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Showing posts from July, 2010

Greed and cowardice "cooked the planet"

Our daily newspaper carries Nobel laureate Paul Krugman's column, and I used to wonder why the happenings in Wall Street and Washington DC should jostle with much more serious local issues in the op-ed page. For a change, today's piece (a part of it placed below), " Who cooked the planet? " is more globally relevant than the other pieces in that column thus far. (it appears that the online version of this newspaper no longer carries the same column, only the print edition does) "....it wasn’t the science, the scientists, or the economics that killed action on climate change. What was it? The answer is, the usual suspects: greed and cowardice. If you want to understand opposition to climate action, follow the money. The economy as a whole wouldn’t be significantly hurt if we put a price on carbon, but certain industries — above all, the coal and oil industries — would. And those industries have mounted a huge disinformation campaign to protect their bottom line

More stuff from 'The Story of Stuff' team

Watch Annie Leonard as she explains the ills plaguing / wrought by the US cosmetic industry (and by the 'trickle-down' effect is applicable elsewhere also). Most cosmetic products carry a tongue-twisting what's-in-it list, intelligible only to the producer and competitors. No commercially advertised and aggressively marketed product is free of harmful chemicals - whether it's an after-shave, lipstick, or baby shampoo. "Herbal", "Natural", "Organic" carried on labels may turn out to be meaningless. Beware! Be Aware! (I wish Annie had included a note on the the amount of trash - recyclable or otherwise - that eventually piles up - directly proportionate to the company's profits) More stories from SoS team The Story of Stuff The Story of Cap and Trade The Story of Bottled Water The Story of Electronics (planned later in 2010)

Photo contest of North East India

Beautiful tropical countryside - see entries for the contest in several categories Funny Culture Faces Greenest Welcome to the North East of India's unique states - Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland