The greatest opportunity of our generation: that’s what could be waiting for us, after we leave “green” behind. Saving the biosphere and spreading sustainable prosperity is going to take a lot more than doing things in a more environmentally-conscious manner; it’s going to demand we remake much of our material civilization.

Read more at Worldchanging.com… or read the related article ‘The Problem with Big Green‘.

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As drylands get drier and violence grows, new crises resembling Darfur will arise.

By Jeffrey Sachs | NEWSWEEK. July 7-14, 2008 issue.

The world will experience a growing risk of conflicts over food, energy and water in coming years. The population rises each year by about 80 million people, with most of the increase in impoverished regions already facing environmental stress. Climate change, water scarcity and tighter oil supplies will add to the stresses. As violence increases, in new crises resembling those now underway in Darfur, Somalia and Afghanistan, the tendency might be to look to the military for solutions. We’ll need to keep in mind that engineers and doctors will be the only ones who can truly keep us safe.

Read more at Newsweek….

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Oliver Tickell makes the case for controlling greenhouse gases ‘close to the source’ via a groundbreaking new worldwide permits auction.

At their 2008 meeting in Hokkaido, Japan, the G8 agreed that the world should cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050. Setting aside the fact that we don’t know 50 percent of which year’s emissions, this is a serious target. But it has two serious problems. 

Read more at Green Futures….

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Oliver Tickell makes the case for controlling greenhouse gases close to the source via a groundbreaking new worldwide permits auction.

At their 2008 meeting in Hokkaido, Japan, the G8 agreed that the world should cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050. Setting aside the fact that we don’t know 50 percent of which year’s emissions, this is a serious target. But it has two serious problems.

Read more at Green Futures….

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The problems of water management are at the heart of an integrated crisis of global development that includes climate change and food insecurity, says Mike Muller.

The global food crisis of 2007-08 has propelled governments and international agencies into a series of emergency responses, designed both to meet the needs of desperate citizens in many of the world’s poorest countries and to maintain their own authority in face of a surge of popular protest. The flurry of activity and discussion around the issue has tended to deflect attention from the global problems associated with the source of food: water. If the questions of agriculture, land use, supply, distribution and price that lie at the heart of the food crisis are to be addressed, the clouds over the world’s water future must also be taken far more seriously (see Paul Rogers, “The world’s food insecurity“, 24 April 2008).

Read more at OpenDemocracy

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