NetSquared: Remixing the Web for Social Change
By now you’ve surely heard of “Web 2.0.”
A Bad Way to Save Paper and Energy
Xerox – (XRX-$14.04) in conjunction with its subsidiary, the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), is working on a way to make paper truly recyclable.
Recommended Reading: April 29, 2008
How to win the war on global warming, according to Time Magazine. An excellent list of statistics: What’s happening in the world right now? Energy experts have dismissed the presidential candidates’ plans for lowering gas prices, and say it’ll be a decade before we can exert downward pressure on the price of gas. Come on…
Will the Food Crisis End When Credit Markets Recover?
The G7 economic ministers recently said that shortages and skyrocketing food prices posed a potentially greater threat to economic and political stability than the turmoil in capital markets. But are they making a mistake by assuming that the credit crunch and food crisis are unrelated? What if there is a connection between soaring agricultural commodities…
On Superpowers and Climate Change
Since the dawn of the second half of the 20th century the United States has largely maintained its position as the world’s dominant superpower. America has successfully led the charge against the spread of communism, built the most advanced military, put a man on the moon, and accelerated global commerce. We have stood up to…
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Statistics
Statistics are often used to demonstrate the severity of a given situation and a call to action, but when particularly massive numbers are cited on a regular basis they become difficult to comprehend.
Goodbye Barney and Friends
It was with great sorrow that I read the March MPR (Minnesota Public Radio) article about moose becoming extinct in Minnesota.
The 2008 Proxy Voting Preview
Photo:NacRonin47, Creative Commons, Flickr There are many different types of socially conscious investing, but a particularly effective method is proxy voting, where shareholders instigate change from within. Individual investors have the power to influence the way a company or a fund does business. And foundations, especially, can leverage their influence to ensure that the companies…
What is Proxy Voting?
One of the items that is getting increasing play right now is proxy voting. Indeed, spring is considered a proxy voting "season" of sorts, since this is when shareholder meetings are held and decisions regarding corporate governance and social responsibility are made. But what is proxy voting and why does it matter?
North American Union and Rampant Poverty: One Step Closer
Photo:~Hypatia~, Creative Commons, Flickr Last Tuesday, for the umpteenth time – though this time publicly – the leaders of Canada, Mexico and the U.S. met to try to prevail over more sensible heads (including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) who want to amend, and possibly abrogate, NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Great Lakes Cleanup: Boon or Boondoggle?
Photo:textilesdiva, Creative Commons, Flickr A recent study by the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank, shows that the Upper Midwest would reap enormous economic benefits from a proposed cleanup of the Great Lakes.
Recommended Reading: April 24, 2008
European and Japanese leaders at their annual summit in Tokyo have called for "ambitious and binding" targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. At a time when the world’s top climate experts agree that carbon emissions must be rapidly reduced to hold down global warming, Italy’s major electricity producer, Enel, is converting its massive power plant…
The Era of Cheap Oil is Over
Photo:Gonzalo Barrientos, Creative Commons, Flickr What will we do now?
Recommended Reading: April 23, 2008
Oil prices rose above $116 a barrel last week, setting another record for the world’s most indispensable energy commodity. What was striking about this latest milestone was what didn’t happen: there was no shortage of oil, no sudden embargo, no exporter turning off its spigot. The subprime mortgage crisis in technicolor. An innovative website using…
Recommended Reading: April 22, 2008
If you have 30 minutes to spare, watch Al Gore’s brand-new slideshow. He presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists were recently predicting, and challenges us to act with a sense of "generational mission" – the kind of feeling that brought forth the civil rights movement – to…
The Energies of Earth Day
While much has changed since Earth Day was founded, unfortunately much has remained the same. The US is once again engaged in war, people still drive gas guzzling vehicles, and we all waste far too much of the Earth’s resources.
Searching for the Holy Grail of Alternative Energy
Truly good alternative energy ideas come along about once a decade.
Foreign Oil Companies Benefit from Brazilian Oil Field
How big is the deep-water oil field Carioca?
Recommended Reading: April 21, 2008
What happens when one of the world’s largest banks reports a multi-billion dollar loss? The stock shoots up, of course. The "Citi applause was premature," says Antony Currie at BreakingViews.com. Click here to read another brilliant piece written by Anatole Kaletsky at The London Times. "There is, however, another apparent consequence of the credit crunch…
First Let’s Get Rid of the Old
I hate being a conspiracy theorist, but the government drives me to it, and lately government seems (hand-in-glove with corporations) to be driving a policy to get rid of unwanted burdens to our capitalist society.
Recommended Reading: April 18, 2008
Solar Symbiosis: Making a Clean Break. The Fight for Yahoo: Five Scenarios. Jon Stewart Eviscerates Media’s Pope Coverage. Cartoon: The Fed slashes interest rates below zero. A Little Financial Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing
Greenback Intervention Ideas Inspired by NyQuil
"Since our last meeting, there have been at times sharp fluctuations in major currencies, and we are concerned about their possible implications for economic and financial stability," says the statement from this weekend’s G7 meeting.
Recommended Reading: April 17, 2008
Thoughts on the food crisis: "It is tempting to assume that the problem is purely one of supply and can be fixed by genetically modified plants or investment in a new “green revolution” to boost crop yields. The three most productive solutions, however, are all matters of policy." How long is your working week? Why…
Big Oil Stocks Surge
Exxon Mobil (XOM) was back above $90 a share on Wednesday. Indeed, it appears to be heading toward $92 a share. And all of this thanks to the news that global oil supply is likely to cause problems. But XOM is not the only Big Oil stock on its way up. Conoco-Phillips (COP), Chevron (CVX),…
The New Nomads
Last weekend, an uncle asked me "How many hours a day do you go online?" I looked up from my iPhone and repeated the question out loud several times, stressing the different words to understand what he meant, like Jude Law as Brad Stand in "I Heart Huckabees" pondering "How Am I Not Myself?" Go…