Responding to climate change. Future of global environmental governance and cohesion. Are protecting the environment and social justice incompatible? Evolving energy access challenges. China should boost rare earths imports -industry body. How to think about GDP. The FINANCIAL -- Stock in New York are tense.
The GDP number for the first quarter of 2012 is about to come out. It is 0.4% lower than expected. The market tanks: stock prices drop dramatically. What is this GDP number that the market seems to care about so much? What is the Gross Domestic Product? A common misunderstanding is that GDP measures how rich a country is. GDP is also not a measure of how much money consumers have to spend. Opinion. The current crisis of financial capitalism and representative democracy illustrates the many excesses and unintended consequences of socio-economic liberalism.
For this and other reasons, a genuinely new ‘post-liberal’ political economy is needed. Air pollution 'will become bigger global killer than dirty water' Beijing, China, which is one of the countries likely to be worst hit by pollution-triggered deaths in coming decades.
Photograph: David Gray/Reuters Urban air pollution is set to become the biggest environmental cause of premature death in the coming decades, overtaking even such mass killers as poor sanitation and a lack of clean drinking water, according to a new report. Both developed and developing countries will be hit, and by 2050, there could be 3.6 million premature deaths a year from exposure to particulate matter, most of them in China and India. But rich countries will suffer worse effects from exposure to ground-level ozone, because of their ageing populations – older people are more susceptible. Following House passage, mirror bill introduced into US Senate to block US airlines from participating in EU ETS on GreenAir Online. Thu 8 Dec 2011 – Following the adoption of the H.R. 2594 bill in the US House of Representatives late October, Senator John Thune has introduced a mirror bill in the Senate.
The bill instructs the US Secretary of Transportation to prohibit US civil aircraft operators from participating in what it describes as the EU’s unilaterally established scheme, similar language to that of H.R. 2594. The move was welcomed by trade body Airlines for America, formerly the Air Transport Association, who estimate the EU ETS will cost US airlines and passengers more than $3.1 billion between 2012 and 2020.
The EU ETS issue is to be discussed at a regular meeting coincidentally being held today of EU and US representatives under the US-EU bilateral Open Skies air transport agreement. Sainsbury's Outlines Commitment to British Farming. Poultry News Sainsbury's Outlines Commitment to British Farming 09 January 2012 UK - In a first for a major retailer, Sainsbury's last week hosted a fringe event for delegates at the Oxford Farming Conference.
New EU-US organics partnership is good news for both sides of Atlantic. On Wednesday, the European Union and the United States announce a historic partnership to make it easier to trade in organic foods, opening up opportunities for organic farmers and ranchers, small businesses, and jobs in packaging, shipping, and marketing on both sides of the Atlantic.
The new arrangement, which comes into force 1 June, allows products certified as organic in the EU to be sold in the US and vice versa, eliminating significant barriers for producers. At present, a separate, additional certification is required, meaning additional costs and bureaucracy for organic farmers. To help reduce paperwork and expenses, the arrangement is simple in its aim: it recognizes that the EU and the US have credible organic certification systems and that we share common perspectives about what constitutes the production of organic products. OFC - UK Punching Above its Farming Weight. News OFC - UK Punching Above its Farming Weight 04 January 2012 UK - A new report prepared for the Oxford Farming Conference shows that there has been a shift in power worldwide in agriculture as a result of globalisation of markets and the growth of multinational corporations, writes Chris Harris from the Oxford Farming Conference.
However, the report spells out that while the UK may be a relatively small player, it punches above its weight as a farming power. Greece on the breadline: the children of Athens too hungry to do PE. Residents in Athens carry bags of cheap potatoes bought directly from Greek farmers at cost price, one of the burgeoning ways to cope in the worsening financial crisis.
Photograph: KeystoneUSA-ZUMA / Rex Features Dozens of readers have sent me suggestions about places to go and people to meet in my search for stories behind the headlines in Athens, and I'm following up as many as I can. Others have sent me their own contributions. We’re underestimating the risk of human extinction. (Credit: Wikipedia Commons) Unthinkable as it may be, humanity, every last person, could someday be wiped from the face of the Earth.
We have learned to worry about asteroids and supervolcanoes, but the more-likely scenario, according to Nick Bostrom, a professor of philosophy at Oxford, is that we humans will destroy ourselves. Journalist's concern over bird flu research. 17 February 2012Last updated at 01:25 By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News.