New York Times (November 6)
“The Democratic brand did not fare well” in Tuesday’s elections that broadly swept conservative Republican candidates into office. When asked to vote on policy issues, however, “voters made notably liberal decisions in both red and blue states,” passing liberal initiatives ranging from environmental initiatives and gun control measures to legalizing marijuana. These initiatives “were directly at odds with the positions of many of the Republican winners.”
Tags: Conservative, Democrats, Elections, Environment, Gun control, Liberal, Marijuana, Policy, Republicans, U.S.
USA Today (September 24)
27 years after the Montreal Protocol placed restrictions on chlorofluorocarbons, “the ozone layer is beginning to heal and is on track toward full recovery by the middle of the century.” This suggests hope in the fight against global warming. “Collective international action, even at a time of global tensions, can head off environmental catastrophe. And the sooner action is taken, the better, because the atmosphere can take decades to recover.”
Tags: Atmosphere, Catastrophe, Chlorofluorocarbons, Collective action, Environment, Global warming, Montreal Protocol, Ozone, Recovery, Tension
Institutional Investor (July 30)
“As the planet becomes more crowded and as many of its inhabitants enjoy ever higher standards of living, the stresses on our economy and environment will deepen. The global consumer class is forecast to grow by 3 billion in the next 30 years. To stave off unwanted outcomes affecting global stability, we will have to make fundamental changes in the ways we approach energy, infrastructure, development, agriculture, health care and social safety nets.”
Tags: Agriculture, Consumers, Crowded, Development, Economy, Energy, Environment, Health care, Infrastructure, Planet, Safety nets, Stability, Standard of living, Stresses
Wall Street Journal (July 8)
“Just when the Ukraine crisis makes clear that the need to diversify Europe’s gas supplies couldn’t be greater, Germany wants to ban fracking.” If Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks gets her way, “most forms of hydraulic fracking will be prohibited until 2021,” cutting Germans off from the estimated 2.3 trillion cubic meters of shale gas that lies within their border.
Los Angeles Times (May 1)
California “continues to attract more manufacturers and create more jobs than almost any other. The numbers don’t lie.” Toyota and Occidental Petroleum both announced plans to move their headquarters from California to Texas. Nevertheless, California’s business environment remains vibrant given the state’s unique “ability to incubate new companies and tech innovators, putting its businesses in the vanguard of new industries.”
Tags: Business, California, Environment, Innovators, Jobs, Manufacturers, Occidental Petroleum, Texas, Toyota, Vanguard
Chicago Tribune (February 27, 2014)
“Even if climate change turns out to be overblown, there’s no real downside in a carbon tax. We merely would have traded a tax that reduces good things, such as work and investment, for a tax that reduces bad things, such as environmental harms and hazards. If done in a revenue-neutral way, it would more likely speed economic growth than slow it.”
Tags: Carbon tax, Climate change, Downside, Economic growth, Environment, Investment, Overblown, Revenue-neutral, Speed, Work
The Economist (February 8, 2014)
China is getting “a small breath of fresh air” as new policies stipulate “official data, formerly held secretly, should be published.” This marks “an important step, not just for China’s environment, but also because it gives new power to the large and growing movement of citizen activists who have been lobbying for the government to clean up.”
Tags: Activists, Air, China, Citizens, Data, Environment, Government, Lobbying, Power, Published
Wall Street Journal (December 5, 2013)
Chinese “leaders are attempting to create an innovation ecosystem whereby government ministries funnel money through universities, think-tanks, businesses of all sizes, cities, real-estate developers and venture-capital investors.” Despite massive governmental support, “China still has trouble retaining its best and brightest talents onshore…. A growing number of Chinese scientists who had returned to China from the West are now leaving again.” While there are many reasons, including environmental pollution, the stifling political environment seems to be the largest factor. Innovative people generally don’t want to live where “they can’t network on Facebook or voice freewheeling opinions on any topic, business or political, under the sun.”
Tags: China, Chinese, Environment, Facebook, Government, Innovativon, Investors, Ministries, Network, Opinions, Politics, Pollution, Real estate, Scientists, Talent, Think-tanks, Venture-capital, West
The Economist (September 14)
“More growth, not less, is the best hope for averting a sixth great extinction.” As individuals reach the middle class they start to think more seriously about protecting the environment. In rich countries, conditions “are, by and large, improving, and endangered creatures are moving away from the edge of the cliff.”
Tags: Conditions, Endangered creatures, Environment, Extinction, Growth, Hope, Middle class, Rich countries
Forbes (April 23, 2013)
Is growth the root of problems like global warming? No, growth is a panacea that “must not be sold short. Growth is not just morally defensible; it is a moral imperative for achieving lasting human flourishing.” Of course, there have been cases of reckless growth. Overall, however, “hard data documents its positive impact on the things that ultimately matter: education, environmental care, physical health, political freedom, and healthy culture. Failure to realize the transformative power of growth would be a failure of our moral imaginations.”
Tags: Culture, Education, Environment, Freedom, Global warming, Growth, Health
