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Charlie Cray
Charlie Cray of the Center for Corporate Policy gives his take on the opportunities — and dangers — of the transition to the Obama Administration. Click to continue reading and listen to the show…
Articles Tagged ‘ Obama ’
The Future of Climate Policy
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John Holdren
Over the weekend, President-Elect Barack Obama appointed John Holdren as his Science Adviser, a move applauded by many environmentalists. Holdren is director of the Woods Hole Research Center and teaches at Harvard. Corporate Watchdog Radio has featured him twice. We aired part of his opening address at the 2008 UN Investor Summit on Climate Risk. And in September 2006, he talked with us about the pros and cons of nukes as a low-carbon solution to the climate crisis. This week, we reprise these shows to give a sense of Holdren’s opinions.
CWR March 26, 2008: “Field Report from the UN Investor Summit on Climate Risk”
CWR September 6, 2006: “Will Nuclear Power Save Us from Global Warming?”
CWR News Analysis: Nick Robins of HSBC Analyzes the Poznan Climate Talks and the EU Climate Legislation –
Nick Robins
As head of the Climate Change Centre for Excellence at the major UK bank HSBC, Nick Robins attended the recent climate talks in Poznan, Poland. This was the last step for the Kyoto Protocol before talks in Copenhagen in late 2009 negotiate post-Kyoto climate agreements. And, as world leaders met in Poznan, European Union Commissioners hammered out new climate legislation. Robins, co-author with Cary Krosinsky of the new book Sustainable Investing, weighs in on these as well from the HSBC offices in the UK.
CWR ViewPoint: Real or Fake — Christmas Tree, That Is!
Ellipsos Study: Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Artificial vs Natural Christmas Tree
How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth
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Herve Kempf
, Kempf explains how the wealthy of the world are living unsustainable lifestyles, and everyone else is trashing the earth too trying to keep up with the rich Joneses. The solution? Move away from materialism and growth.
CWR News Analysis — The Greening of Wal-Mart?:
Sources:
–CSRwire: “Wal-Mart Celebrates Thanksgiving by Sourcing Local Food, Supporting Hunger-Relief, and Buying Wind Power”
–GreenBiz: “Wal-Mart’s New CEO: What Does it Mean for Green?”
–The Green Wave Marches On: Wal-Mart in China
–Grist: “Wal-Mart Comes to the Farmers Market”
–Press Release: “Walmart Gives Consumers Opportunity To Support Local Economies Through Locally Grown Program”
–Cornucopia Institute: Wal-Mart Organics: Market Expansion or Market Delusion?
–Press Release: “Wal-Mart Makes Major Commitment to Renewable Wind Power”
–Wal-Mart Carbon Disclosure Project Response, 2007
–Lee Scott Message in Wal-Mart Sustainability Progress report, 2007
CWR ViewPoint:
Jonathan Weil
Bloomberg Columnist Jonathan Weil, the first journalist to expose Enron’s cooked books in 2001, recently criticized President-Elect Barack Obama’s appointments to the Transition Economic Advisory Board, pointing out that almost half hail from companies that fried their financial statements or fueled the market meltdown — or both. CWR Co-hosts Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon chat with Weil about his critique.
A Global Green Deal
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At the G-20 Summit addressing the global financial crisis this weekend, the government leaders of the world’s largest economies essentially twiddled their thumbs, punting on setting ambitious goals until April 2009 — when the Barack Obama Administration, which is dedicated to addressing the financial crisis and the climate crisis, is in office. Before the Summit, Worldwatch Institute Senior Researchers Michael Renner and Gary Gardner proposed that the G-20 enact a Global Green Deal, evocative of FDR’s new deal but more audacious in scope and vision. CWR co-hosts Francesca Rheannon and Bill Baue speak with Renner about the proposal’s 5 strategies, including transitioning to a renewable energy economy, launching an efficiency revolution, and investing in green infrastructure.
And speaking of green infrastructure, Deutsche Asset Management issued a report calling for the establishment of a “green” National Infrastructure Bank. Bill Baue speaks with Deutsche Climate Change Investment Research Director Bruce Kahn about the report, a followup on the Investing in Climate Change 2009: Necessity and Opportunity in Turbulent Times report CWR covered recently.
“Building a Green Economy: It’s Time for the G20 to Focus on a Global Green Deal”
Report: Green Jobs: Towards decent work in a sustainable, low-carbon world
CWR News Analysis: Listen
News Sources:
–Pew Research Center on the People and the Environment “A Deeper Partisan Divide Over Global Warming”
–Schwarzenegger Blames Global Warming for Elongated Fire Season
–BBC: “Emissions up in developed nations”
–NY Times: “Pollution Has Leveled Off, but the Figures Have Holes”
–Pam Solo: “Saving Detroit from itself”
–Marketplace: “Obama meant it about C02″
CWR ViewPoint: Listen
The Top BENNY Award for 2008, given to activist campaigns holding corporations accountable by the Business Ethics Network (BEN), went to the Clean Up Ecuador campaign for bringing Chevron to justice for decades of pollution in the Amazon. The campaign is led by the Amazon Defense Coalition and Amazon Watch. Mitch Anderson of Amazon Watch has our commentary today, produced in partnership with BEN.
