After Peak Oil, Peak Globalization

The reality of a globalized economy seems to be that poverty is its only sustainable phenomenon, says entrepreneur Gunter Pauli in this column.

THE THREATS OF THE BOOM-BUST CYCLE

As in previous episodes, a key factor in the current boom in capital flows to developing and emerging economies (DEEs) is a sharp cut in interest rates and a rapid expansion of liquidity in the major advanced economies (AEs), notably the US. This first occurred in a coordinated way after an agreement at the April 2009 G20 summit in London as a countercyclical response to the crisis. In the US, recovery started in summer 2009 but the strong growth of nearly 4 percent in the first quarter of 2010 slowed to less than 2 percent in the second quarter. The response of the US Federal Reserve was to initiate another round of quantitative easing through purchases of long-term treasuries and other securities. Although the declared objective was to stimulate private spending by lowering long-term interest rates and raising asset values, this move has also been widely seen as an effort to weaken the dollar and stimulate exports.

BEYOND GDP TO BETTER WAYS OF JUDGING PROGRESS AND WELL-BEING

At last there seems to be real progress in overhauling the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as measure of a country's status and progress-almost twenty years after 170 governments pledged to do so by signing Article 40 of Agenda 21 at the 1992 Rio Conference.

Investments Are Not Improving Water Quality in Brazil

Rivers near Brazil’s most populated cities have poor or very poor water quality, according to a government report, although 71 percent of the country’s water resources are in good condition.

New Push to Get Whales Off the Table

A campaign directed at tourists visiting Iceland aims to show them that, contrary to what they are led to believe by some restaurants, whale meat is not a traditional dish enjoyed by most Icelanders.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Trade Unionists Denounce Smelter Pollution

Workers at the state-owned Venalum aluminum smelter in the northeastern Venezuelan city of Guayana report that because of a lack of repairs to the plant’s treatment facilities, toxic gases like toluene and benzene are being directly released into the atmosphere.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Organic Produce Consumption on the Rise

The consumption of organic produce is growing by between 20 and 30 percent a year in Brazil, according to the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA).

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Timber Industry Calls for Government Transparency

The Timber Association of Honduras has demanded more transparency from the government in its measures to protect the forests and the activities and expenditures carried out by the Armed Forces through the so-called green battalions.

NORWAY: WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

22 July 2011 will be engraved in Norwegian history like 9 April 1940, the German invasion. Words pale before this enormity. The center of Oslo, where the ministries are located, resembles a war-zone more than during the Second World War, when it was hit by some bombs from the resistance and from England. Even worse was the massacre at the Labor Party youth camp on Ut"ya Island near Oslo with 68 killed and many seriously wounded.

NORWAY: WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

22 July 2011 will be engraved in Norwegian history like 9 April 1940, the German invasion. Words pale before this enormity. The center of Oslo, where the ministries are located, resembles a war-zone more than during the Second World War, when it was hit by some bombs from the resistance and from England. Even worse was the massacre at the Labor Party youth camp on Ut"ya Island near Oslo with 68 killed and many seriously wounded.

Small-Scale Land Speculators Contribute to Amazon Deforestation

Among the various drivers of deforestation in the Amazon, a new study reports that families are moving into the rainforest and clearing the land in order to claim land titles, then selling the land to large corporate ranchers.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Protecting the Nacaome River Basin

Communities in the southern Honduran department of Valle are taking the first steps towards reforestation of the basin of the Nacaome River, which provides water and electrical power to some 120,000 people who live in the surrounding area.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Sawdust as Energy Source

A small town in the northeastern Argentine province of Chaco has built a plant that transforms timber industry waste into renewable energy, with the support of the federal government.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Water Purification with Solar Power

An electrical engineering student at the Federal University of Goiás in Brazil has invented a system to purify water without using electricity, thereby preventing carbon dioxide emissions.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Greater Protection of Islands Demanded

Despite their economic, strategic and environmental importance, Mexico’s 1,644 islands are neglected and little studied, according to a group of specialized agencies.

THE SHALE GAS RUN SPREADS WORLDWIDE

Nine thousand feet beneath the surface of 34 U.S. states lie vast deposits of shale impregnated with natural gas. Unlike the concentrated reservoirs of earlier eras, most of which have now been tapped out, this gas is trapped in hairline cracks in the shale itself. It can only be tapped through an energy- and water-intensive process called hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking") recently developed by American geologists and mining engineers. Toxic chemicals are injected two miles deep and another mile in all directions to break up shale rock and release the gas.

CUBA: CARS, HOUSES, CORRUPTION, ILLEGALITY

Cuba may be the only country in the world whose citizens have, for half a century now, not been allowed to freely acquire a car or a home. Indeed the very words have a very different connotation on the island.

NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE NONVIOLENCE

It is remarkable that two of the greatest evils of the 20th century -colonialism and the Cold War- were both overcome with nonviolence: Gandhi's nonviolent campaign against British colonialism which led to India's and Pakistan's Independence in 1947, paving the way for other countries' independence, and the nonviolent demonstrations, especially in Gdansk and Leipzig, which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the end of the Cold War.

THE MIDDLE EAST NEEDS A MARSHALL PLAN

The latest events in the Mediterranean and Middle East are a call for adequate responses to the region's need for economic and political stability, development, employment, and resolution of migration issues. Such responses should aim to optimise potential synergies, coordination, and mutual support for initiatives already under way and for new ones - essentially, a sort of coherent and broad-based Marshall Plan capable of gathering together all the key international actors to address the political, economic, cultural and social (migration) dimensions of the "Arab Spring".

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Protests Against Oil Refinery

Residents of the town of Las Piedras on the northern outskirts of Punto Fijo, the site of a major oil refinery complex on the Paraguaná peninsula in northwestern Venezuela, have staged street protests over the coke residue and other toxic contaminants emitted by the refinery.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: New Geological Risk Zones Identified

Students and geologists from Costa Rica will undertake the mapping of new areas at risk of landslides and flooding in the Honduran capital.