not only gives you a thorough understanding of the perils of the fossil fuel world we live, but more importantly it provides many ideas and insights on how we could turn the shop around, how we can live comfortably and well, and still save the planet.

And since Worldwatch starts me thinking about Lester Brown (formerly Worldwatch Institute), check out the Earth Policy Institute, and get a copy of “Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization” – a close 2nd place on my Green Reading List. I haven’t come across another book that deserves such a title. You will find (maybe not all but enough) solutions to our problems which – after the initial cold sweats and panic attacks – will make you hopeful.

Okay, enough of the reading list. Here is quote from WorldWatch (you can subscribe to these emails on their website):

Livestock Emissions: Still Grossly Underestimated?

The environmental impact of animals raised for food has been vastly underestimated and in fact accounts for at least half of all human-caused greenhouse gases (GHGs), according to contributors to this month’s World Watch magazine. Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, co-authors of “Livestock and Climate Change,” found that livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions.

Von Stephen Leahy

Brooklin, Kanada, 10. Januar -08 (IPS)

Das renommierte ‘Worldwatch Institute’, eine Denkfabrik mit Sitz in Washington, hält in seinem neuen Lagebericht ‘State of the World 2008‘ eine gute Nachricht für die Erde bereit. Der Report erkennt eine Wende hin zum nachhaltigen Wirtschaften und die ersten Schritte eines Umdenkens bei Unternehmen und Regierungen.

“Ich bin hoffnungsvoll, wage aber nicht zu sagen optimistisch”, kommentierte Koautor Gary Gardner in einem Gespräch mit IPS die soeben veröffentlichte Jahrespublikation. Auf einer Leiter hin zu einer nachhaltigen Wirtschaft sei die erste Sprosse genommen. Noch aber gebe es keine Garantie dafür, dass auch die weiteren Schritte getan würden.

Gardner stützt sein verhalten positives Urteil auf die Erkenntnis, dass grüne Projekte heute zwar kein Schattendasein mehr führen, allerdings auch nicht zum Mainstream gehören. Nach seiner Einschätzung ist und bleibt die härteste Nuss, die es zu knacken gilt, eine überzogene Konsumhaltung in den reichen Staaten und das in den ärmeren Weltregionen weit verbreitete Verlangen nach einem Leben wie in den USA.

Leider glaubten zu viele Menschen der von der Werbe- und Unterhaltungsindustrie verbreiteten Maxime: ‘Ich bin, was ich besitze’. Eine wirkliche Innovation wäre es zu zeigen, dass ein besseres Leben auch ohne Überfluss möglich sei. Immerhin aber sei etwa der Bereich erneuerbare Energien mittlerweile ein Selbstläufer und nicht mehr völlig von der Unterstützung grüner Gruppen abhängig.

Grüne Anlagen

Zu den im Worldwatch-Bericht aufgelisteten Hoffnungszeichen gehören die Investitionen in erneuerbare Energien. Sie erreichten 2006 52 Milliarden US-Dollar und verzeichneten im Vergleich zum Vorjahr so ein Plus von 33 Prozent. Erste Schätzungen rechnen für 2007 mit einem weiteren Anstieg bis auf 66 Milliarden Dollar. Noch stärker schlägt der CO2-Handel durch. Er konnte seinen Wert von 2005 auf 2006 verdreifachen und erzielte 30 Milliarden Dollar.

Gute Nachrichten kommen auch von der ‘Citigroup’, einer der größten Banken der Welt. Sie will in den nächsten zehn Jahren 50 Milliarden Dollar in Vorhaben gegen den Klimawandel investieren. Allerdings ist und bleibt die Bank einer der führenden Geldgeber für Projekte im Bereich der fossilen Energien, dem Hauptlieferanten der Treibhausgase. Insofern fragen sich Beobachter, ob die Initiative des Finanzhauses für die Nachhaltigkeit nicht nur der Versuch ist, sich grün zu waschen.

Unerwartet ökofreundlich hat sich unlängst auch der US-Konzern ‘General Motors’ (GM) verhalten, als er von der US-Regierung ein Gesetz zur Regulierung des Treibhausgasausstoßes forderte. Ganz offenbar, so Gardner, finde bei Unternehmen wie GM ein Umdenken statt. Statt den Klimawandel zu dementieren oder ignorieren, bemühten sie sich jetzt, ihren Einfluss auf klimafreundliche Entscheidungen zu erhöhen.

