12 Degrees of Freedom

"This version of death called life"

2008-10-06T00:02:00.001-04:00

Even a casual reader of this blog knows that I'm a big Dylan fan. Have been since 1964. There are many reasons why. He is one of the most prolific and talented artists of our time -- a songwriter without peer. I also actually that he's an amazing singer. In fact, I'm usually disappointed when I hear other artists signing his songs. In my opinion, few are able to capture their essence.

In his book "Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes" Greil Marcus describes the songs written and performed by the legendary collaboration between Bob Dylan and The Band as "music as oral history". The history Dylan captures in words and music is the underside of America. More like a glimpse of how the world really works when stripped of all of its superficial trappings to reveal both the grit and the supernatural/spiritual. His songs paint a world that you could liken to a hybrid of two HBO series: "The Wire" and "Carnivale".

This comparison may seem like a stretch to some, but I'll stand by it. After listening to Tell Tale Signs" I'm more convinced than ever. It is a truly outstanding musical experience. (GW)

Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Volume 8

By Mikal Gilmore

Rolling Stone Magazine

October 2008

Bob Dylan is well-known for his abandoned treasures — all those unreleased recordings from the past 40-plus years that have made his ongoing Bootleg Series such a mind-blowing trove. Dylan likely had little trouble leaving those moments behind, treasures or not; he's always been wary of letting his past prejudice his here and now. This newest collection of rare recordings, though, is something apart: The alternate studio takes, undisclosed songs, movie tracks and live performances that make up the three discs of Tell Tale Signs (also available as a two-disc package) depict Dylan's development from 1989 to 2006 — which is to say they're closer to Dylan's here and now than any earlier volumes. Also, Tell Tale Signs is less an anthology than an album in its own right. It seems designed to tell a story that sharpens and expands the vista of mortal and cultural disintegration that has been the chief theme of Dylan's 1997's Time Out of Mind, 2001's Love and Theft and 2006's Modern Times — perhaps the most daring music he's ever made. Tell Tale Signs makes plain that Dylan knows the caprices of the world he lives in, now more than ever.

Just as important, this collection bears witness to Dylan's reclamation of voice and perspective. He had been a singular visionary who upended rock & roll by recasting it as a force that could question society's values and politics, but he relinquished that calling as the society grew more dangerous. By the end of the Eighties, he had undergone so many transformations, made so many half-here and half-there albums, that he seemed to be casting about for a purpose. What did he want to say about the times around him? Did he have a vision anymore or just a career? The singer drew a new bead on these concerns with 1989's Oh Mercy, produced by Daniel Lanois. Dylan has said he was never fully satisfied with the album, but given that Tell Tale Signs features 10 tracks from Oh Mercy's sessions, it's clear its tunes mattered to him.

It's also clear that Dylan sometimes had better production instincts than Lanois. The latter's interpretation of "Born in Time" — the broken meditation of a lovesick man — played like immaculate architecture; everything about it, including vocals and emotions, was put in a measured place, meant to sustain atmosphere more than expression. By contrast, Dylan's acoustic-guitar and harmonica rendering of the song has the drive and dynamics of the heart; it's a living soliloquy that cuts to the quick. Similarly, his reading of "Ring Them Bells" features just his voice and piano, and its longing is palpable. On Oh Mercy, the song felt like a blessing, full of compassion and beauty; here, it works as a tortured prayer, already turning from hope, and it makes one wonder why Dylan ever allowed Lanois' mannered ambience to subsume the song. Yet as promising as Oh Mercy's songs seemed at the time, they were also still trying to reason with the world, to offer the possibility of deliverance. They couldn't begin to hint at the gravity of what was to come.

By the time of 1997's Lanois-helmed Time Out of Mind, Dylan's view was well past optimistic. In the seven years since he last recorded an original album, he concentrated mainly on rekindling his musical spirit, playing live with a protean band that approached every performance as a chance for intense affinity. Something in Dylan had also turned hard-boiled: His worldview had sharpened, and he wasn't reticent to talk about truths in unambiguous terms. This time, Lanois' spooky milieu suited the artist's world-weariness, working to evoke the sound of a midnight band playing a spectral juke joint, located somewhere near the end times. Tell Tale Signs testifies to Time Out of Mind's stature with 12 tracks — many of them versions of previously unreleased songs. Among the highlights are two takes of "Red River Shore," a rhapsodic song, awash in a Tejano mellifluence, about an idealized love that never happened and how the singer inhabits its loss like a ghost.

