Corporations have a responsibility to be mindful of their impact on social, environmental and human health issues impacted by their policies and products. Our finite planetary resources are fast dwindling and destroying the very fabric of life. #CSR #Sustainability #SocioEconomics #GDP #EcoEconomics #Brands #Environment #ClimateChange #
There are so many different ways to fight poverty, and it's getting easier every day for people from all walks of life to get involved in doing so. But such unprecedented and growing opportunity to do good also carries the risk of repeating past mistakes at an unprecedented and growing scale.
Professor Ananya Roy, at the University of California at Berkeley, takes a class of around 700 undergraduates each fall semester on a journey walking the fine line between that opportunity and risk, or in her words, "the impossible space between the hubris of benevolence and the paralysis of cynicism."http://www.nextbillion.net/blogpost.aspx?blogid=3413
Institute for Policy Studies, March 11, 2015 ▶ OFF THE DEEP END: THE WALL STREET BONUS POOL AND LOW-WAGE WORKERS. The financial industry’s 2014 bonuses were double the combined earnings of all Americans who work full-time at the federal minimum wage. http://www.ips-dc.org/deep-end-wall-street/
CNBC News, January 2, 2015 ▶BILLIONAIRE: US FACES 'MASSIVE JOB KILLING MACHINE' TO KEEP PROFITS HIGHhttp://www.cnbc.com/id/102377856
RT Business, March 04, 2015 ▶ BP CEO GETS 35% PAY RISE IN 2014 - FREEZES PAY OF ITS 84,000 WORKFORCE AROUND THE WORLD. Dudley's remuneration rose from $10.17 million in 2013 to $12.74 million last year, according to BP’s annual report released Tuesday. He also received $9.8 million in share awards. In January the company cuts its capital spending program and imposed a salary freeze... http://rt.com/business/237617-bp-dudley-remuneration-rise/
September 12, 2013 Democracy Now ▶ THE AMERICAN WAY OF POVERTY: AS INEQUALITY HITS RECORD HIGH:Sasha Abramsky Author of "The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives." on the Forgotten Poorhttp://www.democracynow.org/2013/9/12/the_american_way_of_poverty_as
Wharton University of Pennylvania, August 25, 2004 ▶ THE FORTUNE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID:ERADICATING POVERTY THROUGH PROFITS?
Mother Jones, September 11, 2014 -▶ THE RICH ARE EATING RICHER, THE POOR ARE EATING POORER.First of all, incomes have stagnated. Overall real median incomes today stand at 1989 levels, as this September US Federal Reserve report shows. And real median incomes declined 5 percent between 2010 and 2013, the report shows, even as income levels at the top expanded. That means that the "recovery" of the past three years hasn't felt like much of one for millions of families... http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/09/food-inequality
CNBC News, November 20, 2014 ▶ FAT CHANCE: HOW MUCH OBESITY IS COSTING US. INVESTORS SEE GENEROUS PROFITS IN OBESITY EPIDEMIC
Our expanding waistlines are costing the global economy almost as much to deal with as smoking and military conflict, according to a new report by the McKinsey Global Institute. The annual global bill for obesity for lost productivity and treating conditions like diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers is $2 trillion. That’s nearly as much as the $2.1 trillion smoking or war and conflict costs the global economy, a group of analysts at the research institute concluded. http://www.cnbc.com/id/102203044
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PASSING THE BUCK
MORE THAN HALF OF U.S. FAST FOOD WORKERS ON PUBLIC AID, REPORT SAYS http://sco.lt/6njYXJ
ON THE BACKS OF THE POOR
2012 CORPORATE PROFITS HIT RECORD HIGH WHILE WORKER WAGES HIT RECORD LOW http://sco.lt/64Y1Tt
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-▶ 'NOT TO SHARE WEALTH WITH THE POOR IS TO STEAL' - POPE FRANCIShttp://sco.lt/6eaOZd
Guardian, September 22, 2015 ▶ DAVOS 2015: WORLD LEADERS 'FAILING ON SOCIAL COHESION' - Racial tensions, class inequalities and unreformed global institutions show that government leaders around the world are failing to deliver social cohesion, US thinktank chief Anne-Marie Slaughter has said
-▶ CLIMATE CHANGE AND INEQUALITY IS BREWING GLOBAL SOCIAL UPHEAVAL - WORLD BANK CHIEF.President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, is warning that the combined crises of planetary climate change and rising global inequality in a highly interconnected world will lead to the rise of widespread upheaval as the world's poor rise up and clashes over access to clean water and affordable food result in increased violence and political conflict.http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/04/0
June 17, 2013 Guardian Global Development - John Vidal ▶ A VOICE FOR THE POOR: LA VIA CAMPESINA, WORLD'S LARGEST POLITICAL MOVEMENT, TO CHALLENGE MULTI-NATIONALS ON POVERTY AND INEQUALITY
▶ INDIA MANDATES WORLD'S FIRST CORPORATE CHARITABLE GIVING LAWhttp://sco.lt/86m7If
▶ AN AWKWARD TRUTH: BANGLADESH FACTORIES A WAY UP FOR WOMEN (THE BANGLADESH FACTORY COLLAPSE: WHY CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER
Gary Haugen and Victor Boutros's "The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence" focuses on the central role of violence in perpetuating poverty, and shows that if any headway is to be made, this issue has to become a top priority for policymakers. Simply put, if people aren't safe, nothing else matters. Shipping grain to the poor, helping them vote, or assisting their efforts to start a farm is irrelevant. Whatever material improvements we provide will simply wash away in the face of the corrupt police forces, out-of-control, armies, private militias, organized criminals, and — not least — failed justice systems that plague poor countries....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY0FRy4JLYo
FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/4l725B
-▶ LAND GRABS: HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER RIGHTS ACROSS THE GLOBEhttp://sco.lt/96H2yv
ERADICATING ECOCIDE AND GENOCIDE:
WHY BUSINESS LEADERS MUST STEP UP TO THE CHALLENGE
Guardian Sustainable Business, February 19, 2015 -▶ ENVISIONING A FUTURE WITH LESS DOOM AND GLOOM: OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF OPTIMISTS :
Bill Shireman, president of Future 500, a global nonprofit that connects corporations and NGOs to overcome sustainability challenges
Guardian, November 26, 2014 -▶ RETHINKING PROPERITY. CAPITALISM vs ENVIRONMENT. CAN GREED EVER BE GREEN? Is it possible to run an expanding capitalist economy while keeping its impacts within safe ecological boundaries, or is the greed-driven system effectively a suicide machine that is doomed to destroy itself? The fact that the now dominant capitalist economic system is unsustainable is not in doubt. It has contributed to the breaching of several ecological boundaries, in relation to climate change, biodiversity loss and nutrient enrichment. At the same time as damaging the natural systems that sustain it, capitalism is also leading to increasing inequality, in turn creating social tensions that make it still more exposed.
The most widely accepted definition of “sustainable development” appeared the 1987 report of UN’s World Commission on Environment and Development, titled Our Common Future. It said: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
InterPress Service, November 28, 2014 ▶ IS THE IDEA OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON A FALSE CONSENSUS. The term sustainable development rapidly gained wide-scale acceptance, with the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development just one of the many (inter)governmental or top-down bodies that have set up in the past three decades to include environmental goals in planning and policy.. The idea of sustainable development is based on a false consensus. Once this term and its underlying situations are properly deconstructed, Demaria tells IPS, “we discover that sustainable development is still all about development. And that is where the problem lies.” http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/11/down-with-sustainable-development-long-live-convivial-degrowth/
-▶ THE ECONOMY OF ENOUGH: A BETTER PLAN THAN 'ENDLESS GROWTH' http://sco.lt/7f68zR
A VIP READ:
THE ECONOMICS OF CURBING SPECULATION IN FOOD, WATER AND VITAL RESOURCEShttp://sco.lt/8YbdY1
Huffington Post Business, October 22, 2014 ▶ HOW NATURAL CAPITAL IS REDEFINING SUCCESS
As far as we've come in redefining corporate governance and success toward the triple bottom line, we still have a distance to go before there is real specificity and widespread agreement among companies and consumers about what terms like "natural capital" or even "sustainability" mean.
This can be seen as a shortcoming or a vacuum, but it's also a huge opportunity for smart businesses to take up. The moment is ripe for disruption; potentially revolutionary understandings of businesses' goals and metrics are increasingly coming into focus. More than ever, consumers want to live meaningfully and to engage with brands that have a purpose. That's galvanizing companies to drill down on defining their social and environmental purpose today, and anticipating how it will evolve in the future.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tensie-whelan/how-natural-capital-is-redefining-success_b_6005244.html
▶ IN NATURE, A MYRIAD OF LESSONS FOR EFFECTIVE SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIPhttp://sco.lt/6ZQKht
▶BOLIVIA GIVES LEGAL RIGHTS TO NATURE: FIRST NATION IN THE WORLD TO DO SOhttp://sco.lt/5DoTRp
▶ ECO-SPIRITUALITY: TOWARDS A VALUES-BASED ECONOMIC STRUCTUREhttp://sco.lt/7tcgQj
Einstein famously said
‘Look deep into nature and you shall find the answer.’ ...
April 30, 2013 CSRWire Talkback
▶ TIME TO TRANSFORM?
It has become patently clear to many that business is undergoing a metamorphosis. Due to a perfect storm of social, economic and environmental factors, organizations have little option other than to seek out opportunities in these volatile times, adapt and evolve to what the book The Nature of Business refers to as “firms of the future” – businesses more akin to living organisms than mechanistic monoliths designed for the Industrial Era. These firms of the future can take inspiration from nature at all levels within their strategies and operations. For instance: ...http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/827-the-evolution-of-business-creating-firms-of-the-future-through-biomimicry
Guardian Environment, September 24, 2013 ▶ BEYOND 'BUSINESS-AS-USUAL': THE CRISIS OF CIVILISATION IS AN UNPRECEDENTED OPPORTUNITY
The Converging climate, energy, and economic crises. Importantly, that's not to say that we're all doomed. Far from it: while the crisis of civilisation shows that business-as-usual is not sustainable - and could at worst lead to an uninhabitable planet by the end of this century based on the consensus science projections - I've argued that we are already in the midst of a process of civilisational transition which offers unprecedented opportunities to re-envision new forms of prosperity that can function in harmony with our environment, rather than in conflict with it. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/sep/24/crisis-civilisation-unprecedented-opportunity-transition
▶ BRANDING: CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: THE ROLE OF NATURAL ART AND IMAGINATION TO CREATE CHANGE - Largely absent from the business world, animal portraits without words or explicit messages around sustainability, were found to effectively change perceptions and communicate the need for change.http://sco.lt/5E5bSD
June 17, 2013 Guardian Global Development - John Vidal ▶ A VOICE FOR THE POOR: LA VIA CAMPESINA, WORLD'S LARGEST POLITICAL MOVEMENT, TO CHALLENGE MULTI-NATIONALS ON POVERTY AND INEQUALITY
WASHINGTON — The corn refinery and sugar industries, bitter rivals in the manufacture of billions of dollars’ worth of sweeteners for sodas and other high-calorie foods, covertly funded dueling nonprofit groups in Washington in a multiyear effort to grab market share, while also stoking fears among consumers about possible health risks, court records made public in a federal lawsuit between the two parties show.
The lawsuit, which has brought hundreds of pages of secret corporate emails and strategy documents into the public domain, demonstrates how Washington-based groups and academic experts frequently become extensions of corporate lobbying campaigns as rival industries use them to try to inflict damage on their competitors or defend their reputations against such assaults...
VIDEO REPORT January 30, 2015 ARE VITAMIN DRINKS PROVIDING TOO MANY VITAMINS?
▶ FEEDING BEES GMO PESTICIDE-LADEN CORN SYRUP WEAKENS IMMUNE SYSTEM AND HONEY BEE HEALTH - SO WHAT'S IT DOING TO YOU?http://www.beekeepereric.com/?p=307
VIDEO (7:13) "BIG FOOD" And Addiction Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity
RSN, August 22, 2012 - ▶ A LIST OF FOOD COMPANIES THAT HIDE GMO SWEETENERS
Big Ag companies have a vested interest in GMO seeds, and the pesticides and herbicides they use in tandem. GMO cotton, soy, sugar beets and corn, which are manipulated to make sweeteners and fats along with other additives like high-fructose corn syrup and soy lecithin, are in ready-made food, snacks, condiments, juice, soda and cereal. Many companies pushing these products into the marketplace prefer to hold profits high and keep consumers in the dark. Labeling these products would affect close to 80% of processed, non-organic food in the US.http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/13062-a-list-of-food-companies-that-hide-gmos
SugarScience.org Americans are consuming unprecedented amounts of dietary sugars in the form of sugary drinks and packaged/processed foods – far more than we did just a few decades ago. A growing body of new science suggests that all this sugar isn’t just making us fat; it may also be making us sick.http://www.sugarscience.org/why-sugar-why-now.html
THE SOURCE TO GO TO FOR SUGARSCIENCE.ORG The authoritative source for evidence-based, scientific information about sugar and its impact on healthhttp://www.sugarscience.org/
“If we never look at the consequences of our behavior, we can always maintain the illusion of our competence" Dietrich Dörner
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May 23, 2013 Conservation International Blog - .
