Archive for the 'Sustainable business intelligence & comment' Category

Recent sustainable business news


Even after the Nike sweatshop scandals, high profile UK companies, including Gap, Next and Marks & Spencer have been reported as continuing these practices in India–with pay rates as low as 25 cents per hour. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/08/gap-next-marks-spencer-sweatshops Ecuador has proposed an innovative mechanism for making a national contribution to the control of carbon emissions.  It proposes [...]

Posted by: Geoff Wells on Monday, 16th Aug, 2010

Ian Lowe’s “A Big Fix”


-1- One of the more unexpected legacies of the Howard era has been the emergence of a coterie of genuine public intellectuals; or rather, people who think for a living and have decided, because of the urgency of the times, to enter the more open eras of public discourse. They have, in fact, created a [...]

Posted by: Geoff Wells on Tuesday, 16th Mar, 2010

Recent sustainable business & environment reports


Here are some reports and opinion pieces that have appeared in recent weeks on important developments in the world environment: 1.  An important, perhaps critical, study published in Nature has estimated that the world will exceed total amount of greenhouse gas emissions beyond which dangerous climate change occurs by 2020.  This contracts still further projections [...]

Posted by: Geoff Wells on Saturday, 16th May, 2009

Australian government defence & climate confusions


I’ve spoken before about what appears to be an outbreak of split brain among the leaders of the world; that is, their apparently effortless ability to carry on with business as usual, while expressing concern about climate change effects that make business as usual untenable. The defence White Paper released this week by the Australian [...]

Posted by: Geoff Wells on Friday, 1st May, 2009

Science, scepticism and climate change


Dr Vicky Pope, head of the climate change office at the Hadley Centre (one of the world’s most reputable sources of climate change modelling) recently wrote a thoughtful piece for The Guardian which everyone concerned with climate change should read. The Hadley Centre has been one of the research organisations consistently alerting the world community [...]

Posted by: Geoff Wells on Sunday, 19th Apr, 2009

An historic opportunity being missed


Looking at the way in which world leaders, including Australia’s, are attempting to deal with the global economic crisis, one might be forgiven for wondering whether an outbreak of split-brain has occurred. There seems to be no difficulty among them–or indeed among economic commentators– in separating the two global crises, economic recession and climate change, [...]

Posted by: Geoff Wells on Thursday, 5th Feb, 2009

New year climate reports and views


2009 has brought some important research findings related to climate change, and some important new perspectives. In addition, there are some remarkable new initiatives in renewable energy and technology. Ian Lowe, the president of the Australian Conservation Society, and a well-established and articulate proponent of strong action on climate change (see my post September 17, [...]

Posted by: Geoff Wells on Wednesday, 14th Jan, 2009

The UK Uplands Entry Level Stewardship scheme


From the UK today comes a welcome report of a new funding scheme designed to support financially farmers who protect natural resources, wildlife and other environmentally-valued aspects of their land. Internationally these funding schemes are called Payments for Environmental Services.  Watersheds are a favourite application of these schemes.  The headwaters of rivers are often farmed, [...]

Posted by: Geoff Wells on Friday, 19th Dec, 2008

Monbiot on target


George Monbiot doesn’t mince words.  The science columnist for The Guardian has been for years in the vanguard of those who have been warning about the scale and potential impacts of climate change.  This week’s column is no exception.  It is entitled “The planet is now so vandalised that only total energy renewal can save [...]

Posted by: Geoff Wells on Tuesday, 25th Nov, 2008

New study documents further cooling effects of trees


The role of trees and forests as carbon sinks is well known.  Recent research indicates that trees may also have a direct effect in reducing global warming.  Scientists in the UK and Germany have discovered that some trees release a chemical that thickens clouds above them, thus increasing the action of clouds in reflecting incoming [...]

Posted by: Geoff Wells on Tuesday, 4th Nov, 2008

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