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Nature losses to far exceed losses due to 'bank crisis'
The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-commissioned study.
It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.
The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide.
The study, headed by a Deutsche Bank economist, parallels the Stern Review into the economics of climate change.
It has been discussed during many sessions here at the World Conservation Congress.
Some conservationists see it as a new way of persuading policymakers to fund nature protection rather than allowing the decline in ecosystems and species, highlighted in the release on Monday of the Red List of Threatened Species, to continue.
Capital losses
Speaking to BBC News on the fringes of the congress, study leader Pavan Sukhdev emphasised that the cost of natural decline dwarfs losses on the financial markets.
"It's not only greater but it's also continuous, it's been happening every year, year after year," he told BBC News.
"So whereas Wall Street by various calculations has to date lost, within the financial sector, $1-$1.5 trillion, the reality is that at today's rate we are losing natural capital at least between $2-$5 trillion every year."
The review that Mr Sukhdev leads, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb), was initiated by Germany under its recent EU presidency, with the European Commission providing funding.
The first phase concluded in May when the team released its finding that forest decline could be costing about 7% of global GDP. The second phase will expand the scope to other natural systems.
Stern message
Key to understanding his conclusions is that as forests decline, nature stops providing services which it used to provide essentially for free.
So the human economy either has to provide them instead, perhaps through building reservoirs, building facilities to sequester carbon dioxide, or farming foods that were once naturally available.
Or we have to do without them; either way, there is a financial cost.
The Teeb calculations show that the cost falls disproportionately on the poor, because a greater part of their livelihood depends directly on the forest, especially in tropical regions.
The greatest cost to western nations would initially come through losing a natural absorber of the most important greenhouse gas.
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And that isn't only on a monetary scale. The loss of forests, natural carbon sinks, biodiversity, our oceans, and the ecosystems that depend on them will lose us as a species far more than $$$$$$. We will lose our very essence and our reason for being on this planet. We will lose the very breath of our Earth. To me, while the global markets struggle to maintain a tangible asset, let us not forget that our Earth and its sustainability is our most precious asset in more ways than just the tangible. And if we as a world community do not get truly serious about dealing with this loss within the next year it will not matter what happens on a global market. The loss to us otherwise will be even more catastrophic. The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-... more -
John Lennons birthday today, Peace Tower to be lit, a letter from Yoko on IMAGINE ...
On 9 Oct 2008, John Lennon's birthday, Yoko Ono asks the people of Iceland (and the world)
to join her and many others across the rest of the world in praying for peace
and stability.
At 8pm, (today in Iceland) as the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER is illuminated on the island of Viðey
she asks everyone to join together and let the power of light and prayer
become a collective expression of the desire for peace and harmony on our
planet.
Dear Friends,
Please join me not only in remembering John on October 9th but also in
spreading the message of peace. This is something that was so important to
John - the fact that we could all work together for the positive good of our
planet. He would have loved how we are all mobilizing ourselves in thought
and in action. It's time for action and the action is peace!
with love, yoko
Yoko Ono
9 Oct 2008
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Let's join our collective consciousnesses to bring energy and light to the need for World Peace. On this site, there are times to do this per your location on earth. Remember the Laws of Attraction as well, an energy that permeates the Universe, and energy that keeps it all glued together!
If you want, you can also send a wish message to be included in todays ceremony. You can find out how on the site. or at this link: http://www.imaginepeace.com/wish.html
peace and light..WPTV
ps..listen to what John says in the video. Even tho this was over 20 years ago, it still holds true On 9 Oct 2008, John Lennon's birthday, Yoko Ono asks the people of Iceland (and the world) ... more -
The next burden: inflation
It is now clear that every government in the west is going to try their best to ensure that no savers lose any of their deposits. The Federal Reserve is lending directly to companies, and here in the UK, the government is going to start buying shares in UK banks. There is no escaping the severity of the crisis. Monetary authorities around the world are now focused on trying to ensure that we avoid the fate of the United States in the Great Depression of the 1930s, when output fell by over 30%. Instead, their hope is that the recession to come is more like the early 1970s, when western economies shrank by 5% to 10%. Painful but not catastrophic.