-▶ THE WORLD IS SITTING ON A CONSUMPTION TIME BOMB
More consumers, higher consumption and more material intensity, coupled with diminishing supplies of natural capital, add up to a planet that is dangerously overspent and veering towards ecological bankruptcy in the not-too-distant future. China and the United States — the two largest consuming nations with combined GDPs comprising one-third of global Gross Domestic Product — find themselves at the center of a potential catastrophe, in which human demand outspends Earth’s supplies....http://blog.conservation.org/2013/05/a-sustainable-future-relies-on-us-china-collaboration/
VIDEO REPORT PBS Newshour, March 26, 2014 CONSUMING OUR WAY TO PROSPERITY OR OUT OF EXISTENCE
The American people are repeatedly told by financial pundits and politicians that consumption is an “engine” that “drives” economic growth, because it makes up 70 percent of GDP. This past December, my team and I produced a new EconStories video, “Deck the Halls with Macro Follies,” which took aim at this very old, yet common, economic fallacy. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/consuming-our-way-to-prosperit-1/
OnePlanet, May 27, 2014
-▶ MONBIOT: THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF GROWTH: To succeed is to destroy ourselves. To fail is to destroy ourselves. That is the bind we have created. The trajectory of compound growth shows that the scouring of the planet has only just begun. As the volume of the global economy expands, everywhere that contains something concentrated, unusual, precious will be sought out and exploited, its resources extracted and dispersed, the world’s diverse and differentiated marvels reduced to the same grey stubble. http://oneplanet-sustainability.org/2014/05/28/monbiot-how-you-measure-the-depth-of-our-problem-by-our-inability-even-to-discuss-it/
Possibly the most unthinkable story of the last million years is the rise of the modern human culture. The cities we populate and the lives that we lead. It is the environment that our children will inherit. But after a century of exponential growth in population and consumerism people are questioning the nature of modern life.http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/consumed/
The documentary describes the impact of Freud’s theories on the perception of the human mind, and the ways public relations agencies and politicians have used this during the last 100 years for their engineering of consent. Among the main characters are Freud himself and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in advertising. He is often seen as the father of the public relations industry...http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-century-of-the-self/
-▶ POPE FRANCIS: 'NOT TO SHARE WEALTH WITH THE POOR IS TO STEAL':http://sco.lt/6RIQin
Guardian Sustainable Business, February 03, 2015 ▶ WE CAN'T SPEND OUR WAY OUT OF CLIMATE CHANGE. Mastercard's ridiculous new eco-marketing gimmick is an affront to true sustainability. A new Sustain:Green credit card that supposedly offsets buyers’ carbon footprints is misleading, shallow, badly thought through and is deceptive.http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/feb/03/green-credit-card-mastercard-carbon-offsets
▶ AT THE LIMITS OF THE MARKET: WHY CAPITALISM WON'T AND CAN'T SOLVE CLIMATE CHANGE, Part 1 http://sco.lt/5Qy6cL
-▶ POPE FRANCIS PLEAS FOR ENVIRONMENT WARNS ON COMING IDOLATROUS GLOBAL ECONOMIC COLLAPSEhttp://sco.lt/6ALAUj
- ▶ FINANCIALIZING NATURE WILL BANKRUPT US ALL. OLD ECONOMICS OR SUSTAINING POLICY?http://sco.lt/8fNIET
▶ INNOVATION FOR A COMPLEX WORLD = PROMOTING THE WELL-BEING OF HUMANITYhttp://sco.lt/5Z51bV
▶ BUSINESS SHOULD CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIAL HEALTH AND WELL BEING OF THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/4hj6q9
-▶ ECO-SPIRITUALITY: TOWARDS A VALUES-BASED ECONOMIC STRUCTUREhttp://sco.lt/7tcgQj
August 13, 2013 Share The world's Resources ▶ SCENES FROM THE GREAT TRANSITION
The whole edifice of contemporary civilization rises on a foundation of compelling human values. The prevailing pretransition ethos—consumerism, individualism, and anthropocentrism—has given way to another triad: quality of life, human solidarity, and ecocentrism. These values spring from a sense of, a yearning for, wholeness at all levels: self, species, and biosphere....
-▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL/SOCIETAL DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIT?http://sco.lt/8wC8LB
May 28, 2013 Scientific America -▶ THE EMERGING FIELD OF HUMAN MACROECOLOGY : Macroecology considers the human species as functioning within the constraints of the natural world, rather than being uniquely divorced from natural resource limitations. This conceptual approach cuts across disciplines ranging from physics and ecology to anthropology and economics (Burnside et al. 2012), creating the opportunity for unprecedented synergy between fields... http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/05/28/the-emerging-field-of-human-macroecology/
▶ HOW A SENSE OF SACRED CAN HELP SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS: RESTORING VALUEShttp://sco.lt/8YAnKb
▶ A CULTURE SEPARATED FROM NATURE CANNOT SURVIVE: BANKRUPTING NATUREhttp://sco.lt/7HFVYH
▶ THE NEW COOPERATIVE WAY TO A FLOURISHING FUTURE: SELF-SUFFICIENT COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/7HwFWb
BBC VIDEO
▶ WHERE IS CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY? CONSUMERISM AND PALM OIL ECOCIDE http://sco.lt/9Bgz9l
WATCH
"GREEN" - DEATH OF THE FORESTS (:45min)
Via Al Jazeera "Witness" Expose
"Green" is an unusual and very timely Award-Winning film. It is a hard hitting portrayal of the causes and consequences of deforestation in Indonesia and the devastating impact of the rush to fulfill unbridled consumerism. It contains no narrative or dialogue and yet helps us emotionally understand the complex corporate commodity chains thru logging, land-clearing and palm oil plantations. NOTE: This film contains some upsetting scenes about loss of life from forest destruction...http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2012/03/201231483446653151.html
▶ MEGA MINING, FOREIGN LAND GRABS DESTROYING LOCAL COMMUNITIES, ENVIRONMENT AND ECOSYSTEMShttp://sco.lt/8nJQf3
VIDEO
▶ ***** FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS -- CREATING POVERTY, DEPENDENCE ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/5vdZgH
▶ "WE HAVE FIVE MINUTES BEFORE MIDNIGHT" UN CHIEF SCIENTIST URGES ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGEhttp://sco.lt/7r58s5
The increase in population is small relative to the necessary decrease in unsustainable consumption based on non-renewable resources. We waste enough now to provide for the 30% increase in population, but we must reduce pollution all the way down to 0 and replace it with 100% recycling, and we must reduce fossil fuel consumption all the way down to 0 and replace it with 100% renewable energy.
Pambazuka,March 16, 2014 ▶ HEDGE FUNDS AND CORPORATE RAIDERS IN AFRICA: SPACE INVADERS OF THE THIRD KIND. The new wave of ‘looting’ of land and other natural resources will likely continue on a scale hitherto unknown. Whatever the supposed benefits of this trend, urgent attention ought to be turned to the thousands of people in Africa and other emerging nations who will become landless in the countries of their birth.
In the nineteenth century scramble for Africa, European colonial powers took control of the continent’s land, resources and people. Today’s multinational corporations, aided by governments, are taking control over Africa’s food system.http://www.wdm.org.uk/new-scramble-africa-food-monsanto-syngenta-yara/
-▶ WALL STREET TAKES AIM AT FARMLAND: THREATENING FUTURE OF U.S. AND WORLD AGRICULTURE http://sco.lt/9HBsPZ
LAND GRABS
HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBEhttp://sco.lt/5YJpKb
MintPress News, April 01, 2015 -▶ GEORGE SOROS LOOKS TO CO-OWN UKRAINE AND AFRICA.The Hungarian-born economic hitman may be more interested in helping his, and other investor’s, pockets, rather than the people of Ukraine. http://www.mintpressnews.com/george-soros-looks-to-co-own-ukraine/203866/
OBAMA PUTS G8, BIG 6 BIOTECH CHEMICAL GMO GIANTS IN CHARGE OF "ENDING HUNGER" IN AFRICA http://sco.lt/7ENN8D
THE 21st CENTURY CORPORATE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA World Development Movement -▶ STOP THE CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF AFRICA'S FOOD. Under the guise of tackling hunger, initiatives like the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, will help corporations take control over Africa’s land, seeds and markets - at the expense of small farmers. Join our campaign to oppose this twenty-first century corporate scramble for Africa. - See more at: http://www.wdm.org.uk/food#sthash.dgDwkdF0.dpufhttp://www.wdm.org.uk/food
-▶ THE CORPORATE 'PHILANTHROCAPITALISTS' TAKEOVER OF AFRICAN AND GLOBAL FOOD SECURITYhttp://sco.lt/6CHP3R
Mongabay, August 20, 2014 -▶ LOOMING MINING 'TSUNAMI' SET TO TAKE AFRICA BY STORM. A new report published by a team of scientists from James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, documents a surging tide of foreign interest in mining in Africa and cautions that the sector’s unchecked development and expansion could devastate the environment.http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0820-gfrn-john-cannon-africa-mining-tsunami.html?n3ws1ttr
WATCH "BIG MEN" (1:23:00) Big Men provides an unprecedented inside look at the global deal making and dark underside of energy development in Ghana, Nigeria, Africa — a contest for money and power that is reshaping the world. http://www.pbs.org/pov/bigmen/full.php
Guardian Global Development, February 18, 2014 ▶ THE G8 AND THE CORPORATE TAKE OVER OF AFRICAN FARMING.As part of the New Alliance, 10 African governments have signed up to change dozens of laws, policies and regulations to make their countries more attractive to the private sector. Collectively, they have made more than 200 commitments, including the overhaul of seed and tax laws and the setting aside of hundreds of thousands of hectares of land for commercial investors. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/interactive/2014/feb/18/g8-fight-future-african-farming-interactive
farmlandgrab.org, August 04, 2014 ▶ CORPORATE INFLUENCE THROUGH THE G8NA AND OBAMA'S NEW ALLIANCE FOR FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION IN AFRICA. In recent times, new partnerships models between governments, business and civil society are increasingly gaining attention. One prominent example is the "New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition" (G8NA), inaugurated at the G8 summit 2012 in the United States.
This working paper concludes that the approach and objectives of the G8NA are highly problematic. The initiative serves as an enforcing mechanism for corporate driven blueprints for agriculture and sidelines national plans and international standards. It is dominated and tailored towards the interests of big corporate actors and is based on a reductionist approach of agricultural “development”. And lastly, the G8NA is poorly institutionalized and disregards fundamental principles of transparency participation and accountability. http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23793
Action Aid Report, May 23, 2014 ▶ GLOBAL POLICIES ENCOURAGE LAND GRABBING AND WORSEN HUNGER AND POVERTY.“Allowing land to become vehicles for wealthy corporations and individuals to become richer while pushing vulnerable rural people into poverty and hunger is unjust, unwise and unethical,” it said in the report.http://www.trust.org/item/20140523061928-bn12w/
Inter Press Service, August 04, 2014 ▶ THE 'GLOBAL' LAND RUSH.The first years of the twenty-first century will be remembered for a global land rush of nearly unprecedented scale.Today, enthusiasm for agriculture borders on speculative mania. When the price of food spiked in 2008, pushing the number of hungry people in the world to over one billion, it spiked the interest of investors as well, and within a year foreign land deals in the developing world rose by a staggering 200 percent.http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/08/the-global-land-rush/
GRAIN, October 23, 2014 ▶ HARVEST OF HARDSHIP: YALA SWAMP LAND GRAB DESTROYS KENYAN FARMERS' LIVELIHOOD.Dominion Farms arrived in Kenya's Yala Swamp basin in 2004 with big promises. The company claimed it would turn a defunct state demonstration farm into a modern rice plantation, provide locals with good jobs, and build hospitals and schools. The American owner of the company, Calvin Burgess, presented himself as a 'man of God', on a mission to bring US-style progress to Africa. The locals, sold on this grand vision, decided – with some hesitation and dissent – to allow Dominion to farm on 3,700 ha of their lands...http://www.grain.org/article/entries/5061-harvest-of-hardship-yala-swamp-land-grab-destroys-kenyan-farmers-livelihoods
HuffPost Politics, November 28, 2014 ▶ OBAMA'S PLAN TO 'POWER AFRICA' GETS OFF TO A DIM START.As with many African aid projects, rights groups have criticized Power Africa as mostly being a vehicle to subsidize U.S. companies.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/28/obama-africa-aid_n_6234774.html
Pambazuka -Voices for Freedom and Justice in Africa
▶ HOW COMPANIES FRAME ISSUES OF FOOD AND GLOBAL HUNGER FOR THEIR OWN SELF-INTEREST AND BOTTOMLINE PROFITS
There is a new, but deceptive, foreign drive to end hunger in Africa through large-scale agribusiness. Yet helping poor households in rural Africa feed themselves in an affordable manner means introducing low-cost, sustainable enhancements to farming.
History is riddled with examples of the poor dying of hunger when food was plentiful. Classic amongst these is the famine which wracked the West African Sahel during the early 1970s. While people were dying of hunger in Senegal, Mali and Niger, peanuts — a key sauce ingredient and source of protein across the region — were being exported to Europe....
...The rise of philanthrocapitalism in the US, where former and current business leaders, through the strength of their foundations, have increasingly come to influence the shape and direction of US international development programmes. Central to the philanthrocapitalist worldview is a belief that private enterprise is the fundamental agent of progressive change and that business acumen trumps other forms of expertise...http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/85291
Pambazuka, July 24. 2014 -▶ GMOs AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: WHICH WAY AFRICA? African governments are under intense pressure from within but also from big agribusiness and Western governments to embrace GMOs. Governments must resist all forms of arm-twisting and food colonialism and make their biotechnology choices based on the factshttp://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/92594
▶ A PRIVATE AFFAIR: REPORT SHOWS HOW DEVELOPMENT FINANCE INSTITUTIONS BENEFIT THE RICH IN WESTERN COUNTRIESThe European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) launched today the study A Private Affair in which it shows how the world’s biggest multilateral lenders are using billions of euros of loans in developing countries to finance Western-based companies while excluding governments and citizens of countries they are meant to assist from decision-making.
November 29, 2012 - CSRwire Talkback - Hazel Henderson
- ▶ FOOD SPECULATION IS UNETHICAL
'The Economics of Curbing Speculation In Food, Water and Vital Resources' blog post by Hazel Henderson.
Resource speculation driven by financial markets, climate change and biofuels threatens starvation for the world’s poor.
Recent spikes in prices of rice, soy, wheat and corn have driven many poor people in developing countries into hunger and malnutrition. In 2011, then World Bank president Robert Zoellick estimated that 44 million people fell into poverty in 2010 due to rising food prices, adding, “Food price inflation is the biggest threat today to the world's poor...one weather event and you start to push people over the edge.”
The United Nations (UN) FAO Food Price Index jumped 25 percent in 2010.
The dots connecting world hunger, weather events and speculation on global financial markets are obvious. Yet, well-meaning officials at UN agencies, including the FAO, World Bank and IMF, are curiously blind. Instead, their many urgent meetings over the past three years have focused on raising more money to pay these rising prices for food staples, urging more productivity from agriculture and opposing nations curbing exports to protect their domestic foods.
VIDEO REPORT The Real News, October 24, 2014 THE FINANCIALIZATION OF LIFE: PROFITING WITHOUT PRODUCING. Costas Lapavitsas is a professor in economics at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. He teaches the political economy of finance, and he's a regular columnist for The Guardian.
WATCH "THE FOODS THAT MAKE BILLIONS" (177 min Entire Series) The Foods that Make Billions is a 3-part series looking at how big business feeds us. By employing clever tactics and smart marketing, big business seduces the appetite of the consumer and entices people to spend and spend and spend. This is how global food and beverage empires are built.
