Amplify Amplify your take on things.  Join Open Intelligence on Amplify

Open Intelligence | My Amplog

Only what you need to know
« Amplog Home   Posts by Bob Bater
18151

Bob Bater is following

Open Intelligence

Categories

The Nonsense of Growth Economics

Who was it said “Economics is a form of insanity”? Does anyone seriously doubt that any more?

Amplify’d from www.neweconomics.org

As economist Herman Daly once commented, he would accept the possibility of infinite growth in the economy on the day that one of his economist colleagues could demonstrate that Earth itself could grow at a commensurate rate.

Whether or not the stumbling international negotiations on climate change improve, our findings make clear that much more will be needed than simply more ambitious reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. This report concludes that a new macro economic model is needed, one that allows the human population as a whole to thrive without having to relying on ultimately impossible, endless increases in consumption.

Read more at www.neweconomics.org
 

Good Foundations

Too little, too late? I hope not.

Amplify’d from www.neweconomics.org

This report offers new insights into the connection between people’s well-being – how people experience their lives – and the built environment which surrounds them, and to consider how better account could be given to these linkages through policy development and professional practice. More particularly, it considers why a focus on what ought to be shared outcomes – creating places and spaces where people can enjoy a good life now and in the future – is often abandoned in the face of pursuing short-term financial returns on investment.

Read more at www.neweconomics.org
 

Punishing Costs

When will we throw our 19th century mindset into the bin, where it can do no further harm?

Amplify’d from www.guardian.co.uk

Jailing one young criminal costs the taxpayer as much as £140,000 a year, a report says today. Locking up young offenders makes them more likely to commit further crimes and be unemployed later in life, the New Economics Foundation says.

Last month there were 2,195 children aged 10 to 17 imprisoned in England and Wales. Each costs £100,000 a year and an extra £40,000 in indirect costs to society once they are released.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “Many children who are not a threat to public safety are put behind bars. Community measures have been shown to reduce offending much more effectively.”

Read more at www.guardian.co.uk
 

Cluster Bombs to Become a Thing of the Past - At Last!

But don’t let the bankers get away scott-free with this one as well…

Amplify’d from blogs.amnesty.org.uk
Hundreds of NGOs, including Amnesty have supported the worldwide campaign to abolish the use of this weapon.  In December 2008, 92 countries agreed to sign up to the Treaty but it couldn’t be effective until at least 30 states had ratified it.
Thanks to Burkina Faso and Moldova – this treaty will soon become effective, and hopefully this will significantly reduce the number of deaths and devastating injuries that occur in conflict zones as a result of unexploded munitions from these weapons.
According to a report published by the Cluster Munitions Coalition, it’s likely that your local bank is investing in cluster bomb producers.  The report found that Barclays, HSBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland provide loans and investments to the tune of some £800 million between them. Read more at blogs.amnesty.org.uk
 

World Water Day, March 22 2010

Think of this each time you visit the loo, and then think, what if you didn’t have one?

Amplify’d from www.wateraid.org
World Water Day, Monday 22 March 2010, is a crucial moment in the fight against the global sanitation and water crisis.

In just one month, politicians from across the globe will gather in Washington DC to discuss what they need to do to fulfil some of the most basic rights of the world’s citizens – access to a safe toilet and clean water.

The World’s Longest Toilet Queue is a mass mobilisation event and Guinness World Record attempt bringing together thousands of campaigners from across the world, including London and across the UK, to demand real change at the meeting.Read more at www.wateraid.org
 

Toxic Fuels Dirty Oil Film :: Home

Pollution Delivery Par Excellence. Go watch the film in your local cinema. Then take action, however small. URL:  toxicfuels.com

Toxic Fuels Dirty Oil Film :: Home

Watch the video. Take your stand, then - take action! URL:  toxicfuels.com

Tar Sands - A disaster in the making

Support the Beaver Lake Cree Nation in their legal challenge!

Amplify’d from toxicfuels.com

As well as risking runaway climate change, expanding tar sands developments in Alberta, Canada, are bringing about a local ecological disaster with profound consequences for indigenous communities such as the Beaver Lake Cree Nation.

Not willing to stand by and let this happen, the Beaver Lake Cree have launched a legal challenge to stop further tar sands developments within its ancestral lands, taking on not just the governments of Alberta and Canada, but also the world’s largest oil companies.

Read more at toxicfuels.com
 

Peak Water Next?

It’s been an issue for 10-20 years, but doesn’t seem to have the same media magnetism as oil. I know which is the more important for me.

Amplify’d from news.bbc.co.uk

Peak Oil is already a familiar concept, and commands international attention. However, water, despite being central to life, is having a much harder time getting on to the political radar.

within living memory Cyprus was wet - there were plenty of rivers and lakes to swim in. Now, they are all gone.

The irony is that the Cypriots, all of them, are fighting over land, which is slowly dying.

The famous trees of Cyprus are rotting on their waterless roots, turning to dry kindling as they stand in the blazing sun.

Read more at news.bbc.co.uk
 

Money sharing comes to Facebook

Good? Bad? Indifferent?

Amplify’d from news.bbc.co.uk
Money sharing comes to Facebook

Friends on social networking site Facebook can now send small payments directly to each other via an application called Buxter.

Buxter handles transactions in Euros or US dollars, with plans to launch in Sterling in the next four weeks.

“People share their statuses, their information and their pictures on Facebook so the question is why not share money there too?” Christian von Hammel-Bonten, senior vice president at ClickandBuy told BBC News.

Read more at news.bbc.co.uk