What we cannot escape is the fact that the amount of money in the banking sector far outweighs the value of the assets that it was lent against. This is how it works. You want to buy a house, and you need to borrow £100,000. You go to a bank and they create the loan, and at the same time deposit £100,000 in your bank account. This money did not exist before: it is new money. You buy your house, and at the other end of the chain, the sellers deposit the £100,000 back into the banking system. The amount of money in circulation has risen by £100,000 and is represented by the seller's bank "savings". But those savings are a reflection of the value of the house. If the price of the house doubled while they owned it, then £50,000 of those savings is a result of inflation caused by the banking sector creating money.
Supposing the housing market crashes. There is now more money in the banking system than the value of housing stock. The value of that the money has to fall as well. During the Asian crisis 10 years ago, this is exactly what happened. Many banks went insolvent, many savers lost their deposits, and the value of money in the economy fell so as to reflect the new and lower value of assets in the economy. This was exactly what happened in Thailand, but unlike us, their government was simply too poor to bail out savers who happened to have their deposits in the wrong bank.
In the west, we are rich enough to be able to ensure that banks do not collapse, wiping out individual savers. (Indeed, why should some savers be OK just because they were lucky enough to put their deposit in the right bank?) However, what we cannot escape from is the fact that the value of money in circulation now has to shrink to match the falling value of property against which the money was lent. However little we like it, the value of our savings has to fall. It is now clear that every government in the west is going to try their best to ensure that no savers lose any of their deposits. The ... more -
Interest rates cuts worldwide
Is this a sign of a turn around in the global financial crisis?? Personally I think its going to take a few months if not years until it gets back to the world powers having stable economies!!! Is this a sign of a turn around in the global financial crisis?? Personally I think its going to take a few months if not years until... more
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Army's life-or-death drama: To combat suicides, service introduces interactiv...
Alarmed by a record rate of suicide in its ranks, the Army yesterday unveiled a unique prevention tool -- an interactive video to be mandatory viewing Army-wide -- in which soldiers will play the role of an anguished infantryman and make virtual choices that lead the character to get help or, in the worst case, shoot himself in the head.
"This is you: Specialist Kyle Norton," a male narrator begins, putting soldiers in the boots of a 19-year-old Midwesterner after a bomb-clearing mission in Iraq.
The video, titled "Beyond the Front," leads the viewer through a detailed drama in which Norton is hit by relationship troubles, financial problems and scrapes with the law -- what Army research shows are major events that precipitate suicide. Norton is blindsided by an e-mail from his fiancee, who has become pregnant by another man. He is devastated further when one of his best friends is killed in an ambush.
Questions pop onto the screen at key moments, prompting the viewer to decide whether to get help -- by opening up with buddies, Norton's sergeant or a chaplain. Depending on the choices, Norton edges toward recovery or sinks deeper into suicidal thoughts. The goal is to immerse the viewer into Norton's life in a way that makes preventive lessons stick, say Army officials and the video's creators.
The video is one of several initiatives launched by the Army to try to stem the suicide rate among active-duty soldiers. That rate increased from 12.4 per 100,000 in 2003, when the Iraq war started, to 18.1 per 100,000 last year.
This year, 93 active-duty soldiers killed themselves through the end of August, the latest data show. A third of those cases are under investigation by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's Office. In all of 2007, 115 soldiers committed suicide. Suicide attempts by soldiers have also increased since 2003.
If the trend continues, the death rate this year is likely to exceed that of a demographically similar segment of the U.S. population -- 19.5 per 100,000, Stephens said -- which has not happened since the Vietnam War Alarmed by a record rate of suicide in its ranks, the Army yesterday unveiled a unique prevention tool -- an interactive video to be m... more -
S.F. traffic noise risks health of 1 in 6
Noise from traffic is putting nearly 1 in 6 San Francisco residents at risk for heart disease, high blood pressure and other stress-related illnesses, city public health officials have found.
Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer Noise from traffic is putting nearly 1 in 6 San Francisco residents at risk for heart disease, high blood pressure and other stress-re... more -
Comments on Comments on Media, War and Finances
I finally got the point of who drives the news here at current.
1. There a part of the people that are students
2. There a part that are employees at Current
3. Then there are people that are really aware of what is going on and that is not that many
4. Then there are the kids...
5. And the other part is... well
Let see if you can guess, throw me a bone! Because I already figure that out. I finally got the point of who drives the news here at current. 1. There a part of the people that are students ... more -
Obama faces coal conundrum
As an environmentalist this is the one reason why Obama (and McCain to clarify) will not get my vote, because neither of them have gained my trust on this. I was looking this time for someone who would truly lead on the environment to bring the country to a higher consciousness to see that solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels (not ethanol) were what this country must have now to lead us into the 21st Century not only to save our planet but ourselves. It is an understatement to say that I am disappointed that there is not one candidate who is on that higher level of consciousness about this important crisis.