Institute of Science in Society, July 21, 2014 - ▶ GLOBAL INEQUALITY AND ITS ILLS -- AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT. Inequality is bad for most people not just the poor, bad for business and political stability http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Global_Inequality_and_its_Ills.php
Guardian Sustainable Business, March 20, 2015 -▶THE TRUE COST OF COTTON EXPORTS IN WATER-CHALLENGED INDIA.You might not realise it, but Indiaexports enormous amounts of water when it exports raw materials such as cotton and products such as automobiles. The water consumed to grow India’s cotton exports in 2013 would be enough to supply 85% of the country’s 1.24 billion people with 100 litres of water every day for a year. Meanwhile, more than 100 million people in India do not have access to safe water.
▶ BIG CORPORATE AGRICULTURE PROFITS WIN OVER FOOD BANK STOCKS DRYING UP IN WAKE OF DROUGHT. This Is what happens when profits trump feeding the world and the USDA is up to it's neck in complicity with the big corporate agricultural business, biotech industry to ensure they maintain their quarterly bottom-line.http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/11/21-5
Inter Press Service, August 04, 2014 ▶ THE 'GLOBAL' LAND RUSH. The first years of the twenty-first century will be remembered for a global land rush of nearly unprecedented scale.Today, enthusiasm for agriculture borders on speculative mania. When the price of food spiked in 2008, pushing the number of hungry people in the world to over one billion, it spiked the interest of investors as well, and within a year foreign land deals in the developing world rose by a staggering 200 percent. http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/08/the-global-land-rush/
WATCH "INSIDE THE GARBAGE OF THE WORLD" (80 min) We're living on a beautiful planet and as a human race we've been here for thousands of years. Our planet didn't need to be protected; life was flourishing on its own, with its own agenda. However for the past 100 years we've made a tremendous impact with our footprint due to the growth of world population and the industrialization of our everyday life. Economy, profit and capitalization became more important than respecting our planet and an ancient knowledge to advance a new way of life.http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside-garbage-world/
▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIT?http://sco.lt/5x2tqz
Common Dream, April 22, 2014 -▶ CORPORATE COLONIALISM: PROTESTERS SLAM TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP. .These secretive trade pacts are really about restoring global U.S. military power and economic dominancehttp://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/04/22-3
Ethical Corporation, August 2, 2014 ▶ IS ETHICS THE SAVIOR OF BRANDING?In order to retain credibility, branding needs ethics at its heart. Branding as we know it today is dying. These aren’t just whispers from the fringe but discussions in mainstream journals ranging from Wired Magazine to the Harvard Business Review. And though they all agree that it doesn’t work anymore, what they disagree on is the solution, with options ranging from customer experience to brand ambassadorship to micro-branding to, of course, sustainability. But these all fail to strike at the root of the problem.http://www.ethicalcorp.com/business-strategy/ethics-saviour-branding
Guardian Sustainable Business, January 02, 2014 ▶ 2015 WILL BE THE YEAR BRANDS TAKE A PUBLIC STAND ON SOCIAL ISSUES. WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUSTAINABLE AND PRO-SOCIAL BRANDING?Instead of just touting their own sustainability, this year brands will focus on gender equality, racial justice, climate change and more. Pro-social brands are the next step for companies looking to morally engage with consumers. Driven by marketers who are moving beyond claims of sustainability and into strong stands on relevant social issues, this trend picked up momentum in 2014. It will be positively explosive in 2015.
▶ HOW A SENSE OF SACRED CAN HELP A SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT : RESTORING VALUEShttp://sco.lt/7uqwzZ
Huffington Post Business, October 22, 2014 -▶ HOW NATURAL CAPITAL IS REDEFINING SUCCESS
As far as we've come in redefining corporate governance and success toward the triple bottom line, we still have a distance to go before there is real specificity and widespread agreement among companies and consumers about what terms like "natural capital" or even "sustainability" mean. This can be seen as a shortcoming or a vacuum, but it's also a huge opportunity for smart businesses to take up. The moment is ripe for disruption; potentially revolutionary understandings of businesses' goals and metrics are increasingly coming into focus. More than ever, consumers want to live meaningfully and to engage with brands that have a purpose. That's galvanizing companies to drill down on defining their social and environmental purpose today, and anticipating how it will evolve in the future.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tensie-whelan/how-natural-capital-is-redefining-success_b_6005244.html
-▶ COMPANIES MUST STEP UP TO INCLUDE SOCIAL GOALS IN CORPORATE DECISIONShttp://sco.lt/5Far6P
Harvard Business Review, August 29, 2014 ▶ WHATEVER HAPPENED TO CORPORATE STEWARDSHIP?
When corporations dodge taxes, it's an ethical issue.
Guardian Sustainable Business, November 05, 2014 ▶ THE FALSEHOOD OF SHAREHOLDER FIDUCIARY SOCIETY MUST CALL BUSINESS' BLUFF ON ITS FIXATION WITH PROFIT MAXIMISATION. It is extraordinary how many executives still cling to behaviour that may well in the future be considered criminal. While the falsehood that fiduciary duty means solely making money for shareholders is being chipped away, many business leaders still cling on to this behaviour. http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/nov/05/society-business-fixation-profit-maximisation-fiduciary-duty
▶ WORLD BANK PRESIDENT: CLIMATE CHANGE AND INEQUALITY IS BREWING GLOBAL SOCIAL UPHEAVALhttp://sco.lt/88cdJR
▶ UN: THE ERA OF EVER-LASTING PRODUCTION BASED ON MAXIMIZING PROFITS HAS REACHED ITS LIMITShttp://sco.lt/6C3RoH
▶ MODERN SLAVERY WILL CONTINUE IF CORPORATIONS KEEP PASSING THE BUCK : THE SUPPLY CHAINhttp://sco.lt/87TMnJ
VIDEO REPORT The Real News, October 24, 2014 THE FINANCIALIZATION OF LIFE: PROFITING WITHOUT PRODUCING.Costas Lapavitsas is a professor in economics at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. He teaches the political economy of finance, and he's a regular columnist for The Guardian.
-▶ BUDDHIST ECONOMICS: HOW TO STOP PRIORITIZING GOODS OVER PEOPLE AND CONSUMPTION OVER CREATIVE ACTIVITY: "Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered" — a magnificent collection of essays at the intersection of economics, ethics, and environmental awareness http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/07/07/buddhist-economics-schumacher/
Based on the second article down '2015 Will be the Year Brands Take a Public Stand on Social Issues"
Pro-social branding is going to take off in the year 2015. Pro-social branding is a company taking a stand on a controversial issue such as gender equality, same sex marriage or climate change. Taking a stand is not always a safe step for businesses, but it certainly is a viral one. Often when a company takes a stand it is seen on social media around the world. When companies support an issue they give power to the cause and ask their customers to take a stand along with them.
In the past sustainability was the buzzword of marketing. Sustainable companies would tell of their actions on environmental issues. Customers still do care about sustainability but most of them barely acknowledge sustainability claims of companies. If customers do acknowledge sustainability claims made by companies many people do not put a lot of faith in these claims. Sustainability should still be part of the marketing strategy of a business, but theses business now need to focus on pro social branding. Pro social branding is different from sustainability in that pro social branding takes a stand on an issue whereas sustainability focuses on what the company has done internally with their product. When a major company takes a stand on an issue, they are telling the public that this issue needs to be accepted. When a company takes a pro social stand on an issue they have committed themselves to a culture that they will have to support within their own business in order to not appear hypocritical.
Social media has called social issues to the forefront of people’s consciousness. For this reason alone I think pro-social branding is a great marketing strategy for companies. This could be risky as not all potential customers will agree with the stance. Sustainably is a safer marketing tactic as it is less debatable. That being said, pro social branding allows the customer to actively take a stand with the company. With sustainability the customer is being told to buy the product simply because the company is a sustainable one.
THE DICE IS LOADED AGAINST STUDENT LOANS. THEY ARE VERY DIFFICULT TO DISCHARGE THROUGH BANKRUPTCY; LOAN DEFAULTS, LATE PAYMENTS ARE CONSIDERED A NEGATIVE WHEN SEEKING EMPLOYMENT VIA CREDIT CHECKS AND WAGES/SALARIES/SOCIAL SECURITY CAN BE GARNISHEED. YET A DONALD TRUMP AND CORPORATIONS CAN DECLARE BANKRUPTCY MULTIPLE TIMES, CLEAR THE SLATE, AND START ALL OVER AGAIN.
CommonDreams, February 17, 2015 -▶ SEN BERNIE SANDERS: "WE NEED REVOLUTION IN WAY HIGHER EDUCATION IS FUNDED" - "Because of the high cost of higher education, many bright young people can no longer afford to go to college and millions of others are leaving school saddled with debt," he said. "This is absurd. This is absolutely counter-productive to our efforts to create a strong economy " http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/02/17/sanders-we-need-revolution-way-higher-education-funded
ProPublica
-▶ COLLEGE DEBTTotal outstanding college debt is estimated at $1 trillion dollars – higher than the national credit card debt -- and with costs still soaring, the burden on students and their families shows no signs of abating. We're examining how the complicated system of college debt is putting the squeeze on families. http://www.propublica.org/series/college-debt
WATCH Democracy Now, June 10, 2014 IS COLLEGE WORTH IT? NEW DOC "IVORY TOWER" TACKLES HIGHER ED'S UNSUSTAINABLE SPENDING -- STUDENT DEBT - A GROWING CORPORATE BUSINESS The cost of a college degree has grown by over 1,120 percent in the past three decades, far surpassing price hikes for food, medical care, housing, gasoline, and other basics. Coupled with $1.2 trillion in student debt, the U.S. is facing a crisis that threatens not just the economy but the nation’s education system itself.http://www.democracynow.org/2014/6/10/is_college_worth_it_new_doc
TruthOut, February 23, 2015 -▶ DEBT FOR THE NEXT GENERATION : SWIMMING WITH THE SHARKS: GOLDMAN SACHS, SCHOOL DISTRICTS AND CAPITAL APPRECIATE BONDS SCAM: Remember when Goldman Sachs sold derivatives to Greece so the government could conceal its debt, then bet against that debt, driving it up? It seems that the ubiquitous investment bank has also put the squeeze on California and its school districts.http://truth-out.org/news/item/29241-swimming-with-the-sharks-goldman-sachs-school-districts-and-capital-appreciation-bonds
HuffingtonPost, December 26, 2014 -▶ A LOOK AT THE 'DOUBLE LIVES' OF AMERICA'S HOMELESS COLLEGE STUDENTS : More than 58,000 homeless college students in America today
HuffingtonPost, November 06, 2014 -▶ INCENTIVIZING THE BEAST: WE'VE BEEN DOWN THIS ROAD BEFORE: THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT ENDORSES WINDFALL TO STUDENT LOAN SERVICERS NOT BORROWERS: SLAMMED BY SEN ELIZABETH WARREN. The U.S. Treasury Department praised a move, already panned by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), to increase the amount of money the federal government pays its student loan contractors....What Raskin neglected to say was that taxpayers will fund a bump in pay for the student loan servicers even if their performance does not improve.... "The idea of the renegotiation was to help the borrowers, not to make the servicers richer,"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/06/sarah-bloom-raskin-student-loans_n_6117960.html
VIDEO SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN PINS BANKER TO THE WALL
Nightly Business Report, September 19, 2014 -▶ STUDENT LOAN DEBT ISN'T JUST FOR THE YOUNG: Americans now owe a record $1.2 trillion in student loan debt and if that’s not bad enough, the crisis is taking on a new dimension: people near retirement age hold more of that debt than ever before.http://nbr.com/2014/09/19/student-debt-burdens-seniors/
Nightly Business Report, November 21, 2014 -▶ STUDYING ABROAD CAN CUT COLLEGE COSTS IN HALF. Earlier this fall, Lower Saxony became the last state in Germany to scrap public university tuition. Germans—and international students—can now study for free. http://nbr.com/2014/11/21/studying-abroad-can-cut-college-costs-in-half/
April 26, 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Jay Bookman
-▶ THE REAL STUDENT-LOAN SCANDAL: College graduates with large debt aren’t really the problem. The larger problem is the predatory for-profit schools that have popped up around the country to try to separate students from their college-loan money and in the process deliver little in the way of useful education. The industry is large and growing rapidly. During the 2008-2009 academic year, those schools collected $4.3 billion in Pell grants and $20 billion in federal loans. That’s more than double the amount that they received as recently as 2005. The real student-loan scandalhttp://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2012/04/26/the-real-student-loan-scandal/
ProPublica, September 15, 2014 -▶ UNSEEN TOLL: WAGES OF MILLIONS SEIZED TO PAY PAST DEBTS.A new study provides the first-ever tally of how many employees lose up to a quarter of their paychecks over debts like unpaid credit card or medical bills and student loans.http://www.propublica.org/article/unseen-toll-wages-of-millions-seized-to-pay-past-debts
▶ SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD? TRACEABILITY MAKES FOR BETTER PRODUCTS AND A HEALTHY BOTTOM LINE.The environmental benefits of seafood traceability are obvious: By tracking a fish through the entire supply chain – from capture to plate – you can ensure the fish wasn’t caught using illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices. But many companies, like Norpac Fisheries Export, are discovering that traceability is also good for their bottom lines...http://www.triplepundit.com/2014/04/making-business-case-seafood-traceability
The Hill,April 14, 2014 ▶ TO DEFEND A CHESAPEAKE TRADITION WE NEED TRACEABLE SEAFOOD. As the world's second-largest market for imported seafood, a majority of the seafood Americans eat comes from places such as China, Thailand and Indonesia. In these countries, a lack of domestic regulations and international enforcement provides a hotbed for illegal fishing. Without proper traceability, tracking seafood from the fishing vessel to our dinner plates, many of these illegally caught fish are allowed to enter, and lead to profits, in the American market. Though the United States has some of the strongest fishing regulations in the world, our efforts are undermined when illegally caught or mislabeled fish enters the U.S. seafood supply chain. http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/238709-to-defend-a-chesapeake-tradition-we-need-traceable
Daily Mail, March 25, 2015 -▶ LOCKED IN CAGES AND WHIPPED WITH TOXIC STINGRAY TAILS: THE BURMESE SLAVES FORCED TO CATCH FISH THAT END UP IN SUPERMARKETS, RESTAURANTS, AND PET SHOPS ACROSS AMERICA
The Ecologist, February 06, 2015 -▶ ILLEGAL SWEDISH FISHERY IS 'CERTIFIED SUSTAINABLE' Trawlers in an MSC-certified 'sustainable' lobster fishery producing have been caught in the act of using illegally modified nets to target valuable cod. The MSC has been notified but refuses to act, so the lobsters still carry the MSC labelhttp://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2744760/illegal_swedish_fishery_is_certified_sustainable.html
SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD GUIDE Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch guides provide at-a-glance info on which fish is relatively abundant (ok to eat) and which species are overfished (need to avoid). They also flag types of seafood that contain levels of mercury or PCBs that pose a health risk. http://oceana.org/en/living-blue/sustainable-seafood-guide
Quartz, December 15, 2014 -▶ FARMED SHELLFISH: THE WORLD'S SCALLOPS AND OYSTERS ARE MYSTERIOUSLY DYING OUT. The pristine, sheltered sounds off Vancouver Island, British Columbia, offer the cleanliness and protection ideal for farming oysters, clam, scallops, and other shellfish. Since the 1970s, the industry has grown so rapidly that the area once supplied nearly two-fifths of Canada’s farmed shellfish and is the coastal community’s economic backbone.
