Category: Economy

The Story of Stuff

22/12/2016

The Story of Stuff, originally released in December 2007, is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the Stuff in your life forever.

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Story Of Stuff, Referenced and Annotated Script By Annie Leonard

Credits
The Story of Stuff was written by Annie Leonard, Louis Fox, and Jonah Sachs, directed by Louis Fox and produced by Free Range Studios. Executive Producers included Tides Foundation and the Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption.

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Read also: Planned and perceived obsolescence: The 12 days of Christmas junk

From Russia to Iceland to Ecuador banking is being reinvented

22/12/2015

Ellen Brown : The Web of Debt Blog : 11 Dec 2015

Global developments in finance and geopolitics are prompting a rethinking of the structure of banking and of the nature of money itself. Among other interesting news items:

In Russia, vulnerability to Western sanctions has led to proposals for a banking system that is not only independent of the West but is based on different design principles.

In Iceland, the booms and busts culminating in the banking crisis of 2008-09 have prompted lawmakers to consider a plan to remove the power to create money from private banks.

In Ireland, Iceland and the UK, a recession-induced shortage of local credit has prompted proposals for a system of public interest banks on the model of the Sparkassen of Germany.

In Ecuador, the central bank is responding to a shortage of US dollars (the official Ecuadorian currency) by issuing digital dollars through accounts to which everyone has access, effectively making it a bank of the people.

Read the whole article here.

China announces it will cancel the debt of the world's most impoverished nations

22/10/2015

The Higher Learning : 22 Oct 2015

Since the 1990s, a major part of Chinese foreign policy has been to invest in developing countries around the world. This includes private investments, like the billion-dollar solar project being spearheaded by a Chinese energy company in Ghana or the multi-billion-dollar canal being built by a Chinese infrastructure firm in Nicaragua. It also includes public investment projects like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which was launched earlier this year to help fund infrastructure projects in impoverished Asian countries (and to reduce the amount of influence wielded by the U.S.-led investment banks).

On Saturday, Chinese President Xi Jinping made yet another commitment to help economic growth in the developing world, announcing that China would be canceling the debts of the world's least developed countries. President Xi made the announcement while addressing a United Nations summit on global development goals. During his speech, he also pledged to establish a $2 billion fund dedicated to improving conditions in the most impoverished countries around the world.

"Looking around the world, the peace and development remain the two major themes of the times," President Xi told attendees at the summit in New York. He continued, "To solve various global challenges, including the recent refugee crisis in Europe, the fundamental solutions lie in seeking peace and realising development. Facing with various challenges and difficulties, we must keep hold of the key of the development. Only the development can eliminate the causes of the conflicts."

Xi's speech came a day after the UN unveiled its new Global Goals for Sustainable Development, an ambitious plan that aims to eradicate poverty and hunger in the next 15 years. Coincidentally, China played a key role in helping the UN achieve its previous poverty reduction goals as well — BBC correspondent James Robbins explains, it was China's extraordinary record shifting so many families out the ranks of the poor which ensured that the overall global record in poverty reduction under the previous Millennium Development Goals was substantial.

China's new pledge of financial support, as well as its promise to forgive the debts of the world's poorest countries, show a continued commitment to the goal of reducing poverty worldwide. "The world is going through a historical process of accelerated evolution. The sunshine of peace, development and progress will be powerful enough to penetrate the clouds of war, poverty and backwardness." President Xi said.

Read more from the BBC. Read a full transcript of President Xi's speech from Quartz.

Medicine Hat is the first Canadian city to eliminate homelessness

17/5/2015

Carol Off and Jeff Douglas : CBC Radio : 14 May 2015

© CBC
Ted Clugston, mayor of Medicine Hat, Alberta.

Medicine Hat, a city in southern Alberta, pledged in 2009 to put an end to homelessness. Now they say they've fulfilled their promise. No one in the city spends more than 10 days in an emergency shelter or on the streets. If you've got no place to go, they'll simply provide you with housing. "We're pretty much able to meet that standard today. Even quicker, actually, sometimes," Mayor Ted Clugston tells As It Happens host Carol Off.

Housing is tight in Medicine Hat. Frequent flooding in the past few years didn't help matters. With money chipped in by the province, the city built many new homes.