There is no change and there will not be significant progress regarding the climate crisis and political will if Obama (and yes, others as well) still plays to the coal industry while touting an environmental plan. As the article states, there is no such thing as clean coal... and it isn't only about that. It is about the cancer, and the mercury, and the asthma, and the lung diseases, and the toxicity, and the pollution... and the mountaintop removal that is destroying the beauty of this country. Yet, we didn't hear any of them talking about this in any campaign speech or in any debate.
Nothing about the devastation done to Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and other states in blowing up the mountains that will continue to be blown up regardless of how the coal is burned. This is why I concentrate on Obama. I know McCain is not going to care... I was hoping Obama would, but have seen more and more that he does not and I will not give him a free ride on it. I expect better and I expect truth from those who claim to want 'change' because real change means telling the people the truth. Yet he continues to lie every single time he discusses clean coal technology when he doesn't tell people the truth about the availability or feasability of it.
Some say this isn't enough to change their vote... all well and good. It is for me, because the longer candidates think they can still get votes no matter how much they fail us they won't ever try to keep their promises and earn them. I have had enough of politicians who claim to want to do the right thing but then turn around and do exactly what everyone else does or as the money dictates. And pushing 'clean coal' out of political expedience at a time when our Earth's delicate climate balance is on the brink of tipping instead of taking a true and bold moral stand is not the right thing to do now. As an environmentalist this is the one reason why Obama (and McCain to clarify) will not get my vote, because neither of them have gai... more -
Fed Orders Emergency Rate Cut to 1.5 Percent
The Federal Reserve and a consortium of European central banks today announced a half a point cut in a key interest rate, a coordinated effort to stave off an economic slump even as they continue struggling to tackle a crisis in global financial markets.
The announcement reversed sharp losses in European stock markets and buoyed U.S. market futures that were pointing towards another troubled day on Wall Street.
The rate cuts, hinted at by Fed chairman Ben S. Bernanke yesterday then approved by the central bank overnight, reduces the target federal funds rate to 1.5 percent from 2 percent.
Joining the rate cut were central banks in Canada, England, Sweden, Switzerland and the European Central Bank.
With commodity prices falling and concerns about an economic slowdown taking root around the globe, the Fed in a statement said that it was now time to shift the focus from fighting inflation to bolstering growth. Lower interest rates make it cheaper for companies to borrow to invest in plant and equipment, and bring down the cost of a variety of consumer credit options such as bank credit cards and auto loans. The Federal Reserve and a consortium of European central banks today announced a half a point cut in a key interest rate, a coordinate... more -
Retirement Savings Lose $2 Trillion in 15 Months
The stock market's prolonged tumble has wiped out about $2 trillion in Americans' retirement savings in the past 15 months, a blow that could force workers to stay on the job longer than planned, rein in spending and possibly further stall an economy reliant on consumer dollars, Congress's top budget analyst said yesterday.
.......
Through September, the percentage loss for the year in average account balances among 401(k) participants was between 7.2 and 11.2 percent, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute's analysis of more than 2 million plans.
Employees between the ages of 56 and 65 who had the fewest years on the job were the least affected, while those 36 to 45 years old with the longest tenures suffered the steepest declines, said Jack L. VanDerhei, research director for the D.C.-based institute. Younger workers tend to have more stocks in their portfolios while older employees move toward safer investments such as bonds, VanDerhei said.
The findings exacerbate a complaint among many workers and academics about 401(k) and similar plans that are heavily tied to the stock market. Are they really the best retirement vehicles for workers?
"The loss of retirement security is a reversal of fortune and the result of very specific flawed governmental policies that have been biased toward 401(k) plans, rather than the result of technological change or the logical consequences of global economic trends," Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor of Economic Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research, testified before the committee.
.......... The stock market's prolonged tumble has wiped out about $2 trillion in Americans' retirement savings in the past 15 months, ... more -
Worldwide financial fiasco
Markets around the world hammered by credit crunch as governments move to secure bank deposits.