WWF, October 16, 2014 ▶ NEW REPORT SHOWS ILLEGAL RUSSIAN CRAB ENTERING U.S. MARKET. “The magnitude of illegal crab fishing threatens the long-term sustainability of the fishery and puts the western Bering Sea marine ecosystem at risk,” said Michele Kuruc, WWF vice president of marine policy. “The US is likely importing large quantities of crab and other seafood which may have been illegally caught. The problem is the US is unable to say how much is illegal. We need a way to obtain and assess this information if we want to address this global illegal fishing problem.”https://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/new-report-shows-illegal-russian-crab-entering-us-market
October 24, 2012 - On Earth Magazine by Tom Philpott
▶ WHY IS THE FDA INSPECTING SO LITTLE IMPORTED SEAFOOD?
Don’t know what bacteria, antibiotics, and fish-farming chemicals are in that shrimp cocktail? That’s OK, neither does the FDA!
If you eat a lot of fish, likely as not you're eating something that was raised on a farm and hauled in from thousands of miles away. According to NOAA, we import about 86 percent of the seafood we consume, about half of which comes from aquaculture. And just because you find it in a gleaming supermarket fish case or on a well-presented restaurant plate doesn't mean it's safe to eat.... http://www.onearth.org/blog/why-is-the-fda-inspecting-so-little-imported-seafood
▶ WHY THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS TO GO AFTER SEAFOOD PIRATES: ."Illegal fishing has been identified as the single greatest threat to sustainable fisheries in the world today," says Michele Kuruc, head of marine policy at the World Wildlife Fund. "Eighty-five percent of the fisheries around the world that are fished commercially are at their absolute maximum, or are already overfished," Kuruc says, quoting figures from the Food and Agricultural Organization at the United Nations.http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/12/11/370150656/the-white-house-is-finally-going-after-seafood-pirates
HuffPost Green, March 17, 2015 -▶ TUNA INDUSTRY FAILING ON SUSTAINABILITY. The problems with the tuna industry run deep. Destructive fishing methods, like longlining and purse seining with fish aggregating devices (FADs), have significant bycatch problems -- meaning that despite a potential "dolphin safe" label, they are killing millions of turtles, rays, sharks, juvenile tuna and other marine life. These fishing methods are damaging to entire ecosystems. There's nothing safe about that for the ocean and its wildlife. Bumble Bee, Chicken of the Sea and StarKist all source their tuna from fisheries dependent upon this sort of ocean destruction. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-hocevar/tuna-industry-failing-on-_b_6878666.html
BBC News, December 18, 2014 -▶ THAI TUNA FIRM BUYS US RIVAL BUMBLE BEE FOR $1.5 BILLION.The Thai firm, which owns the John West and Chicken of the Sea brands, has been on an acquisition spree in the past year. Earlier this year, it announced that it was buying Norwegian seafood firm King Oscar and French smoked salmon producer MerAlliance for undisclosed sums.http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30544592
“FATALLY FLAWED" FDA ASSESSMENT TO UNLEASH GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SALMON ONTO YOUR DINNER PLATE : NO Regulation NO Oversight NO Labeling ... http://sco.lt/67gold
-▶ TO CHANGE THE BROKEN SYSTEM, WE HAVE TO CHANGE THE GAME. Annie Leonard's back with another animated video, six years after the Story of Stuff came out, and after eight other short films. This time, she's talking about what we need to do to solve problems—and how we really need to reframe goals so we're looking at the whole system.
The Story of Solutions explores how we can move our economy in a more sustainable and just direction, starting with orienting ourselves toward a new goal. In the current 'Game of More', we're told to cheer a growing economy -- more roads, more malls, more Stuff! -- even though our health indicators are worsening, income inequality is growing and polar icecaps are melting. But what if we changed the point of the game? What if the goal of our economy wasn't more, but better -- better health, better jobs and a better chance to survive on the planet? Shouldn't that be what winning means?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpkRvc-sOKk
VIDEO: 27:38 GIVE IT ALL AWAY: NEWMAN'S OWN RECIPE FOR SUCCESS This documentary traces Paul Newman's legacy of giving. It chronicles the path of the Newman's Own Foundation food company as it evolved and funded a variety of charities across the nation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8o-TRbFuwM&feature=youtu.be
Fast Company, February 2, 2014 ▶HOW PATAGONIA IS INCREASING PROFITS WHILE SAVING THE WORLD.Since Rose Marcario joined Patagonia six years ago, the badass-by-nature company has tripled its profits. And no, it hasn't sold its soul.
OnePlanet, May 27, 2014 -▶ MONBIOT: THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF GROWTH: To succeed is to destroy ourselves. To fail is to destroy ourselves. That is the bind we have created. The trajectory of compound growth shows that the scouring of the planet has only just begun. As the volume of the global economy expands, everywhere that contains something concentrated, unusual, precious will be sought out and exploited, its resources extracted and dispersed, the world’s diverse and differentiated marvels reduced to the same grey stubble. http://oneplanet-sustainability.org/2014/05/28/monbiot-how-you-measure-the-depth-of-our-problem-by-our-inability-even-to-discuss-it/
BEYOND GDP
VIDEO REPORT
The Search For A New Economic System - With Meaning
▶ POPE FRANCIS: NOT TO SHARE WEALTH WITH THE POOR IS TO STEAL" : SLAMS CAPITALISM AS 'NEW TYRRANY".
Pope Francis has taken aim at capitalism as "a new tyranny" and is urging world leaders to step up their efforts against poverty and inequality, saying "thou shall not kill" the economy. Francis calls on rich people to share their wealth.
The existing financial system that fuels the unequal distribution of wealth and violence must be changed, the Pope warned.
"How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?" Pope Francis asked an audience at the Vatican.
The global economic crisis, which has gripped much of Europe and America, has the Pope asking how countries can function, or realize their full economic potential, if they are weighed down by the debts of capitalism...http://rt.com/news/pope-francis-capitalism-tyranny-324/
World Economic Forum, December 21, 2014 ▶ POPE FRANCIS: My message to the World Economic Forum in Davos FULL TEXT "I ASK YOU TO ENSURE HUMANITY IS SERVED BY WEALTH AND NOT RULED BY IT" http://forumblog.org/2014/01/pope-francis-message-davos-2014/
The Guardian, November 26, 2013 ▶ POPE FRANCIS CALLS UNFETTERED CAPITALISM 'TYRANNY' AND URGES RICH TO SHARE WEALTH“Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.”http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/26/pope-francis-capitalism-tyranny
Business Insider, June 13, 2014 ▶ POPE FRANCIS: THE WORLD'S "IDOLATROUS ECONOMIES" ONLY SURVIVE THROUGH WAR. Pope Francis launched a sweeping attack on the world's economic system saying it discards the young, puts money ahead of people and survives on the profits of war. "We discard a whole generation to maintain an economic system that no longer endures..."http://www.businessinsider.com/pope-francis-the-worlds-idolatrous-economies-only-survive-through-war-2014-6
▶ PASSING THE BUCK: MORE THAN HALF OF U.S. FAST FOOD WORKERS ON PUBLIC AID, REPORT SAYShttp://sco.lt/6njYXJ
▶ MORALITY IS MISSING FROM THE DEBATE ABOUT SUSTAINABLE BEHAVIOUR http://sco.lt/4sveFd
▶ WHY "SOCIAL" RESPONSIBILITY SHOULD BE PART OF EVERY BUSINESShttp://sco.lt/4tfKhV
▶ ECO-SPIRITUALITY: TOWARDS A VALUES-BASED ECONOMIC STRUCTUREhttp://sco.lt/7tcgQj
▶ SLEEPWALKING TO EXTINCTION: CAPITALISM AND THE CONSUMER ECONOMYhttp://sco.lt/9EPNkf
▶ EXPLOSIVE REPORT:
'ALEC' PROVIDE CORPORATIONS AND STATE LEGISLATURES PLATFORM FOR US-WIDE ASSAULT ON EDUCATION,HEALTHCARE, INCOME TAX AND ENVIRONMENT
Conservative groups and State Legislatures across the US are planning a co-ordinated assault against public sector rights and services in the key areas of education, healthcare, income tax, workers' compensation and the environment, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal. http://sco.lt/6dyHEf
“A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules,” the 84-page document, known as an apostolic exhortation, said.
"To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which has taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits", the pope’s document says.
May 21, 2013 Guardian Sustainable Business - Guardian Professional
THE IMPORTANCE OF SYSTEM THINKER IN SUSTAINABILITY. True collaboration is hard work but a small group of systems thinkers, mappers and innovators could make all the difference..
The reason systems experts are so valuable is that they not only understand the inter-connection of issues, important in itself, but also recognise the power of group dynamics and of finding ways to encourage groups with competing interests to find common ground....
The most widely accepted definition of “sustainable development” appeared the 1987 report of UN’s World Commission on Environment and Development, titled Our Common Future. It said: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
InterPress Service, November 28, 2014 ▶ IS THE IDEA OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON A FALSE CONSENSUS. The term sustainable development rapidly gained wide-scale acceptance, with the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development just one of the many (inter)governmental or top-down bodies that have set up in the past three decades to include environmental goals in planning and policy.. The idea of sustainable development is based on a false consensus. Once this term and its underlying situations are properly deconstructed, Demaria tells IPS, “we discover that sustainable development is still all about development. And that is where the problem lies.” http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/11/down-with-sustainable-development-long-live-convivial-degrowth/
VIDEO REPORT - RICHARD WOLFF
July 25, 2013 Democracy Now
DETROIT A "SPECTACULAR FAILURE" OF A SYSTEM THAT REDISTRIBUTES PAY FROM BOTTOM TO TOP
Detroit’s bankruptcy "is an example of a failed economic system," says economist Richard Wolff, professor emeritus of economics at University of Massachusetts. "There are so many other cities in Detroit’s situation, that if the courts decide that it is legal to take away the pension that has been promised to and paid for by these workers, you have [legalized] theft. It is class war, redistributing income from the bottom to the top." ...http://www.democracynow.org/2013/7/25/richard_wolff_detroit_a_spectacular_failure
▶ENOUGHNESS: WESTERN THOUGHT vs INDIGENOUS PHILOSOPHY
How we see the world determines how we act. Western thought sees us at war with each other over resources. Indigenous philosophy, we are all related as individuals in balance wih nature...
-▶ BOLIVIA: FIRST NATION IN THE WORLD TO GIVE LEGAL RIGHTS TO THE EARTHhttp://sco.lt/83jybZ
La Via Campesina, August 16, 2014
▶ BUILDING UNITY AND SOLIDARITY TO EFFECT A SYSTEM CHANGE.Women from all the corners of the Southern African region descended on Bulawayo to participate in a parallel of the SADC Heads of State Summit, the People Summit. They have converged to share their experiences on how they have been affected either by decisions made by governments with little consultations with the people or the inherited colonial agro-mining complex, which continues to grab land for extractive purposes. More importantly, the women have gathered to build and strengthen their solidarity, forge strong alliances and commit to the struggle to push for a system of change.http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/news-from-the-regions-mainmenu-29/1649-sadc-building-unity-and-solidarity-to-effect-a-system-change
Intercontinental Magazine, December 23, 2013 -▶THE HEALTH OF OUR EARTH IS WANING . INDIGENOUS PEOPLES VIEW THE EARTH AS A LIVING ENTITY, Indigenous people know the Earth is a living entity, our civilisation has lost it's "spiritual" connection to Earth http://intercontinentalcry.org/health-earth-waning/
The Guardian, November 1, 2013 -▶ HOW ECONOMIC GROWTH HAS BECOME ANTI-LIFE - Vandana Shiva
-▶ THE GIFT OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE: : International conservation strategies increasingly look to indigenous knowledge http://ensia.com/notables/#notable7617
VIDEO
-▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/4l725B
- ▶ AFRICA G8 - FOOD SECURITY FOR WHOM? CORPORATE PROFITS v SMALL HOLDER FARMERS INTEREST http://sco.lt/8JKbIn
THE 21st CENTURY CORPORATE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA World Development Movement STOP THE CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF AFRICA'S FOOD.
Under the guise of tackling hunger, initiatives like the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, will help corporations take control over Africa’s land, seeds and markets - at the expense of small farmers. Join our campaign to oppose this twenty-first century corporate scramble for Africa. - See more at: http://www.wdm.org.uk/food#sthash.dgDwkdF0.dpufhttp://www.wdm.org.uk/food
-▶ SUMATRAN RAINFORESTS RAVAGED WITH ALL LIFE WITHIN IT - FOR INVASIVE PALM OIL http://sco.lt/6Sdg13
One World News, December 9, 2013 -▶ INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE VITAL FOR BIODIVERSITY, SAY EXPERTS With species disappearing up to 1,000 times faster than the natural extinction rate, biodiversity experts say knowledge co-production with indigenous peoples has growing importance. http://oneworld.org/2013/12/05/indigenous-knowledge-vital-for-biodiversity-say-experts/
The Satoyama Initiative SATOYAMA: TOWARD A RURAL SOCIETY IN HARMONY WITH NATURE Japan gave the name of the SATOYAMA Initiative to establishment of universal philosophy for sustainable maintenance and use of natural resources https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAcS6px3WEg
How Do You Feed The World? LANDRUSH: WHY POVERTY How do you feed the world? 75% of Mali's population are farmers, but rich, land-hungry nations like China and Saudi Arabia are leasing Mali's land in order to turn large areas into industrial agribusiness farms. Many Malian peasants do not welcome these efforts, seeing them as yet another manifestation of imperialism. As Mali experiences a military coup, the developers are scared off but can Mali's farmers combat food shortages and escape poverty on their own terms? http://www.whypoverty.net/en/all-about/land-rush/
FOOD AID FOR THE 21st CENTURY
MEETING THE OBJECTIVE OR FEEDING THE CORPORATE COFFERS?