Ted Clugston is the mayor of Medicine Hat, Alberta. Clugston admits that when the project began in 2009, when he was an alderman, he was an active opponent of the plan. "I even said some dumb things like, 'Why should they have granite countertops when I don't,'" he says. "However, I've come around to realize that this makes financial sense." Clugston says that it costs about $20,000 a year to house someone. If they're on the street, it can cost up to $100,000 a year. "This is the cheapest and the most humane way to treat people," he says.

"Housing First puts everything on its head. It used to be, 'You want a home, get off the drugs or deal with your mental health issues,'" Clugston says. "If you're addicted to drugs, it's going to be pretty hard to get off them, if you're sleeping under a park bench." And the strategy has worked. In Medicine Hat, emergency room visits and interactions with police have dropped. But there was one change that initially surprised Clugston -- court appearances went up. "They end up dealing with their past, atoning for their sins," he says.

Clugston believes that no one on the streets is unreachable. He says city staff found housing for one man, but he insisted on leaving to sleep under cars. Day after day, they'd search him out and take him back to his new home. "They did it 75 times, but they had the patience and they didn't give up on him and, eventually, he ended up staying in the house," he says. "Ultimately, people do want a roof over their heads."
Source

CEO with a conscience reduces his salary to give his employees huge wage increases

16/4/2015

Patricia Cohen : The New York Times : 13 Apr 2015

Dan Price, C.E.O. of Gravity Payments, surprised his 120-person staff by announcing that he planned over the next three years to raise the salary of every employee to $70,000 a year. The idea began percolating, said Dan Price, the founder of Gravity Payments, after he read an article on happiness. It showed that, for people who earn less than about $70,000, extra money makes a big difference in their lives.

His idea bubbled into reality on Monday afternoon, when Mr. Price surprised his 120-person staff by announcing that he planned over the next three years to raise the salary of even the lowest-paid clerk, customer service representative and salesman to a minimum of $70,000. "Is anyone else freaking out right now?" Mr. Price asked after the clapping and whooping died down into a few moments of stunned silence. "I'm kind of freaking out."

If it's a publicity stunt, it's a costly one. Mr. Price, who started the Seattle-based credit-card payment processing firm in 2004 at the age of 19, said he would pay for the wage increases by cutting his own salary from nearly $1 million to $70,000 and using 75 to 80 percent of the company's anticipated $2.2 million in profit this year. The paychecks of about 70 employees will grow, with 30 ultimately doubling their salaries, according to Ryan Pirkle, a company spokesman. The average salary at Gravity is $48,000 a year.

Mr. Price's small, privately owned company is by no means a bellwether, but his unusual proposal does speak to an economic issue that has captured national attention: The disparity between the soaring pay of chief executives and that of their employees.

The United States has one of the world's largest pay gaps, with chief executives earning nearly 300 times what the average worker makes, according to some economists' estimates. That is much higher than the 20-to-1 ratio recommended by Gilded Age magnates like J. Pierpont Morgan and the 20th century management visionary Peter Drucker.

"The market rate for me as a C.E.O. compared to a regular person is ridiculous, it's absurd," said Mr. Price, who said his main extravagances were snowboarding and picking up the bar bill. He drives a 12-year-old Audi, which he received in a barter for service from the local dealer. "As much as I'm a capitalist, there is nothing in the market that is making me do it," he said, referring to paying wages that make it possible for his employees to go after the American dream, buy a house and pay for their children's education.

This article can be read in its entirety at :source

UK: Real Junk Food Project has fed 10,000 people, using 20 tonnes of unwanted food in a country crippled by "austerity" measures

18/12/2014

Lisa Campbell : The Independent : 16 Dec 2014

The founder of a quietly-growing empire of social cafes has called on a change in the law to prevent the UK's "criminal" levels of food waste - especially by supermarkets - while so many go hungry. Adam Smith, founder of The Real Junk Food Project, in Armley, Leeds, feeds his punters on goods that would otherwise have been thrown away by supermarkets, independent grocers and food banks. The 29-year-old trained chef cooks up stews, casseroles, soups and cakes with the unwanted food, charging a "pay as you feel" policy - allowing punters to pay what they feel they can, and if that is nothing, they can help with the washing up. In just 10 months he has fed 10,000 people on 20 tonnes of unwanted food, raising over £30,000.

