In our current industrial economy people are paying for the fair cost of goods.  RIGHT!?

What if that’s not the case.  What if what we’re really paying is a falsified notion of the cost?  A number that doesn’t reflect the real price of production.  Let me explain:

When a commodity is priced for the market, let’s say a cow, both the cost of production and the value of the product are taken into consideration.  To price a cow we would look at its production: $100 for cultivation of hay, $5 on medicine, $200 in labor for the ranch hands, and $45 dollars on butchering.  So in this case a cow, which (priced by the pound) costs about $350.  That seems reasonable.

But it isn’t.  This fails to consider that factory farm conditions form giant cesspools of fecal material that release enormous amounts of toxic gas, and render the land in their vicinity unusable.  That the over farming of cattle is depleting the nutrient rich topsoil little by little until it will be rendered unusable to grow anything.  That the overuse of antibiotics are developing resistant strains of bacteria that increase medical expenses for cows and humans alike.  These costs are ludicrous! The thing is, we just haven’t had to pay them yet.  These effects don’t really become a problem until they reach a critical mass, at which point it will be too late to deal with them effectively.

Organic grass-fed cows, or cows that are raised in the manner to which they are adapted by nature (as oppose to corn fed, antibiotic laden factory cows), have much healthier lives, are healthier to eat, and taste better.  The problem for consumers is that the meat is prohibitively expensive.  The grass fed cows are mostly raised in a sustainable way; one that supports the ecosystem, and encourages health and biodiversity.  The cost of the organic grass fed beef, while higher represents the true cost of production.  The other beef saves you a few dollars at the cost of the future of our nation.

A parallel can be drawn to most other good and commodities.  Some are sustainable, and reflect the true cost of production, like organic grass-fed beef.  Others save you a few pennies, and fail to inform their true cost is decay to the very ecosystem, or social system upon which you depend

Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman recently wrote an article about the changes that need to be made.  It was published in the NY Times:

Read it now!

What’s your opinion of Obama’s energy strategies?

Everyone knows that finding a renewable source of energy is crucial to wean the world off fossil fuels and cut carbon emissions, but what are we willing to sacrifice for clean energy?

In Brazil, the government has given the green light for the construction of a massive hydroelectric dam that will be able to generate enough energy for over 23 million homes. However, its creation will see the flooding of huge portions of the Amazon basin, displacing indigenous tribes and putting 500 sq km of rain-forest underwater. The creation of the Belo Monte Dam is expected to begin in 2015 and is rumored to cost around $17 billion. Set to be situated on the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon in the northern state of Para it has been abandoned several times, noticeably in the early 90s due to its controversial nature and widespread global protests.

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What’s your opinion?  Is the price of going green worth it in this case?

From Renewable Energy World

This week, a consortium led by Samsung C&T Corporation and the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) announced that it plans to invest CAN $7 billion to generate 2,500 megawatts of wind and solar power in Ontario, Canada.

According to the terms of the green energy investment agreement, Samsung C&T and KEPCO will establish and operate a series of wind and solar power clusters over the next 20 years. The clusters, which will be built in several locations throughout the province, will eventually include wind turbines that will generate up to 2,000 MW as well as solar power facilities that will generate up to 500 MW.

The entire project will have a combined power-generating capacity of 2.5 GW by 2016, producing energy equivalent to four per cent of Ontario`s total electricity consumption.

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energy

A review of these items today finds that all were adopted or are working their way through the process. This is a startling achievement amidst the worst economy in 70 years, two wars, and an opposition party disinterested in cooperation. President Obama did much of what he promised, and he can do more in 2010 by cajoling Congress to do its part.

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It is no mystery that the 1,300-year-old island city of Venice is slowly sinking while the sea level is rising.  It’s known as “aqua alta” — high water — and it brings city life to a standstill for several hours. Big boats can’t go under low-hanging bridges, and water seeps into buildings through the sewage system. Venetians have not lived on the ground floor for decades.

So what can be done to remedy this fateful situation? Venetians are resorting to sophisticated technology to fight this full-scale emergency. The project is called MOSE, for short, which is also the Italian acronym for Moses, recalling the biblical parting of the sea.

Once completed in 2014, there will be 78 large, mobile flood gates at the three inlets. When not in use, they will sit on the lagoon bed. When a high tide is forecast, the gates will rise and shut off the sea from the lagoon.

But there is no time to waste, as the IPCC — the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — has forecast a sea level rise by the end of this century of between 18 and 59 centimeters.

Read more from NPR.

Element Four, a small Canadian firm, has applied its water technology to create the WaterMill, a novel electricity-powered machine that draws moisture from the air and purifies it into clean, drinkable water.

In a world where one out of five people are without access to clean drinking water, this new technology could potentially improve the lives of billions of people from third-world countries.

The WaterMill, which retails at $1300, is intended for household use only, but the company is designing a larger version called the WaterWall for the developing world, which would be large enough to supply water to a small village.

It’s early, but the company’s core principle is “to do good as we do well,” CEO Rick Howard says. “That’s part of truly what drives us — knowing that at some point we will be able to do some significant good.”

Read more at CNN online.

Funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act), the program will provide direct payments in lieu of tax credits in support of an estimated 5,000 bio-mass, solar, wind, and other types of renewable energy production facilities.

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