ETHOPIA LOCAL TRIBES UNDER THREAT FROM FOREIGN LAND GRAB "INVESTMENTS" DEFORESTATIONhttp://sco.lt/4kFdrd
▶ ECUADOR TO SELL A THIRD OF THE INDIGENOUS AMAZON RAINFOREST TO CHINESE OIL COMPANIES http://sco.lt/8Q38K1
▶ THE THIRST FOR PROFIT: ISOLATED YANOMAMI INDIANS "MASSACRED" BY GOLDMINERS IN VENEZUELA http://sco.lt/8eseCv
▶ THE BUSHMEN OF THE CENTRAL KALAHARI GAME RESERVE - BOTWANA'S GENOCIDE http://sco.lt/5Vb0gj
VIDEO
Sarawak, Malaysia
UNCOVERING TOP LEVEL CORRUPTION IN SARAWAK, MALAYSIA OVER INDIGENOUS FORESTShttp://sco.lt/5Y6uUT
August 9, 2013 United Nations Development Programme
▶UNEP HIGHLIGHTS KEY ROLE OF INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES IN TRANSITION TO A 'GREEN' ECONOMY
"UNEP is seeking to further amplify the voice of indigenous communities in environmental governance and to bring forward to world attention the centuries-old knowledge, cost-effective technologies and experience of working with rather than against nature that offers a treasure trove of inspiring principles and practical actions for the rest of humanity," - See more at:
THE MEN OF THE FIFTH WORLD They are the original inhabitants of the land called Australia by the white man. They have been there since the beginning of time, since the dream time, when everything they know was created... http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/men-fifth-world/
-▶ MOTHER OF MEDICINE TREE. A story of a dangerous collision between two worlds. On the Pacific island of Palau, the modern world rubs shoulders with the traditional, and as the inhabitants eat a more Western diet, they often develop diabetes. But a traditional tree that grows there, known as the mother of medicine tree, promises a treatment http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=14-P13-00004&segmentID=7
-▶ THE VANISHING CULTURES PROJECT: The Vanishing Cultures Project is devoted to assisting indigenous, traditional groups preserve their culture by documenting their lifestyle through photography and research, assisting local preservation initiatives, and educating the public
In this era of rapid change, indigenous communities with rich cultural heritages urgently need the world’s attention. Anthropologists estimate that every two weeks a tribal elder dies with the last remaining knowledge of his or her people’s language, and along with them dies many other living expressions—the crafts, skills, beliefs, lore—of a unique heritage... http://www.vcproject.org
February 17, 2012 Tribal Cultural Heritage In India ▶INDIGENOUS OR TRIBAL GROUPS RELY ON BIODIVERSITY FOR SUSTAINING THEIR LIVELIHOODS http://www.indiantribalheritage.org/?p=5026
WATCH The Globalization Program | Global 3000 | DW.DE ▶In this edition of Global 3000, we visit the people of Inle Lake in Myanmar, one of the few cultures in the world living entirely on the water. But their traditional way of life is under threat. We also go to Rio de Janeiro, where residents of a favela have to make way for a redevelopment project... http://www.dw.de/global-3000-the-globalization-program-2013-12-30/e-17291121-9798
Mongabay, February 11, 2014 ▶ HELPING THE AMAZON'S JAGUAR PEOPLE PROTECT THEIR CULTURE AND TRADITIONAL WISDOM. The process of acculturation transformed once proud cultures into fragmented remnants, their self-sufficiency and social cohesion stripped away, left to struggle in a new world marked by poverty and external dependence. ... Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0211-matses-fleck-interview.html
A terrifying but terrific short documentary explaining Chevron's #ecocide and #genocide in Ecuador http://sco.lt/76Njw9
VIDEO:
Narrated by Robert Redford, Winner of the Goldman Prize THE INDIGENOUS MOLLO PEOPLE IN TIMOR STRUGGLE TO PROTECT THEIR SACRED NATURAL WORLD FROM FOREIGN MINING CORPORATIONShttp://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/aleta-baun
These mysterious lands would seem to rise out of the clouds of the highlands, situated in the east of the island of New Guinea, to the North of Australia... http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/ambassadors-jungle/
The Daily Climate, October 23, 2013 ▶ESSAY: THE WAY WE ARE IN THE WORLD, CHANGES THE WORLD Here's something Native elders understand: Without respect for natural laws, no amount of technology will get us out of this mess. Why can't we hear that message? http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2013/10/native-american-climate-approach
▶ MAJOR PALM OIL COMPANIES ACCUSED OF ECOCIDE, BREAKING ETHICAL PROMISES IN ASIA AND AFRICA http://sco.lt/8TkGjh
September 15, 2013 The Real News ▶PHILIPPINES: CORPORATE AND MILITARY FORCES DESTROYING INDIGENOUS LAND, FORESTS AND LIVELIHOODS
"It is better to die from bullets than from hunger" Corporate agri-businesses like U.S.-based Dole, Del Monte, Monsanto, along with international and Philippine mines, are polluting waterways and destroying the surrounding farms. Chinese, European, Canadian, and Filipino mines are stripping away the mountains to get at what some estimate to be the largest iron deposit in the world. There also some of the most significant gold, nickel, and copper reserves in Asia. http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10725
Intercontinental Cry Magazine, December 24, 2013 ▶ BOLIVIA'S INDIGENOUS FUTURE: A BALANCE OF PRESERVATION, PROTECTION AND CONNECTION http://intercontinental
Via pdjmoo
▶ ECO-SPIRITUALITY: TOWARDS A VALUES-BASED ECONOMIC STRUCTURE. Corporate visions of sustainability focus on material prosperity – but leaders must respect the soul as well as the soil, writes Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee...
As our world stumbles to the brink of ecological collapse, the "tipping point" of irreversible climate change, sustainability has become a vital issue. But in order to consider the question of sustainability, it is important to begin with the question: who or what is being sustained?
Does sustainability refer to sustained economic growth, and an environment that is able to maintain the status quo with our energy-intensive, consumer driven needs? Or does sustainability refer to the whole ecosystem, an interconnected web of life with its vast and rich diversity of species? What is the relationship between sustainability and the economy?
▶ THE EVOLUTION OF BUSINESS: HOW A NEW BUSINESS ERA INSPIRED BY NATURE, NOT GREED, CAN BENEFIT US ALLhttp://sco.lt/6XU6Kn
VIDEO: 27:38 GIVE IT ALL AWAY: NEWMAN'S OWN RECIPE FOR SUCCESS This documentary traces Paul Newman's legacy of giving. It chronicles the path of the Newman's Own Foundation food company as it evolved and funded a variety of charities across the nation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8o-TRbFuwM&feature=youtu.be
VIDEO REPORT The Real News, October 24, 2014 THE FINANCIALIZATION OF LIFE: PROFITING WITHOUT PRODUCING. Costas Lapavitsas is a professor in economics at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. He teaches the political economy of finance, and he's a regular columnist for The Guardian.
Fast Company, February 2, 2014 ▶ HOW PATAGONIA IS INCREASING PROFITS WHILE SAVING THE WORLD. Since Rose Marcario joined Patagonia six years ago, the badass-by-nature company has tripled its profits. And no, it hasn't sold its soul.
Exploring society's relationship with the almighty dollar and examines economic patterning in both the human and the natural worlds.(73:40) From Ethical Markets http://sco.lt/8XxACv
▶ PALM OIL BONANZA AND DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS ALONG WITH ALL LIFE WITHIN THEMhttp://sco.lt/5VN27l
▶ ERADICATING ECOCIDE: WHY BUSINESS LEADERS MUST STEP UP TO THE CHALLENGEhttp://sco.lt/7ExcmX
HEADING FOR DISASTER?
▶ CORPORATE GOVERNANCE? What Is Corporate Social Responsibility As Sovereignty Rights Negotiated Away in New Secretive Trade Pacts http://sco.lt/8FToVl
Discover the only lifestyle guide for the modern Yogi : www.yogitimes.com
Our goal : contribute to the development of beings and create a ripple effect of consciousness around the world. Want to become a contributor or a partner in your city ? contact us !
"Guardianship is a word that rings out in my head. We are meant to be guardians and trustees of this planet. For me, and for many others, the collective goal of humanity is towards the stewardship of our people, the planet and our ecosystems. We have a duty to protect and enhance our communities and ecosystems for the betterment of future generations"...Nicole Tilde
Guardian Sustainable Business, February 19, 2015 -▶ ENVISIONING A FUTURE WITH LESS DOOM AND GLOOM: OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF OPTIMISTS :
Bill Shireman, president of Future 500, a global nonprofit that connects corporations and NGOs to overcome sustainability challenges
Guardian Sustainable Business, January 29, 2015 -▶CAN BUSINESSES LEARN TO SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF NATURAL CAPITAL?The concept has captured the imagination of environmental, business and political groups. But some campaigners believe that there is a fundamental flaw in the language and logic of the natural capital movement: by putting a price on nature you risk opening it up to further market commodification... http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/jan/29/businesses-learn-language-of-natural-capital-2015
▶ CORPORATE FINANCIALIZATION OF NATURE A RECIPE FOR DISASTER. The "financialization of nature" is a flawed approach to saving biodiversity, "Biodiversity and forests are critical for the survival of people and the planet, and are thus priceless. Our biodiversity needs to be protected, not speculated on by reckless and unaccountable financial markets,” says Isaac Rojas, Friends of the Earth International Coordinator of the Forests and Biodiversity Program.http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/13
InterPress Service, November 28, 2014 ▶ IS THE IDEA OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON A FALSE CONSENSUS. The term sustainable development rapidly gained wide-scale acceptance, with the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development just one of the many (inter)governmental or top-down bodies that have set up in the past three decades to include environmental goals in planning and policy.. The idea of sustainable development is based on a false consensus. Once this term and its underlying situations are properly deconstructed, Demaria tells IPS, “we discover that sustainable development is still all about development. And that is where the problem lies.”http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/11/down-with-sustainable-development-long-live-convivial-degrowth/
NO TO BIODIVERSITY CARBON OFFSETTING:
CONSERVING OUR BIODIVERSITY IS BECOMING DEPENDENT ON ITS DESTRUCTION http://sco.lt/6ZjXGr
Ensia, August 12, 2014 -▶ECOSYSTEMS ARE NOT MACHINES. If we want to save the world, we need to treat nature more as an organism and less as disposable and replaceable technology.http://ensia.com/voices/ecosystems-are-not-machines/
Huffington Post Business, October 22, 2014 ▶ HOW NATURAL CAPITAL IS REDEFINING SUCCESS: REDEFINING CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND SUCCESS TOWARD THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE: THE MOMENT IS RIPE FOR DISRUPTION
As far as we've come in redefining corporate governance and success toward the triple bottom line, we still have a distance to go before there is real specificity and widespread agreement among companies and consumers about what terms like "natural capital" or even "sustainability" mean. This can be seen as a shortcoming or a vacuum, but it's also a huge opportunity for smart businesses to take up. The moment is ripe for disruption; potentially revolutionary understandings of businesses' goals and metrics are increasingly coming into focus. More than ever, consumers want to live meaningfully and to engage with brands that have a purpose. That's galvanizing companies to drill down on defining their social and environmental purpose today, and anticipating how it will evolve in the future.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tensie-whelan/how-natural-capital-is-redefining-success_b_6005244.html
▶ BOLIVIA GIVES LEGAL RIGHT TO THE EARTH. Bolivia pilots new social and economic model based on protection of and respect for nature. Bolivia is to become the first country in the world to give nature comprehensive legal rights in an effort to halt climate change and the exploitation of the natural world, and to improve quality of life for the Bolivian people. http://sco.lt/83jybZ
VIDEO (3.30) Grassroots International PUTTING PEOPLE AND COMMUNITY BEFORE CORPORATE PROFITS Big business wants to control our resources--grabbing land, privatizing water, patenting seeds, and trying to squeeze out anyone who gets in the way of their profits. Fortunately, there is an alternative that places the rights of people and communities ahead of corporate interests--resource rights. http://www.grassrootsonline.org/issues/resource-rights
-▶ BANKS WANT TO PUT PRICE ON EARTH'S LIFE SUPPORT
It is not easy to put a value on a forest, a clean river, or unpolluted air, but that is what a group of the world's biggest banks is attempting to do.
43 financial institutions have agreed that the way the present economic system uses and often destroys the environment without paying to do so is not sustainable.
The banks are also concerned that some companies are using up natural resources so fast, with no thought for their own future, let alone that of the planet, that they will collapse. They want a way of warning them and ultimately withdrawing their credit unless the companies mend their ways...http://www.eco-business.com/news/banks-put-price-earths-life-support/
▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIT? http://sco.lt/5I5UeX
VIDEO REPORT The Real News, October 24, 2014 THE FINANCIALIZATION OF LIFE: PROFITING WITHOUT PRODUCING. Costas Lapavitsas is a professor in economics at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. He teaches the political economy of finance, and he's a regular columnist for The Guardian.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FACTORY FARMING YOUR ANIMAL FOODhttp://sco.lt/5n7fqD
WATCH "INSIDE THE GARBAGE OF THE WORLD" (80 min) We're living on a beautiful planet and as a human race we've been here for thousands of years. Our planet didn't need to be protected; life was flourishing on its own, with its own agenda. However for the past 100 years we've made a tremendous impact with our footprint due to the growth of world population and the industrialization of our everyday life. Economy, profit and capitalization became more important than respecting our planet and an ancient knowledge to advance a new way of life.http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside-garbage-world/
▶ A GREEN, COMMONS-BASED GOVERNANCE: THE RIGHT TO A CLEAN AND HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT FOR ALL SPECIEShttp://sco.lt/8qokwj
The bankers went on to acknowledge this was partly their fault because they had no way of valuing this natural capital, nor did they currently recognize the danger to the stability of some companies because of its destruction. They want governments to force companies to disclose their dependence on natural capital and the impact they have on it by disclosures in annual financial reports.
EcoWatch, April 07, 2015 ▶ ALEC IN DENIAL OF ITS CLIMATE DENIAL, THREATENS TO SUE.Conservative lobbying group the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) writes pro-fossil fuel, climate-damaging “model legislation” for its members in Congress and state legislatures across the country to pass. It’s financed by a roster of corporations that benefit from such legislation and ALEC, in turn, funds campaigns to push the legislation into law.
