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 #
▶ What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)? This video clip tries to give competent but also entertaining answers to this question. The video is part of series "in a little green bag" at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. Published on Sep 30, 2012
United Nations Global Impact ▶GUIDE TO CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY.
What is the UN Global Compact? “ The Global Compact asks companies to embrace universal principles and to partner with the United Nations. It has grown to become a critical platform for the UN to engage effectively with enlightened global business.”– UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
HuffPost Green, March 05, 2015 -▶ THIS IS WHAT HUMANITY'S IMPACT ON THE PLANET LOOKS LIKE. A new photo book from conservation experts aims to shine a light on humanity's impact on the planet and convince people to think about their contribution. Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot includes photos and essays exploring man's complicated relationship with the planet.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/05/human-impact-on-planet-photos_n_6784080.html
Mongabay, January 25, 2015 -▶ NEW REPORT: WORLD MUST CHANGE MODEL OF ECONOMIC GROWTH TO AVERT ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER
Ethical Corporation, August 20, 2014 ▶ IS ETHICS THE SAVIOUR 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 f...http://www.ethicalcorp.com/business-strategy/ethics-saviour-branding
ANIMATED VIDEO - ALSTON GROUP
"WHAT IS CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY?"
Published on Jun 13, 2013
Are you familiar with the term 'corporate social responsibility'? This concept relates to how growth can be achieved in a responsible way by people, businesses and governments. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) takes into account increased populations and scarce resources to ensure that global development is sustainable. Three central pillars of economic progress, social justice and environmental protection now form the basis of how businesses interact and support communities...http://www.alstom.com/Sustainability/animated-series-on-csr/
▶ OUR INDUSTRIAL, WESTERN AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM IS DESTROYING THE EARTH AND OUR HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/63qRl3
EcoWatch, February 22, 2014
-▶ STOP FEEDING THE BEAST AND START FEEDING THE PEOPLE. We have a system of predatory agriculture in which corporations pursue private gain relentlessly regardless of the social consequences. Social consequences can be defined as anything from polluting our water, land and air to impacting the health of our families to making the business of farming economically unsustainable.http://ecowatch.com/2014/02/22/stop-feeding-beast-start-feeding-people/
This video does a great job at explaining the term, corporate social responsibility. Simply put, it states that CSR is the way businesses make their profit, and not how they spend it.
It contrasts the current methods of distributing profits through charitable contributions, also known as corporate philanthropy. compared to the idea of the systemic change necessaryin the way our current market economy supports those within it if we choose to use this system to support future generations.
- ▶ URBAN NATURE: HOW TO FOSTER BIODIVERSITY IN WORLD'S CITIES. As the world becomes more urbanized, researchers and city managers from Baltimore to Britain are recognizing the importance of providing urban habitat that can support biodiversity. It just may be the start of an urban wildlife movement...http://www.globalpossibilities.org/urban-nature-how-to-foster-biodiversity-in-worlds-cities/
Mother Nature Network, March 25, 2015 - ▶ EXPERIENCING NATURE MAKES US MORE LIKELY TO SAVE IT.A new study took a look at this relationship and found that we might have a kinder, gentler society if we all just spent a little more time outside.
Harvard Gazette, December 24, 2014 - ▶NATURE AND WELL BEING : A KEY URBAN PLANNING INTERSECTION Is there a dose of nature that can help make city dwellers’ lives healthier and more productive? Research suggests that the answer is yes, but also that the issue is more complex than that simple formulation. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/12/a-key-urban-intersection/
NASA Earth Observatory - ▶ BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY. Like it or not, throughout this century, the United States has undergone a steady process of urbanization as a larger and larger percentage of the population has moved towards the cities. Unlike rural communities, urban sprawl completely transforms the landscape and the soil and alters the surrounding ecosystem and the climate.http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Lights/
- ▶ RESEARCH CONFIRMS FOR THE FIRST TIME THAT GREEN SPACE DOES IMPROVE MENTAL HEALTH AND HAPPINESS.
The new study compared the mental well-being of hundreds of people in the UK who moved from a grey urban setting to a greener area to those who moved in the opposite direction.The results revealed that those surrounded by nature felt happier and more content for many years.
OutsideOnline, September 25, 2014 STUDY: HIKING MAKES YOU HAPPIER.British and American scientists have published new research showing that group nature walks help us combat stress while boosting mental well-being
The WILD Foundation also recently launched the WILD Cities Project, which it describes as “a new concept of urbanism where wild nature is highly valued and its conservation is a conscious part of human life in cities worldwide” [3]. Goals of the WILD Cities Project include identifying successful urban initiatives aligned with the principles of Nature Needs Half, formulating criteria for defining a WILD city, and developing strategies to communicate to the public the need for nature in our cities.http://wild10.org/en/program/the-global-foru/working-coalitions/wild-cities
- ▶ LIFE FINDS A WAY: THE SURPRISING BIODIVERSITY OF CITIES.
Public perception of wildlife tends to be tied to natural habitats such as forests, ocean and other wild settings. However, cities can provide habitat for many animals and plants. In the largest global assessment of urban biodiversity to date, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society, researchers examined the biodiversity of urban areas and found that cities are home to a surprising number of species. The study underlines the conservation importance of preserving and creating green spaces when it comes to urban planning. Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0411-levikov-cities-biodiversity.html#fBOegyyVwsoUc3Vf.99
- ▶ THE GREEN LEAP: CAN WE CONSTRUCT URBAN COMMUNITIES THAT CONSERVE BIODIVERSITY?
Why are green developments different? The goals are conservation while providing a unique living experience. Biodiversity, however, often is lower on the totem pole of priorities.
For the first time in our history, more people live in urban vs. rural areas and humans continue to move into cities. Cities have huge impacts on our natural resources. Urban dwellers consume vast amounts of energy, produce waste, and alter landscapes to the point where native plant and animal populations decline precipitously. As cities grow, people have pondered -- can we develop land without destroying our natural heritage?.. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hostetler/the-green-leap-can-we-con_b_1314981.html
Motley Fool, March 05, 2014 -▶ GMOs AND ECOCIDE: RENOWNED EXPERT SAYS GMOs POSE MORE RISK THAN WE THINK. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have the ability to cause "an irreversible termination of life at some scale, which could be the planet." says Nassim Taleb, distinguished professor of risk engineering at New York Universityhttp://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/05/renowned-expert-gmos-pose-more-risk-than-we-think.aspx
-▶ THE BIGGEST EVER FINES FOR A COAL COMPANYthat violated its water pollution permits: Alpha Natural Resources, which is based in Virginia, and 66 of its subsidiaries.: 6,000 violations, violations over 300 state-issued permits, hundreds of streams, tributaries and rivers, 79 active coal mines, 25 coal processing plants, where they put the coal and wash it before it’s shipped, over five Appalachian states. So it’s a pretty massive coverage area for the settlement. Twenty-seven-and-a-half million dollars in fines, $200 million for the cleanup, in the range of penalty, how does this rank?http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/coal-producer-pay-hundreds-of-millions-water-pollution/
▶ HOLDING CORPORATIONS RESPONSIBLE: Mining Companies Devastate Pristine Wisconsin for Frac-Sand - Leaving Chemical Cesspool http://sco.lt/6gL1ov
-▶ MASS DESERTIFICATION, EPIDEMIC ILLNESSES COMING WITH GLOBAL WARMING, THREATENING CIVILIZATIONhttp://sco.lt/98I2F7
- ▶ HOW CORPORATE LOBBYISTS CONQUERED AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. One has to go back to the Gilded Age to find business in such a dominant political position in American politics.