Markets were thrashed again on Monday, as the US credit crisis spreads worldwide. The Dow Jones lost another 370 points and closing at under 10,000 for the first time since October 2004. At one point the Dow was down 800 pts. But managed to recoup half. The day started with reaction to sharp declines in Asian and European markets. Tokyo's Nikkei index fell to its lowest level in four and a half years, sinking 4.25 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 4.3 percent. Markets in China, Australia, South Korea, India, Singapore and Thailand also fell sharply. In Europe the trading was halted twice in Russia with the market closing down 19.1 percent, the DAX in Frankfurt, Germany was down 7.1 percent, while the FTSE 100 index in the UK was down 7.9 percent. Stocks in Paris took a big hit losing 9 percent. Across the Atlantic Brazil lost 5.5 percent; Argentina was off 5.9 percent, while Mexico's index fell 5.4 percent, In Canada the TSX was down 5.3 percent. Faltering confidence in the financial system following a series of bank bailouts forced many European governments to offer deposit guarantees. Expectations are that the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank will have a coordinated interest rate cut as early as Monday, the first joint action since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US. Markets around the world hammered by credit crunch as governments move to secure bank deposits. ... more -
Orwell Rolls In His Grave: Documentary-- Featuring interviews with former media pr...
Using Orwell's "1984" as a backdrop, this documentary presents a rarely seen analysis of the mainstream media, its ownership structure, its true size and nature, and its undeniable influence over today's society. Features interviews with former CNN, MSNBC, and Fox mainstream media producers along with communications and media professors...
The day of Reagan's inauguration, the medOia reports the release of Iran's American hostages. On September 11th, 2001, the media does not report on literally dozens of firefighters hearing explosions in the towers prior too and during their collapses. The media completely ignores the thousands of protesters on Wall Street last week protesting the bailout. and that's just the beginning... Using Orwell's "1984" as a backdrop, this documentary presents a rarely seen analysis of the mainstream media, its owne... more -
Debt slavery: Zeitgeist Addendum released
Traditional slavery requires the slave owner to feed and house the slaves.
Debt slavery requires the slaves to feed and house themselves.
Watch Zeitgeist Addendum - Are you a slave?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=706520527769592... Traditional slavery requires the slave owner to feed and house the slaves. ... more -
Last days of the American Republic?
Chalmers Johnson: USA must cut back on military spending and build green infrastructure or face ruin. Part 2
Chalmers Johnson: "Something has happened to us comparable to what happened to the former USSR after 1989 ... And that led finally to the dissolution of the USSR."
Chalmers Johnson taught from 1962 to 1992 at the Berkeley and San Diego campuses of the University of California. From 1968 until 1972 he was a consultant to the Office of National Estimates of the Central Intelligence Agency. He has written 17 books. His most recent releases are “Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire” (Metropolitan Books, 2000) and “The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic” (Metropolitan, 2004) and his newest book, “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic" (Metropolitan, 2007). Chalmers has been a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times, the London Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, and The Nation among others, he appears in the 2005 prize-winning documentary film "Why We Fight".
See Part 1 at: http://current.com/items/89370666_massive_us_military_b...
See Part 3 at: http://current.com/items/89378191_the_encirclement_of_r... Chalmers Johnson: USA must cut back on military spending and build green infrastructure or face ruin. Part 2 ... more -
Amero the new American currency good bye dollar !!
This is a unscheduled post but very important to all of us who loves dollar as over currency .But now what we are going to have is "Amero " yes you read that right.
Amero is a new currency adopted by united states of America,Canada & Mexico till now it was just an conspiracy theory and discussed thousands time on around the world on different forums.More info : http://www.ufoblogger.blogspot.com This is a unscheduled post but very important to all of us who loves dollar as over currency .But now what we are going to have is �... more -
No Joint European Strategy On Banks
PARIS, Oct. 4 -- The leaders of Europe's four largest economic powers vowed Saturday to protect their banks from the continuing reverberations of the increasingly global financial crisis but could not agree on a common Europe-wide strategy.
Unlike the United States, which last week committed $700 billion in government money to shoring up Wall Street, Europe plans to continue dealing with its financial problems on a case-by-case basis. That approach, which has involved tens of billions of dollars at a step, is complicated by the transnational presence of so many large European financial institutions.
