Climate change
Report: In the Path of the Storm
PennEnvironment / 21 February 2012
Executive Summary
Weather disasters kill or injure hundreds of Americans each year and cause billions of dollars in economic damage. The risks posed by some types of weather-related disasters will likely increase in a warming world. Scientists have already detected increases in extreme precipitation events and heat waves in the United States, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently concluded that global warming will likely lead to further changes in weather extremes.
Since 2006, federally declared weather-related disasters in the United States have affected counties housing 242 million people – or roughly four out of five Americans (interactive map here). The breadth and severity of weather-related disasters in the United States – coupled with the emerging science on the links between global warming and extreme weather – suggest that the United States should take strong action to reduce emissions of global warming pollution and take steps to protect communities from global warming-fueled extreme weather events.
The Ooooby Local Economic Model
FEASTA / Pete Russell / 19 February 2012
More people than ever before are losing trust in the established economic order and looking for fair ways to exchange value with one another.
The convenience and the reliability of readily available internet technology are enabling viable challenges to the dominant monetary system. It is becoming increasingly important that a trading system be simple, elegant, understandable and underpinned by items of real and tangible value.
The Ooooby economic model uses locally grown food and food-processing labour to underpin a system of internal credits called Roobys. Now serving over 50 local growers in the Auckland region, the Rooby system has operated successfully since October 2009.
Participants can earn and spend Roobys at Ooooby’s market stall in Parnell, Auckland, and via its weekly Auckland-wide local-food home delivery service. For every $10.00 a customer pays Ooooby, the producer earns 9 Roobys, each of which is worth $1.00 if used to purchase other Ooooby members’ goods or services, or $0.50 if redeemed for cash. The balance covers retail costs.
A currency based on local food affords people an opportunity to generate value from scratch. If you can grow some food you can create purchasing power. This is a sustainable currency model, quite unlike the dominant system in which only sanctioned institutions have the right to create money. Roobys represent a new model of fair and decentralised value exchange. There is no Ooooby bank issuing Roobys from thin air.
Community Euchre: Help to Save Yasuni Park
Yasuni Park in Ecuador is one of the most biodiverse spots on earth. One hectare in Yasuni contains more tree species than in all of North America. The Park boasts 600 types of birds. It has incredible megadiversity with a record number of species. It was declared a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1989. Aboriginal tribes live there as they have for thousands of years. It is part of the Amazon forest – the lungs of the world. Its contribution to the world is enormous. Yasuni is held in trust by Ecuador for the whole world.
But there is oil under the ground in Yasuni Park. Its development would be disastrous, yet Ecuador needs the revenue from it. The government has announced that it will leave the oil in the ground permanently, if the world community will reimburse it with just half the revenue it would get from exploiting it. The United Nations has established the Yasuni-ITT Trust Fund, and by Dec. 31st, 2011, $116 million had been raised. Much more is needed from governments, organizations and individuals around the world.
To participate in this rescue the Brockville chapter of the Council of Canadians and the St. Paul’s Social Justice Committee are holding a fundraising euchre on Saturday, March 10 at 7:00 pm at St. Paul’s Church hall at the corner of Victoria and Pine Streets. Tickets are $10. You can buy one at the door, or we prefer you get one in advance from members of the Council of Canadians Brockville chapter, including Jim or Barb Riesberry (613-345-3785). There are other games, prizes and snacks. All ticket money goes to the Yasuni fund.
Play for Yasuni Park
Yasuni Park in Ecuador is one of the most biodiverse spots on earth. One hectare in Yasuni contains more tree species than in all of North America. The Park boasts 600 types of birds. It has incredible megadiversity with a record number of species. It was declared a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1989. Aboriginal tribes live there as they have for thousands of years. It is part of the Amazon forest – the lungs of the world. Its contribution to the world is enormous. Yasuni is held in trust by Ecuador for the whole world.
Solar Power to Pay Nevada City’s Debt, Government Costs for Decades
CleanTechica / Silvio Marcacci / 08 February 2012
Boulder City, Nevada is best known as the home of Hoover Dam, once the largest hydroelectric power plant in the country. But the rapid expansion of solar power projects is quickly making a name for the city as the first solar-financed town in America.
A solar power building boom is happening in the community, located about 25 miles south of Las Vegas. This boom will soon generate enough revenue to eliminate Boulder City’s municipal debt and stabilize its financial needs for years to come, according to Mayor Roger Tobler.
Ontario: "The economy is based on the environment"
Kingston Whig-Standard / Danielle VandenBrink / 07 February 2012
[Ontario environmental commissioner Gord] Miller outlined key issues facing Ontarians when it comes to the environment, including climate change, peak energy (increasing cost of fuel and other energy resources), the increasing shortage of fresh water and increasing threats to biodiversity.
Review: Fleeing Vesuvius
Dissident Voice / Stuart Jeanne Bramhall / 03 February 2012
The basic theme of Fleeing Vesuvius, which is aimed at the growing sustainability movement, is TEOTWAWI (The End of the World as We Know It). The title refers to the volcano that destroyed Pompeii in 79 AD, specifically the large number of residents who failed to save themselves, despite weeks of earthquakes, gaseous clouds and other obvious signs that an eruption was imminent. For more than a decade, a growing body of evidence suggests that the planet is on the verge of economic and ecological collapse. Yet the vast majority of us do absolutely nothing to prepare for the stark conditions ahead.