Something is out of balance in Washington. Corporations now spend about $2.6 billion a year on reported lobbying expenditures—more than the $2 billion we spend to fund the House ($1.18 billion) and Senate ($860 million). It’s a gap that has been widening since corporate lobbying began to regularly exceed the combined House-Senate budget in the early 2000s. Today, the biggest companies have upwards of 100 lobbyists representing them, allowing them to be everywhere, all the time. For every dollar spent on lobbying by labor unions and public-interest groups together, large corporations and their associations now spend $34. Of the 100 organizations that spend the most on lobbying, 95 consistently represent business.
-▶ 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
Sometimes stories in the news can make you wonder who is really pulling the strings. This 10-minute video exposes the role corporate lobby groups have in EU decision-making – who they are, how they get what they want, and how they affect you, and others like you all over Europe, from the food on your plate, to rules for bankers, to the chemicals allowed in everyday products. Watch, learn, and share!http://corporateeurope.org/power-lobbies/2014/11/ceo-video-corporate-lobby-tour
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security."~ Albert Einstein
Guardian Sustainable Business, January 08, 2013
-▶ HOW A SENSE OF SACRED CAN HELP SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS - RESTORING VALUES. Sustainability leaders could learn from Buddhist Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, who believes in a deeper human connection with Mother Earth...
"If nothing is sacred, most of all nature, then we create the potential for the perfect kind of storm, to which it will be virtually impossible to adapt, let alone mitigate." He hits the nail on the head; we are not going to save ourselves and countless species from destruction with innovations in technology and business thinking alone, unless we heal our profound disconnection with Mother Earth.http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/sense-sacred-sustainable-business-buddhist
-▶ HUMANS ARE TURNING THE EARTH INTO A 'LONELY AND VERY DANGEROUS PLANET', ECOLOGIST WARNShttp://sco.lt/4xff17
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?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.http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/jan/02/2015-social-justice-race-equality-rights-climate-business-marketing
-▶IS ETHICS THE SAVIOUR AND FUTURE OF BRANDING? BRANDING, AS WE KNOW IT TODAY, IS DYINGhttp://sco.lt/5wNW8P
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/
-▶ FINANCIALIZING NATURE COULD BANKRUPT US ALL. OLD ECONOMICS OR SUSTAINING POLICY? http://sco.lt/8fNIET
SHORT TED VIDEO 3:34 FRANS LANTING: PHOTOS THAT GIVE VOICE TO THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. Nature photographer Frans Lanting uses vibrant images to take us deep into the animal world. In this short, visual talk he calls for us to reconnect with other earthly creatures, and to shed the metaphorical skins that separate us from each otherhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F8-jp_6Uqg
IC Magazine, December 09, 2014 -▶ ARIZONA DEFENDERS FACE IMMINENT LAND GRAB OF SACRED LANDS BY FOREIGN MINING COMPANIES.Congress is set to approve the giveaway of 2,400 acres of National Forest lands, including the burial, ceremonial and medicinal lands of the San Carlos Apaches, to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of British-Australian Rio Tinto Mining Corp., a company with a long history of environmental and human rights abuses in developing countries.https://intercontinentalcry.org/arizona-defenders-face-imminent-land-grab-26496/
IN 40 YEARS WE HAVE DISAPPEARED HALF OF THE WORLD'S WILD ANIMALS http://sco.lt/8fK5eT
-▶ 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 DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/4l725B
SHORT TED VIDEO 3:34 FRANS LANTING: PHOTOS THAT GIVE VOICE TO THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.Nature photographer Frans Lanting uses vibrant images to take us deep into the animal world. In this short, visual talk he calls for us to reconnect with other earthly creatures, and to shed the metaphorical skins that separate us from each other https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F8-jp_6Uqg
"Thich Nhat Hanh suggests that a greater intellectual knowledge of the impact of our destructive behaviour, or of nature's wonders, will not create the change that is necessary and that only a deeper connection to our hearts and a personal insight into the inter-being of everything in the universe, can offer hope to humanity."
▶ MODERN SLAVERY WILL CONTINUE IF CORPORATIONS KEEP PASSING THE BUCK:
It makes good business sense for companies to actively pursue an ethical supply chain. Philanthropy to worthy third parties is not enough.
The Guardian's painstaking investigation into the Thai seafood sector and the US state department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report have offered arresting revelations in recent days. Not only have shrimp supply chains worldwide proved to be tainted by forced labour on Thai vessels and on soil. These reports show how businesses of all kinds are sullied by slavery – yielding $150bn in profit each year, according to the International Labour Organisation.
Many people suppose that most trafficking is for sexual exploitation (as in Thailand's own sex trade). Yet 68% of victims are exploited for labour – like in the violent seafood-processing facility in Samut Sakhon that several young Burmese women in a Thai shelter vividly described to me when I was the US anti-trafficking envoy.
And many executives assume that tracing labour conditions in their supply chains is futile and prohibitively costly. Yet if the Guardian can do it, the business community surely can – and must.
To abolish today's slavery, businesses must actively be part of the solution. Philanthropy to worthy anti-trafficking organisations is not as important as businesses living by the equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath – at least do no harm.
"Slave labour" behind our cheap food | Special investigation A Channel 4 News investigation reveals allegations of shocking mistreatment of migrant workers in Spain, who pick the lettuces that end op on the shelves of Britain’s biggest supermarkets.
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
Guardian Sustainable Business, February 20, 2015 ▶ WHAT ARE MULTINATIONALS DOING TO CHAMPION RIGHTS OF MILLIONS TRAPPED IN MODERN-DAY SLAVERY SUPPLY CHAINS?