The real find, though, is "Mississippi," a song so central to Dylan's later work that three takes of it exist here. Though the song would later figure on Love and Theft, Lanois told Dylan that he thought it was too "pedestrian" for Time Out of Mind. It's probably just as well: "Mississippi" is too remarkable for any artful treatment. What seeps through its bones is foreclosed history, both American and personal: "Every step of the way, we walk the line/Your days are numbered, so are mine/Time is pilin' up, we struggle and we scrape/We're all boxed in, nowhere to escape." Moreover, all three takes serve as examples of the matchless singer Dylan remains, using inflection and phrasing to reveal different possibilities each time. He intones one version of "Mississippi" here as a remorseful lament, so soft-spoken that he's leaning into your ear; the second as a late-night conspiracy, bone-tired and raspy; the third as the brave and heart-worn last stand, a witness to the costs and advantages of experience — all three of them encompass American loss.

But then, nearly all of Tell Tale Signs points to that state, and to something darker, deeper and irrefutable: There is no center that can hold in our time anymore, there is no certain shelter from the coming storms. Dylan works his way unflinchingly along the merciless highways and barren landscapes of "Marchin' to the City" and "Tell Ol' Bill," past the floods of "High Water (For Charley Patton)," into the mean honesty of "Ain't Talkin' " and "Lonesome Day Blues." He is possessed of the love that damned him in "Red River Shore," as well as the one he came to hate in "Someday Baby." There are grace notes here, most of them drawn from the past, such as the portrayal of the brave Civil War soldiers dying together in "'Cross the Green Mountain" and the maiden who follows her love into war in "Mary and the Soldier." Others come simply from the immediacy of live performances like a 2003 delivery of "High Water" that Dylan's band plays like a night raid, and a dreamlike adaptation of "Tryin' to Get to Heaven" from 2000.

Above all, there is an abiding love for America's rich musical sources, invoked here in Robert Johnson's deathly "32-20 Blues," in Jimmie Rodgers' elegant requiem "Miss the Mississippi" and in a high-lonesome duet with bluegrass vet Ralph Stanley on "The Lonesome River." But love and truth, even vengeance, aren't necessarily salvation — they're simply, as Dylan says in "Huck's Tune," weapons "in this version of death called life."

If Dylan's songs were once protests looking for rectification — if his language was once phantasmagoric and tricky to decipher — well, that was wonderful, but things have changed. Tell Tale Signs sets a new milestone for this American artist. Dylan has always written about morally centerless times, but this collection comes from a different perspective — not something born of the existential moment but of the existential long view and the courage of dread. Jack Fate, Dylan's character in Masked and Anonymous, intones what might work as the précis for this album: "Seen from a fair garden, everything looks cheerful. Climb to a higher plateau, and you'll see plunder and murder. Truth and beauty are in the eye of the beholder. I tried to stop figuring everything out a long time ago." For a long time, we've asked Dylan to deliver us truths. Now that he has, we need to ask ourselves if we can live with them.

"Without the fight against discrimination, you do not have a Social Europe"

2008-10-05T07:21:00.006-04:00

The European Union is proposing the widespread adoption of a package of bills designed to address discrimination against women in the workplace. The recognition of the need for laws aimed at providing protection against social and economic injustices based on gender and race are sober reminders of both how far we've come and how much more has to be done in order to achieve socioeconomic justice for everyone. (GW)

Commission pushes for stronger rights for women workers

EurActiv
October 4, 2008

The EU executive today (3 October) presented a broad package aimed at helping women to reconcile their professional and private lives, particularly by improving conditions for self-employed and pregnant women.

Background:

A Commission Communication from April 2004 aimed to bring more women into the workforce and eliminate gender discrimination at work.

In March 2006, the EU executive followed up with a roadmap to achieve equality between men and women on issues such as parental leave, flexible working arrangements and care facilities.

The measures proposed in the package, which promotes a better balance between work, private and family life, are the result of a consultation that the Commission had launched among social partners in October 2006, calling for proposals on how to improve childcare and care for the elderly and disabled.

The main objectives of the package, which was presented by Employment Commissioner Vladimir Špidla today (3 October), are improving conditions for maternity leave, strengthening social protection measures for the self-employed and achieving better child care.

Longer maternity leave

The Commission proposed a directive that would extend maternity leave from 14 to 18 weeks, rule out lay-offs during this time and grant women more flexibility when taking leave. But the plan is likely to meet strong opposition from several member states, including Germany.

Indeed, the country's Ministry of Family Affairs argues that the initiative could have a boomerang effect, increasing the financial risk of employing young women and raising hurdles for those in search of a job.

Germany further argues that its existing legislation already goes far beyond what the Commission is proposing regarding the protection of maternity leave, lay-off protection and financial coverage.

Current legislation regarding maternity leave varies widely across EU member states, with the periods granted ranging from 14 weeks to 52 weeks, while not all countries offer paid leave.

