Externalities

Effects of Global Warming on Humans – Based on the 2015 IPCC AR5

Originally published on Planetsave.com Not only posing significant risks for Earth’s natural systems, the effects of global warming on humans and human systems have only recently begun receiving the expanded attention they critically require. From hazardous effects causing potential loss of life, injury, or other negative health impacts, to the potential exposure of social, economic, …

Effects of Global Warming on Humans – Based on the 2015 IPCC AR5 Read More »

how much does a ton of carbon cost?

How Much Will Carbon Cost? – The Million Dollar Question

Policy makers and corporate executives alike are interested in quantifying just how much a tonne of carbon dioxide will cost in the future. While it’s intuitive why policy makers, tasked with securing the long-term welfare of a country, are interested in CO­2’s dollar value, large corporations are also spending money on predicting the future. Why …

How Much Will Carbon Cost? – The Million Dollar Question Read More »

The Invisible Hand (Never Picks Up the Check)

Raise your hand if this has ever happened to you. You’re telling someone about some problem the world is facing, whether it’s global warming, animal cruelty in factory farms, sweatshop labor conditions, polluted rivers, e-waste, or some public health epidemic like diabetes, heart disease, cancer or obesity. In your mind, it’s clear as day: the cause …

The Invisible Hand (Never Picks Up the Check) Read More »

The Unseen Realities of Our Toxic E-Waste: Terra Blight

Tools such as personal computers and smartphones and other portable electronics have enabled a virtual revolution in the way that we work and communicate and get entertained, and for the most part, that has been beneficial to us. We now have access to almost anything and everyone on the internet, at any time of day …

The Unseen Realities of Our Toxic E-Waste: Terra Blight Read More »

Free Market Economies Require an Accurate Price for CO2 Emissions

It’s rather surprising that in a nation that prides itself on being based on a free market economy, there is not a national model for accurate pricing of CO2 emissions, which would roll some of the externalities of doing business, such as the release of greenhouse gases, into the cost of doing business. When taken …

Free Market Economies Require an Accurate Price for CO2 Emissions Read More »

Should We Put a Price on Nature to Save it?

The first World Forum on Natural Capital was held in Edinburgh, Scotland last November. This comes at a time when there is increasing interest in the idea that we need to place a value on the services that nature provides us with for free if we are to prevent further environmental degradation. The conference attracted …

Should We Put a Price on Nature to Save it? Read More »

ExxonMobil Agrees to Report on Carbon Asset Risk and Climate Change

Pressure from activist shareholders is behind what could be considered a landmark agreement from a major energy company, as ExxonMobil is said to have agreed to publish a Carbon Asset Risk report, which will give investors better information on how the company is planning for a lower-carbon future. [repostus]As You Sow Reaps Exxon Mobil Carbon …

ExxonMobil Agrees to Report on Carbon Asset Risk and Climate Change Read More »

The Power to Change the Economy from Within

When we look at how our market economy affects the environment, it appears that all common sense goes out the window. According to the prevailing economic wisdom, it makes perfect sense for us to clear vast swathes of tropical rainforest to make way for oil palm plantations and soya beans, to pursue the last few …

The Power to Change the Economy from Within Read More »

Microsoft’s Carbon Fee Playbook Guides Company Carbon Emissions Accountability

As more companies strive for increased sustainability in their businesses, it’s become important for them to be not only aware of the externalities of their operations, such as the carbon emissions associated with their organization, but to also be accountable for them. And while it may not be feasible for all of the company operations …

Microsoft’s Carbon Fee Playbook Guides Company Carbon Emissions Accountability Read More »

Sustainable Development, Water Rights, and Beer: How the Free Market Can Solve Water Conflict

In the dry western United States, water rights are one of the biggest impediments to sustainable economic development, and often the cause of major conflicts between industries, companies and states. In addition, the archaic laws that protect water rights holders make it virtually impossible for streams and rivers to flow as they have for millenia, …

Sustainable Development, Water Rights, and Beer: How the Free Market Can Solve Water Conflict Read More »

Will Australia Nix Its Carbon Tax?

Last week’s general election victory for Tony Abbott and his liberal party may well spell the end of the carbon tax in Australia. Abbott’s liberals (which are kind of the opposite of liberals in the U.S.) have verbally opposed putting a price on carbon, and with overwhelming financial backing from heavy pollution industries in Australia, …

Will Australia Nix Its Carbon Tax? Read More »

True Costs in the Agriculture and Food Industry

by Heidi Darling Up until about 1960, the largest contributor of CO2 to the atmosphere wasn’t the burning of fossil fuels. It was plowing agriculture fields, which destroyed the rich dark (carbon) filled soil. Even today, agriculture produces more greenhouse gases than the transportation or industrial sector! 2% of global sea level rise is caused …

True Costs in the Agriculture and Food Industry Read More »