With almost 21 million people working in forced labour conditions in the global economy, companies are being made to clean up their act
WATCH 57:50 "MODERN-DAY SLAVERY: A PROBLEM WE DON'T WANT TO FACE" Forced Labor, Supply Chains and Human Trafficking. The most important human rights issue of our time. https://www.linktv.org/programs/full-frame-julia-ormond
Star Tribune, November 29, 2014 ▶ US BAR ASSOCIATION WARNS CORPORATIONS: CLEAN UP SUPPLY CHAINS. Bar Association initiative focuses on human rights.– By year’s end, chief executives at all of America’s Fortune 500 companies — including 18 in Minnesota — should get a letter signed by the president of the American Bar Association. Commit to ending human-rights abuses in your supply chain, the letter will say.http://www.startribune.com/business/284175851.html
BlogActiveEU, October 28, 2014 ▶ SUPPLY CHAIN SHAME. Supply chains are not the land of cooperation in innovation and development we commonly perceive. It is a cut-throat competitive structure with little trust and an animosity that diminishes cooperation. The Risk-Monger has often noted that the real problem for industry today is not the attacks from the anti-business denormalisation activists outside, but from the cancer within – a supply chain that rarely works in harmony and tends to shoot each other in the knees to bring everyone down to size...http://risk-monger.blogactiv.eu/2014/10/28/supply-chain-shame/
BBC News, February 01, 2015 ▶ APPLE BANS 'BONDED SERVITUDE' FOR FACTORY WORKERS. It comes as a report from labour rights group China Labor Watch questioned the low wages earned by some Apple workershttp://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31438699
WATCH 58:14:00 BBC Panorama Documentary, December 2014 APPLE'S BROKEN PROMISES Apple 'failing to protect Chinese factory workers' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVaTl2kW6YU
OnEarthMagazine, February04, 2015 ▶ CLOTHES HAVE AN ECOLOGICAL PRICE TAG, TOO: OUR TOXIC SUPPLY CHAIN. The companies that make and sell most of the world’s clothing insist they want to operate without endangering workers, polluting waterways, or using toxic chemicals. But clean practices can be a hard sell.http://www.onearth.org/magazine/trying-sustainability
Ethical Corporation, October 08, 2014 ▶ MODERN SLAVERY AND THE ROLE OF BUSINESS. Companies can exercise measures to detect and address slavery in their supply chains
Sustainable Brands, December 09, 2014 ▶ SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAINS: CAN RETAILERS BE THE RISING TIDE THAT LIFTS ALL BOATS?A whopping 97 percent of environmental impacts in the retail sector come from the product itself — from raw materials, transportation and product manufacturing. With impacts so heavily weighted in the supply chain, retailers are increasingly and creatively wading upstream to partner with their suppliers on their greatest impacts. http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/supply_chain/tim_greiner/sustainable_supply_chains_can_retailers_be_rising_tide_lifts
WATCH SUPPLY CHAIN REACTION FILMS We The Economy What do human rights have to do with the economy? As consumers in a rapidly growing world economy, we have an insatiable appetite for the next greatest electronic gadget, like smartphones and TVs. But can we consume cheap imported products without exploiting someone in the supply chain?https://wetheeconomy.com/films/supply-chain-reaction/
February 2, 2012 Inter Press Service IPS – - ▶ WALMART: ONCE A FOOD CHAIN, NOW A GIANT TRILLION DOLLAR CORPORATE SUPPLY CHAIN - Part 2
WASHINGTON, Feb 2 2012 (IPS) - While Indian retailers are losing sleep over the possible entrance of multinationals like Walmart into the dense South Asian consumer market, very little thought has been given to the Indian small farmer, who stands to lose even more at the hands of the world’s biggest commercial food retailer....http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/02/once-a-food-chain-now-a-corporate-supply-chain-ndash-part-2/
allAfrica.com, February 05 Africa ▶ SUPPLY CHAINS: RESOURCE PRESSURES COULD SPARK CONFLICTS WITH GLOBAL IMPACT: REPORT Interconnected supply chains means environmental conflicts can spread across borders, undermining economies far from where initial problems occurred, according to a report by the Earth Security Group, which evaluates risks in emerging markets.http://allafrica.com/stories/201502060560.html
▶ SUPPLY CHAINS THREATENED BY SIX-DEGREE GLOBAL WARMING
Some 85 percent of companies have more complex supply chains as a result of globalization, and adjusted climate forecasts mean businesses should expect climate change to have an even more destructive effect than previously assumed on supply chains, assets and infrastructure, according to two reports from PricewaterhouseCoopers.http://www.environmentalleader.com/2012/11/05/pwc-preparing-for-climate-change-as-competitive-advantage/
Guardian Sustainable Business, February 12, 2015 ▶ THE WOMEN SUFFERING FOR YOUR VALENTINE'S DAY FLOWERS :Behind the millions of imported flowers we buy every year is a mostly female workforce subjected to low pay and poor conditions
MORE THAN HALF OF U.S. FAST FOOD WORKERS ON PUBLIC AID, REPORT SAYS http://sco.lt/5zp197
PRODUCT OF MEXICO 4-part series from The Los Angeles Times HARDSHIP ON MEXICO'S FARMS, A BOUNTY FOR U.S. TABLES http://graphics.latimes.com/product-of-mexico-camps/?track=email|Mexico-Food-2014|||||||ADM-20141214-lnk6
VIDEO INVESTIGATION
Lowell Bergman investigates the hidden reality of rape on the job for immigrant women working in America’s fields, farms and factories Frontline, June 25, 2014 "RAPE IN THE FIELDS" For the women who pick and process the food we eat every day, getting sexually assaulted, and even raped, is sometimes part of the job. Frontline and Univision partner to tell the story of the hidden price many migrant women working in America's fields and packing plants pay to stay employed and provide for their families. This investigation is the result of a yearlong reporting effort by veteran correspondent Lowell Bergman, the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley and the Center for Investigative Reporting.... http://sco.lt/6RWQU5
BillMoyers.com, November 21, 2014 'FOOD CHAINS,' A NEW DOCUMENTARY BY 'FOOD, INC."
Food Chains, a new hard-hitting documentary about the battle between Florida farmworkers and the giant supermarket and fast food conglomerates. Farmworkers are among the lowest paid workers in America, averaging about $12,000 per year in wages, and many of them, especially women, have been subjected to human rights abuses in the fields. In its review of the film, The New York Times calls Food Chains an “emphatic and empathetic documentary” that presents farm laborers as modern-day slaveshttp://billmoyers.com/2014/11/21/food-chains/
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
▶ PLATFORM FOR ALL STAKEHOLDERS IN THE "SUSTAINABLE" PALM OIL SUPPLY CHAINS, from upstream growers right through to downstream consumers. Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has launched a new web site that aims to provide information on more sustainable palm oil production to all stakeholders.http://www.sustainablepalmoil.org/
▶ TOP TEN DISTURBING NEWS STORIES AND WHY CORPORATE FOOD IS THREATENING OUR FOOD SUPPLIEShttp://sco.lt/5QMaqv
Guardian, December 07, 2014 ▶ SHOULD I WORRY ABOUT CHEAP CASHMERE?Cashmere is a beautiful example of an ugly word: “masstige”, when the forces of the global economy take a prestige product to the mass market. Dr Carol Kerven counts the human cost: goat herders in Inner Mongolia are shortchanged, selling their goat hair for as little as $2.30 a kilo. By the time it reaches the international market it can fetch up to $75 a kilo. No longer are coats always combed to release the best-quality cashmere hair, but the animals are sheared, mixing the soft with the coarse. These changes conspire to change cashmere.http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/07/should-i-worry-about-cheap-cashmere-lucy-siegle
▶ UN FINDS "LITTLE APPRECIATION" FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AMONG U.S. BUSINESSES .A United Nations expert group is warning that too many gaps remain in implementing new safeguards among businesses based in the United States, both in terms of their domestic and international operations, to ensure the protection of human rights of workers and communities affected by those operations.,,,
“With a few exceptions, most companies still struggle to understand the implications of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights,” Puvan Selvanathan, the current head of the Working Group and one of the two members on the U.S. trip, said at the end of the mission “Those that do have policies in place, in turn, face the challenge of turning such policies into effective practices.”...http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/05/u-n-finds-little-appreciation-for-human-rights-among-u-s-businesses/
▶ MEGA MINING, FOREIGN LAND GRABS DESTROYING LOCAL COMMUNITIES, ENVIRONMENT AND ECOSYSTEMShttp://sco.lt/8nJQf3