But the European leaders did call for a global economic summit by year's end aimed at revamping the international financial system, which is a legacy of a conference held at Bretton Woods, N.H., in the waning months of World War II.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Europe's most vocal advocate of a continent-wide response, announced that for now, he and the leaders of Britain, Germany and Italy agreed in four hours of discussions only that each country would use "its own means" to safeguard banks from collapse but would do so "in a coordinated way."
The outcome seemed to fall well short of the common policy that French and other officials had spoken of in recent days amid a rapid series of financial failures and a freezing up of the capital markets in Europe, which rival or by some measures exceed the size of the U.S. markets. The disunity in Europe also was apparent in complaints by some other countries that they were not even included in the discussion.
Failure to pursue a broader bailout reflected particularly strong opposition from Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain to any attempt at pooling resources for a Europe-wide fund to protect weak banks. Each government should handle its own banking problems, they said, because each country -- and even each bank -- has specific problems that must be dealt with in different ways.
Indeed, even as the leaders discussed restoring confidence in the banking system, news reports said Germany's $49 billion rescue last week of the Hypo Real Estate Bank may not have been enough and that a further injection of government cash is under discussion. Similarly, the governments of Belgium and Luxembourg were said to be in negotiations to buy up remains of the giant Fortis financial group in their countries, following up on the Netherlands' nationalization last week of Fortis operations there. The Fortis rescue demonstrated the transnational nature of Europe's financial problems.
The lack of common strategy among leaders of Europe's main economies at a time of crisis with direct effects on the well-being of their citizens suggested that the 27-nation European Union, while united in many ways, still has a long way to go before becoming the continent-wide economic and political authority it has set out to be. In addition, some of the grouping's smaller members chafed at being left out of Saturday's summit, with Finnish Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen calling the restricted invitation list "a very bad idea."
Seeking to reassure nervous Europeans, however, the four leaders described their summit as a demonstration of resolve to prevent further bank crashes, make sure depositors do not lose their savings and get money flowing through the choked financial system again for businesses and consumers.
"Today was expressed with great clarity the will of our countries to guarantee citizens' savings and preserve citizens' confidence in the banking system, which must continue to support the real economy," Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy told reporters.
"We jointly commit to ensure the soundness and stability of our banking and financial system and will take all the necessary measures to achieve this objective," a communique said. PARIS, Oct. 4 -- The leaders of Europe's four largest economic powers vowed Saturday to protect their banks from the continuing r... more -
Guidelines expand FBI's surveillance powers
Justice Department officials released new guidelines yesterday that empower FBI agents to use intrusive techniques to gather intelligence within the United States, alarming civil liberties groups and Democratic lawmakers who worry that they invite privacy violations and other abuses.
The new road map allows investigators to recruit informants, employ physical surveillance and conduct interviews in which agents disguise their identities in an effort to assess national security threats. FBI agents could pursue each of those steps without any single fact indicating a person has ties to a terrorist organization.
Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said the guidelines are necessary to fulfill the FBI's core mission to predict threats and respond even before an attack takes place. The ground rules will help the bureau become "a more flexible and adept collector of intelligence," as independent commissions urged after the strikes of Sept. 11, 2001, Mukasey said in a statement yesterday.
The guidelines, which harmonize five different road maps dating back more than a generation, take effect Dec. 1. That is two months later than initially planned, and authorities said the delay was a concession to privacy advocates and Arab American groups who expressed concern that their members could be subject to racial or ethnic profiling.
Justice Department leaders rewrote a key section of the guidelines concerning agents' infiltration of groups and attendance at demonstrations. Under the new language, agents would be able to investigate the likelihood of violence stemming from a planned demonstration for as many as 30 days, with renewals subject to supervisory approval.
Congressional staff members said the revisions were superficial, and the American Civil Liberties Union immediately condemned the road map. Critics had asked Justice Department leaders to wait until a new president takes office, an approach that administration officials rejected.
Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU's Washington legislative office, said: "Since, under these guidelines, a generalized 'threat' is enough to begin an investigation, the FBI will be given carte blanche to begin surveillance without factual evidence. . . . These guidelines will lead to political witch hunts and more unwarranted investigations of political enemies and peace groups."
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said the grant of new authority to FBI agents flies in the face of recent history, including overreaching and sloppy record-keeping by agents who demanded too much secret information from telephone companies and Internet service providers as part of national security investigations.
