EcoRadio

Category: A sustainable economy

  • New Zealand grants personhood to a forest

    New Zealand grants personhood to a forest

    Te Urewera National Park
    Te Urewera is the first forest in the world with legal rights

    Global interest spiked this week in an Act of the New Zealand parliament granting personhood to the Te Urewera National Park.

    The actual wording of the act is that “Te Urewera is a legal entity and has the same legal rights, powers, duties and responsibilities as a person.” This means that legal action can be taken on its behalf.

    The Act was introduced two years ago and a similar one is now planned for the Whanganui River.

    The former Minister of Maori Affairs, Pita Sharples said, “This is a profound alternative to the presumption of human sovereignty over the natural world.”

    Ecuador, Bolivia and India are drafting similar legislation.

    http://www.outsideonline.com/2102536/parks-are-people-too-legally-speaking

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/world/what-in-the-world/in-new-zealand-lands-and-rivers-can-be-people-legally-speaking.html

  • Pope Francis names climate action as a sacred duty

    Pope Francis names climate action as a sacred duty

    Pope Francis
    Pope Francis is unpopular with the institutional hierarchy

    Pope Francis this week named pollution as ‘sinful’ and fighting Climate Change a ‘sacred duty’.

    He called urgently for people to actively work to save the environment, proposing that the Catholic Church add such a duty to the list of “seven mercies,” which includes feeding the hungry and visiting the sick, which Catholics are required to perform.

    “Humans are turning the planet into a polluted wasteland full of debris, desolation and filth,” the Pontiff said. Building on Laudato Si his Encyclical last year, he added that “The world’s poor, though least responsible for climate change, are most vulnerable and already suffering its impact.”

    http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/01/deeming-pollution-earth-sinful-pope-proposes-climate-action-sacred-duty

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/natural-resource-use-tripled_us_57a05c3ae4b0693164c273a8

  • War on cash picks up speed in Sweden

    War on cash picks up speed in Sweden

    War on Cash shredder
    Countercurrent graphic for the war on cash

    Many Swedish retailers stopped accepting cash this month as the next step in the nation’s move to become a cashless society.

    Writing in CounterCurrents this week, Brett Scott reports that European nations are backing the banks in a call to accelerate the elimination of cash. Scott quotes various politicians and bank executives as evidence that the move is designed to ensure that negative interest rates can be effectively implement to discourage people from saving.

    The global economy as we know it depends on constant economic growth to justify the debt that fuels the profits of the financial sector. As economic times become tough people tend to save rather than spend, thereby reducing financial profits and slowing the economy

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/stores-to-customers-cash-not-welcome-here/

    http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/24/the-war-on-cash/

  • Russia and China leave US dollar in the cold

    Russia and China leave US dollar in the cold

    Image copyright The Bell
    The Bell believes the dollar will collapse

    The Russian decision to disconnect its currency from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and return to a sovereign currency will have far reaching implications for the USA and its allies according to Bloomberg and The Bell this week.

    The impact of Russia’s decision to go it alone will be exacerbated by the Chinese decision to join the IMF. According to The Bell, the relative strength of the Chinese economy will lead investors to prefer bonds payable in Chinese RMB than in US dollars.

    The joint effect of Russia protecting its currency by separating from the IMF and China competing with the US dollar in the same market is likely to make it difficult for the US to raise funds by printing more money, a practice known as quantitative easing.

    http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/dollar-disaster-looms-as-china-and-russias-currencies-break-away/

  • Loggers use fire to wipe out Amazon tribes

    Loggers use fire to wipe out Amazon tribes

    Amazon fires
    Loggers are using fire to destroy the Amazon and indigenous people

    Huge forest fires raging in the Amazonian rainforest are threatening to wipe out the Awa tribe, one of the last uncontacted indigenous groups on Earth.

    The neighbouring Guajajara Guardians have been fighting to protect the Awa tribe from violence by loggers, disease and land clearing. Despite promises by the Brazilian government to assist, the Guardians have been fighting the forest fires without support from emergency services.

    Last year, loggers lit fires which wiped out forest cover across 50% of the region.

    http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/19/amazon-fires-threaten-to-wipe-out-uncontacted-indigenous-people/

  • World’s largest wind farm to go ahead in UK

    World’s largest wind farm to go ahead in UK

    Hornsea windfarmThe second stage of a massive wind-generation project, larger than most nuclear power stations, was approved in the UK parliament this week.

    The world’s largest wind farm is in the North Sea at Hornsea and will power 2.5 million homes. This stage brings the capacity of the wind farm up to 3 gigawatts of electricity, larger than most nuclear power plants in the UK.

    A third stage will expand the project to 4gigawatts, equivalent to 4 percent of the UK energy requirements when it comes online. The UK currently gets around 10 percent of its electrical energy from wind.

    https://thinkprogress.org/uk-biggest-offshore-wind-project-approved-dd1b90d6593a#.y15cp73o9