-▶ THOUSANDS OF SRI LANKA FARMERS DYING: STUDY LINKS KIDNEY DISEASE TO AGROCHEMICALS, PESTICIDEShttp://sco.lt/7iOgin
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
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
BEYOND GDP
THE SEARCH FOR A NEW ECONOMIC SYSTEM -- WITH MEANING
-▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/4l725B
▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIT?http://sco.lt/5x2tqz
The Good Human, March 7, 2013 ▶ SOURCEMAP: FIND OUT WHERE YOUR FAVORITE PRODUCTS COME FROM. Sourcemap was created by the MIT Media Lab in order to let people know where products come from, what they are made of, and how they can impact people and our environment. It is a crowdsourced directory of supply chains and environmental footprints, covering industries ranging from food products to clothing to diamonds. I encourage you to explore the sitehttp://thegoodhuman.com/2013/03/07/sourcemap-find-out-where-your-favorite-products-come-from/
-▶ ECO-CIVILIZATION: CHINA'S BLUEPRINT FOR A NEW ERA, PDF
Eco-civilization: China's blueprint for a new era, provides international readers with an overview of key policy guidelines and priorities the country’s new leadership will adopt, focusing on its pioneering low carbon ‘eco-civilization’ concept, which will have a profound impact on China’s future economy. This is the first time that eco-civilization has been elevated to such a high-level, not only in parallel with, but also cutting across economic, political, cultural, and social systems. http://www.theclimategroup.org/_assets/files/China-Ecocivilisation.pdf
HuffingtonPost (Reuters) April 15, 2014
▶ CHINA TO PRIORITIZE ENVIRONMENT OVER ECONOMY AND DEVELOPMENT Smog-hit China is set to pass a new law that would give Beijing more powers to shut polluting factories and punish officials, and even place protected regions off-limits to industrial development. While some details of the fourth draft are still under discussion, it has been agreed that the principle of prioritising the environment above the economy will be enshrined in law, according to scholars who have been involved in the process. The fourth draft is due to be completed within weeks. ..http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/15/china-expected-to-elevate-environment_n_5150010.html
UNEP April 22, 2015 ESTABLISHING CHINA'S GREEN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
REPORT OF THE GREEN FINANCE TASK FORCE
The report is the outcome of a Green Finance Task Force which was tasked to develop policy, regulatory and market-innovations to better align China's financial system with the needs of green industry and sustainable development. The report recommends the development of financial institutions specialized in green lending and investment. http://www.unep.org/NewsCentre/default.aspx?DocumentID=26802&ArticleID=34981&l=en
The Guardian, January 07, 2015 -▶ CHINA ENCOURAGES ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS TO SUE POLLUTERS.Groups that work to fight polluters judicially will gain special status and have court fees reduced, Supreme People’s Court says
Triple Pundit, November 13, 2014 ▶ CHINA'S 20% RENEWABLES COMMITMENT A CHALLENGE TO U.S. UTILITIES, China’s massive commitment to renewable energy will create economies of scale that will shatter current price levels around the world. Its success will bring to scale the technologies and processes required to integrate renewable energy into an electrical grid. China is on a path that will push the U.S. electric utility industry over a renewable energy cliff.http://www.triplepundit.com/2014/11/chinas-20-renewable-energy-commitment-challenges-u-s-electric-utility-industry/
New Scientist, December 16, 2014 -▶ "GREAT GREEN WALL" HELPS CHINA TACKLE DESERTIFICATION: China has planted a "Great Green Wall" of trees across the north of the country in a bid to prevent the spread of the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts -- and the strategy appears to be working. "Vegetation has improved and dust storms have decreased significantly in the Great Green Wall region, compared with other areas," says Minghong Tan of Beijing's Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429994.900-great-wall-of-trees-keeps-chinas-deserts-at-bay.html#.VJA1WsaHenj
The Climate Group, September 04, 2014 ▶ CHINA WILL LAUNCH WORLD'S BIGGEST CARBON MARKET IN 2016.China will launch its eagerly awaited national Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in 2016. Once implemented, this market for carbon permit trading will become the biggest in the world, helping the largest greenhouse emitting nation to axe pollution. http://www.theclimategroup.org/what-we-do/news-and-blogs/china-will-launch-worlds-biggest-carbon-market-in-2016/
-▶ COULD A CHINESE CARBON CAP PAVE THE WAY FOR A GLOBAL CLIMATE DEAL?http://sco.lt/7knIW1
Earth Policy Institute, June 16, 2014 ▶ SOLAR POWER: CHINA LEADS WORLD TO SOLAR POWER RECORD IN 2013 In the last two years, countries around the world have added almost as much new solar photovoltaics (PV) capacity as had been added since the invention of the solar cell. Nearly 38,000 megawatts of PV came online in 2013, a new annual record. In all, the world’s installed PV generating capacity is now close to 140,000 megawatts—enough to power each home in Germany. Falling costs and effective policies continue to drive tremendous growth in solar power. http://www.earth-policy.org/indicators/C47/solar_power_2014
CHINA'S GENERATION GREEN Waste, Food Safety, Pollution & The China Dream
This series is about the generation that has inherited the waste, and a few members of that generation who are openly and actively trying to change the trajectory of the country to avoid disaster. Toronto Star,http://projects.thestar.com/chinas-generation-green/
▶ HOW CHINA'S YOUNG IDEALISTS ARE TURNING TO THE SOIL
Guardian Environment, December 20, 2014 ▶ 10 THING TO KNOW ABOUT CHINA, LATIN AMERICA AND THE ENVIRONMENT. New book argues Chinese firms’ presence in Latin America focuses on the most environmentally-damaging sectors
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
Treehugger, March 08, 2014 -▶ BUILDING A BUBBLE-like BIOME IN BEIJING COULD LET RESIDENTS BREATHE CLEAN AIR. Beijing's notorious air pollution has reached beyond hazardous levels in recent years, with the city covered in thick, toxic smog for a good part of the year. While the Chinese government has implemented various pollution-battling policies like car bans and the planting of green roofs, others like London-based design firm Orproject have gone down the road of more extreme design measures -- suggesting the building of bubble-like biomes, sealed from outside pollution, that would allow residents to actually breathe clean air.http://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/beijing-bubbles-biome-clean-air-orproject.html
Ag Professional, August 01, 2014 -▶ CHINA ADOPTS STRICTER PESTICIDE RESIDUE STANDARD.The new standard includes 3,650 indices detailing the maximum allowable residue for 387 pesticides on 284 types of food, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Health and Family Planning Commission, which jointly issued the standard. Compared with the current standard that took effect in 2012, the new standard contains 1,357 new indices covering 65 new pesticides and 43 new types of food. The standard covers vegetables, fruits, grain, edible oil, sugar, soft drinks, nuts, eggs and meat. It includes juice and preserved fruits for the first time.http://www.agprofessional.com/news/China-adopts-stricter-pesticide-residue-standard-269591991.html
While some details of the fourth draft are still under discussion, it has been agreed that the principle of prioritising the environment above the economy will be enshrined in law, according to scholars who have been involved in the process. The fourth draft is due to be completed within weeks.
"(Upholding) environmental protection as the fundamental principle is a huge change, and emphasises that the environment is a priority," said Cao Mingde, a law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, who was involved in the drafting process.
Come April of 2015 China is ready to set a new law that gives Beijing more power against factories that are polluting the environment. This new law will allow them to punish business officials and place protected regions off-limits to industrial development. This new law states that the environment is a priority and will give the power to environmental enforcers to “veto” production in the industries until they have met their targets. They are also looking to eliminate the punishment of maximum fine as companies will pay this fine and still continue on with their same procedures.
I think that it is important for people to see a CSR program within their government and I feel that it is too strongly geared towards strictly corporations. We have seen in some cases such as the United States where ultimately the corporations run the show but the government needs to take responsibility as they have put themselves in the position to take care of the people and they need to live up to it.
