None of the world’s top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they use

The notion of “externalities” has become familiar in environmental circles. It refers to costs imposed by businesses that are not paid for by those businesses. For instance, industrial processes can put pollutants in the air that increase public health costs, but the public, not the polluting businesses, picks up the tab. In this way, businesses privatize profits and publicize costs. While the notion is incredibly useful, especially in folding ecological concerns into economics, I’ve always had my reservations about it. To see what I mean, check out a recent report [PDF] done by environmental consultancy Trucost on behalf of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) program sponsored by United Nations Environmental Program. It’s a huge task; obviously, doing it required a specific methodology that built in a series of assumptions. Here’s how those costs break down: So how much is that costing us? Second, surprising no one, coal is the enemy of the human race. It’s coal again! Related: Environnement (symbioment) : vie et problèmes • Capitalismo, liberalismo, neoliberismo, neoconservatorismo

EcoInternet : Earth faces times of #GreatDying... Che cosa abbiamo fatto per meritarci Diego Fusaro? di Raffaele Alberto Ventura pubblicato martedì, 7 aprile 2015 · 377 Commenti di Raffaele Alberto Ventura In principio era un sito Internet intitolato “La filosofia e i suoi eroi”. Nei primi anni Duemila, chi cercasse in rete informazioni su Platone o Aristotele poteva facilmente imbattersi in queste pagine redatte da uno studente torinese di nome Diego Fusaro. Il sito era una galleria di santini animata da una visione schematica della storia del pensiero, ricalcata dai manuali, ma trasudava di un entusiasmo impressionante. Ho assistito alla folgorante ascesa mediatica di Diego Fusaro con un misto d’invidia e di stupefazione. Stupefazione, tuttavia, perché a leggere e ascoltare certe esternazioni di Fusaro si può avere l’impressione di avere a che fare con un idiot savant che ripete meccanicamente degli slogan. Com’è potuta accadere questa cosa che chiamiamo Diego Fusaro? Talvolta il meccanismo s’inceppa e produce delle affascinanti anomalie, dei loop e dei glitch nel tessuto logico.

[Amis de la Terre Midi-Pyrénées] Appunti sul Social-fascismo. La condivisione delle «idee senza parole» L’articolo che proponiamo è tratto dall’ultimo numero di Nuova Rivista Letteraria, semestrale di letteratura sociale fondato da Stefano Tassinari e pubblicato dalle Edizioni Alegre. Il n.4 della nuova serie è interamente dedicato al linguaggio, alle ideologie che lo informano, alle sue potenzialità inesplorate, ai suoi usi (anche) politici. Tra gli autori, oltre ai redattori “storici” e ad Alberto Prunetti, ci sono Giuliano Santoro, Girolamo De Michele, Selene Pascarella, Claudio Dionesalvi, Wolf Bukowski… Clicca sulla copertina per leggere l’indice e, se ti va, abbonarti. Due numeri all’anno costano 15 euro (20 se richiedi la spedizione via corriere). di Alberto Prunetti * 0. Le retorica teatrale di Mussolini ̶ perentoria, decisionale, volontaristica, carica di iperboli e di allitterazioni ̶ non doveva convincere ma sedurre: era magia fonetica priva di semantica. 1. 2. Maiuscolo. Eccessi di possessivi. Un topos diffuso: il buonismo. Un altro topos: i “radical-chic”. Asserti falsi. 3.

EcoInternet : Global ecology is collapsing... Finance Is Not the Economy By Dirk Bezemer and Michael Hudson The authors thank the editor and two anonymous referees for helpful suggestions that greatly improved this article. Bezemer wishes to thank the Equilibrio Foundation and the Institute for New Economic Thinking for financial support. Why have economies polarized so sharply since the 1980s, and especially since the 2008 crisis? The last quarter century’s macro-monetary management, and the theory and ideology that underpinned it, was lauded by leading macroeconomists asserting that “The State of Macro[economics] is Good” (Blanchard 2008, 1). Get Evonomics in your inbox Nearly all this asset-price inflation was debt-leveraged. In this article, we present the building blocks for an alternative. Immoderate debt creation was behind that “Great Moderation” (Grydaki and Bezemer 2013). The credit crisis and recession are, therefore, a true paradigm test for economics (Bezemer 2011, 2012a, 2012b). Finance Is Not The Economy; Rent Is Not Income Empirical Evidence S.

Pages - Influence verte How Ayn Rand became the new right's version of Marx | George Monbiot | Opinion It has a fair claim to be the ugliest philosophy the postwar world has produced. Selfishness, it contends, is good, altruism evil, empathy and compassion are irrational and destructive. The poor deserve to die; the rich deserve unmediated power. It has already been tested, and has failed spectacularly and catastrophically. Yet the belief system constructed by Ayn Rand, who died 30 years ago today, has never been more popular or influential. Rand was a Russian from a prosperous family who emigrated to the United States. Atlas Shrugged, published in 1957, depicts a United States crippled by government intervention in which heroic millionaires struggle against a nation of spongers. The poor die like flies as a result of government programmes and their own sloth and fecklessness. Rand's is the philosophy of the psychopath, a misanthropic fantasy of cruelty, revenge and greed. Ignoring Rand's evangelical atheism, the Tea Party movement has taken her to its heart.

This sobering map shows you all of America’s food deserts The USDA’s new Food Access Research Atlas is a map of all the places in the country where people live in food deserts — places where it’s difficult to access fresh food. There they are, above. (Click through to go to the interactive map.) The green spots are all the places that fit the traditional definition of food deserts: urban census tracts where a significant proportion of people live more than a mile away from a grocery store and rural tracts where they live more than 10 miles away. NPR reports: “People can get a more detailed picture of exactly what challenges they encounter in getting to the grocery store,” says Paula Dutko, an economist for the USDA Economic Research Service who helped craft the atlas.Detailed, indeed. In a lot of places, it’s a lot of people.

Perdenti e vincenti: un'ossessione americana, e non solo Dev’essere diventato (peggio ancora: dev’essere tornato) di moda dividere il mondo in perdenti e vincenti. In deboli e forti. Però, e non da oggi, ho la sensazione che dietro a queste categorie non ci sia una gran visione. ROZZO PENSIERO DICOTOMICO. UNA NAZIONE DI PERDENTI. L’OSSESSIONE E I PARADOSSI. INFELICI E FRUSTRATI. COMPETERE O COOPERARE. POTENZIALI NARRATIVI.

Photos - CIWEM : un concours photo pour sensibiliser et tirer la sonnette d'alarme Avez-vous déjà partagé cet article? Partager sur Facebook Partager sur Twitter Chaque année, le CIWEM (The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management) organise un concours afin de récompenser les meilleures photographies et vidéos ayant pour objectif de sensibiliser le public aux enjeux environnementaux. Des images pour faire changer le monde. Pour l’heure, les juges ont mis en exergue une grande série de productions qui feront l’objet d’une exposition prévue pour séjourner du 10 avril au 3 mai auprès de la Royal Geographical Society à Londres. En attendant, vous pouvez d’ores et déjà découvrir les clichés en compétition. (crédits photo : CIWEM environmental photographer of the year)