Energieeffiziente Gebäude

Eine weitere positive Meldung, die Erwähnung in dem Worldwatch-Bericht findet, betrifft die ‘Virginia Tech University’. Sie gab im Dezember bekannt, dass sie zusammen mit dem Unternehmen ‘Hannon Armstrong’ 100 Millionen Dollar in eine Verbesserung der Energieeffizienz der Gebäude in Washington investieren wird.

Leider sind solche Initiativen keineswegs die Regel. Wie Gardner bedauert, ist die Mehrheit der in dem neuen Bericht erwähnten Aktivitäten von Unternehmen und Regierungen “schlecht für die Umwelt”. (Ende/IPS/hn/2008)

Links:
http://www.worldwatch.org
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40736

Press on August 6, 2009 – By – Worldwatch.org 

Water scarcity is increasing in many regions as factors including population growth, climate change, and pollution restrict the amount of water available relative to demand. In 2008, 1.4 billion people lived in “closed basins”-regions where existing water cannot meet the agricultural, municipal, and environmental needs for all. This number is expected to grow to 1.8 billion by 2025.

According to the latest Vital Signs snapshot of water scarcity trends:

• Population growth is a major driver of water scarcity at the regional and global levels. Urbanization and rising incomes-two trends prominent in rapidly developing countries such as China, India, and Brazil-also contribute to increased domestic and industrial demand for water.
• Several major rivers, including the Indus, Rio Grande, Colorado, Murray-Darling, and Yellow, no longer reach the sea year-round as a growing share of their waters are claimed for various uses.
• Diets heavy in livestock are water intensive because of the huge quantities of water required for livestock production. Similarly, fossil fuel production requires many times more water than renewable energy sources do.

This new water scarcity update includes the latest figures on water consumption by energy type and water dependence of selected countries.

Read the Vital Signs analysis, “Water Scarcity Looms.”

Worldwatch Institute reports that windpower capacity worldwide increased by 27,051 megawatts in 2008, bringing total installed capacity over 120,000 megawatts.  The United States showed the greatest growth, adding 8,358 megawatts to make a current total of 25,170 megawatts.  That’s a 50% increase in one year!

The contribution that the U.S. windpower makes to overall domestic supplies is still relatively modest: optimistically, about 66 million megawatt hours per year (at 30% capacity), compared to more than 4 billion megawatt hours generated from all sources in 2007.   But it certainly reflects the kind of trend you would like to see.  If domestic capacity continues to grow for awhile at a rate of 50% per year, the wind contribution will start looking very healthy very quickly.

Is that a pipe dream?  There is no reason to think so, yet.  As Worldwatch points out, much of growth in 2008 occurred in the midst of uncertainty about the availability of production tax credits.  Thanks to the Stimulus Bill, those credits are not only locked in for several years, but proponents of short-term projects get to choose between production tax credits, investment tax credits, and equivalent grants.  The Chicago Tribune reports that there are 300,000 megawatts of wind projects in the current development pipeline.

It is hard to overstate the role that renewable portfolio standards have had in accelerating wind deployment.  Currently, these requirements (to include a certain level of renewable energy in the power mix) are part of the law in about half of the states.  Target dates are coming up quickly in several states, which might explain the rapid increase in wind deployment.  Where could we be if there was a strong national renewable energy standard?

The author of the same Chicago Tribune article argues that wind is developing fast enough as it is, thank you, and that a federal renewable energy standard would “succeed only in strengthening the power and fattening the pocketbooks of the windmill builders that want the mandate.”  The logic, here, is hard to follow.  Perhaps a coal state paper would prefer that other pocketbooks fatten up.

The real questions to consider are, how much intermittent power such as wind can the grid sustain and still remain reliable, and can we develop power storage systems capable of making that concern a moot point?

• “Ein Planet vor der Überhitzung“. Der neue Bericht “Zur Lage der Welt 2009” zeigt: Klimaschutz kann ein entscheidender Wachstumsfaktor in der Krise sein. Eine Pressemitteilung von Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung und Germanwatch. germanwatch.org.

• “Der Klimawandel hat sich beschleunigt“. Rekordtemperaturen im April und ansteigende Meeresspiegel. Indizien bei sueddeutsche.de.
“Liebe in den Zeiten des Klimawandels“. Der Norden schwitzt, der Süden friert. Kalte und nasse Küsse auf dem Markusplatz bei abendblatt.de.

