New & Noteworthy
Iceland Leads Environmental Index as U.S. Falls
A new ranking of the world’s nations by environmental performance puts some of the globe’s largest economies far down the list, with the United States sinking to 61st and China to 121st.
In the previous version of the Environmental Performance Index, compiled every two years by Yale and Columbia University researchers, the United States ranked 39th, and China 105th.
The top performer this year is Iceland, which gets virtually all of its power from renewable sources — hydropower and geothermal energy. It was joined in the top tier by a cluster of European countries known for their green efforts, including Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Finland.
Hopenhagen, When people lead, leaders follow
Welcome to Hopenhagen.
Hopenhagen is a movement, a moment and a chance at a new beginning. The hope that in Copenhagen this December – during the United Nations Climate Change Conference – we can build a better future for our planet and a more sustainable way of life.Fixing a Critical Climate Accounting Error
Timothy D. Searchinger,1,* Steven P. Hamburg,2,* Jerry Melillo,3 William Chameides,4 Petr Havlik,5 Daniel M. Kammen,6 Gene E. Likens,7 Ruben N. Lubowski,2 Michael Obersteiner,5 Michael Oppenheimer,1 G. Philip Robertson,8 William H. Schlesinger,7 G. David Tilman9
"The accounting now used for assessing compliance with carbon limits in the Kyoto Protocol and in climate legislation contains a far-reaching but fixable flaw that will severely undermine greenhouse gas reduction goals (1). It does not count CO2 emitted from tailpipes and smokestacks when bioenergy is being used, but it also does not count changes in emissions from land use when biomass for energy is harvested or grown. This accounting erroneously treats all bioenergy as carbon neutral regardless of the source of the biomass, which may cause large differences in net emissions. For example, the clearing of long-established forests to burn wood or to grow energy crops is counted as a 100% reduction in energy emissions despite causing large releases of carbon."
Hazel Henderson presented "Beyond GDP: Operationalizing Indicators of Sustainability and Quality of Life".
Hazel provided an up-to-date review of all the broader indicators of health, environment, poverty gaps and education, which are now being recognized as a necessary part of measuring a country's progress.
This presentation was given at the Breakfast Seminar Series of the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise (ISE), Fairleigh Dickinson University on October 16, 2009.
To see the PowerPoint presentation, please click the Icon on the right of this page.
To see the archived video of Hazel Henderson's presentation, CLICK HERE.
On 81st birthday, Oregon man gives company to employees
Scores of employees gathered to help Bob Moore celebrate his 81st birthday this week at the company that bears his name, Bob's Red Mill...
By DANA TIMS
The Oregonian
MILWAUKIE, Ore. — Scores of employees gathered to help Bob Moore celebrate his 81st birthday this week at the company that bears his name, Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods.
Moore, whose mutual love of healthful eating and old-world technologies spawned an internationally distributed line of products, responded with a gift of his own — the whole company. The Employee Stock Ownership Plan that Moore unveiled means that his 209 employees now own the place and its 400 offerings of stone-ground flours, cereals and bread mixes. [READ MORE]
Microsoft co-founder Gates tackling climate change
AFP, 13 February 2010 - Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has broken from philanthropic work fighting poverty and disease to take on another threat to the world's poor -- climate change."Energy and climate are extremely important to these people," Gates told Friday a TED Conference audience packed with influential figures including the founders of Google and climate champion Al Gore.
"The climate getting worse means many years that crops won't grow from too much rain or not enough, leading to starvation and certainly unrest."
Gates said he is backing development of "terrapower" reactors that could be fueled by nuclear waste from disposal facilities or generated by today's power plants.
He broke down variables in a carbon-dioxide-culprit formula, homing in on a conclusion that the answer to the problem is a source of energy that produces no carbon. [READ MORE]
Hazel Henderson presented "Beyond GDP: Operationalizing Indicators of Sustainability and Quality of Life"
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