Bush administration officials assert that the overhaul is merely a common-sense change that would give FBI agents who pursue national security leads the same power as agents who investigate criminal offenses.
Civil liberties activists yesterday raised anew questions about the expanded role of the FBI in collecting an array of foreign intelligence within U.S. borders, absent evidence of a crime. For instance, the guidelines allow FBI agents to conduct interviews and monitor the movement of people who may possess useful information on subjects of general interest to American policymakers, such as a foreign government's oil exports. Justice Department officials released new guidelines yesterday that empower FBI agents to use intrusive techniques to gather intellige... more -
"Dirty fuels" profit by bailout bill's tax breaks for renewable ene...
The renewable-energy tax incentives tucked into the financial bailout package passed by the House on Friday include billions of dollars in breaks for old-fashioned fossil-fuel processes such as liquefying coal and squeezing petroleum out of sand and rock.
These "dirty fuels" are making a tentative comeback among policymakers. Such ventures are aimed at "unconventional" deposits once deemed too expensive or technologically difficult to tap. Backers of the tax breaks believe the substantial incentives might boost these technologies and spur invention of new ones.
"We feel good about the outcome here, in terms of the government supporting our requirements," said Larry Winter, vice president of Oil Shale Producing Exploration Co., which operates an experimental project in Utah's Uintah Basin. "As we start to expand our project, we will be looking to build our own refinery. That requires a very large capital investment that requires long-term paybacks. Without government support, they are potentially a nonstarter."
Critics of the measures note that the breaks run counter to the carbon-reduction message Congress intended when it vowed to bankroll clean, renewable technology. And a substantial portion of the tax breaks go to energy companies already flush with record oil profits.
"This is deeply offensive that they would attach this massive lobby goodie bag to a bill," said Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen, a Washington-based public interest organization.
"This is a gravy train. The American people are suffering here, and oil companies are getting a tax break. Not even clean energy. This is not a way to make laws. This is not even a way to make sausage."
The provisions are found in the complicated tax-extenders legislation tacked on by the Senate after the House rejected the original bailout package. Although House members were adamant that the overall tax provisions remain revenue-neutral, the add-ons will cost taxpayers more than $100 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Managers in the Senate said the energy provisions were needed to make the bailout more palatable to some Western members.
Energy companies say oil prices that exceed $100 a barrel make extracting some of these nonconventional fossil fuels profitable.
A recent report by the Air Force put the cost of building a coal gasification plant at $6 billion or more.
"They are not going to build those because of the massive capital costs," Slocum said. "This will encourage an industry where no one wants to invest -- for a reason. The question is, should taxpayers' money be used to shovel subsidies for coal?"
Converting solid coal into a liquid transportation fuel, an industry that does not exist in the United States, could nearly double the global warming effects of the fuel and increase air and water pollution associated with coal mining, according to some scientific estimates. The bill extends production credits for coal gasification plants and includes the end product, aviation fuel, in the alternative fuel category.
The coal investment credit will cost $389 million next year, the CBO said.
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It is obvious Congress is not really concerned about climate change. They will continue to spend our money on subsidies for coal, oil, shale, and nuclear, even though we are calling for them to look to renewable (REAL renewable) energies such as solar, wind, geothermal. They will throw a crumb once in a while, but not enough to give solar the boost it needs to be truly competitive with their cash cows. It's time to go over their heads. And this is the bill Obama and McCain voted for. They claim to want to tackle climate change and then vote for this? No wonder Bush was so quick to sign it! The renewable-energy tax incentives tucked into the financial bailout package passed by the House on Friday include billions of dollar... more -
Filipinos Draw Power From Buried Heat
Ferdinand Marcos, the despot who ruled here for 21 years, is remembered mainly for the staggering quantity of his wife's shoes. But there is another Marcos legacy, and it is drawing new attention at a time of high oil prices, global warming and urgent questions about the role of government in alternative energy development.
Reacting to the early 1970s oil shock, Marcos created a major government program to find, develop and generate electricity from hot rocks deep in the ground. Since then, the Philippine government has championed this form of energy.
Geothermal power now accounts for about 28 percent of the electricity generated in the Philippines. With 90 million people, about 40 percent of whom live on less than $2 a day, this country has become the world's largest consumer of electricity from geothermal sources. Billions of dollars have been saved here because of reduced need for imported oil and coal.