The cafe has had such resonance in a world with such high food wastage and high hunger levels it has inspired 47 other "pay as you feel" cafes to spring in the past few months in Manchester, Bristol, Saltaire - with the concept even exported as far away as Los Angeles and Brazil, Warsaw and Zurich. But Mr Smith says The Real Junk Food Project - which is in the process of being registered as an official charity - is about more than simply feeding those who might otherwise go hungry. "It is bringing people from different demographics together that doesn't involve money. People are opening Junk Food Projects because they have had enough of what is going on in society and care about what is happening to other human beings," he said. "It is a revolution."

Mr Smith wants the law to be changed to prevent supermarkets throwing so much food away for fear of prosecution - and he wants more pressure on supermarkets to be compelled to work with organisations like his. Currently, a retailer will be prosecuted if it sells food after the use-by date, but not before the "best-before" date. Despite this, supermarkets from across the sector regularly throw food out before its "best-before" date and, in Mr Smith's experience, are scornful about working with enterprises like his, which would happily take it. "Supermarkets are a pain in the arse," Mr Smith said. "They do not want anything to do with us. Many look down on us, I've had one manager of one well-known supermarket even spit in my face. We are breaking the law in their eyes. But we want to fight the law and take the fight to the general public."

Mr Smith said the cafe regularly sources its food from some rather unorthordox sources. "We regularly take food from supermarket bins if we have to," he said. "We watch them throw it away, then we go and take it back out again 10 minutes later. Over 90% of the goods are perfectly fine." He said he recently took several jars of caviar which did not go off until December 2015 from one supermarket bin and he has also served punters salmon, scallops and even steak in his cafe from donations.

However, the tide is starting to turn, and Mr Smith revealed he is currently in talks with a national supermarket to provide food to his cafe. Nandos restaurant chain has also been "fantastic" and has agreed to help Real Junk Food Projects around the country. "We now get all our chicken from them," Smith said, which equates to around 100-150 kilos of frozen chicken a week. "They have a 'no chuckin' our chicken' motto" he said, adding: "They give it to us because legally we will take responsibility for it." When asked if he was concerned about being prosecuted under the law himself, Mr Smith said: "Environmental Health came to inspect us and gave us three out of five stars. Everyone is completely aware of what we are doing. We want the law changed on best before dates to get better regulation - we have fed 10,000 with this food and not one has got ill."

Mr Smith agrees more needs to be done to teach people the basics of cooking in schools. "We cook the basics in the cafe because many people don't know how to do the basic things with food," he said. "I know people who think they don't know how to make a fruit salad and they are 40-years-old. They didn't get it was just chopping up fruit and putting it into a bowl. We have realized there is a serious lack of basic education in the UK in terms of food awareness, what to make and where it comes from. "We cook basic sides, sauces, stews, casseroles, cakes, to get people eating this sort of food again and it is so easy to make."

A new "pay as you feel" cafe which opened in Saltaire, West Yorkshire, at the weekend, The Saltaire Canteen, hopes to address this issue by providing cookery workshops for single men. It too hopes to strengthen the community with the free cafe. Andy McNab, local outreach coordinator for St Peter's Church in Shipley, who is running the cafe, said: "We want to debunk some of the stereotypes about the people who use food banks. The reality is anybody can end up using one. It doesn't take anything to get into a place where someone ends up losing their job and their social networks weren't as strong as they thought they were to fall into food crisis. It can happen very suddenly."

You can read the article in its entirety at : http://www.sott.net/article/290256-UK-Real-Junk-Food-Project-has-fed-10000-people-using-20-tonnes-of-unwanted-food-in-a-country-crippled-by-austerity-measures

'Thrive' - Crop Circles are Clues to New Energy Technology (.... and more)

3/9/2013

Published on 15 Dec 2012

From "Thrive: What on Earth Will it Take?"
To see full movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEV5AF...
Featured: Nassim Haramein, Steven Greer, Duane Elgin, Adam Trombley, Nikola Tesla, James Gilliland, Jack Kasher.

China's mounting ecological disaster : insufficient water

23/5/2013

May 23, 2013 – CHINA - Steady deterioration of water bodies is one of the most pressing problems facing the world today. In Asia, degradation of water quality and the problems it spawns are so extensive and serious that they are threatening to harm economic growth and affect the health and quality of life of billions of people. China’s high economic growth has had an adverse impact in terms of access, volume and quality of water as well as equity, management and investment requirements. While the magnitude of the water quality problem has steadily widened, planning, management and institutional capacities have not improved commensurately and thus complicated matters further.