Better rights for self-employed women

The EU executive will also present a proposal aimed at boosting the number of female entrepreneurs by offering them better protection, whether they are self-employed or working for their husband's company. It should also help women to remain at work independently of their family responsibilities.

More child care

The Commission will also present a report on the provision of childcare services, covering aspects such as accessibility, availability, cost and quality. The EU's aim is to provide childcare for at least 90% of children between the age of three and school age and at least 33% of those under three by 2010.

Anti-discrimination directive proves divisive

Before today's Commission presentation, EU employment ministers exchanged views on a Commission proposal for tighter anti-discrimination legislation covering mistreatment outside the workplace.

But ministers came nowhere near to reaching agreement, largely due to fierce opposition from the Czech Republic and Germany once again. German Family Affaris Minister Ursula von der Leyen told her EU counterparts that she wanted to examine whether a legal basis existed for legislation at the European level, stressing that Germany already had a "high level of protection."

The French Presidency wanted to go "as far as it can" with the directive, French Social Affairs Minister Xavier Bertrand said.

“Given the current economic challenges it is indispensable to have such piece of legislation,” he added.

Positions:

EU Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimir Špidla stressed that the fight against discrimination, "regardless of its form" was "absolutely fundamental".

"Europe in the 21st century has to be a Europe without discrimination and a Europe for everybody," he said, adding: "Without the fight against discrimination, you do not have a Social Europe."

Commenting on the family package, the Commissioner said: "Having children too often costs women their income and their job prospects. [...] Our proposals to improve maternity leave will help women to combine work and family and also hold out benefits for men and families as a whole."

He considers childcare as "a vital ingredient in facing up to demographic ageing" as without proper support "parents are less likely to have children."

Philip Bushill-Matthews from the EPP-ED group said the maternity leave proposals were "ill-judged", claiming that those decisions should be made by national governments, not the EU.

Arguing along the line of the German government, he said that the proposal would create "extra costs", which might make small businesses "think twice about employing young women".

Elisabeth Schroedter from the Greens welcomed the Commission's proposal to extend maternity leave to 18 weeks, which she said was long overdue. But she criticised the Commission for "buckling" on lay-off protection. In the final text, it only has to be justified in written form. Furthermore, the period after which women can return from their maternity leave to their previous job was reduced from 12 to six months, the Green MEP criticises.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) welcomed the package as "timely and necessary", but at the same time criticised it is not far-reaching enough.

The European SME federation UEAPME siad it was pleased about the proposal on equal treatment between self-employed men and women, which gave the member "reasonable room to manoeuvre".

But it expressed its concern on the maternity leave proposal, argueing that "there is no evidence that the current rules are not sufficient". To the contrary, the initiative would create new difficulties and costs for small businesses.

UEAPME also criticised the timing of the initiative, which might "jeopardise" the European Social Partners' negotiations on the revision of the existing parental leave directive.

Next steps:

15 Dec. 2008: EU Employment Council to discuss anti-discrimination and family package.

A guard against rising fossil fuel prices and water levels

2008-10-04T07:44:00.004-04:00

It's taken a while, but offshore wind energy is poised to emerge as a major new industry off the coasts (including those of the Great Lakes) of the United States. The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) is in the final stages of developing the rule outlining the procedures and requirements for developing wind and other renewable energy technologies on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

This is good news all around. Offshore wind energy can play a major role in mitigating climate change, spurring economic development while providing a clean abundant source of electricity for the inevitable plug-in hybrid electric vehicle revolution. (GW)

New Jersey Grants Rights to Build a Wind Farm About 20 Miles Offshore

By Ken Belson
New York Times
October 4, 2008

Regulators in New Jersey awarded the rights on Friday for construction of a $1 billion offshore wind farm in the southern part of the state to Garden State Offshore Energy. The rights, which include access to as much as $19 million in state grants, is part of New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan, which calls for 20 percent of the state’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. The decision comes on the heels of decisions by Delaware and Rhode Island to allow the installation of offshore wind farms.

Energy experts say that these approvals could prompt regulators in New York to support projects off the south shore of Long Island and New York City.

Garden State Offshore Energy is a joint venture that includes P.S.E.G. Renewable Generation, a subsidiary of P.S.E.G. Global, which is a sister company of the state’s largest utility, Public Service Electric and Gas Company.

The proposal by Garden State Offshore Energy includes the installation of 96 turbines to produce as much as 346 megawatts of electricity, enough to power tens of thousands of houses, starting in 2013. The turbines would be arranged in a rectangle about a half-mile long by one-third of a mile wide and would be placed 16 to 20 miles off the coast of New Jersey’s Atlantic and Ocean Counties, much farther out and in much deeper water than other proposed wind farms. Deepwater Wind, which will work with P.S.E.G. to build the wind farm, said it could affordably build turbines in 100 feet of water with the same technology used to build oil and gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and other places.

