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ALTERNATIVES

Richard Heinberg: 100% renewable energy is possible, here’s how

19th March 2016

Since the renewable energy revolution will require trading fossil fuels for alternative ones (mostly wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and biomass), there will be some hefty challenges along the way. Therefore, it makes sense to start with the low-hanging fruit and with a plan in place, then revise our plan frequently as we gain practical experience. …

Development/Growth

How did Indian rivers fare in 2015?

Swati Bansal writes: The waters of many rivers were declared as unfit for human consumption. This included rivers in Goa with fecal coliform bacteria, and rivers in Karnataka where none were suitable for drinking. But pollution was just one factor, the other was hydropower power projects which continue to choke rivers such as the Chenab….

ALTERNATIVES

Can environmentalism learn from religion?

18th March 2016

Kurt Cobb writes: While it might seem tempting to downplay the nexus between religion and environmentalism in order to bolster environmentalism’s scientific underpinnings, I think this would be a serious mistake. The effectiveness of religious rhetoric suggests that environmentalists ought not to discard it, but rather figure out how to harness it even more effectively….

Bookshelf

Bookshelf: Shrinking the Technosphere by Dmitry Orlov

My hypothesis—let’s call it the Technospheratu hypothesis—is that the technosphere, having risen up on top of and in opposition to Gaia and the biosphere, possesses a certain primitive emergent intelligence that allows it to grow in complexity and power and to dominate the biosphere to an ever-greater extent. Unlike Gaia, it is a parasite upon the biosphere….

ALTERNATIVES

A new wave of climate insurgents defines itself as law-enforcers

16th March 2016

Jeremy Brecher writes: One in six Americans say they would engage in nonviolent civil disobedience against corporate or government activities that make global warming worse. That’s about 40 million adults. The fate of the earth may depend on them. Such actions are about to take a quantum leap both in numbers and in global coordination….

Ratan Tata at the Bangalore Aero Show, 2013. The Tata Group is a major player in both mining and defence manufacturing.

Development/Growth

India’s rising Corporate-Military Complex: A critical appraisal

15th March 2016

Rahul Varman writes: Bauxite or iron mines are opened up by grabbing people’s lands and homes against great resistance, and UAVs and other increasingly sophisticated weapons are used to quell this resistance. The corporate sector benefits both from the mining, as well as the demand for weapons, demand which is independent of the vagaries of the market system….

ALTERNATIVES

The Revolution is Love: A missive from Charles Eisenstein

14th March 2016

This is why so many seasoned activists succumb to despair after decades of struggle. Do you think we can beat the military-industrial-financial-agricultural-pharmaceutical-NGO-educational-political complex at its own game? But the modern environmental movement, and most especially the climate change movement, has attempted just that, risking defeat but also often worsening the situation even in its victories….

Shutterstock

Consumerism/Lifestyle

CRISPR is coming, with big implications for food, farmers, consumers and nature

13th March 2016

Maywa Montenegro reports: Very few technologies merit the epithet “game changer” — but a new genetic engineering tool known as CRISPR-Cas9 is one of them. Since we first developed the ability to alter genetic material, efforts to do so have required months or even years of molecular tinkering. With CRISPR, precision and speed have soared….

Economy

Gail Tverberg: We are at Peak Oil now; we need very low-cost energy to fix it

12th March 2016

We are hitting something similar to “Peak Oil” right now, but the major symptoms are unexpected. There is a glut of supply, and prices are far below the cost of production. Perhaps we should call it “Limits to Growth,” rather than “Peak Oil,” because it is a different type of problem than most people expected….

P.Sainath, People's Archive of Rural India

Development/Growth

Special: P. Sainath’s award-winning series on rural India’s ‘Thirst Economy’

11th March 2016

This series on rural India’s water crisis won P. Sainath a World Media Summit award under the category of Exemplary News Professionals in Developing Countries. It zeroes in on the stark contrasts in the consumption and access to water between the rich and poor to illustrate the alarming trend of inequalities in India and abroad….

Development/Growth

Video & Report: Is India’s 100 smart cities project a recipe for social apartheid?

9th March 2016

Shruti Ravindran reports: In a monograph for a conference on smart cities, the economist and consultant Laveesh Bhandari described smart cities as “special enclaves” that would use prohibitive prices and harsh policing to exclude “millions of poor Indians… For if we do not keep them out, they will override our ability to maintain such infrastructure.”…

CLIMATE CRISIS

Human impact has pushed Earth into the Anthropocene, scientists say

8th March 2016

A new study provides one of the strongest cases yet that Earth has entered a new geological epoch. The question of whether humans’ environmental impact has tipped Earth into an “Anthropocene” – ending the current Holocene which began 12,000 years ago – will be put to the geological body that formally approves such time divisions….

CLIMATE CRISIS

Video: Al Gore makes the case for optimism on Climate Change

7th March 2016

Al Gore, former US Vice President and Founder, The Climate Reality Project, spoke at the recently concluded 2016 TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. According to him, the future of our planet looks very different today than it did when he last spoke on the TED stage nearly a decade ago….

ENERGY

Towards Energy Democracy: A Vision Statement

6th March 2016

Unlimited growth and consumerist culture is incompatible with a finite world. We call for an urgent paradigm shift, from the currently dominant model of consumption-led development, to creating frameworks of human and ecological well being. This transition should be defined by the principles of sustainability, equity, and justice. (Adopted at the Bijli Vikalp Sangam, Bodh Gaya)…

Economy

‘Journey to the center of the Earth’: Private capital is running away from trouble

Keith Dicker writes: Why is the world in an economic funk? The answer is quite simple: Private Capital does not like the actions by central banks and governments, and is withdrawing their money from the global economy. And it is heading towards the center of the earth. Yes, it really is as simple as that….

Development/Growth

A.R. Vasavi: The bitter reality behind the ‘pro-farmer’ budget

5th March 2016

Over the past three decades, average income of the farmer has increased by only 19%, while that of the government employee has by 370% and that of the corporate sector by more than a thousand per cent… Hidden in the rhetoric of being “pro-farmer and pro-poor” are the continued logic of being “pro-investor and pro-business”….

Development/Growth

Budget Analysis: Don’t believe the hype, farmers have been short-changed again

2nd March 2016

Devinder Sharma writes: Jaitley wants the farmers to wait five years for their income to rise to 3,332 rupees a month. I can imagine the Economic Survey presented in 2022 proudly stating the success. But the reality is, by 2022, adjusting for inflation, the doubled income would be equivalent to what a farmer makes now….

Economy

Has the crash of the global financial markets begun?

1st March 2016

T Sabri Öncü writes: Some insist that the global economy is in “secular stagnation,” but the facts suggest we may be entering the “worst” depression in history. Global markets have been on a slippery slope since 2007, and things have only been getting worse. The picture looks dismal, no matter which theoretical lens one uses….

Wikimedia Commons

Development/Growth

More than Make in India, Jaitley needs to focus on Farm in India

29th February 2016

Devinder Sharma writes: Arun Jaitley’s economic agenda revolves around pushing reforms in order to lift growth and create jobs. But what is not being realised is that agriculture alone – the sector that has been neglected all these years – has the potential to create massive gainful employment, build domestic demand and thereby revitalise the sluggish economy….