Water scarcity and pollution of water sources are two of the most serious problems for China. Pollution has now spread from the coastal region to inland water bodies, affecting both surface water and groundwater. More than 53 billion tons of (untreated or inadequately treated) wastewater is discharged into China’s water bodies every year. And as early as 2006, water in a stretch of more than 25,000 km of rivers failed to meet the quality standards for aquatic life and about 90 percent sections of rivers in and around urban areas were seriously polluted. The World Bank estimates that water scarcity and pollution are costing China about 2.3 percent of GDP – 1.3 percent due to water scarcity and the rest as a direct impact of water pollution.

Water quality is a bigger problem in North China, where shortage of water prevents pollutant discharges from being diluted. In the northern region, about 40 percent of the rivers have the two worst water quality standards: grades V and VI. This means water is so highly polluted that it is not only unsafe to drink (a serious health issue in itself), but also very difficult and expensive to treat. Pollution is a serious problem in rural areas, too. Ministry of Water Resources data show that more than 300 million people don’t have access to safe drinking water. While in terms of money the cost is a staggering 66 billion yuan ($10.72 billion), the main cost is in terms of human life as diseases like diarrhea, cholera and cancer continue to afflict people. Although the impact of water pollution on health is very serious, it cannot be quantified because of lack of reliable data both on the pollutants and the households that use poor quality water.

Water pollution is also harming China’s south-to-north water transfer project. Along the “East Route,” for example, industrial pollution has affected many of the poorer areas of northern Jiangsu and western Shandong provinces, delaying the construction of the project. Speaking at a forum in September 2000, Zhu Rongji, then premier, said the initial stage of the project should follow the principle, “first save water, then transfer it; first clean up pollution, then let the water flow; first protect the environment, then use water.” Unfortunately, more than a decade later, pollution problems along the East Route have still not been fully solved. In addition, industrial accidents and illegal dumping of wastes often worsen the quality of water in rivers and lakes. Such incidents include the Songhua River toxic chemical spill in 2005, the algae bloom in Taihu Lake which polluted the source of drinking water for people of the surrounding areas in 2007 and the dumping of more than 13,000 pig carcasses in the Huangpu River earlier this year. –China Daily

Film : The Green Beautiful/ La Belle Verte

29/7/2012

Film : The Green Beautiful/ La Belle Verte

Catastroika

23/5/2012

Catastroika (English/English Subtitles)

Published on 4 May 2012 by angeloz318

The creators of 'Debtocracy', a documentary with two million views broadcasted from Japan to Latin America, analyze the shifting of state assets to private hands and the consequences of doing this.

They travel round the world gathering data on privatization in developed countries and search for clues on the day after Greece's massive privatization program.

THRIVE: What On Earth Will It Take?

9/4/2012

More info at: http://www.thrivemovement.com/

SYNOPSIS
THRIVE is an unconventional documentary that lifts the veil on what's REALLY going on in our world by following the money upstream -- uncovering the global consolidation of power in nearly every aspect of our lives. Weaving together breakthroughs in science, consciousness and activism, THRIVE offers real solutions, empowering us with unprecedented and bold strategies for reclaiming our lives and our future.

INTERVIEWS in THRIVE
Duane Elgin, Nassim Haramein, Steven Greer, Jack Kasher, Daniel Sheehan, Adam Trombly, Brian O'Leary, Vandana Shiva, John Gatto, Deepak Chopra, David Icke, Catherine Austin Fitts, G. Edward Griffin, Bill Still, John Perkins, Paul Hawken, Aqeela Sherrills, Evon Peter, Angel Kyodo Williams, Elisabet Sahtouris, Amy Goodman, and Barbara Marx Hubbard.

Full video (2 hrs 12 mins) at: http://youtu.be/lEV5AFFcZ-s

The Most IMPORTANT Video You'll Ever See (part 1 of 8)

14/1/2012

Uploaded by wonderingmind42 on 16 Jun 2007

Almost 3.8 million views [2012] for an old codger giving a lecture about arithmetic? What's going on? You'll just have to watch to see what's so damn amazing about what he (Albert Bartlett) has to say.

I introduce this video to my students as "Perhaps the most boring video you'll ever see, and definitely the most important." But then again, after watching it most said that if you followed along with what the presenter (a Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Colorado-Boulder) is saying, it's quite easy to pay attention, because it is so compelling.

Entire playlist for the lecture: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6A1FD147A45EF50D