For anyone who doesn’t want to reduce carbon emissions, China seems like a great scapegoat. The defenders of the status quo argue that U.S. companies will be at a disadvantage if we tax carbon or invest in clean energy because “China’s not doing anything.” Problem is: It’s not true.
Tags: · Andrew Winston, China, Fossil Fuels, Greenhouse Gases, pollution
Fluoride has been controversial for longer than many of us have been alive. Back in the 1940s and 50s, when scientists introduced the idea of adding fluoride to our water systems to strengthen Americans’ teeth, people fought the effort.
Tags: · anti-fluoridation groups, BarbaraKesslerBlog, bones, China, cognition, dental health, Europe, fluoridation, fluoride, hip fractures, IQ, move to remove fluoride, teeth, thyroid
Disney, recognizing its heavy paper footprint as the world’s largest publisher of children’s books and magazines, has announced it will be changing its paper policies to try to stop the degradation of rainforests in Southeast Asia.
The change comes as a victory for indigenous Indonesians, rainforest wildlife and the atmosphere, which are all being harmed by the vociferous consumption of rainforests by logging in Indonesia.
Tags: · Asia Paper & Pulp, carbon dioxide pollution, Carbon Emissions, children's books, China, deforestation, Disney, Indonesia, Rainforest Action Network, sustainable paper
This fall Obama Administration critics became epically riled about the failure of Solyndra, a Silicon Valley solar start up that sucked up a horrific pile of cash, including $535 million in government-backed loans, only to gasp and die in the summer of 2011.
Tags: · BarbaraKesslerBlog, China, greenrightnow.com, Solar Power, Suntech, U.S.
Trade and foreign direct investment can have a positive effect on the serious environmental degradation confronting China, according to political scientist Ka Zeng at the University of Arkansas.
Tags: · Arkansas, China, China Business, China Environment, foreign direct investment, Foreign Trade, green tariffs, pollution, race to the bottom, Trade with China, University of Arkansas
The world is meeting in Cancun this week to talk climate change. Is there any hope of a large-scale agreement on capping emissions around the world? Most pundits would say no.
Why can’t we agree to do something? The answers are varied and all contain some truth. There are, for example…
- The inherent challenges of tackling a problem so diffuse and long-term with responsibility laying with all 7 billion of us
- Psychological barriers to change
- A media that paints all issues as having two equal sides even if it’s 99 to 1
- Powerful, vested interests in the old, fossil-fuel-based economy
Tags: · Andrew Winston, Cancun, Carbon Emissions, China, climate negotiations, developed world, developing world, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, greenrightnow.com, OtherVoicesBlog, U.S.
by Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica, and Aaron Kessler, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
A federal investigation into contaminated Chinese-made drywall has been a long, hard tug-of-war for U.S. investigators trying to pry information from Chinese government officials and manufacturers. When a team of investigators traveled to China last year, the tug-of-war became physical, with a Chinese official trying to wrest a piece of drywall from an American’s hands.
The federal probe is the largest defective-product investigation [1] ever conducted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. But almost two years after it began, the CPSC still hasn’t been able to figure out what materials in the Chinese drywall are triggering the release of sulfur gases. The gases have a chemical smell and have corroded wiring and appliances in thousands of U.S. homes. They’ve also been linked to respiratory ailments, nosebleeds and sinus problems
Tags: · China, corroded wires, dryall investigation, Drywall, drywall dangers, drywall debacle, gypsum mining, homes destroyed by Chinese drywall, offgassing drywall, sulphur smell, toxic drywall, U.S. homeowners
(This piece by Andrew Winston, green business consultant and author of Green Recovery and
Green to Gold (with Daniel Esty) first appeared as part of a series on the smart grid at Harvard Business Online.)
We’ll need a smarter grid, one that will both communicate in real time with customers’ devices to help manage peak demand and manage the inflows of renewable energy and plugged-in electric cars. But this is not a single pursuit; it’s the connective tissue in a network of new technologies and energy systems. These are multi-trillion-dollar markets, so the opportunities for the countries and companies that lead the charge will be vast. And some governments, especially in China and Germany, are taking this challenge much more seriously than others.
Tags: · Andrew Winston, China, clean economy, Electric Cars, green investment, high-speed rail, OtherVoicesBlog
(The article below has been adapted from Chapter 2, “Population Pressure: Land and Water,” in Lester R. Brown’s book Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009). Brown is the president of the Earth Policy Institute.)
The thin layer of topsoil that covers the planet’s land surface is the foundation of civilization. This soil, typically 6 inches or so deep, was formed over long stretches of geological time as new soil formation exceeded the natural rate of erosion. But sometime within the last century, as human and livestock populations expanded, soil erosion began to exceed new soil formation over large areas.
Tags: · Afghanistan, China, desertification, Grapes of Wrath, Iran, land management, Lester R. Brown, Nigeria, OtherVoicesBlog, Soil, soil conservation, Soil erosion
BYD Company Limited and Daimler AG have formed a joint venture that will develop an electric vehicle for China. The companies said the new vehicle will be marketed under a new brand jointly created and owned by Daimler and BYD.
Tags: · BYD Company Limited, chairman and president of BYD Company Limited, chairman of the board of management of Daimler AG, China, Daimler AG, Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Electric Cars, joint venture that will develop an electric vehicle for China, Wang Chuanfu
Mingyang Wind Power Industry Group, the third largest wind energy company in China, announced today that it will open a Dallas-based operations office. The new office will be a hub for the global expansion of the company, which is not government owned. Mingyang is backed by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, a major shareholder and recently identified as the largest bank in the world.
Tags: · China, Dallas, Mingyang Wind Power, U.S. wind, WINDPOWER 2010
Whatever the state of the political debate about climate change, the issue increasingly looks settled in the board room. Despite challenging economic conditions and regulatory uncertainty, global executives believe that the climate change agenda will significantly impact business performance and strategy over the next few years according to a new survey by Ernst & Young.
Tags: · Action amid uncertainty: the business response to climate change, Australia, Canada, China, Corporate leaders, energy efficiency, Ernst & Young, France, Germany, India, Japan, Spending on climate change, U.S.
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Barbara Kessler
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