September 28, 2012: Moyers & Company presents "United States of ALEC," a report on the most influential corporate-funded political force most of America has never heard of -- ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC presents itself as a "nonpartisan public-private partnership." But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge. http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-united-states-of-alec/
-▶ HOW 'ALEC' SERVES AS A 'DATING SERVICE' FOR POLITICIANS AND CORPORATIONS TO COME TOGETHER FOR COVERT STATE LEGISLATIONS. A batch of recently leaked to The Guardian has revealed new insights into the goals and finances of the secretive group called ALEC. The American Legislative Exchange Council is a group that brings together state legislators and representatives of corporations. Together, they develop model bills that lawmakers introduce and try to pass in their state legislatures. Through these model bills, ALEC has worked to privatize public education, cut taxes, reduce public employee compensation, oppose Obamacare and resist state regulations to reduce global warming gas emissions.http://www.npr.org/2013/12/10/249956329/how-alec-serves-as-a-dating-service-for-politicians-and-corporations
The Ecologist, November 21, 2014 ▶ UKIP POLITICAL PARTY EXPOSED: ACOLOYTES OF AMERICA'S FAR RIGHT CORPORATE GUNSLINGERS. Would UKIP be riding so high if voters knew of the party's links with powerful right-wing US corporate interests promoting fossil fuels, denying climate change, opposing gun control, and supporting big tobacco, teaching creationism in schools, healthcare privatisation and the lifting of nuclear power regulation? An Ecologist investigation exposes the real UKIP.http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2643616/ukip_uncut_acoloytes_of_americas_farright_corporate_gunslingers.html
The Guardian, December 04, 2013 -▶ 'ALEC''s ASSAULT ON CLEAN ENERGY: HOW ALEC-INSPIRED LAWS PLANS TO CHARGE HOMEOWNERS WHO INSTALL OFF-THE-GRID SOLAR • Documents reveal conservative group's anti-green agenda • Strategy to charge people who install their own solar panels • Environmentalists accuse Alec of protecting utility firms' profits http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/04/alec-freerider-homeowners-assault-clean-energy
Truthout, August 02, 2014 ▶ ALEC'S NEW ARM OF CORPORATE INFLUENCE OVER GOVERNMENT TARGETS LOCAL LAWMAKING - Protests Greet Lawmakers, Corporate Officials Gathering in Dallas as New Arm of ALEC Is Announced. American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), whose corporate members have heavily influenced lawmakers in creating national legislation and is now targeting local lawmaking, is meeting in Dallas, greeted by a wide array of actions by protesters, some of whom chained themselves to hotel doors. http://truth-out.org/news/item/25321-protests-greet-lawmakers-corporate-officials-gathering-in-dallas-as-new-arm-of-alec-is-announced
-▶ 'ALEC' PROVIDES CORPORATIONS AND STATE LEGISLATORS WITH PLAN FOR US-WIDE ASSAULT ON EDUCATION, HEALTH, TAX AND PENSIONS
• State Policy Network co-ordinating plans across 34 US states •
Conservative groups across the US are planning a co-ordinated assault against public sector rights and services in the key areas of education, healthcare, income tax, workers' compensation and the environment, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.
• Strategy to 'release residents from government dependency'
Global Research, November 12, 2013 ▶ CORPORATE PROFITS SOAR: THE SUPER WEALTHY REINVENT AMERICAN CAPITALISM.As U.S. corporate profits soar to record highs, food stamps for the neediest were quietly cut. The politicians who are demanding endless cuts to social programs — Democrats and Republicans alike — insist that the U.S. is broke, all the while conveniently ignoring the mountains of tax-free wealth piling up in the pockets of the super rich.... http://www.globalresearch.ca/corporate-profits-soar-the-super-wealthy-reinvent-american-capitalism/5357607
-▶ HOW 'ALEC's NEW LAWS IN THE U.S. ARE THREATENING ACTIVISTS' ABILITY TO UNCOVER APPALLING TREATMENT OF OUR ANIMAL FOOD PRODUCTION.
Covert VIDEO has exposed the cruel treatment of animals in some factory farms in the United States but in several US states it is those who expose abusive practices that could end up as "terrorists"...http://www.commondreams.org/video/2013/04/10
The Guardian, March 12, 2014 -▶ THE TRUTH ABOUT LOBBYING: 10 WAYS BUSINESS CONTROLS GOVERNMENTS. Whether facing down a threat to profits from a corporate tax hike, or pushing for market opportunities – such as government privatisations – lobbying has become another way of making money. Here are the 10 key steps that lobbying businesses will follow to bend government to their will.http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/12/lobbying-10-ways-corprations-influence-government
CorpWatch, December 19, 2013 -▶ ALARMING FINDINGS: NEW REPORT CARD EVALUATES CONGRESSIONAL CORPORATE INFLUENCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY. Washington, DC (December 19, 2013) – Congress had a miserable record on resisting corporate influence in 2012, according to a new Congressional Report Card . The 2012 Corporate Accountability Coalition Report Card tracks Congressional action related to corporate accountability, transparency, and responsible business during the second year of the 112th Congress...http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15908
CHINA BECOMING AN IT GIANT, INTERVIEW WITH LIU JIREN, NEUSOFT CORP SETTING A NEW MODEL FOR IT BUSINESS
As China’s economic growth slows, it is shifting its base from manufacturing, which has powered its growth, to tertiary industry, where the IT and software sector holds the key. In the forefront of this trend is Neusoft Corp., one of China’s biggest software companies. Founded 23 years ago by Liu Jiren with three computers, the company has introduced new services to China one after the other. The company provides IT services including car electronics, health care, social insurance, energy and telecom. Liu has also established universities that specialize in IT education. The schools allow students to start in-house ventures where they can gain hands-on experience in management. Liu shares his views on the role the IT industry should play in the Chinese economy and how to nurture IT talent. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/tv/asianvoices/141107.html
MOVING TOWARD A NEW BUSINESS PARADIGM JACK MA: FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN OF THE ALIBABA GROUP Institute of International Business at Columbia Business School https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEJAGxJn5YI
HOW FINANCIAL DEREGULATION IS DESTROYING THE WORLD
Rolling Stone, Matt Tabbi, February 12, 2014
How Mega Banks, Corporations Drove A Mack Truck Thru A Loophole to Dominate and Control Global Politics, Industry and Society.
Banks are no longer just financing heavy industry. They are actually buying it up and inventing bigger, bolder and scarier scams than ever.
Today, banks like Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs own oil tankers, run airports and control huge quantities of coal, natural gas, heating oil, electric power and precious metals. They likewise can now be found exerting direct control over the supply of a whole galaxy of raw materials crucial to world industry and to society in general, including everything from food products to metals like zinc, copper, tin, nickel and, most infamously thanks to a recent high-profile scandal, aluminum. And they're doing it not just here but abroad as well: In Denmark, thousands took to the streets in protest in recent weeks, vampire-squid banners in hand, when news came out that Goldman Sachs was about to buy a 19 percent stake in Dong Energy, a national electric provider. The furor inspired mass resignations of ministers from the government's ruling coalition, as the Danish public wondered how an American investment bank could possibly hold so much influence over the state energy grid.
Wall Street's War
But banks aren't just buying stuff, they're buying whole industrial processes. They're buying oil that's still in the ground, the tankers that move it across the sea, the refineries that turn it into fuel, and the pipelines that bring it to your home. Then, just for kicks, they're also betting on the timing and efficiency of these same industrial processes in the financial markets – buying and selling oil stocks on the stock exchange, oil futures on the futures market, swaps on the swaps market, etc.
But those are purely financial schemes. In these new, even scarier kinds of manipulations, banks that own whole chains of physical business interests have been caught rigging prices in those industries.
Mother Jones, September 11, 2014 -▶ THE RICH ARE EATING RICHER, THE POOR ARE EATING POORER.First of all, incomes have stagnated. Overall real median incomes today stand at 1989 levels, as this September US Federal Reserve report shows. And real median incomes declined 5 percent between 2010 and 2013, the report shows, even as income levels at the top expanded. That means that the "recovery" of the past three years hasn't felt like much of one for millions of families... http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/09/food-inequality
Truthout, September 11, 2014 -▶ AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN SPEAKS OUT: JOHN PERKINS ON HOW INDEBTED COUNTRIES HAVE FALLEN VICTIM TO "ECONOMIC HIT MEN" In the case of Greece today, it's the IMF, World Bank and the EU [European Union] that make tremendous demands on the country: increase taxes, cut back on spending, sell public sector utilities to private companies, things like power companies and water systems, transportation systems, privatize those, and basically become a slave to us, to the corporations...organizations like the World Bank, the IMF, the EU, are tools of the big corporations, what I call the "corporatocracy."http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/26112-an-economic-hit-man-speaks-out-john-perkins-on-how-greece-has-fallen-victim-to-economic-hit-men
-▶ MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATIONS INCREASINGLY ABANDONING AMERICA TO AVOID REGULATIONS AND TAXESTheir antennae point to places where taxes are very low, labor is wage slavery, independent unions are non-existent, governments have their hands out, and equal justice under the rule of law does not exist.https://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/28-11
Guardian, January 23, 2015 -▶ AS INEQUALITY SOARS, THE NERVOUS SUPER RICH ARE ALREADY PLANNING THEIR ESCAPES. Hedge fund managers are preparing getaways by buying airstrips and farms in remote areas, former hedge fund partner tells Davos during session on inequality
VIDEO REPORT The Real News, October 24, 2014 THE FINANCIALIZATION OF LIFE: PROFITING WITHOUT PRODUCING.Costas Lapavitsas is a professor in economics at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. He teaches the political economy of finance, and he's a regular columnist for The Guardian.
Peak Prosperity, December 03, 2014 -▶ OIL AND THE GLOBAL SLOWDOWN:We are being driven by our system of money, we serve it not the other way around, which is a tragedy of both epic and comic proportions. http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/89380/oil-and-global-slowdown
▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FROM ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIThttp://sco.lt/5x2tqz
Guardian, October 13, 2014 -▶ AS THE RICH GET RICHER -- COULD TRIGGER A GLOBAL RECESSION. The richest 1% of the world’s population are getting wealthier, according to a Credit Suisse report which warned growing inequality could be a trigger for recession. “Taken together, the bottom half of the global population own less than 1% of total wealth. In sharp contrast, the richest decile hold 87% of [...]http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/oct/14/richest-1percent-half-global-wealth-credit-suisse-report
Joseph Fichera's op-ed in the New York Times shows the full depravity of Wall Street's resistance to regulation, says white collar criminologist Professor William Black
IMPOVERISHED JAILED FOR INABILITY TO PAY FINES OR OLD DEBTS : INEQUALITY WIDENS http://sco.lt/68dlAX
ProPublica, September 15, 2014 -▶ UNSEEN TOLL: WAGES OF MILLIONS SEIZED TO PAY PAST DEBTS. A new study provides the first-ever tally of how many employees lose up to a quarter of their paychecks over debts like unpaid credit card or medical bills and student loans.http://www.propublica.org/article/unseen-toll-wages-of-millions-seized-to-pay-past-debts
A TRILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS: PREDATORY LOANS AND AN UNKNOWN FUTUREhttp://sco.lt/8wWGOX
Center for Public Integrity, February 17, 2014
-▶ AFTER THE MELTDOWN: In the fall of 2008, the U.S. economy nearly collapsed thanks to an unprecedented wave of mortgage foreclosures. In “After the Meltdown — Where are they now?” the Center for Public Integrity revisits the subprime lenders, Wall Street banks and government regulators that were most responsible for the crash — and finds few if any have been held accountable. http://www.publicintegrity.org/business/finance/after-meltdown
Shanghai Metal Corporation, November 18, 2014 ▶ THE SHARING ECONOMYIn today’s society where the pressure of environmental sustainability is growing, the problems of overproduction and over consumption are becoming more and more important. To answer this problem, a new system of economy begins to appear : “The Sharing Economy”, also called “The Collaborative Economy”http://shanghaimetalcorporation.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/the-sharing-economy/
Guardian, April 07, 2014 ▶ TURNING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY INTO LOCAL CONNECTED COMMUNITIES."We no longer know where our food comes from when it ends up on our plate or where the waste goes when we finish a meal," observes Michelle Long, founder and chief executive of Balle .. Repairing the broken relationships wrought by the combination of economic globalization and corporate giantism is essential. And not only for our economy, which she argues will become more resilient and more productive as it becomes more local (ie boasting shorter supply chains, greater local ownership, closer proximity to the environment, higher socially inclusivity and so forth). But the more connected as individuals we are, she maintains, the happier and more fulfilled we'll be as human beings. http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/global-economy-connected-communities-local
Edie.net, February 04, 2015 -▶ COLLABORATE OR LOSE MONEY: NEW REPORT WARNS OF GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY PRESSURES ON BIG BUSINESS. Resource pressures in global commodity markets will derail the business goals of multinational corporations unless they start to collaborate with local stakeholders.That is the warning of a new report from the Earth Security Group – an international sustainability consultancy – which analyses seven key commodities markets and identifies actions that companies operating in stressed markets can take. http://www.edie.net/news/4/Earthe-Security-Group-business-sustainability-report-2015/
Fast Company, February 2, 2014 ▶ HOW PATAGONIA IS INCREASING PROFITS WHILE SAVING THE WORLD.Since Rose Marcario joined Patagonia six years ago, the badass-by-nature company has tripled its profits. And no, it hasn't sold its soul.
-▶ COLLABORATIVE ECONOMY: BRAND EDITION: DOWNLOAD WHITEPAPER.For those new to this topic, there's an unstoppable trend of people trading, renting, and borrowing all kinds of services and goods. The disruptive impacts to brands are high: consumers can now buy and trade among themselves, often without purchasing things directly from the brands themselves. Corporations who don’t pay attention to this trend, are leaving themselves in a state of risk as technology and society continue to quickly innovate...http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2013/02/26/collaborative-economy-brand-edition/
-▶ WHY SAVING THE PLANET IS NO LONGER THE WORK OF POLITICAL LEADERS: AN URGENT COLLABORATIVE TASK AHEAD
Why saving the planet is no longer the work of political leaders -
From states to citizens, everyone has a stake in overcoming the inertia that surrounds decisive action on sustainability...