"Goes to show that things aren't always the way we might expect," said Roland N. Horne, a Stanford University expert on geothermal power who has visited this country more than 20 times. "The Philippines would be in hugely worse shape without geothermal as an indigenous energy source."
In installed geothermal power capacity, the country ranks No. 2 in the world, narrowly trailing the United States, which has far more geothermal potential, far more engineering talent and far greater demand for clean sustainable power.
But unlike in the Philippines, government policy in the United States has been inconsistent. In 2006, the Bush administration cut most geothermal spending -- federal programs that received as much as $100 million a year in the 1980s shrank to $5 million. Research projects were dismantled. Scientists in the field had to find other jobs.
"Most of the federal infrastructure, the laboratories and the researchers are now gone," said Karl Gawell, executive director of the Geothermal Energy Association in Washington.
As oil and coal prices soared in the past year, and as popular demand increased for alternative energy sources, the Bush administration rediscovered geothermal. It has proposed spending $90 million over three years on research.
"That's the goods news, but the bad news is that we are going to have to relearn a lot of what the people who we just let go learned over the past 20 years," Gawell said. "The problem with our government's approach to alternative energy is that it is too short-term. You need a sustained commitment to reach this huge energy base."
At early stages of development, geothermal energy has historically been dependent in most countries on high-risk, long-term investment made by governments, not private companies.
While Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, has said little about geothermal energy, Sen. Barack Obama, his Democratic opponent, has said renewable energy -- which includes wind, solar and geothermal -- should generate 10 percent of the country's electricity within four years.
The figure now is about 4 percent, of which less than 1 percent is geothermal. But geothermal offers reliability advantages over solar and wind, mostly because geothermal fields do not stop producing power at night or when the wind stops blowing. Ferdinand Marcos, the despot who ruled here for 21 years, is remembered mainly for the staggering quantity of his wife's shoes. B... more -
Paulson Moves On to Nuts and Bolts of Rescue
With the political battle over the Bush administration's $700 billion financial rescue package at an end and the real work of rescuing the financial markets just beginning, all eyes are turning to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr.
The bill gave him unprecedented powers to shore up the ailing financial system. With few constraints, Paulson will make all the key decisions on who to hire, when to launch the program and perhaps most importantly how much the government will pay for troubled assets from ailing Wall Street firms. A misstep could mean hundreds of billions in losses for taxpayers or a cascade of failures for banks.
Speculation was rampant on Wall Street yesterday about who Treasury would hire to manage the assets that the government plans to buy. Industry sources say the department has asked leading Wall Street firms for feedback and that Legg Mason, Pimco, BlackRock and MKP Capital Management were recommended to Treasury.
These firms rose to the top of the list because of their expertise in mortgage-related assets. But hiring them as asset managers for the government would raise the potential for conflicts of interest, particularly because they would be managing the assets while also selling their own troubled securities to the government.
Treasury spokeswoman Michele Davis said the department plans to develop and publish guidance on "how to manage any conflicts." It is planning to put out a formal request for services Monday.
Besides hiring five to 10 asset managers, Paulson is seeking a top executive to oversee the program with the rank of assistant secretary of the Treasury as well as about two dozen bankers, lawyers and accountants.
Paulson urged Congress to pass the bailout plan quickly because credit markets were freezing up. Banks and investors were reluctant to make even overnight loans for fear that they would not get their money repaid. But the passage of the plan yesterday did not immediately ease the credit crunch.
Mohamed A. el-Erian, co-chief executive of the giant asset management firm Pimco, said that short-term credit trading for anyone other than the federal government remained at a "virtually nonexistent level."
"While constituting a necessary condition," he said, "the rescue package is not sufficient to radically counter the immediate disruptions."
Investors continued to pour money into Treasury bills, the banking equivalent closest to sticking money in a mattress, driving down the yield on short-term Treasuries to close to zero.
Paulson never claimed the bailout package would solve all of Wall Street's woes or prevent the economy from falling into a deep recession. Treasury officials even warned banking groups this week that firms may collapse before the program launches, which likely will take place in mid-November.
Well aware of the pressures on him, Paulson feels "the weight of the world on his shoulders," according to source close to him who talked to him recently and spoke on condition of anonymity because the conversation was private. With the political battle over the Bush administration's $700 billion financial rescue package at an end and the real work of res... more
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