Our Lives Are Filled With Worthless Crap That's Destroying the Earth: Here's What You Can Do | Environment | AlterNet

The way to lower the quantity of energy required to make and distribute short-lived consumer goods is to make them durable, repairable and upgradable. And to buy less stuff. Now nearly everything is produced in China and made to be discarded. According to a 2008 report by the Economic Policy Institute, the United States imported $320 billion in Chinese goods in 2007. In that year alone, this country imported $26.3 billion in apparel and accessories, $108.5 billion in computers and electronic products, and $15.3 billion in furniture and fixtures from China. The manufacture, distribution and disposal of an ever-growing mountain of short-lived consumer goods has taken an enormous environmental toll. Annie Leonard’s website “The Story of Stuff,” which has garnered more than 7 million views in less than two years, has helped spread awareness of that cost far beyond the usual environmentalist circles. Functional obsolescence and fashion obsolescence.

Article Reference: 

http://www.alternet.org/environment/144204/our_lives_are_filled_with_worthless_c...

This Is George Bush's Recession: Why Doesn't Anybody Talk About That? | Politics | AlterNet

If the partisan tables were turned, the GOP would waste no time laying the blame on Democrats. According to the article "We" (aka "progressives"?) need to do the same to build political capital for key fights ahead. Modern conservatives "are descended from monarchists,” and have a "natural instinct to follow the king." Presumably, then, progressives are descended from rabble that can't agree? The article discusses a failure of the Democrats to do as the Republicans would do, there is a failure of Democrats to fall in line with President Obama's leadership and instead they are left free to kvetch. My question is whether it's better for the party in charge to practice message discipline and order in the ranks, or for free reigning democracy to engender an open and frank discussion from all quarters.

Article Reference: 

http://www.alternet.org/politics/144225/this_is_george_bush's_recession%3A_why_d...

BBC News - Solar panel costs 'set to fall'

The cost of installing and owning solar panels will fall even faster than expected according to new research. Tests show that 90% of existing solar panels last for 30 years, instead of the predicted 20 years. According to the independent EU Energy Institute, this brings down the lifetime cost. Incentive programmes for solar panels in Germany, Italy and Spain have created manufacturing volume that's bringing down costs. Solar panel prices dropped 30% last year alone due to an increase in output and a drop in orders because of the recession.

Article Reference: 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8386460.stm

Copenhagen climate conference: Emission impossible | Environment | The Guardian

According to this article the defining challenges of our time is climate change and "overcoming poverty" but that formulation leaves out the issue of peak oil aka energy supplies. The global society has gotten addicted to cheap energy, but that cheap energy is soon to become very expensive, which is a major challenge not addressed by the article. The article does a great job of posing these questions: Do we collaborate and act to reach a strong political agreement that both decisively cuts the devastating risks posed by climate change, and rapidly opens up the opportunities offered by low-carbon economic growth? Do we in that way set ourselves to overcome poverty and promote prosperity? Or, do we give way to narrow, short-term interests, quarrelling, lack of ambition and delay, thus allowing the risks to the climate to grow to dangerous levels which will derail development in both rich and poor countries?

Article Reference: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/30/stern-monbiot-copenhagen-deal

Naomi Klein: Why Rich Countries Should Pay Reparations To Poor Countries For The Climate Crisis | Environment | AlterNet

A grassroots movement says that the countries that created the climate crisis should pay for the costs of adapting to a more hostile ecology. The thesis seems to be that developing countries are being victimized by the advanced west. There is a lot of evidence to support that. NAOMI KLEIN: ...the climate crisis as we know was created in the industrialized world. There is a direct correlation between industrialization (what we call development) and carbon emissions. In fact, 75 percent of the historical carbon emissions have been produced by only 20 percent of the world's population. Then we have this cruel geographical irony, which is that the effects of climate change our felt overwhelmingly in the developing world, and the parts of the world that are least responsible for creating the crisis. According to the World Bank, 75-80 of the effects of climate change are being felt in the developing world. So, you have this inverse relationship between cause and effect.

Article Reference: 

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/144267/naomi_klein%3A_why_rich_countries_shou...

Bailed-Out AIG Forcing Poor to Choose Between Running Water and Food | Water | AlterNet

Thanks to AIG, some of the poorest residents of rural Kentucky learned you can always be made poorer by corporate villains. In 2005 AIG begain buying up water companies, especially a company named Utilities Inc that held scores of water companies around the country. This is part of a movement of commercializing water utility systems around the world. "We have long considered water infrastructure as an attractive investment opportunity and an excellent complement to [our] existing energy infrastructure portfolio. Utilities Inc. is a leader in this industry and we are pleased that [we have] the opportunity to acquire this business,” AIG Chairman and CEO Win J. Neuger gloated in a press release.

Article Reference: 

http://www.alternet.org/water/144203/bailed-out_aig_forcing_poor_to_choose_betwe...

Top Official: 'The EPA Is Back On The Job'

The Environmental Protection Agency released a long-secret document last week that reveals the agency's conclusions on global warming while President Bush was in office. The December 2007 document says greenhouse gases are dangerous and need to be regulated under the Clean Air Act.
"The Bush administration never accepted the need to regulate greenhouse gases," EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson tells Liane Hansen. "That's why the endangerment finding was never released."
The agency's decision to release that "endangerment finding" now highlights the stark differences between the EPA under Bush and the EPA under President Obama.

Article Reference: 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113884818