Di., den 28. April 2009

Weltretten zum Mitmachen

• Der WWF hat eine neue, bisher einmalige Online-Community im Umweltbereich für Jugendliche (14-24 Jahre) gestartet, “Weltretten zum Mitmachen” unter www.wwf-jugend.de.

Worldwatch wants Al Gore to be your Daddy. As if the environmental movement, grown increasingly diffused across the political and social spectrum in recent years, all of a sudden needs such a figurehead.

The danger inherent in adopting a movement messiah, much less the face of carbon-fueled climate chaos itself, should be plain to us by now, locked as we are in a two-party system of eternally-increasing polarization.

I confess I missed Gore’s big climate speech last Thursday. I was likely twittering to myself down at the office. However, I fully love the fact that someone with his political stature would stand up and call for mass conversion of our energy allegiances — equally as much as I appreciate the fact he is keeping his distance from the current election cycle.

That same day Gore popped off, Texas made a sizable lurch into clean energy with a $5 billion commitment to trenching transmission lines into “competitive energy zones” in high wind and (naturally) sunny West Texas scapes. Our attractiveness to wind and solar companies on the make just got an ovulatory glow.

I even love the implausible deadline of 2018 Gore set to finalize our decoupling of petro resources in favor of non-polluting renewables. We need to move on war footing like that. We need that kick in the ass. But do we need Gore to lead us there?

Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin writes:

A groundswell of voices – from Wall Street investors to the urban poor, from evangelical Christians to indigenous leaders, from defenders of national security to activists for world peace – say climate change is a threat and a solution is urgent.

Yet, who will lead? The environmental movement has not had a central, unified message since its inception during the first Earth Day in 1970. Rather than sticking to the core ethos of its foundation, the movement has settled for incremental compromises – for example, attempting to control pollution rather than transform the underlying economic causes.

hair-growing salon, circa 1969

It’s true environmentalism has been all over the map since it crawled out of the hair-growing salons of the late ’60s. But it also grew up with an array of faces. Its thrust always an unmistakable goal of sustainability, the current buzzword for “survival.” Whether you are facing down shark finners off the Galapagos or teaching children how to compost their cafeteria waste, you are practicing environmentalism and you are participating in survival methodology.

Flavin argues that the past 40 years of “small steps” won’t work with climate change. That’s true. Which is one reason we saw a string of bloated and unworkable climate-slash-energy bills sputter, flutter, and flare out recently in Congress. The needs are great; the shared knowledge, not so.

“A successful mass movement must set its sights high and settle for nothing less than a new economy. Gore has done just that,” Flavin writes. Still, the suggestion seems to be that Gore is somehow now a mass movement. He isn’t. The mass movement — and environmentalism informing it — still belongs to the masses.

Riding the highway again today, as I will everyday until I finally relocate for work, I couldn’t shake the grip of gridlock think. I realized that until our minds train themselves to see a traffic jam and think in communal terms (how can I help solve this issue for us all?) rather than selfish terms (how can I rev, ram, and reach that exit lane first?), we will be idling without a clue on climate change.

It’s menace is complex, slow, aggravating, and planetary — for all practical purposes, universal.

Global warming is not speculative, but fact. Our current worldwide mass extinction is not a “conservation issue” in the same way global warming is not an “environmental” issue. It is the business front, the local front, and 1A. There is no other “side” to this story, just the quest for solutions.

The need to completely cross to renewables is plain, but it must ride the groundswell Flavin recognizes that exists today. That groundswell must be high enough to move us where we need to go. That will come when the information custodians (reporters, editors, publishers, and their financiers) change their operating paradigm on climate change, the same way they did on Civil Rights when lynchings, disenfranchisement, and abuse were finally (and widely) understood to be morally indefensible.

Sadly, just as few newspapers have had the courage to challenge the status quo on issues of war and peace, racial injustice, and women’s suffrage before the mainstream thinking on these topics shifted, we have, as one of my current reads lays out, guard dogs of the establishment rather than watchdogs. At this peak moment, we’re starting to roll backwards, back downhill.

While there is a place for exploration and reserve releases to smooth the transition, discussion of oil shales, worse even than liquified coal, just shows how far off we have careened so quickly. With gas prices taking our attention off proactive measures, the public’s interest is diving to drilling over conservation.

