Sustainability

Toward a New Sustainable Economy

The current financial meltdown is the result of under-regulated markets built on an ideology of free market capitalism and unlimited economic growth. The fundamental problem is that the underlying assumptions of this ideology are not consistent with what we now know about the real state of the world. The financial world is, in essence, a set of markers for goods, services, and risks in the real world and when those markers are allowed to deviate too far from reality, "adjustments" must ultimately follow and crisis and panic can ensue.

Posted in consumerism, green economy, Sustainability

Feminism's Challenge: Articulating Alternatives to Unsustainable Hierarchies

"What is the most important challenge facing women in the 21st century, and why?"

That one isn't easy for anyone to answer, especially in 300 words or less. But that was the assignment from editors of the University of Texas' web site for faculty members contributing to the "Many Voices of Feminism" collection, which is online at http://www.utexas.edu/features/2009/03/09/feminisms/.

Posted in Equality/Justice, feminism, Sustainability

Planet Overload

If you write about the environment you become used to a measure of unfriendly criticism. In the main, it's pretty innocuous stuff - charges of miserabilism and so on. But since concentrating on the issue of human population growth, I have found the criticism noticeably darkening. The other week, after helping to launch a campaign encouraging couples to "stop at two" (children, that is), I received an email accusing me of "real, hard-hitting fascism" and adding: "The Nazis . . .

Posted in consumerism, population, Sustainability

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2009
4:01 PM

CONTACT: American Rivers
Andrew Fahlund, American Rivers, 202-347-7550 x3022
Angela Dicianno, American Rivers, 202-347-7550 x3103

US Water Infrastructure Transformation Needed to Protect Public Health, Safety, and Save Money

American Rivers provides recommendations to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

WASHINGTON - February 4 - Water infrastructure in the United States is deteriorating and needs a major overhaul to avoid further declines in our clean water supplies and to deal with the more extreme weather that is coming with global warming, American Rivers said today in testimony before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

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American Rivers is the only national organization standing up for healthy rivers so our communities can thrive. Through national advocacy, innovative solutions and our growing network of strategic partners, we protect and promote our rivers as valuable assets that are vital to our health, safety and quality of life.

Founded in 1973, American Rivers has more than 65,000 members and supporters nationwide, with offices in Washington, DC and the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, Midwest, Southeast, California and Northwest regions.

American Rivers Links:

Posted in Sustainability, water, water quality

World's Major Fishing Nations Failing on Sustainability

More than 40% of the world's fishing is carried out unsustainably and largely in defiance of international codes of conduct, according to a new study. The team that carried out the research said that voluntary schemes to prevent overfishing should be replaced with binding international laws that can better protect marine ecosystems.

Scientists graded the 53 major fishing nations - those that take 96% of the world's marine catch - on how their intentions matched actions in complying with the UN's code, a voluntary measure developed in 1995 as a potential way to tackle overfishing.

Posted in biodiversity, conservation, Environment, oceans, Sustainability

Changing How We Live and Eat, One Fig at a Time

At 2 o'clock in the morning, most people in this college town are holed up studying, headed home from a bar or curled up in bed.

Asiya Wadud, however, is reaching for the weeping branches of a tree on the south side of the UC Berkeley campus, picking olives. A handful of her friends are helping. There is a little beer, a little wine; it's part merrymaking, part urban harvest.

"Don't worry about sorting them," she says, dropping a handful into a paper bag. An alarming fraction of the fruits are mottled and a little wormy-looking. "We'll do that tomorrow."

Posted in Food/Water, Sustainability

Agrotherapy: How Farms Heal

After farming for most of the last sixteen years in semi-rural Sonoma County in Northern California and being raised partly on our family farm in Iowa, I have come to understand that agriculture can serve many functions, in addition to producing food, fibers, and beverages. Some farms--especially non-industrial small family farms--are places where working the Earth can be good for body, mind and soul. Farms can heal.

Posted in farming, Sustainability, veterans

A Bicycle Evangelist With the Wind Now at His Back

PORTLAND, Ore. - For years, Earl Blumenauer has been on a mission, and now his work is paying off. He can tell by the way some things are deteriorating around here.

"People are flying through stop signs on bikes," Mr. Blumenauer said. "We are seeing in Portland bike congestion. You'll see people biking across the river on a pedestrian bridge. They are just chock-a-block."

Posted in Politics, Sustainability, transportation

Finding A Sustainable Future at The Dump

The economic crisis has now hit the bottom of the barrel - the trash barrel, that is.

Posted in Sustainability

International Energy Agency 'Blocking Global Switch to Renewables'

The international body that advises most major governments across the world on energy policy is obstructing a global switch to renewable power because of its ties to the oil, gas and nuclear sectors, a group of politicians and scientists claims today.

The experts, from the Energy Watch group, say the International Energy Agency (IEA) publishes misleading data on renewables, and that it has consistently underestimated the amount of electricity generated by wind power in its advice to governments.

Posted in Energy, oil, renewable energy, Sustainability