I believe that getting rid of the fine penalty will be very beneficial for Beijing, you see too many cases where through a cost/benefit analysis companies will chose to take the risk of a maximum fine as they will still make more profit. An alternate solution such as a shutdown of the company whether it is permanent or temporary will be a greater threat and result in a greater desired outcome and better cooperation
"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
Earth Justice, August 11, 2014 ▶ THE CLEANUP BUCK SHOULD STOP WITH POLLUTERS:Earthjustice is challenging the EPA’s 30-year-long failure to require that polluters pay for the cleanup of their own messes, rather than stick taxpayers with the often-hefty bill... https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2#inbox/147e3f44615e9d70
Corporations are NOT required by law to put stockholder profits first before the greater good of society. Financial historian Richard Sylla and award-winning financial editor Paul Steiger discuss how companies have become fixated on short-term stock prices to the exclusion of broader, long-term goals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-S2SwfWF3s
The Ecologist, February 13, 2015 -▶ RECLAIM ENVIRONMENTALISM : True environmentalism is not about making our rapacious and destructive industrialism a little more sustainable, writes Derrick Jensen, but transforming humankind's relationship with Earth and the life she sustains - for us to take our true place within, and as part of, the living biosphere... http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2751996/reclaim_environmentalism.html
UN TO LAUNCH STUDY ON ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME - ERADICATING ECOCIDE
▶ AS CORPORATE DAIRY FARMS GROW BIGGER, NEW CONCERN ABOUT POLLUTION. Dairy operations in the U.S. are consolidating, with ever-larger numbers of cows concentrated on single farms. In states like Wisconsin, opposition to some large operations is growing after manure spills and improper handling of waste have contaminated waterways and aquifers.http://e360.yale.edu/feature/as_dairy_farms_grow_bigger_new_concerns_about_pollution/2768/
65 BILLION ANIMALS RAISED IN CORPORATE CONCENTRATION PENS:
OnEarthMagazine, February04, 2015 ▶ CLOTHES HAVE AN ECOLOGICAL PRICE TAG, TOO: OUR TOXIC SUPPLY CHAIN. The companies that make and sell most of the world’s clothing insist they want to operate without endangering workers, polluting waterways, or using toxic chemicals. But clean practices can be a hard sell.http://www.onearth.org/magazine/trying-sustainability
"WALLS AND THE TIGER" - Documentary Rampant consumerism divides the world. People in the West get cheap fashion and cutting-edge electronics at a fraction of the real cost. People in developing countries pay the hidden price. Farmers and fishermen in sustainable communities are relocated to slums. Fertile farmland is turned into industrial parks. Oceans are poisoned by chemical waste. All of this will be illustrated through stunning images in the film. By understanding the interdependency of our consumption and the rest of the world, we hope to inspire change in our audience.http://www.ejolt.org/2014/10/walls-and-the-tiger/
PROFITS BEFORE HEALTH
Guardian Environment, February 03 2015 'SUPPRESSED' EU REPORT COULD HAVE BANNED 31 HARMFUL HORMONE-DISRUPTING CHEMICALS/PESTICIDES WORTH BILLIONS -- UNDER PRESSURE FROM BIG CHEMICAL FIRMS
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/
WHAT ARE THE HUMAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS OF NEW TECHNOLOGY
It is crazy to see the costs of the pollution and impacts of big companies that are having an impact on the environment around them put into a dollar value. It really gives a better view ti the picture. Hearing that in 2009 alone the damages exceeded the worth of $7 trillion. That is a giant amount of damage that is being done to the world we live in. The article states that a great deal of companies would not be able to continue making a profit if they stopped making the damages. This is very sad.
This article gives insight about what kind of trouble our generations have gotten us into throughout the years and some of the damage done is irreversible. It emphasizes the importance yet struggle to improve how we do things that impact around us. With the discussion we had in class regarding the increase in population and what will happen in 2050; this will have a huge influence in the future. Becoming more sustainable should be a top priority for the world to approach together.
“Here is this vast, savage, howling mother of ours, Nature, lying all around, with such beauty, and such affection for her children, as the leopard; and yet we are so early weaned from her breast to society, to that culture which is exclusively an interaction of man on man.” Henry David Thoreau
Treehugger, February 26, 2015 - ▶ 'LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS" IS A MUST-READ FOR PARENTS AND EDUCATORS.Kids are developing more problems than ever (think obesity, technology addiction, adolescent depression, suicide, etc.), all of which Louv connects to nature deficit disorder. Spending more time outdoors could help resolve many of these issues, but this can happen only if kids are allowed greater access to nature. That’s where parents and policies come into play http://www.treehugger.com/culture/last-child-woods-must-read-all-parents-and-educators.html
- ▶ IF CHILDREN LOSE CONTACT WITH NATURE THEY WON'T FIGHT FOR IT. With half of their time spent at screens, the next generation will be poorly equipped to defend the natural world from harm...
... While the surveys show that the great majority would like to see the living planet protected, few are prepared to take action. This, I think, reflects a second environmental crisis: the removal of children from the natural world. The young people we might have expected to lead the defence of nature have less and less to do with it... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/19/children-lose-contact-with-nature
Mother Nature Network, March 25, 2015 - ▶ EXPERIENCING NATURE MAKES US MORE LIKELY TO SAVE IT.A new study took a look at this relationship and found that we might have a kinder, gentler society if we all just spent a little more time outside.
David Suzuki Foundation, September 18, 2014 LEARNING IN NATURE IS GOOD FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS.Children belong outdoors. We know this intuitively, but now an extensive and ever-growing body of research supports it. Kids who spend time outside every day are healthier, happier, more creative, less stressed and more alert than those who don't. Several recent studies even show time in nature or green space helps reduce ADHD symptoms.http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/2014/09/learning-in-nature-is-good-for-teachers-and-students/
Children In Nature Collaborative ▶ LOOKING TOWARDS THAT MAGICAL MOMENT. A 69 percent decrease in time spent in outdoor activities and games on days off from school. These concerns and others related to children’s lack of connection to the natural world are part of a complex picture. Despite the extraordinary efforts of the movement, time spent outdoors by children across the globe continues to decline at an alarming ratehttp://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=5098ae2bbd84a5038da2a0128&id=1766599b45&e=82fb31e8b3
Scholastic.com - ▶ WHY KIDS NEED NATURE. When a child is out in nature, all the senses get activated. He/She is immersed in something bigger than themselves, rather than focusing narrowly on one thing, such as a computer screen. They're seeing, hearing, touching, even tasting. Out in nature, a child's brain has the chance to rejuvenate, so the next time he has to focus and pay attention, perhaps in school, he'll do better.http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/parent-child/why-kids-need-nature
BENEFITS OF SPENDING TIME IN NATURE Showing children how everything is connected reminds us all that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves! http://www.naturerocks.org/benefits/index.htm
TribLIVE, August 02, 2014 - ▶ MORE PEOPLE AFRAID OF OUTDOOR - DISCONNECT WITH NATURE BLAMED.Once upon a time, children grew up playing outside: fishing the local creek, riding their bikes or building forts in the woods. But that's not the norm anymore...“You've kind of got a whole generation now that's isolated. They didn't grow up playing outside... http://triblive.com/sports/outdoors/6519595-74/outdoors-outside-baker
WHEN LEARNING COMES NATURALLY: EXPLORING NATURE'S CLASSROOM
documents innovative outdoor-education programs around the country created to help children understand and experience the wonders and joys of nature. The film explores the immediate and lasting benefits of introducing young children to "green" experiences. Natural spaces - in the form of gardens, small trails and outdoor "green adventure" areas - allow for the discoveries and choices vital to child development and learning. In addition, outdoor education can cultivate in children a permanent connection with the natural world - a crucial ethic of environmental responsibility.http://vimeo.com/channels/371945/30186232/77981721
-▶ CLASSROOMS THAT GROW FOOD. The SEED classroom is a place for children to learn and think about sustainability (SEED itself standing for Sustainable Education Every Day). Each 900 sq ft (84 sq m) building catches rainwater to be used in the sinks and basins, from which water is intercepted once again, and filtered through a "living wall" of edible plants. The classroom's energy is provided by rooftop solar power http://www.gizmag.com/seed-classroom/27763/
