Economics

Monbiot revises his thoughts on the future of the world's economies in a post peak oil scenario

A response to an international coffee trader's claim that fair trade coffee is unfair.

After pursuing countless generations of continuous growth, the human species is finally confronted with one of its greatest challenges: how to live sustainably upon the earth. The fact that we have not done so up until now is readily evident – natural resources are running out and being degraded, local environments are experiencing radical climatic changes, and people around the world are dying from starvation and disease. As a result, new models are being sought out in terms of how human should live and be on this planet.

What are the effects of a tax decrease on "green" products?  This article provides an economic analysis and shows that a green tax can convince the average consumer to choose "green" alternatives over their non-environmental counterparts.  

According to a new study, at least 50 percent of the world’s population currently lives in cities, and humans are building the equivalent of a city the size of Vancouver every week. This urbanization threatens to obliterate endangered species and hasten the decline of natural resources like fresh water.

With much of the world bemoaning rising prices and much of the complaint being about the price of fuel, this is bad news indeed. But for the environment, surely, it's the best news. Certainly for those of us who avoid driving it means much less or does it?

The IMF's most recent World Economic Outlook study includes a climate change analysis. The report is one of the first to capture broad, deep data concerning the potential costs of climate change to the world economy and the economic result of a worldwide implementation of greenhouse gases mitigation strategies, such as cap-and-trade and carbon emissions tax. Tamirisa, co-author of that analysis, outlines the IMF's conclusions.

It’s an age old discussion regarding climate change and the big reason for why many countries are so hesitant to hop on the “green train”, what will the economic impacts be of going green? A tough debate and not easily solved. Now I am no economics major, I have my back ground in micro and macro, but the site I am presenting to you expresses the situation in a very user friendly way.

A green critique of economics.

Never mind the economic crisis. Focus for a moment on a more urgent threat: the great food recession which is sweeping the world faster than the credit crunch. While 100m tonnes of food will be diverted this year to feed cars, 760m tonnes will be snatched from the mouths of humans to feed animals. This could cover the global food deficit 14 times. If you care about hunger, eat less meat.

I'm sure you've all heard of the sub-prime loan crisis and the falling U.S. dollar, but I bet you didn't know that it was trickling down to affect efficient vehicle choices for U.S. and European consumers.

Despite all the talk about solar energy, it only generates a measly .1% of electricity i n the US. Meanwhile, national demand for electricity is growing by 2% annually. Considering that solar technology has been in use for decades, why is it not more w idespread?

One of the biggest questions about climate change is: What will it cost to fix? Figuring that out is a huge challenge.

How to Boil a Frog's FrogBlog takes us back to the 1940's for a comedic lesson in how we can change our lives now and actually enjoy it.

Washington, DC - Margo Thorning, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, American Council on Capital Formation, is interviewed about a study assessing the potential national and state economic impacts resulting from proposed climate change legislation.