Writes Pew:

Amid record gas prices, public support for greater energy exploration is spiking. Compared with just a few months ago, many more Americans are giving higher priority to more energy exploration, rather than more conservation. An increasing proportion also says that developing new sources of energy – rather than protecting the environment – is the more important national priority

In four months the public washed from conservation matra to drilling. Still, the media are not unmasking the “Drill Here, Drill Now” bunch’s offerings as an extension to the status quo that will kill us sure as a raring horse will trample a snake in the grass.

It is not the lack of some unitary executive overseeing environmentalism that is killing us. It is for the fact that the increasingly defunct media haven’t passed beyond the decade’s stalling “he said-she said” manipulation by the global warming denial industry; adopted the science for what it is; and become infused with the moral implications of inaction.

Will Rogers once said that as a Democrat he belonged to “no organized political party.” Environmentalism is like that. It is not a Party or even a party plank. It is a key comprehension that our interests — our common fate — are intertwined.

Of course, Rogers also said “politics is applesauce.” I still don’t know what he meant by that. I suspect it has something to do with the mess that good and bad apples turn into in that great capitol-city grinder to the east. Could it be that the great Art of Compromise is nothing more than dissolution?

That’s the face of environmentalism. Or at least it should be. No badges; no king; just sweet mush.

—

[Image credits: First is a NYTimes illo. Woodstock movie still swiped from www.alvinlee.de/alvmems8.htm. Graphs are from University of Maine and the Pew Center, in that order.]

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Women all over the world have struggled for centuries with the fundamental need to control when they bear child. Even in developed countries as here in America, access to contraception is only relatively recent, and a right that is constantly being threatened under pretexts of religion and morality. As a woman, nothing pushes my buttons more than hearing patriarchal injunctions against proven contraception methods. The fact that family planning is hardly mentioned in all the sustainability discourse, including some of the most progressive blogs, is no coincidence.

When Gary Peters alerted me to the coming out of Robert Engelman’s new book, More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want, I thought, good, here is a man who’s finally got it. The great thing about Engelman’s work is that it is based on extensive research with women from all over the world, over a long period of more than 25 years:

“It makes sense that those who bear children and do most of the work in raising them should have the final say in when, and when not, to do so. By making their own decisions based on what’s best for themselves and their children, women ultimately bring about a global good that governments could never deliver through regulation or control: a population in balance with nature’s resources. . . what women want, is not more children, but more for their children, and we can be thankful for that.“ 

Seems simple enough. Next comes the question of, how come universal access  to contraception and family planning education are not at the forefront of top level discussions on climate change and sustainability? 

For several years now, various agencies of the US government have been sponsoring a monthly evening lecture series on energy issues: The Energy Conversation.  Held in Crystal City, Virginia, these lectures (conversations?) bring together an eclectic mix of people who generally share a passion about one issue: concerns about the US approach to energy and a desire to see a shift toward more sensible approach toward energy within the United States (and globally). 

Tonight’s lecture:  Lester Brown (register for this free event, $10 for dinner) whose resume and background are too much for a single post.  Founder of Worldwatch Insitute, founder/president of the Earth Policy Institute, author/co-author of 50 plus books, etc …   In 2006, he published Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble.  This year, he has upgraded to 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. 

This is, of course, quite late notice for a lecture this evening but for the web community / world, one value is that there is an archive of past speakers (not all there, but being filled in) that have included John Marburger (President Bush’s Science Advisor), Amory Lovins (Rocky Mountain Institute), US Department of Defense experts in facilities’ energy efficiency and energy management, ‘green’ architect Bob Fox, a facilities executive from Walmart, the Director of the Center of Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water with  Systems to speak about the future of America’s water supplies, etc …

Sitting down for these “lectures” (at round tables, normally, to facilitate conversations rather than passive listening) is somewhat different than at many other professional events. Beside you, on one side, might be an officer from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and, on the other side, an activist from an environmental organization. Others at your table might include an executive from a renewable energy technology firm and someone from the oil industry … The eclectic nature of attendess (of participants) promotes an interaction, an Energy Conversation if you will, that might not occur otherwise. 

Das Worldwatch Insitute (WWI) gibt jährlich einen State of the World Report heraus. Er erlaubt einen Überblick mit Fakten, Konfliktlinien und Entwicklungen zu den relevantesten Fragen der Gegenwart. Die Commons gehören dieses Jahr dazu! In Kürze wird der Bericht auch auf Deutsch vorliegen. Herausgegeben vom WWI in Zusammenarbeit mit der Heinrich Böll Stiftung und Germanwatch. Der Band erscheint im Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot.

