One economist who brings the environment into economics is Herman Daly. You might take a look at hm -- e.g. Beyond Growth.
Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: Darryl or Natalia To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 5:48 PM Subject: [Futurework] Ocean Thermal Energy Conservation Before the Keynes discussions, and ensuing insults, emails were quite interesting around the topics of mind and sustainable economies. July 4, I was listening to Sir Nicholas Stern speaking on David Suzuki's new CBC series on protection of the biosphere. Some may know Stern was chief economist at the World Bank 3 years ago, and has now come back to L.S.E. He feels that it is an analytical intellectual mistake to separate environment from economic growth; that we must work on the two together. Below, I have posted his 3 year old recommendation, but since that time he feels there is greater urgency to reduce our per capita carbon footprint even more. As he said, Pearl Harbor was urgent, why not this? That we can't wait for the painful experience of it to tell us we're doing it wrong, for it will be too late. Blood shouldn't be the motivator, yet we're unwilling to acknowledge what's happening at 1C--deserts, oceans and forests changing so rapidly. Next century, there's a 50/50 chance we could be facing 5C greater temperatures, not seen for 30 million years. He discussed some solutions; geothermal, tidal, even nuclear for those who find it viable. Carbon reduction by legislation, taxation. That it's toxic to put a price on carbon, but it's essential. He feels it's a deep market failure not to put a price on current oil generated energies, and that regulations reduce emissions. One of the websites I visited had comments posted below Stern's own, and there were the expected conspiracy theorists debunking global warming. One fellow voiced concern that reduction of red meat consumption would help reduce methane more quickly by up to 1/5 of total. Don't know about that figure; I've heard varying ones, but I agree that red meat is an industry that calls for a huge reduction. Another fellow discussed Ocean Thermal Energy Conservation (OTEC). That sounded really good to me. Abundant, renewable and cheap. Would supply a lot of jobs, and it might help cool down the oceans a bit, too, if we got moving on it now. Ocean acidification and warming are the top two concerns of oceanographers today. Sediments (chiefly from fertilizers) and overfishing come in second, then non-biodegradables, as in plastic trash. A new book by Alana Mitchell sounds interesting called "Sea Sick"-- focuses on coral life at risk, and coastal dead zones increase. Findings about how quickly life is going to disappear without healthy oceans and forests are making oceanographers puke, literally. I think that things can be depressing when they are uncertain; when fear takes over from an inability to act. We have a pretty good idea of what's to come, and we have knowledge to act by. What we need is collective will to force government to act responsibly. So, anyone amongst us experienced at world petitions? Natalia >From 2006, found at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6098362.stm The world has to act now on climate change or face devastating economic consequences, according to a report compiled by Sir Nicholas Stern for the UK government. Here are the key points of the review written by the former chief economist of the World Bank. TEMPERATURE a.. Carbon emissions have already pushed up global temperatures by half a degree Celsius a.. If no action is taken on emissions, there is more than a 75% chance of global temperatures rising between two and three degrees Celsius over the next 50 years a.. There is a 50% chance that average global temperatures could rise by five degrees Celsius ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT a.. Melting glaciers will increase flood risk a.. Crop yields will decline, particularly in Africa a.. Rising sea levels could leave 200 million people permanently displaced a.. Up to 40% of species could face extinction a.. There will be more examples of extreme weather patterns ECONOMIC IMPACT a.. Extreme weather could reduce global gross domestic product (GDP) by up to 1% a.. A two to three degrees Celsius rise in temperatures could reduce global economic output by 3% a.. If temperatures rise by five degrees Celsius, up to 10% of global output could be lost. The poorest countries would lose more than 10% of their output a.. In the worst case scenario global consumption per head would fall 20% a.. To stabilise at manageable levels, emissions would need to stabilise in the next 20 years and fall between 1% and 3% after that. This would cost 1% of GDP OPTIONS FOR CHANGE a.. Reduce consumer demand for heavily polluting goods and services a.. Make global energy supply more efficient a.. Act on non-energy emissions - preventing further deforestation would go a long way towards alleviating this source of carbon emissions a.. Promote cleaner energy and transport technology, with non-fossil fuels accounting for 60% of energy output by 2050 GOVERNMENT RESPONSE a.. Create a global market for carbon pricing a.. Extend the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EETS) globally, bringing in countries such as the US, India and China a.. Set new target for EETS to reduce carbon emissions by 30% by 2020 and 60% by 2050 a.. Pass a bill to enshrine carbon reduction targets and create a new independent body to monitor progress a.. Create a new commission to spearhead British company investment in green technology, with the aim of creating 100,000 new jobs a.. Former US vice-president Al Gore will advise the government on the issue a.. Work with the World Bank and other financial institutions to create a $20bn fund to help poor countries adjust to climate change challenges a.. Work with Brazil, Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica to promote sustainable forestry and prevent deforestation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
_______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