With the collapse of intergovernmental and global processes, it is becoming increasingly apparent that we now must use new mechanisms that bring businesses and communities together. For these to succeed, we need new ways to define and measure our goals and achievements. Saving the planet is no longer the work of political leaders, but an opportunity for managers, CEOs, accountants and activists to devise collaborative solutions.... there must be measurable goals and a new mechanism for accountability.
No longer is conventional CSR reporting adequate to the task. New accounting methods, as Rio's Declaration on Natural Capital begins to define, must be put in place....
"INSIDE THE GARBAGE OF THE WORLD" (80 min) We're living on a beautiful planet and as a human race we've been here for thousands of years. Our planet didn't need to be protected; life was flourishing on its own, with its own agenda. However for the past 100 years we've made a tremendous impact with our footprint due to the growth of world population and the industrialization of our everyday life. Economy, profit and capitalization became more important than respecting our planet and an ancient knowledge to advance a new way of life.http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside-garbage-world/
-▶ WHO OWNS NATURE? CORPORATE POWER AND THE FINAL FRONTIER IN THE COMMODIFICATION OF LIFEhttp://sco.lt/8Bx5er
-▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIT? http://sco.lt/5x2tqz
VIDEO British Council SOCIAL ENTERPRISE: THE NEXT WAVE OF SOCIAL CHANGE Social Enterprise is a social and economic movement that is growing rapidly across the western world particularly in the UK, Europe and the USA. A new generation of entrepreneurs are redefining business by creating enterprises that create social value parallel to profit. http://www.britishcouncil.lk/social-enterprise
Guardian, Social Enterprise Network, March 07, 2014 -▶ THERE IS A PHENOMENAL CONCENTRATION OF POWER IN THE HANDS OF A FEW: SOCIAL ENTERPRISES AS A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE TO CONSUMERISM.Social enterprises have a huge future in business. "As Van der Hoff Boersma explains in his book, it's about looking for solutions that the poor themselves have. "We need to use this current crisis of capitalism to push forward an alternative model of an economy based on solidarity to which social enterprises are one manifestation."http://www.theguardian.com/social-enterprise-network/2014/mar/07/fairtrade-fortnight-harriet-lamb-interview
-▶ OPEC MINISTERS OPT FOR STATUS QUO AS OIL PRICES SLIDE. “It is increasingly clear that we have begun a new chapter in the history of the oil markets,” the IEA concluded. “Economic development no longer spurs oil demand growth as it once did.”
CHECK MATE
The UAE’s Minister of Energy, Suhail Al Mazrouei, echoed other ministers in saying that it was not Opec producers who were primarily responsible for the world’s oil glut, referring particularly to surging North American production....Meanwhile, oil production from North America — especially from unconventional sources, including so-called shale oil — has surged over the last few years, helped by relatively high oil prices. That has pushed the need for imported oil by the US to its lowest level in more than four decades and meant tougher competition for oil producers to find buyers...http://www.thenational.ae/business/energy/opec-ministers-opt-for-status-quo-as-oil-prices-slide
France 24, 2014
-▶ OPEC TO KEEP OIL OUTPUT UNCHANGED DESPITE LOW PRICES. Analysts say that by opposing an output cut, Saudi Arabia appears to be hoping to drive prices below the level at which shale oil production is economical. That, in theory, would force shale producers – particularly in the U.S. – to cut back, re-establishing OPEC’s dominance of the energy market.http://www.france24.com/en/20141127-opec-keeps-oil-output-unchanged-despite-low-prices/
Environmental Justice, March 06, 2014 ▶ NO FRACKING WAY : HOW THE EU-US TRADE AGREEMENT RISKS EXPANDING FRACKING. A major trade deal currently being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) threatens the power of governments to protect communities, citizens and the environment from risky new technologies such as fracking. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) covers a huge range of issues and sectors, including food safety, genetically modified products, toxic chemicals, highly polluting fuels and data protection. The talks threaten to weaken or roll-back democratically agreed safeguards put in place to protect the environment and citizens – for the sake of corporate profits.http://www.tni.org/briefing/no-fracking-way?context=596
Center for American Progress, December 22, 2014 -▶FOSSIL-FUEL INDUSTRY SPENT BIG TO SET ANTI-ENVIRONMENT AGENDA FOR THE NEXT U.S. CONGRESS : A legislative rider that was quietly attached to a major defense funding bill earlier this month marked a watershed change in the political fortunes of the coal, oil, and gas industries and their return to power in Washington, D.C. The rider—which turns the Bull Mountains in Montana over to a Koch-connected, Houston-based company to be strip mined for coal—is the fossil-fuel industry’s first major payoff from a three-quarters-of-a-billion-dollar investment to secure Republican control of Congress and to set the stage for a pro-coal, pro-drilling, and anti-environment agenda in 2015
▶ 2010 BP DEEPWATER HORIZON DISASTER--CONTINUES TO IMPACT GULF'S ECOSYSTEM -- 4 YEARS ON http://sco.lt/5Ahg6D
The Guardian, December 11, 2014 -▶ AN ECOLOGICAL DISASTER: BANGLADESH OIL SPILL THREATENS RARE DOLPHINS. Bangladesh officials warn that an oil spill from a crashed tanker is threatening endangered dolphins and other wildlife in the massive Sundarbans mangrove region, branding the leak an ecological ‘catastrophe’http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/11/bangladesh-oil-spill-threatens-rare-dolphins
Öljyn hinta on laskenut kesästä lähtien, ja on nyt alimmalla tasollaan neljään vuoteen. Tämä johtuu pääasiassa teollisuusmaiden vähentyneestä öljyn kysynnästä, erityisesti Yhdysvalloissa tarve tuoda maahan öljyä on pienimmillään moneen vuosikymmeneen.
Nyt öljyntuottajamaiden OPEC-järjestö päättivät pitää öljyn tuotannon ja hinnan ennallaan ja antaa markkinavoimien tehdä tehtävänsä. He uskovat, että aleneva hinta tulee elvyttämään kysyntää markkinatalouden lakien mukaan, ja tällöin hinta voi taas nousta.
Guardian, November 26, 2014 -▶ RETHINKING PROSPERITY. CAPITALISM vs ENVIRONMENT. CAN GDP EVER BE GREEN? Is it possible to run an expanding capitalist economy while keeping its impacts within safe ecological boundaries, or is the greed-driven system effectively a suicide machine that is doomed to destroy itself? The fact that the now dominant capitalist economic system is unsustainable is not in doubt. It has contributed to the breaching of several ecological boundaries, in relation to climate change, biodiversity loss and nutrient enrichment. At the same time as damaging the natural systems that sustain it, capitalism is also leading to increasing inequality, in turn creating social tensions that make it still more exposed.
Ensia, December 11, 2014 ▶BUILDING THE NEW ENVIRONMENTALISM : Markets that pursue wanton growth and profit at any cost and systematically fail to recognize environmental costs, fostering destruction of a living system all life depends on, cannot survive. We must build a new economy. And to do that, we must build a new politics.
▶HOW A SENSE OF SACRED CAN HELP SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENT - RESTORING VALUEShttp://sco.lt/7ArNtB
United Nations News Centre, February 05, 2015 -▶ UN SEC.GEN BAN: DEVELOPMENT MUST BE BUILT ON INCLUSIVE POLICY ALIGNED WITH PEOPLE'S NEEDS, ASPIRATIONS :
The need to put people at the centre of development/
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ...the world's current generation is the first able to wipe out extreme poverty and the last that could address the worst impacts of climate change. “There is one word above all that must guide us on this roadmap to ending poverty, transforming lives and protecting the planet,” he told the Commission, and added: “That word is: DIGNITY.”
Mr. Ban said that policymakers in the past had focused too much on economic growth, without taking into account social concerns or environmental factors.
-▶ WE WERE WARNED...IN 2008...HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Three decades ago, humanity had a problem; science had a fascination; and industry had an opportunity. Our problem was injustice. The ranks of the hungry were expanding while the ranks of farmers were thinning. Meanwhile, science was fascinated by biotechnology – the idea that we could genetically engineer crops and livestock (and people) with traits that could overcome all our problems. Agribusiness saw an opportunity to extract the enormous surplus value that was laced throughout the food chain. The hugely decentralized food system held pockets of profit just crying out to be centralized. All the biotechnology industry had to do is chase away the competition and coerce governments into surrendering control. ....http://www.etcgroup.org/content/who-owns-nature
VIDEO REPORT PABLO SOLON ON UN COP 20 AND CARBON MARKETS: THIS IS A NEW MECHANISM TO COMMODIFY NATURESolón is Bolivia’s former ambassador to the United Nations. In our extended interview, he discusses the new draft text released at the summit, and contrasts it with the approach taken by the International Rights of Nature Tribunal, on which he is a presenterhttp://www.democracynow.org/blog/2014/12/9/pablo_solon_on_cop20_and_carbon
▶ AMERICANS EAT THE CHEAPEST FOOD IN THE WORLD, BUT WHAT IS IT REALLY COSTING US? http://sco.lt/6nvbQf
New Scientist, October 29, 2014 - ▶ A KILLER PLAGUE WOULDN'T SAVE THE PLANET FROM HUMANS . IT'S getting overcrowded here on Earth. More than 7 billion people are taking their toll on the planet, and the number is rising. What would it take to defuse this population time bomb?... Whether it's a natural decline, a strict policy or a disastrous plague, none of these population drops would be enough to fix environmental problems like climate change. The sticking point instead lies in our high consumption of natural resources.... where the real problem is. "Human behaviour is more important than human numbers," says Lutz. "It's not just the head count that matters, but what is inside the heads."http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429934.100-a-killer-plague-wouldnt-save-the-planet-from-us.html
ERADICATING ECOCIDE AND GENOCIDE
WHY BUSINESS LEADERS MUST STEP UP TO THE CHALLENGE
InterPress Service, November 28, 2014 ▶ IS THE IDEA OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON A FALSE CONSENSUS. The term sustainable development rapidly gained wide-scale acceptance, with the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development just one of the many (inter)governmental or top-down bodies that have set up in the past three decades to include environmental goals in planning and policy.. The idea of sustainable development is based on a false consensus. Once this term and its underlying situations are properly deconstructed, Demaria tells IPS, “we discover that sustainable development is still all about development. And that is where the problem lies.” http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/11/down-with-sustainable-development-long-live-convivial-degrowth/
CNBC News, November 20, 2014 ▶ OBESITY AS A BUSINESS: HOW MUCH OBESITY IS COSTING US. INVESTORS SEE GENEROUS PROFITS IN OBESITY EPIDEMIC
Our expanding waistlines are costing the global economy almost as much to deal with as smoking and military conflict, according to a new report by the McKinsey Global Institute. The annual global bill for obesity for lost productivity and treating conditions like diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers is $2 trillion. That’s nearly as much as the $2.1 trillion smoking or war and conflict costs the global economy, a group of analysts at the research institute concluded. http://www.cnbc.com/id/102203044
The Social Progress Index, created by a team led by Professor Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School, is designed as a complement to GDP and other economic indicators to provide a more holistic understanding of countries’ overall performance.
* Professor Michael E. Porter said: “Until now, the assumption has been that there is a direct relationship between economic growth and wellbeing. However, the Social Progress Index finds that all economic growth is not equal. While higher GDP per capita is correlated with social progress, the connection is far from automatic. For similar levels of GDP, we find that some countries achieve much higher levels of social progress than others.”http://www.skollfoundation.org/economic-growth-does-not-automatically-lead-to-social-advancement-new-social-progress-index/
▶ MAKING THE CHOICE BETWEEN MONEY AND MEANING: CAN WE HAVE BOTH? THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESShttp://sco.lt/5kIkoT
VIDEO REPORT The Real News, October 24, 2014 THE FINANCIALIZATION OF LIFE: PROFITING WITHOUT PRODUCING. Costas Lapavitsas is a professor in economics at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. He teaches the political economy of finance, and he's a regular columnist for The Guardian.
-▶ BUDDHIST ECONOMICS: HOW TO STOP PRIORITIZING GOODS OVER PEOPLE AND CONSUMPTION OVER CREATIVE ACTIVITY:"Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered" — a magnificent collection of essays at the intersection of economics, ethics, and environmental awarenesshttp://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/07/07/buddhist-economics-schumacher/
-▶ MONBIOT: THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF GROWTH: To succeed is to destroy ourselves. To fail is to destroy ourselves. That is the bind we have created. The trajectory of compound growth shows that the scouring of the planet has only just begun. As the volume of the global economy expands, everywhere that contains something concentrated, unusual, precious will be sought out and exploited, its resources extracted and dispersed, the world’s diverse and differentiated marvels reduced to the same grey stubble. http://oneplanet-sustainability.org/2014/05/28/monbiot-how-you-measure-the-depth-of-our-problem-by-our-inability-even-to-discuss-it/
WATCH
Vandana Shiva (59:14)
FESTIVAL OF DANGEROUS IDEAS 2013 -
THE LIMITS OF GDP "GROWTH".
The cult of 'growth' has dictated policy for decades. But if well-being, not growth, is our goal, selling resources that bring long term well being to communities for short term gain is a very bad deal. Hard as it may be for the West to understand, protecting the ecological resources of communities might be more important than GDP figures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M3WJQbnHKc
▶ BOLIVIA GIVES LEGAL RIGHT TO THE EARTH. Bolivia pilots new social and economic model based on protection of and respect for nature. Bolivia is to become the first country in the world to give nature comprehensive legal rights in an effort to halt climate change and the exploitation of the natural world, and to improve quality of life for the Bolivian people. http://sco.lt/83jybZ
World Bank President
▶ CLIMATE CHANGE AND INEQUALITY: BREWING A GLOBAL SOCIAL UPHEAVALhttp://sco.lt/7BHcun
VIDEO REPORT September 12, 2013 Democracy Now THE AMERICAN WAY OF POVERTY: AS INEQUALITY HITS RECORD HIGH: Sasha Abramsky Author of "The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives." on the Forgotten Poorhttp://www.democracynow.org/2013/9/12/the_american_way_of_poverty_as
▶ MONDRAGON: SPAIN'S GIANT CO-OPERATIVE: A GROWING ALTERNATIVE MODEL TO CAPITALISMhttp://sco.lt/79nTrF
▶ INNOVATION FOR A COMPLEX WORLD: PROMOTING THE WELL BEING OF HUMANITYhttp://sco.lt/5Z51bV
▶ WHY GOOGLE AND SONY ARE TURNING TO NATURE TO INSPIRE THEIR LEADERS. The Wisdom of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanhhttp://sco.lt/8qtqoD
▶ THE EVOLUTION OF BUSINESS: HOW A NEW BUSINESS ERA INSPIRED BY NATURE, NOT GREED, CAN BENEFIT US ALLhttp://sco.lt/6XU6Kn
▶ POPE FRANCIS WARNS ON COMING "IDOLATROUS" GLOBAL ECONOMIC COLLAPSE, PLEAS FOR ENVIRONMENThttp://sco.lt/9JnutN
September 13, 2013 Oxfam
▶ A CAUTIONARY TALE: EUROPE'S BITTER CRISIS OF AUSTERITY AND INEQUALITY -Europe's aggressive plans to balance the books by slashing public spending are proving to be a disaster. By ignoring mistakes from history, Europe risks repeating them. The most vulnerable people in Europe are facing an ‘austerity winter' that could last a generationhttp://blogs.oxfam.org/en/blogs/13-09-13-cautionary-tale-europes-bitter-crisis-austerity-inequality
UNITED STATES OF ALEC: THE AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE - The Antithesis of Corporate Social Responsibility. How Corporations Are Controlling Our Legislation for one thing, their own profits and bottom-lines - in secret
This article is about peoples ideas on Europe's economy and how they could grow and Europe could be a stronger country in the near future. There are many views from independent people, companies and other sources like news and papers. Most these peoples input provides the idea that Europe can and will grow and the countries will be connected with their economies.
