economy: production and consumption
Adding Insult to Injury: The Impacts of Coal Extraction
> By Glenn Ashton
Significant developments in the energy sector are underway in western Limpopo because of the extensive coal resources in that region. Besides Eskom’s massive Medupi power station, near the existing Matimba power station, there are several other mega-projects in the pipeline. The question is whether these are sustainable or in some cases, even viable. Other developments in the area include expanding the massive Exxaro Grootgeluk mine, which supplies Matimba and Medupi, as well as Sasol’s (...) read
date of on-line publication : 24 January 2012
dossier
Power to the people? How World Bank financed wind farms fail communities in Mexico
The La Mata and La Ventosa wind park in the state of Oaxaca is the World Bank’s flagship Clean Technology Fund (CTF) project in Mexico. The UK government has provided £385 million in capital to the CTF from its overseas aid budget, 14% of the CTF’s total funding. This study shows that: The wind park will produce 67.5 MW per year, enough to power 160,000 homes in a state where around 7 per cent of the population lack access to electricity. However, it will not power any homes as all of the (...) read
date of on-line publication : 6 January 2012
Wanted: more jobs
> By T.K. RAJALAKSHMI
The annual report of the International Institute for Labour Studies projects a grim future for employment prospects. With the United States and much of Europe grappling with the slowdown in their economies and the resultant social unrest, the publication of the World of Work Report 2011: Making Markets Work for Jobs could not have come at a more opportune moment. Brought out by the International Institute for Labour Studies, which was established in 1960 by the International Labour (...) read
date of on-line publication : 5 December 2011
The road to Rio+20 is paved with corporate environmentalism
> By Meera Karunananthan
For decades, the industries that thrive on destroying the planet have played a cat and mouse game with the environmental movement. We expose their bad practices and build public opposition, they co-opt our language and attempt to neutralize public opinion by creating confusion. While in Amsterdam for a meeting with colleagues preparing a civil society intervention against the World Water Forum to take place in Marseilles in March 2012, I decide to see what the cats are up to by attending a (...) read
date of on-line publication : 24 November 2011
Decadal journeys: Debt and despair spur urban growth
> By P. Sainath
Census 2011, which reports a higher growth of urban population than rural as millions give up farming, does not record footloose migration, which drives desperate people to search for work in multiple directions with no clear destination. This is a giant drama that we have not even begun to measure, says P Sainath. The re-classification of villages and towns, and the changes this brings to the nation’s rural-urban profile, happens every decade. Yet only Census 2011 shows us a huge (...) read
date of on-line publication : 9 November 2011
Militarism in Paraguay: The Other Side of the Economic Model
> By Raúl Zibechi
A production model based on soy monoculture results in economic growth, but also causes social instability that can lead to political crises. The temptation is to use armed force to resolve them. At the end of September, construction began on the World Trade Center of Asunción. The first step is to demolish old houses and dig the foundation. “With each brick, window, door that we take out of here we’re making a commitment to build an educational center en Bañado Norte,” explained the manager (...) read
date of on-line publication : 18 October 2011
Boosting Agribusiness and Family Farms
> By Marcela Valente
A plan to boost agribusiness, but based mainly on family farming and cooperatives, in Argentina is geared to producing and exporting more food – in a more sustainable manner. That is the goal of the Strategic Agribusiness Plan (PEA) that representatives of the country’s 23 provinces and of 53 university departments, 140 business chambers, 450 agrotechnical schools, and other national and foreign institutions involved in agriculture produced over a period of 18 months. The mechanisms and (...) read
date of on-line publication : 10 October 2011
Americans Waste Enough Food to Fill a 90,000-seat Football Stadium Every Day. What Can We Do About It?
> By Jonathan Bloom
For some, food is a crisis of scarcity, but for many in U.S., it’s just the opposite. The book "American Wasteland" show us how much we squander and what we can do about it. As a nation, we grow and raise more than 590 billion pounds of food each year. And depending on whom you ask, we squander between a quarter and a half of all the food produced in the United States. Even using the more conservative figure would mean that 160 billion pounds of food are squandered annually—more than enough, (...) read
date of on-line publication : 20 September 2011
When patent law stands in the way of saving lives
> By Brett Davidson and Els Torreele
A New York Times column from early July provided an unusual if cynical insight into the “a la carte” corporate lobby influence on American legislation. While the United States is among the world’s strongest proponents of ever-increasing intellectual property protections and their worldwide enforcement, Wall Street banks have been able to carve out an exception that would allow them to copy business methods and processes, including financial products and services they deem important for their (...) read
date of on-line publication : 17 August 2011
dossier
More than a resource: water, business and human rights
This report is the result of consultations and convenings involving representatives of business, government, UN agencies, civil society, academia and other experts organised by the Institute for Human Rights and Business…This report clarifies the relationships between business, human rights and water and answers some of the key questions that arise when they are considered together. It makes the case for integrating human rights considerations, including those relating to water, into the (...) read
date of on-line publication : 11 August 2011
© rinoceros - Ritimo in partnership with the Fph via the project dph and the Ile de France region via the project Picri. Site developed using SPIP, hosted by Globenet. Legal mentions -
- Contact