Guardian, February 12, 2014 - ▶ TEN REASONS WHY WE NEED MORE CONTACT WITH NATURE. It improves your memory, helps you recuperate and even makes your sense of smell more acute. So turn off your computer and get outside
RETURN OF THE DEBTORS' PRISON? MANY STILL JAILED FOR INABILITY TO PAY FINES. Cities across the country are increasingly turning to what are known as private probation companies to collect unpaid fines. But are indigent people ending up in jail because they can't afford to pay? Since NewsHour Weekend's first story on this issue aired last spring, the Childersburg Municipal Court issued a “standing order” stating that “In no case shall an indigent defendant be incarcerated … based solely on his or her inability to pay fines.” But the practice continues elsewhere in the country. Special correspondent John Carlos Frey takes an in-depth look at what some are calling the return of the debtors' prison. Continue reading http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/return-debtors-prison/
Truthdig, December 22, 2013 -▶ LOCKING UP POOR PEOPLE IN CORPORATE AMERICA IS BOOMING"Aramark, often contracted to provide food to prisoners at about a dollar a meal, is one of numerous corporations, from phone companies to construction firms, that have found our grotesque system of mass incarceration to be very profitable."http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/food_behind_bars_isnt_fit_for_your_dog_20131222
-▶ A MODERN-DAY DEBTORS PRISON? JUDGES PUSH BACK AGAINST THE SOUTH' PRIVATIZATION WAVE: In Southern states, small-town courts have outsourced probation management to for-profit companies charging fees out of reach to the country's poorest residents. Many people end up in jail for nonpayment. These judges want private companies out of their courts. PRIVATIZING PROBATION AND PROFITING FROM POVERTY http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/a-modern-day-debtors-prison
Alternet, June 13, 2014 -▶ DEADLY NEW DEBTOR'S PRISONS: PENNSYLVANIA MOTHER DIES IN JAIL FOR TRUANCY FINES. CRIMINALIZING POVERTY. If you thought debtors prison was something straight out of Charles Dickens—and something long ago left behind us—think again. Debtors prison is becoming very much a part of the American prison-industrial complex. http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/deadly-new-debtors-prisons-pennsylvania-mother-dies-jail-truancy-fines
Philanthropy News Digest, January 27, 2015 -▶ SENATOR TO HOSPITALS : STOP SUING POOR PATIENTS
According to ProPublica/NPR, the hospital's for-profit debt collection subsidiary, Northwest Financial Services, filed thousands of lawsuits a year over unpaid bills, garnished the wages of about six thousand people, and seized at least $12 million between 2009 and 2013. In response to the article, the hospital announced a review of its debt collection practices.http://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/grassley-calls-on-nonprofit-hospitals-to-stop-suing-poor-patients
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
ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS
ProPublica
UNFORGIVEN : THE LONG LIFE OF DEBT
Old Debts, Fresh Pain: Weak Laws Offer Debtors Little Protection Critics say the 1968 federal law that allows collectors to take 25 percent of debtors’ wages, or every penny in their bank accounts, is out of date and overly harsh. More » http://www.propublica.org/series/unforgiven
Truthout, December 27, 2013 -▶ THE GRAYING OF OUR INCARCERATION NATION - Our prisons have increasingly become homes for the aging, as there are now some 125,000 prisoners age 55 or older, nearly quadruple the number there were in 1995. .. http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/20743-the-graying-of-our-incarceration-nation
New York Times, January 25, 2015 -▶ ELDER CARE FOR-PROFIT NURSING HOMES ARE SEIZING GUARDIANSHIP CONTROL OVER PATIENTS TO ENSURE PAYMENT FOR CARE At least one judge has ruled that the tactic by nursing homes is an abuse of the law, but the petitions, even if they are ultimately unsuccessful, force families into costly legal ordeals. “It’s a strategic move to intimidate,” criminal prosecution of financial exploitation.http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/nyregion/to-collect-debts-nursing-home-seizing-control-over-patients.html
Truthdig, December 22, 2013 -▶ FOOD BEHIND BARS ISN'T FIT FOR YOUR DOG - LOCKING UP POOR PEOPLE IN CORPORATE AMERICA IS BOOMING "Aramark, often contracted to provide food to prisoners at about a dollar a meal, is one of numerous corporations, from phone companies to construction firms, that have found our grotesque system of mass incarceration to be very profitable."http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/food_behind_bars_isnt_fit_for_your_dog_2013122
February 11, 2015 Local jails, which exist in nearly every town and city in America, are built to hold people deemed too dangerous to release pending trial or at high risk of flight. This, however, is no longer primarily what jails do or whom they hold, as people too poor to post bail languish there and racial disparities disproportionately impact communities of color. http://www.vera.org/pubs/special/incarcerations-front-door-misuse-jails-america
Welcome to America. We chose this path. Now, we're going to have to walk it until enough people are angry enough and organized enough to effectively change the course of our society and our nation.
Absolutely disgusting, in my honest opinion. Absolutely disgusting.
Since the industrial revolution, human activities haven’t usually followed cycles. Instead, they have been based on extraction, followed by manufacturing, use and disposal: the ‘take – make – use – discard’ linear process. Natural systems can cope with this up to a point without being unduly perturbed. Unfortunately, with so many people driving the use of so many resources and the production of so much waste, we have now affected many natural cycles and the consequences are far reaching. It is true that over the last 25 years or so, there has been a trend towards recycling and reuse, although this was often driven initially by the need to reduce waste going to landfill. The circular economy approach takes this a lot further. By ignoring natural cycles rather than working with them, we are warming the planet, reducing biodiversity and could threaten the ability of humans to have a high quality of life. In case you think this is just the view of someone with a professional environmental interest, you might want to take a look at what the MoD strategic outlook up to 2045. has to say about the environment.
-▶ CIRCULAR ECONOMY IS A NEW WAY OF DOING BUSINESS
Look closely at the challenges facing our world and the circular economy makes business sense. Companies are turning to a new model of sustainable business in an effort to reduce their dependence on finite resources...
The sense that our planet is running out of the minerals, metals and organic matter required to sustain its rising human population has helped to fashion a new concept for our times: the circular economy. At its core is the argument that the old, linear model of conducting business – extraction, consumption and waste – is past its sell-by date...http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/circular-economy-new-way-doing-business
Guardian Sustainable Business, June 25, 2014 -▶ FROM A LINEAR TO A CIRCULAR WORLD: SHIFT TO A CIRCULAR ECONOMY IS UNDER WAY, FROM CROP WASTE TO SOLAR.In reality, there are no scarce resources, we just make them scarce. Through new supply chains, technology and policy, we can secure a future for generations.http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/shift-circular-economy-crop-waste-solar
Guardian Sustainable Business, July 10, 2014 -▶ FIVE NEW WAYS THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY CAN BUILD BRAND EXPERIENCE.Among some of the world's top corporate leaders, there's a growing understanding that the traditional linear business model – built on the presumption of unlimited and cheap natural resources – must be reworked for 21st-century realities. http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/five-ways-circular-economy-brand-experience
▶ ERADICATING ECOCIDE: WHY BUSINESS LEADERS MUST STEP UP TO THE CHALLENGEhttp://sco.lt/7uGWKv
-▶ WHY GOOGLE AND SONY ARE TURNING TO NATURE TO INSPIRE THEIR LEADERS. The Wisdom of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh http://sco.lt/81MvkP
▶ FUTURE GENERATIONS TO PAY FOR OUR MISTAKES: BIODIVERSITY LOSS IMPACT MAY NOT APPEAR FOR DECADEShttp://sco.lt/5k2si1
▶ BUSINESS SHOULD CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIAL HEALTH AND WELL BEING OF THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/5Ktuuf
-▶ NO TO BIODIVERSITY OFFSETTING (INVESTING LIKE AN ECOSYSTEMhttp://sco.lt/7xzjKj
-▶ THE EVOLUTION OF BUSINESS: HOW A NEW BUSINESS ERA INSPIRED BY NATURE, NOT GREED, CAN BENEFIT US ALLhttp://sco.lt/97vmc5
January 17, 2013 YES Magazine
-▶ RELIGION, SCIENCE AND SPIRIT: A SACRED STORY OF OUR TIME.Humanity’s current behavior threatens Earth’s capacity to support life and relegates more than a billion people to lives of destitutionhttp://sco.lt/8rb8DZ
-▶ A CULTURE SEPARATED FROM NATURE CANNOT SURVIVE: BANKRUPTING NATUREhttp://sco.lt/7HFVYH
-▶ESSAY: ECOLOGY IS THE MEANING OF LIFE: EMBRACING A SENSE OF "ENOUGHNESS"http://sco.lt/7xGTJZ
-▶ ECONOMIC SUCCESS ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH TO IMPROVE OUR WELL BEINGhttp://sco.lt/7J7VnF
Zero Footprint requires a circular economy, where all outputs must be accounted for as inputs elsewhere in the economy, where the entire lifecycle of all products is factored in, where 100% of waste becomes raw resources, powered by 100% renewable energy.