Verantwortlich für den Beitrag: Die Gemeinschaftsgüter als Parallelwirtschaft (Kapitel 9) zeichnet Jonathan Rowe, Gründungsmitglied von onthecommons.

Rowe schreibt:
“Komisch, dass sich die Politik so auf die Tragik der Gemeinschaftsgüter konzentriert, wo doch die Tragik der Unternehmen die wesentlich größere Bedrohung ist.”

Ein Paradebeispiel dafür ist der Fall von Pacific Lumber, auf den der Autor sich u.a. bezieht. (Hier ein sehr lesenwerter und wunderbar bebilderter Beitrag der Süddeutschen zur Vernichtung der höchsten Lebewesen der Welt, in den kalifornischen Red Wood Forests.) Aber Rowe bringt auch jede Menge Ermutigendes zur “Rückeroberung und Revitalisierung der Allmende”. Das gibt’s ja zu selten.
Seint Fazit zum Zusammenhang zwischen Schutz der Gemeinschaftsgüter und der dafür notwendigen institutionelle und sozialen Struktur lautet:

“Die Maßnahmen, die zum Schutze der Gemeinschaftsgüter notwendig sind, würden die gesellschaftlichen Strukturen hervorbringen, die den Schutz der Gemeinschaftsgüter vereinfachen.”

Rowe schließt mit einem Satz, den ich nur unterstreichen kann: “Ein neuer Begriff ist gerade dabei, die politische Arena zu erobern: Neben „marktbasiert“ und „command-and-control“ steht dann „gemeinschaftsgüterbasiert”.

Hier für Neugierige Rowe: The Parallel Economy of the Commons.

Die Berichte des WWI “Zur Lage der Welt” der letzten fünf Jahre finden sich hier:

To download issues 1-3 click below

Worldwatch

Yhdysvaltalaisen Earth Policy -instituutin johtaja Lester Brown on laskenut, paljonko maailman pelastaminen maksaisi maailman valtioille.

Köyhyyden poistaminen, terveydenhuollon järjestäminen kaikille, väestönkasvun vakauttaminen ja ilmastonmuutoksen hillitseminen maksaisivat 190 miljardia dollaria eli 125 miljardia euroa vuodessa.

Brown muistuttaa, että Yhdysvaltain puolustusbudjetti oli toissa vuonna 560 miljardia dollaria eli 370 miljardia euroa. Brown kirjoittaa aiheesta Plan B eli Suunnitelma B -kirjan uudessa painoksessa.

Brownin ”suunnitelma A” tarkoittaa maailman menon jatkumista entisellä mallilla. Suunnitelma B puolestaan perää laajaa suunnitelmaa ilmastonmuutosta, köyhyyttä, väestönkasvua ja ympäristötuhoja vastaan. Suunnitelma B:ssä tärkeää on leikata kasvihuonekaasujen päästöjä 80 prosentilla vuoteen 2020 mennessä.

Lester Brown tunnetaan Yhdysvalloissa toimivan tutkimusorganisaatio Worldwatch-instituutin perustajana. Instituutti on julkaissut Maailman tila -raportteja vuodesta 1975 lähtien. Brown on kirjoittanut tai toimittanut yli 50 kirjaa. Hän kuuluu muun muassa ensimmäisiin ekonomisteihin, jotka varoittivat biopolttoaineinnostuksen johtavat ruokapulaan maailmalla. Yhdysvalloissa The Washington Post -lehti on listannut Brownin 50 vaikutusvaltaisimman ajattelijan joukkoon.

Aiheesta kertoi uutistoimisto Reuters 6.3.2008.

http://www.earth-policy.org/

Local Food Hero — AM 950 KTNF — The Voice of Minnesota

1:00, March 8, 2008

A show where we discuss the growing, cooking, eating and yes…the politics of what you put in your mouth.

Outstanding in Their Field: Lori Callister, Owner of Callister Farms and Farm in the Market

National Spotlight: Brian Halweil, Senior Researcher of Agriculture for the Worldwatch Institute
www.worldwatch.org

What’s in the Pot: Kim Bartmann, Restaurant Owner of Bryant Lake Bowl, Barbette, and The Red Stag Supper Club

Health and Wellness: Dr. William Klevos on health benefits of local and fresh foods.

Email us at localfoodhero@gmail.com

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Stephen Leahy

Toronto, 14/01/2008(IPS) – Após muitas ameaças, a economia global começa a inclinar-se à sustentabilidade, embora com reticências, segundo o informe “Estado do Mundo 2008”, elaborado pelo Worldwatch Institute, uma organização de especialistas ambientais com sede nos Estados Unidos.