Building a Local Sustainable Economy that Works for All
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As icecaps and global markets melt down, localism is rising up as a solution to our ecological and economic crises. United for a Fair Economy and Class Action, two national nonprofits based in Massachusetts that address the inequitable distribution of resources, are sponsoring a workshop entitled “Building a Local Economy that Works for All.” Today, we speak with Class Action Executive Director and United for a Fair Economy co-founder Felice Yeskel, and current United for a Fair Economy Board Chair Prakash Laufer about how the workshop weaves together economic, social, class, and environmental solutions to build a local sustainable economy. We at CWR have spoken with Felice in the past about her book, Economic Apartheid in America. Prakash is former CEO of Motherwear, a catalog company providing clothing for breastfeeding mothers that he co-founded in part on the principles of PROUT, or progressive utilization theory, which envisions a post-capitalist economy that is sustainable and just.
Building a Local Economy that Works for All
Listen to more of our interview with Felice Yeskel and Prakash Laufer
CWR Headlines:
“Barack Obama — a Sustainable President?”
–The Carbon Footprint of Obama’s Campaign
–Obama May Put Renewable-Energy Plan Ahead of Climate Package
–Obama’s potential green team
CWR ViewPoint:
On September 26, 2008, Nicolas Sarkozy,president of France and the European Union, said, “we must rethink the financial system from scratch, as at Bretton Woods.” On October 22, US President George Bush announced that Bretton Woods II, as it was called, would be held in Washington DC on November 15. The new summit seeks to fix the broken economic order created at the summit of world leaders held in a small New Hampshire ski town as World War II wound down. In today’s ViewPoint, we speak with Hazel Henderson of Ethical Markets about her recent CSRwire commentary, “Advice for Summitteers on Reforming the Global Casino.” This continues our series with Hazel commenting on the market meltdown.
“Advice for Summitteers on Reforming the Global Casino”
Foreign Exchange Transaction System
Joe Romm Compares Presidential Platforms on Environment and Energy
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We reported last week that Barack Obama will regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act if elected. Not so for John McCain. Today writer and scientist Joseph Romm wrote on his blog Climate Progess, that a McCain-Palin administration would use a voluntary or incentive-based approach, one that “has never worked in any country to restrain emissions growth.” Today, we talk to Joe Romm about how Barack Obama and John McCain differ on their approaches to the climate crisis and alternative energy. Romm is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he maintains its blog, Climate Progress. It was named one of the top 15 green websites by Time Magazine. Romm is also the author of the 2006 book Hell and High Water: Global Warming–the Solution and the Politics–and What We Should Do. He was Acting Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy during the Clinton Administration.
CWR Headlines:
–BPA is OK — According to a Chemical-Friendly FDA
–Scientists Blast FDA report on BPA Safety
–Phthalate-Laden Toys Flooding the Market
–The Other Debt Crisis — How we’re Overspending Our Ecological Budget
Hazel Henderson on the Post-Wall Street Shift from a Global Casino to a Sustainable Economy
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You could see the global market meltdown coming a mile away, according to futurist Hazel Henderson of Ethical Markets. She’s been identifying fatal flaws in the global economy, and sustainable alternatives, for three decades. Her most recent commentary on CSRwire critiques the “fractional reserve banking system,” which allows banks to lend 10 times the amount of money they actually have in reserves. In other words, money for nothing. Today, CWR co-hosts Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon speak with Henderson about using the financial crisis as an opportunity to shift to a more sustainable economy.
Hazel Henderson Commentary: “And We All Thought That Banks Had Money!”
Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators
CWR Headlines:
–Media Gang Up on Prospects for a Green Economy
–New Report Says Political Will for Dealing with Climate Change Will Grow
–Obama Promises to Classify CO2 as a Pollutant if Elected
Political Will Required to Build a Green Economy
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The Democratic party has shied away from linking clean energy, the economy, and the environment since Jimmy Carter’s 1977 Energy Policy. But the political winds are changing. At Tuesday evening’s Democratic National Convention, almost all of the speakers hit on the theme of green collar jobs. Nancy Floyd of Nth Power noted that there are 2.4 million green collar jobs worldwide — but less than 10 percent are in US. Presumptive Democrat candidate Barack Obama’s platform calls for more than doubling that number to 5 million green collar jobs in the US alone. And he’s framing it as a win-win-win to get us off foreign oil, stop global warming, and create tons of green jobs in the US. This week, we feature the second part of our conversation with Bracken Hendricks, co-author with Congressman Jay Inslee of Apollo’s Fire, and co-founder of the Apollo Alliance. The discussion focuses on the political will required to build a green economy.
Barack Obama’s New Energy Platform
DNC speech by Nancy Floyd of Nth Power
Jimmy Carter’s 1977 Energy Policy
Green Jobs: Towards Sustainable Work in a Low-Carbon World report by the Worldwatch Institute as part of the UNEP- ILO- ITUC Green Jobs Initiative
Job Opportunities for the Green Economy report from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
CWR Headlines:
–Joe Biden’s Got Environmental Creds
–Google.org Pumps Money into Geothermal Energy
–Buffett and Gates Visit Tar Sands
CWR ViewPoint: read
Conrad MacKerron of the As You Sow Foundation comments on the labor and human rights implications of greening the supply chain.
Prius Envy and the Greening of Wal-Mart: A Blind Spot for the Human Cost