Area/Geography- environment: Europe is mainly focused on the bettering of their people. Their main goal at the moment is to not only have economic success, but also support as a whole. The worth of their people is more important to them than any amount of money. The unity of the people is what keeps the Country growing strong.
I think that this article shows how The E.U. is growing strong and how Europe is starting to thrive by coming to gather and boosting the economy of all the counties that are in the E.U.
Union Carbide (now Dow Chemical) used trade secrecy as a prerogative to withhold information on the exact composition of the leaked gases. The corporation responsible has never been held accountable.
On the night of 2 December, 1984, 80,000 pounds (36,300kg) of toxic gas leaked from Union Carbide’s (now Dow Chemical) pesticide factory in Bhopal, poisoning more than half a million people. It’s estimated that up to 10,000 died in the first three days as chemicals tore through their internal organs. Many choked to death on their own fluids, while thousands more have been suffering a slow and painful death since. In the 29 years since, the area surrounding the plant remains a toxic waste site and 20,000 more have died as a result of this one event. The night after the explosion, the company's CEO hopped on a private jet and fled the country; Dow Chemical has yet to be held accountable for the tens of thousands of human lives that have been destroyed in the wake of Bhopal.
WakeupWorld, March 23, 2012 WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE PEOPLE TODAY IN BHOPAL?
▶ BHOPAL: THE WORLD'S WORST CHEMICAL DISASTER: 30 YEARS LATER. Thirty years ago, on the night of December 2, 1984, an accident at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, released at least 30 tons of a highly toxic gas called methyl isocyanate, as well as a number of other poisonous gases... Estimates of the death toll vary from as few as 3,800 to as many as 16,000, but government figures now refer to an estimate of 15,000 killed over the years. Toxic material remains, and 30 years later, many of those who were exposed to the gas have given birth to physically and mentally disabled children. http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/12/bhopal-the-worlds-worst-industrial-disaster-30-years-later/100864/
Some Facts that you may not know:
it was between 3,000 and 15,000 that died on 3 December, depending on who is counting.
that many pregnant women spontaneously aborted that day and in the following days.
that at least another 17,000 have died since as a direct result.
that one person dies every day from the effects. (figures to 2010)
that many families have only one parent surviving.
the compensation went to only 573,588 of the victims. About $500 equivalent each.
the compensation works out to 3p if spread to all the people who should have received it.
about the thousands of people who breathed the gas and are still suffering from lingering poisoning. (Over 90% of the population of north Bhopal.)
these people will suffer* for the rest of their lives. And some of them are still in their 20s.
about the water pollution because toxic chemicals dumped on and around the site have been washed into the ground water source.
that these poisonous chemicals and heavy metals are still being washed into the soil and spreading the water pollution by 200 metres every year.
that people still have to drink this water.
that babies born to parents exposed to the gas or water are several times more likely than babies in the rest of India to have some form of congenital malformation**.
that no-one knows when this inheritance will stop. If ever. Probably never.
that Dow Chemical bought UCC in 2001 and refuses to accept any liability.
that Dow still will not tell the Indian Government the exact gases to which people were exposed to and their effects on the body.
Thousands died in the central Indian city three decades ago in one of the world's worst industrial accidents. DW takes a look at the tragedy and its impact on the local population.http://www.dw.de/bhopal-an-endless-disaster/a-18106607
VIDEO REPORT France 24, January 23, 2014 TOULOUSE REVISITED Questions still haunt victims of Toulouse chemical plant blast, in what’s been described as France’s worst industrial accident since World War Two. On September 21, 2001. Hanger 221 of the AZF factory in Toulouse is suddenly obliterated. 500 tons of fertilizer explode and a shock wave sweeps away everything in its path, reaching the centre of the city. 31 people were killed that day, and thousands injured ... Nearly 14 years on, the courts are still grappling with the case. For those affected, there’s little sense of closure. http://www.france24.com/en/20150123-revisited-toulouse-azf-factory-trial/
A documentary that will give you an honest idea of how much contamination we are generating and how quickly we have to halt it in order to withstand the future.
Today we're at the threshold that can't be reversed if we don't stop consuming the way we do as a human race. Pollution is becoming a devastatingly huge problem that will endanger humanity for generations to come. One such pollutant is our use of single-use plastic. Civilization is plainly on an irrational course and the situation currently is close to hopeless. If we don't fix what we're doing to the oceans we'll ruin the building blocks of life.
Everything we share, which is the ocean, belongs not to corporations or any individual. It belongs to the world as a whole and that's getting trashed. When we start losing those resources we'll lose our very quality of life. Our business system, environment system and our social system is not going to survive... it cannot survive. All the other species are suffering because of us. We'll also lose the ability our future generations to enjoy the quality of life that we were fortunate enough to have.
Environment Health Perspectives, February 2015 Issue ▶ REPORT: NEW LINK IN THE FOOD CHAIN? MARINE PLASTIC POLLUTION AND SEAFOOD SAFETYhttp://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/123-a34/
New Scientist, February 12, 2015 ▶ OCEANS SWALLOWED 13 MILLION TONS OF PLASTIC IN 2010.Vast floating islands of plastic are just a drop in the ocean compared with what's lurking deeper down. Between 5 and 13 million tonnes of plastic debris entered the marine environment in 2010 - and most of it is under water. What's more, without improvements in the way we manage waste, it could be 10 times as much each year by 2025... http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26958-oceans-swallowed-13-million-tonnes-of-plastic-in-2010.html
Environmental Health Perspectives, February 2015 NEW LINK IN THE FOOD CHAIN? MARINE PLASTIC POLLUTION AND SEAFOOD SAFETYhttp://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/123-A34/
FastCoExist, August 26, 2014 ▶ IN BEIJING YOU CAN PAY FOR TRAIN RIDES WITH PLASTIC BOTTLES. Across the world, there are many ways to encourage recycling. Tax breaks, virtual points, deposit payments--there's no shortage of ideas. Recently, we even came across a machine in Istanbul that gives out dog food in return for a bottle or two. Beijing is now taking its own approach by giving free train rides and mobile phone top-ups to people redeeming used plastic. Machines in 34 locations take bottle deposits and calculate their worth, issuing a credit to the person's mobile account or transit pass. Sensors scan the bottle's weight and composition, then prompt users to choose their option.http://www.fastcoexist.com/3034720/in-beijing-you-can-pay-for-train-rides-with-plastic-bottles
Conservation Magazine, ▶ GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT. When a single swath of ocean contains more plastic than plankton, the simple act of taking out the trash becomes a grueling scientific challenge.http://conservationmagazine.org/2010/01/garbage-in-garbage-out/
NRDC SWITCHBOARD, May 15, 2014 ▶ LOS ANGELES KIDS SEND A MESSAGE TO THE WORLD: "CLEAN UP OUR OCEAN" THE URGENT PROBLEM OF PLASTIC & MARINE LITTER.Plastic marine pollution is a daunting crisis for the marine environment, with devastating effects....an estimated 20 million tons of plastic litter enters the ocean each year. Plastic forms a large portion of our waste stream and typically does not biodegrade in the marine environment. And it has a wide range of adverse environmental and economic impacts, from wildlife deaths and degraded coral reefs to billions of dollars in cleanup costs, damage to vessels, and lost tourism and fisheries revenues. http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/tkiekow/los_angeles_kids_send_a_messag.html
▶ PLASTIC WILL POLLUTE OUR OCEANS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARSAustralia's plastic garbage has made its way into every ocean in the world. New research shows that it doesn't matter where in the world plastic garbage enters the ocean, it can end up in any of the five ocean basins... http://phys.org/news/2013-01-plastics-pollute-oceans-hundreds-years.html
FastCoExist, August 26, 2014 IN BEIJING YOU CAN PAY FOR TRAIN RIDES WITH PLASTIC BOTTLES. Across the world, there are many ways to encourage recycling. Tax breaks, virtual points, deposit payments--there's no shortage of ideas. Recently, we even came across a machine in Istanbul that gives out dog food in return for a bottle or two. Beijing is now taking its own approach by giving free train rides and mobile phone top-ups to people redeeming used plastic. Machines in 34 locations take bottle deposits and calculate their worth, issuing a credit to the person's mobile account or transit pass. Sensors scan the bottle's weight and composition, then prompt users to choose their option.http://www.fastcoexist.com/3034720/in-beijing-you-can-pay-for-train-rides-with-plastic-bottles
EurActive, December 06, 2012 - ▶ PLANT-BASED PLASTIC BOTTLE NO PANACEA. Food and drinks companies are engaged in a global race for leadership on plant-based renewable plastics. SPECIAL REPORT
Nation of Change, May 14, 2014 ▶ GARBAGE LAND USA: 590,000,000,000 POUNDS OF WASTE GENERATED ANNUALLYLess than 20% of that is reused or recycled. The elimination of food waste alone could feed an additional 1 billion people a year. With all this detritus piling up, it is time to take a look at what we can do differently, and waste not, the resources, which are quickly dwindling on this planet...http://www.nationofchange.org/garbage-land-usa-590000000000-pounds-waste-generated-annually-1400079448
▶ FINANCIALIZING NATURE COULD BANKRUPT US ALL: OLD ECONOMICS OR SUSTAINING POLICY?http://sco.lt/8Y7sK9
A close look at companies who are working on creating a less wasteful, more cost-effective and environmentally tenable society.
There is no waste in nature. When a tree falls it's only halfway through its life. When a bear or animal finishes eating food and processes it in its body that becomes fertilizer for future life in the forest flora.
So it's a beautiful thing the way nature has worked this all out. There is no waste in nature; the human animal is in fact the only animal on the planet to create waste that nature cannot process.
The reason you should care about this is because that's going to make a difference for the environment, for the economy, for your costs, for all the things you care about. In economics there's this term of "externalities" and there's a lot of cost out there that we collectively bear as a society, whether it's habitat destruction, whether it's cost that are directly being imposed on us the citizens who didn't ask for those costs to be put on us.http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/unwasted-future-business-earth/
Nation of Change, May 14, 2014 ▶ GARBAGE LAND USA: 590,000,000,000 POUNDS OF WASTE GENERATED ANNUALLYLess than 20% of that is reused or recycled. The elimination of food waste alone could feed an additional 1 billion people a year. With all this detritus piling up, it is time to take a look at what we can do differently, and waste not, the resources, which are quickly dwindling on this planet...http://www.nationofchange.org/garbage-land-usa-590000000000-pounds-waste-generated-annually-1400079448
VIDEO 11:35 Peak Prosperity, December 05, 2014 THE ENVIRONMENT: INCREASING WASTE
WATCH "INSIDE THE GARBAGE OF THE WORLD" (80 min) We're living on a beautiful planet and as a human race we've been here for thousands of years. Our planet didn't need to be protected; life was flourishing on its own, with its own agenda. However for the past 100 years we've made a tremendous impact with our footprint due to the growth of world population and the industrialization of our everyday life. Economy, profit and capitalization became more important than respecting our planet and an ancient knowledge to advance a new way of life.http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside-garbage-world/
Toronto Star, September 20, 2014
▶ TOXIC WASTE (RADIOACTIVE) DUMPED INTO NIAGARA RIVER A THREAT TO LAKE ONTARIO.
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE–Remember the Love Canal ? Just up the road from that notorious toxic neighbourhood in New York state, there’s a new plan to dump more poisonous waste, including radioactive material, right near Lake Ontario and on an earthquake fault line. New York state officials are now considering whether to permit a company called Chemical Waste Management Inc. to expand its landfill in Youngstown, N.Y., perilously close to the Canadian border — and our shared water. Do we ever learn? The site is less than five kilometres from the Niagara River, already filled with so many chemicals that it’s listed as an official area of concern by the International Joint Commission that oversees shared Canada-U.S. waters. Even more concerning for Canadians is that at least once a year, under U.S. permit, the existing New York-side landfill is allowed to dilute the cancer-linked PCBs and other materials it collects and discharge its nasty water into the Niagara River.
Global OnenesS Project ▶ MORE WITH LESS: WHAT WOULD NATURE DO?
We are using resources faster than they replenish -- from fossil fuel reserves and groundwater to the thousands of plant and animal species now permanently lost from our planet.
To support outer efforts towards sustainability we need to radically adjust our inner attitudes toward the material world. Relationships based on greed, over-identification with ownership, and the use of material goods to establish status and power over others, can be traded for new values and ways of living that empower a healthy and dignified relationship to all the earth's resources.
Beginning with a history of the American food system, River of Waste shows its evolution to large-scale corporate farms where pollution and use of growth hormones threaten both individual health and the future of our planethttp://topdocumentaryfilms.com/river-waste/
Being responsible for recycling 100% of our waste is an essential part of the Zero Footprint equation. If we don't do it ourselves, we are making someone else do it. How selfish is that?
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YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY NEWS AGGREGATES @pdjmoo
▶ CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY http://www.scoop.it/t/environmental-and-human-health
▶ CLIMATE CHANGE WILL IMPACT US ALL http://www.scoop.it/t/changingplanet
▶ BIODIVERSITY IS LIFE http://www.scoop.it/t/biodiversity-is-life
▶ OUR OCEANS NEED US http://www.scoop.it/t/our-oceans-need-us
▶ OUR FOOD, OUR HEALTH http://www.scoop.it/t/agriculture-gmos-pesticides