VIDEO REPORT Newshour, March 28, 2015 CUTTING THE CABLE CORD: WILL THE ONLINE MEDIA BOOM MEAN THE DEATH OF TV?Younger viewers, so-called millennials form a growing class of cord-nevers, rejecting the cost of a monthly cable bill, they’ve turned instead to broadband, high-speed internet connections and a range of streaming video services to watch what they want, where they want, when they want. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/cutting-cable-cord-web-based-media-mean-death-tv-2/
NPR, January 03, 2015 -▶ A YOUNG GENERATION SEES GREENER PASTURES IN AGRICULTURE. It's a generation that has grown up in the digital age, but embraced some very old-school things: the farmers market, craft beer, artisan cheese. "Living in the city, you commute by subway, you buy your food at the supermarket, you work in a cubicle all day...You're not intimately tied to anything." Gelvosa and Gerritsen are part of a generation for whom global warming has been hanging overhead like the sword of Damocles. In fact, all the young farmers interviewed for this story mentioned environmental health and climate change as factors in choosing a life on the land.
Guardian Sustainable Business, August 24, 2012 -▶ THE YOUNG SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS WHO ARE CHANGING THE WORLD. - CHARITY AND BUSINESS
The easiest option in business is to take the path of least resistance, which in our current culture is to maximise profits and remain blinkered to the consequences of our actions. It therefore takes determination and self-awareness to be able to create an enterprise that integrates doing good with doing well, or – on a deeper level – merging heart and mind.http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/young-social-entrepreneurs-changing-the-world
9 January, 2013 - The Guardian Environment - Tony Juniper:
-▶ THE ECONOMY AND NATURE
Nature is not a drag on growth – its protection is an unavoidable prerequisite for sustaining economic development.
The value of the carbon capture services which could be gained through halving the deforestation rate by 2030 is around $3.7 trillion
One of the greatest misconceptions of our time is the idea that there is somehow a choice between economic development and sustaining nature. ...environmental goals need to be scaled back to promote more growth. The reality we inhabit is somewhat different, however. One hundred per cent of economic activity is dependent on the services and benefits provided by nature... http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/jan/09/economy-nature
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
THE BIOSPHERE: NATURE IS ALL WE HAVE. Imagine an economic community in which nobody could list the stakeholders or identify those about to default. Or try to set a value on a reference library that has catalogued only a fraction of its archive, and some of that wrongly. Think of a reserve bank with most of its ledgers missing. Humankind is in that kind of predicament: it depends almost entirely on natural capital to generate food and fibre, building materials, fuel and pharmaceuticals, to pollinate crops, filter drinking water, recycle waste and maintain the oxygen supply. Living things underwrite all national economies: money, in effect, really does grow on trees.
Taxonomists identify around 18,000 new species each year, but in the same 12 months a greater number may slip into oblivion, as humans raze forests, pave or plough grasslands, bulldoze hillsides, drain swamps and dredge estuaries.Each extinction represents an asset lost or an opportunity squandered. Yet the human impact on the planetary ecosystem is now so palpable that geologists have proposed a new chronological era, the anthropocene, and biologists already call this "the sixth great extinction".
NEW SHORT VIDEOS Guardian Environment, October 06, 2014 Nature has been around for more than 4.5 billion years, evolving and adjusting to whatever the universe throws at it. People, on the other hand, are very fragile and entirely dependent on what nature provides.
Triple Pundit, December 12, 2014 -▶ REPORT REVEALS DIFFERENCES IN GDP AND INCLUSIVE WEALTH.Conventional economic theory is rife with assumptions that not only paint a narrow, inaccurate and vastly oversimplified view of the future prospects and actual overall impacts of investment decisions, but also justify investments that, over the long-term, can drive societies over the proverbial cliff. ... http://www.triplepundit.com/2014/12/2014-report-reveals-startling-differences-gdp-inclusive-wealth/
Corporations are NOT required by law to put stockholder profits first before the greater good of society. Financial historian Richard Sylla and award-winning financial editor Paul Steiger discuss how companies have become fixated on short-term stock prices to the exclusion of broader, long-term goals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-S2SwfWF3s
Inter Press Service, December 12, 2014 -▶ WANT ECONOMIC GROWTH? LESSEN INEQUALITY. For years, many policy makers, including economists, have clung to the belief that if states do nothing to boost income equality, market forces will cause wealth to trickle down to the poorest citizens and contribute to overall growth. That theory is now being increasingly debunked as experts affirm that the broadening gap in income is creating far-ranging problems for many societies.http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/12/want-economic-growth-lessen-inequality/
-▶ HUMANITY HAS EXCEEDED 4 of 9 'PLANETARY BOUNDARIES' THAT KEEP HUMANITY IN A 'SAFE OPERATING SPACE" - Scientistshttp://sco.lt/7Ji72v
United Nations News Centre, February 05, 2015 -▶ UN SEC.GEN BAN : DEVELOPMENT MUST BE BUILT ON INCLUSIVE POLICY ALIGNED WITH PEOPLE'S NEEDS, ASPIRATIONS : Mr. Ban said that policymakers in the past had focused too much on economic growth, without taking into account social concerns or environmental factors...economic growth must be judged in terms of its impact on human well-being – rather than an end in itself... not just the quantity, but the quality of growth.” http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=50005#.VNO_9p3F9Q0
TheEcologist, March 13, 2015 ▶ PATRIARCHY IS KILLING OUR PLANET.. we see that our relentless plunder of our own planetary life-support systems, correlates with our unnerving tendency to divide, exclude and 'Otherize', often in ways that are so insidious we find it difficult, even painful, to acknowledge these processes. But to this day, one of the most ever-present yet still unacknowledged processes is patriarchy. http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2790589/patriarchy_is_killing_our_planet_women_alone_can_save_her.html
New York Times, April 04, 2015 -▶ CALIFORNIA DROUGHT TESTS HISTORY OF ENDLESS GROWTHhttp://sco.lt/4rmrQn
CNBC News, November 20, 2014 ▶ OBESITY AS A BUSINESS: HOW MUCH OBESITY IS COSTING US. INVESTORS SEE GENEROUS PROFITS IN OBESITY EPIDEMIC
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 McKinsey Global Research Institute concluded. http://www.cnbc.com/id/102203044
The Ecologist, October 06, 2014 ▶ EXTREME INEQUALITY: The massive concentration of economic resources in the hands of a few people presents a significant threat to democracy and well being...the richest 85 people in the world had the same amount of wealth as the bottom half of the world’s population: over 3 billion people. http://www.theecologist.org/magazine/features/2583990/extreme_inequality.html
ECOLOGICAL ARMAGEDDON
EXTINCTION CRISIS
IN 40 YEARS WE HAVE DISAPPEARED HALF OF THE WORLD'S WILD ANIMALShttp://sco.lt/8fK5e
Our politicians are hung up on keeping the growth curve rising. But does GDP really tell us all we need to know about a country's wealth and well-being? In this new RSA Short, Kate Raworth makes a powerful argument to look beyond economic growth alone for a true measure of prosperity and progress. Kate Raworth is a renegade economist teaching at Oxford University, and is focused on the rewriting of economics to make it a fit tool for addressing the 21st century's social and ecological challenges. She blogs on Doughnut Economics athttp://www.kateraworth.com and tweets @KateRaworth
▶ ARE CORPORATE PROFITS EATING THE ECONOMY? TIME FOR A NEW PARADIGMhttp://sco.lt/4yBwiv
The Guardian, George Monbiot, August 12, 2012 -▶ THE PRELUDE TO THE GREATEST PRIVATISATION SINCE ENCLOSURE -- PUTTING A PRICE ON THE RIVER AND RAIN
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.