“Inovadores esforços verdes por parte de governos e empresas estão se tornando comuns”, disse Gary Gardner, do Worldwatch. “Embora os projetos verdes já não sejam marginais, ainda estão muito longe de serem dominantes”, disse à Gardner à IPS, na qualidade de co-diretor do informe anual que habitualmente se centra em documentar a piora ambiental em todo o mundo.

O documento descreve uma série de novas oportunidades econômicas que estão atraindo capitais. Calcula-se que foram investidos US$ 52 bilhões em energia renovável em 2006, quase o triplo do ano anterior. “A energia renovável está próxima de decolar por si mesma. Já não precisa de muita ajuda dos ambientalistas”, disse Gardner. Os anúncios verdes agora surgem diariamente. No mês passado, diretores da Universidade Virginia Tech disseram que essa entidade havia se associado com um investidor privado, Hannon Armstrong, para destinar US$ 100 milhões anuais à melhoria da eficiência energética dos edifícios da área de Washington.

Em maio, o Citygroup, um dos maiores bancos do mundo, anunciou planos de investir US$ 50 bilhões para abordar programas para enfrentar a mudança climática na próxima década. Isso contradiz diretamente o fato de o Citigroup ser o principal financiador de energia gerada a partir de combustíveis fósseis e da indústria mundial de carvão, que é a maior fonte de emissões contaminantes dos Estados Unidos e de outros países.

Por acaso a promessa do Citigroup em abordar a mudança climática é o que se conhece como “lavagem verde”, ou se trata de um esforço sincero para fazer negócios sustentáveis? E o que dizer dos recentes esforços da General Motors para que os Estados Unidos aprovem com urgência legislação regulamentando emissões de gases causadores do efeito estufa que também são destacadas no informe? “A General Motors e outras companhias estão passando da negação da mudança climática a querer ter influência sobre futuras regulamentações que sabem serem inevitáveis”, disse Gardner. Entretanto, acrescentou que “a maioria das atividades de muitas corporações e muitos países citados neste informe são ruins para o meio ambiente”.

Aumentam os financiamentos verdes

Tom Prugh of the Worldwatch Institute has contributed a gem of a blog over at WorldChanging, touching on 7 “reforms that would make economics truer, greener, and more sustainable.” These are a part of the first chapter of the Worldwatch Institute’s “State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy”.

Economics is one of many fields that, I believe, needs not only new thinking such as Prugh displays, but needs to be far more integral to curriculum from an early age. While I often hear how much the typical US primary education lacks in maths and sciences (to which I agree), it is not near so often that economics gets mentioned. I applaud the work that Prugh and his colleagues at Worldwatch are doing. It is incredibly important. Check it out.

The 7 reforms mentioned (and elaborated upon) in the article are:

1) Scale
2) Stress development over growth
3) Make prices tell the ecological truth
4) Account for nature’s services
5) The precautionary principle
6) Commons management
7) Value women

The number of people affected by weather-related disasters has risen since 1982

Weather-related disasters include those caused by heat waves or cold snaps, floods, landslides, avalanches, wildfires, hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons, and winter storms. While these events are often perceived as natural, many human actions, including climate change, can have a hand in their creation.

Natural Disasters & Peacemaking

In 2006, the planet experienced more weather-related disasters than in any of the previous three years, but the economic losses associated with them fell sharply, from $219.6 billion in 2005 to $44.5 billion in 2006, thanks in part to a relatively quiet 2006 Atlantic hurricane season. With only 1 to 3 percent of households and businesses in low-and middle-income countries insured against disasters, compared with 30 percent in high-income countries, the full economic toll from disasters is often difficult to calculate, says Worldwatch Research Associate Zoe Chafe.

When floods recede or storm clouds dissipate, the real suffering begins for survivors. Nearly 5.4 million people became homeless as a result of a disaster last year, and other “secondary” disasters often follow: sexual harassment in camps, domestic violence, child labor and trafficking, poor resettlement plans, and ongoing disabilities.

While economic losses decreased, human deaths from disasters were up 24 percent in 2006. Floods, which affected 87 countries, were responsible for more deaths than any other weather-related disaster. The Horn of Africa was particularly hard hit by flooding, while Typhoon Saomai became the strongest storm to make landfall over China in 50 years, destroying 50,000 homes and forcing more than a million people to evacuate.