When Behavioral Economics Meets Climate Change, Guess What’s Coming for Dinner?

By Marc Gunther
Published November 17, 2009

http://www.climatebiz.com/blog/2009/11/17/when-behavioral-economics-meets-climate-change-guess-whats-coming-dinner

At the Net Impact conference last week, a waiter stopped by before lunch to ask if anyone at our table wanted a vegetarian meal instead of chicken. Just one or two people did.

This, as it happens, is typical. When a meat-based entrée is being served, and people are offered a vegetarian alternative, about 5 to 10 percent will request it.

But what if the choices were reversed? Organizers of the 2009 Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Conference, which began Monday in Washington, tried an experiment: They made a vegetarian lunch the default option, and gave meat eaters the choice of opting out.

The Eight Biggest Myths about Sustainability in Business

By Vijay Kanal
Published November 23, 2009

http://greenbiz.com/blog/2009/11/23/8-myths-about-sustainability-business

In our research, and in engagements with dozens of Fortune 1000 companies, we are sometimes surprised at the reluctance to pursue environmental sustainability initiatives, because of misconceptions about their cost or benefits. But we have also seen how some companies have embraced sustainability whole-heartedly, and are profiting from it.

As a way of helping to get every company on the journey to sustainability, here are some of the most common myths we have heard from otherwise successful companies. As surprising as some of these might sound — like the idea that there is no money to be had from sustainability efforts — these ideas persist in companies large and small and in any industry.

US food charities overwhelmed by demand

http://wsws.org/articles/2009/nov2009/food-n28.shtml

By Tom Eley
28 November 2009

As the holiday season begins, charities across the US are reporting unprecedented demand for food assistance. Driving the increased demand is the unemployment crisis, the charities say. They also cite state budget cuts, the foreclosure crisis, and the ineffectiveness of the federal-state food stamp program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Feeding America, a national food assistance organization, recently released details of an economic impact survey of some of its 63,000 member food charities. It found that between summer 2008 and summer 2009, demand for food assistance increased by over 30 percent nationally. Ninety-nine percent of participating charities reported an increase in demand and 92 percent witnessed an increase of newly unemployed workers seeking assistance.

Dubai’s $59 billion default sends tremor through global financial system

By Alex Messenger
28 November 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/nov2009/duba-n28.shtml

Dubai’s announcement on Wednesday that it would be delaying by “at least” six months the maturity date of $59 billion in bonds issued by the city-state’s largest state-owned company, Dubai World, has sent global shares tumbling. The market reaction to Dubai’s massive debt default is partly explained by the exposure of European and Asian banks to DP World and its tourism subsidiary, Nakheel.

The real reason for the falls, however, is that Dubai’s apparent insolvency confirms that default by hyper-indebted government borrowers is now a real risk right across the globe, especially in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

China’s mine deaths: The brutal face of global capitalism

25 November 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/nov2009/pers-n25.shtml

The tragic death of 104 workers in China’s latest coal mine disaster at Hegang city in Heilongjiang Province last week is a glaring reminder of the brutal exploitation of the country’s 400 million workers, whose sweat and labour constitute the foundations of Chinese and global capitalism.

While the international financial press speaks of China as the bright spot in the world economy and cites the various statistics of high output and growth, the poverty-level wages, oppressive and unsafe conditions, and huge social costs involved are assiduously ignored.

Russia: Economic crisis fuels differences within Kremlin

By Andrea Peters
25 November 2009

http://wsws.org/articles/2009/nov2009/russ-n25.shtml

The impact of the global financial crisis on the Russian economy is fueling conflicts within the country’s ruling elite over the administration of state resources. In recent weeks there have been a series of events pointing to tactical differences between competing layers of the state bureaucracy and business oligarchy grouped around President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Since 2008, Russia’s economy has been driven into severe recession. In early November of this year, the State Statistics Service reported that Russian gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 8.9 percent in the third quarter as compared to a year earlier. Since October of last year, industrial production in the country has fallen 11.2 percent, significantly more than the 8.1 percent anticipated by experts.