With the planet already exceeding its sustainable carrying capacity, we should be reducing our demands on it – not adding new ones. Simply put, we can no longer depend on GDP growth, and the limitless wealth accumulation that it implies, to solve our social and economic problems.
▶ WHICH GREEN ECONOMY? Current debates about how we measure growth and prosperity will have enormous ramifications for global trade, production and consumption patterns. The various perspectives broadly agree the current economic model is unsustainable on a planet that has finite resources and limits. http://whygreeneconomy.org/which-green-economy/
Share The World's Resources February 04, 2014 ▶ MOVING BEYOND THE CORPORATE VISION OF SUSTAINABILITY
InterPress Service, November 28, 2014 ▶ IS THE IDEA OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON A FALSE CONSENSUS. 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/
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
▶ THE STATE OF MARYLAND'S -- "GENUINE PROGRESS INDICATOR" Maryland developed its Genuine Progress Indicator to measure how development activities impact long-term prosperity, both positively and negatively. Here in Maryland and across the globe, people are continually challenged by the need to find a balance between advancing economic gain and ensuring social well-being... http://www.dnr.maryland.gov/mdgpi/
--------------------- NAFTA ON STEROIDS --------------------
THE US-EU "FREE TRADE" PACT AND THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS ARE ABOUT SECURING DE-REGULATORY GAINS FOR MAJOR CORPORATE INTERESTS, WAVING LIABILITY AND PUBLIC RIGHTS, ENSURING MEGA PROFITS
MULTIPLE NEW GLOBAL TRADE PACTS UNDER NEGOTIATION
HASHTAGS: #ISDA #TAFTA #TTIP #TPP #TPPA #CET#FTAA
Truthout, May 18, 2015
▶ CRITICAL ALERT: SEN. JEFF SESSIONS WARNS AMERICA AGAINST POTENTIALLY DISASTROUS OBAMA TRADE DEAL
Naked Capitalism, December 28, 2014 -▶ DON QUIONES: HOW THE TRADE IN SERVICES AGREEMENT LETS BIG BROTHER GO GLOBAL. If signed, the treaty would affect all services ranging from electronic transactions and data flow, to veterinary and architecture services. It would almost certainly open the floodgates to the final wave of privatization of public services, including the provision of healthcare, education and water. Meanwhile, already privatized companies would be prevented from a re-transfer to the public sector by a so-called barring “ratchet clause” – even if the privatization failed. http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/12/don-quijones-trade-services-agreement-lets-big-brother-go-global.html
Foreign Policy In Focus, December 13, 2013 -▶ NAFTA AT 20: NAFTA HAS DISPLACED WORKERS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER, DEPRESSED WAGES, AND WEAKENED UNIONShttp://fpif.org/nafta-20-state-north-american-worker/
Project Syndicate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, November 5, 2013
New York Times, December 13, 2013 -▶ TOBACCO FIRMS' STRATEGY LIMITS POORER NATIONS' SMOKING LAWS.Tobacco companies are pushing back against a worldwide rise in anti-smoking laws, using a little-noticed legal strategy to delay or block regulation. The industry is warning countries that their tobacco laws violate an expanding web of trade and investment treaties, raising the prospect of costly, prolonged legal battles, health advocates and officials said. ..http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/health/tobacco-industry-tactics-limit-poorer-nations-smoking-laws.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Corporate Europe Observatory, November 29, 2014 -▶ TRADING AWAY DEMOCRACY: COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC AND TRADE AGREEMENT (CETA) WITH CANADAThe EU's Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada could unleash a wave of corporate lawsuits against Canada, the EU and its member states – including through the Canadian subsidiaries of US multinational corporations. This is the result of an in-depth analysis of CETA’s investor rights by Corporate Europe Observatory and 14 other environmental NGOs, citizens’ groups and workers unions from both sides of the Atlantic published today. http://corporateeurope.org/international-trade/2014/11/ceta-trading-away-democracy
Common Dream, April 22, 2014 -▶ CORPORATE COLONIALISM: PROTESTERS SLAM TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP. These secretive trade pacts are really about resurrecting global U.S. military power and economic dominance http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/04/22-3
Corporate Europe Observatory, October 4, 2013 -▶ TRUTHS AND MYTHS: "A BRAVE NEW TRANS ATLANTIC PARTNERSHIP" - THE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENT CONSEQUENCES.A new report published by members of the Seattle to Brussels Network (S2B), including CEO, which reveals the true human and environmental costs of the proposed EU-US trade deal
Asia Times Online, September 27, 2013 -▶ TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP IS A TROJAN HORSE The TPP is a Trojan horse, branded as a "free trade" agreement, but having nothing to do with fair and equitable treatment. In reality, it is precisely "a wish list of the 1% - a worldwide corporate power". [8] "Only 5 of its 29 chapters cover traditional trade matters, like tariffs or quotas." [9] "The other chapters enshrine new rights and privileges for major corporations while weakening the power of nation states to oppose them." [10]http://atimes.com/atimes/Japan/JAP-02-270913.html
-▶ MASSIVE LAND GRABBING BY MULTINATIONAL FIRMS PREVALENT IN UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRIES AND WILL GET WORSE WITH TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIPLawmakers in the Philippines are pushing for amendments to the 1987 Constitution to allow 100 percent foreign ownership of land. This is reportedly a condition set on the Philippine government before being accepted to the TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT (TPPA), a trade pact being organized by the US government. - See more at: http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/22386#sthash.xl4kiTPB.dpuf
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. March 1, 2013
-▶ GOVERNMENTS MUST PROTECT LAND, FOOD SYSTEMS AS TRADE LIBERALIZATION ACCELERATES LAND GRABBINGhttp://iatp.org/blog-agriculture
LAND GRABS
HOW FOREIGN 'INVESTMENTS' ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBEhttp://sco.lt/96H2yv
-----------------AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING--------------
-▶ OBAMA QUIETLY DE-REGULATES GMO/ GENETIC BIOTECH INDUSTRY IN PREPARATION FOR NEW TRADE DEALS : Fast-tracking Approvals, Waiving Regulations, Oversight and Liabilityhttp://sco.lt/5uCx8b
-▶ THE BIGGER PICTURE: TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE - SETTING THE STAGE WITH THE "MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT"http://sco.lt/8U0kjJ
-▶ ANTI-WHISTLE-BLOWER AG-GAG BILLS AIMED AT KEEPING YOU IN THE DARK ABOUT OUR FACTORY-FARMED FOODhttp://sco.lt/7aFBUv
-- AND CONTROL OF GLOBAL FOOD SUPPLY
pdjmoo's insight:
Trans Pacific Partnership -
-▶ THIS IS WHAT CORPORATE GOVERNANCE LOOKS LIKE: NAFTA ON STEROIDS http://sco.lt/8xWubB
The Real News, September 15, 2013 -▶ PHILIPPINE ACTIVISTS FIGHT BACK AGAINST CORPORATE AND MILITARY FORCES DESTROYING THEIR LAND, FORESTS AND LIVELIHOODS. 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
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Wowww simplicity wins again!
La Milla extra, RSC mucho más que el cumplimiento legal.