Because the wind blows more reliably during the day farther offshore, the company expects to be able to more readily tap into the higher prices available on the power market at peak times. And by putting the turbines so far out, the company hopes to blunt opposition from environmentalists and residents who say that turbines diminish ocean views and damage wildlife.

“People don’t have to choose between clean energy and a clear view,” said Nelson Garcez, a vice president of P.S.E.G. Global. Mr. Garcez said the deep-water turbines would produce enough power to help the company break even in about seven years.

The next step is for Garden State Offshore Energy to seek permits from state and federal agencies to build offshore. The company will also have to get commitments from manufacturers to build the turbines, which would be assembled in New Jersey and could potentially create hundreds of new jobs.

The decision by New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities comes a little more than a week after the Long Island Power Authority and Con Edison said they would study the economic feasibility of building a wind farm about 10 miles off the south shore of Queens. In August, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that the city would solicit proposals from companies interested in building offshore wind farms and placing turbines atop buildings in the city.

The projects being approved in neighboring states could increase the chances for approval of offshore wind farms in New York, where a vast majority of wind turbines are on land and upstate.

“It’s like a rising tide lifting all boats,” said Peter M. Iwanowicz, the director of the New York State Climate Change Office of the Department of Environmental Conservation in Albany. “More projects in the Northeast helps with public acceptance that we need more clean electrons and helps us guard against rising fossil fuel prices and water levels on the coast.”

"The Saudi Arabia of marine energy".

2008-10-03T05:01:00.003-04:00

The world's oceans will clearly play a prominent role in the battle to mitigate climate change. They will play host to a variety of renewable energy technologies including wind, wave and tidal. If planned and deployed responsibly, these clean energy options have tremendous potential for addressing the problem that poses the greatest threat to the health of our oceans' ecological integrity and overall health.

Understandably, there are concerns about the impact technologies that operate within the marine environment. These should be taken seriously and every attempt to avoid problems by way of anticipatory design. (GW)

Project aims to harness sea power

BBC News
September 29, 2008

A major tidal energy project is being planned for waters off the coast of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Scottish Power has identified the Pentland Firth, Sound of Islay and Antrim coast to test sea turbines which could power thousands of homes.

It comes as Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, visited the far north and the Crown Estate opened up the Pentland Firth seabed for leasing to developers.

Projects on the firth could be operational by 2020.

The sea off the Caithness and Sutherland coasts and around Orkney have been identified by the Crown Estate as having potential for generating energy.

Mr Salmond said the firth could be seen as "the Saudi Arabia of marine energy".

Scottish Power has been working on the Lanstrom device, which is said to be the world's most advanced tidal turbine.

The Scottish and Irish sites would host up to 60 of the turbines - 20 at each site - generating 60 megawatts of power for up to 40,000 homes.

The company is expected to apply for planning permission next year.

The device, similar to an underwater wind turbine, has been tested in a Norwegian fjord.

Scottish Power insists there is no threat to marine life, but the Marine Conservation Society said it would want to look closely at the proposals and see a rigorous environmental impact assessment.

The director of Scottish Power's renewable arm, Keith Anderson, said: "The rapid technological advancement of tidal power has enabled us to progress plans for this substantial project which has the real potential to deliver significant environmental and economic benefits."

Speaking during his visit to Caithness, Mr Salmond said opening the firth for energy generation on a commercial scale was "exciting news" for Scotland's renewables sector, environment and economy.

He said: "These developments are a significant step forward in Scotland's journey to become a world leader in the development of renewable energy."

Mr Salmond added: "The Pentland Firth is the Saudi Arabia of marine power.

"Our seas alone could provide 25% of Europe's tidal power and 10% of wave power. The vast potential of the Pentland Firth will mean more investment, more jobs and more opportunities for the Caithness area."

Generating power from the sea could also be key to supporting the far north economy as jobs are reduced at Dounreay, a former nuclear power complex.

The first minister joined 150 delegates and representatives from about 20 marine energy developers at the Caithness Regeneration Conference.

Creating work in the area has become increasingly important because of the decommissioning of Dounreay.

The Thurso conference - taking place for the second time - will discuss progress on an action plan drawn up to steer the region through the effects of the plant's wind-down and eventual closure.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), Highland Council, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Scottish Government and local community are involved in the project.

Eann Sinclair, of Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership, said: "Proposals are under way for projects such as the Pentland Firth Tidal Energy project and the development of Scrabster and Wick Harbours, as well as the creation of new jobs in the engineering sector."

Revolution in the air

2008-10-02T04:51:00.001-04:00

Digging ourselves out of the climate hole we've buried ourselves in will not be easy. The International Energy Agency (IEA) admits as much by laying out exactly what they've determined will be needed in order to avoid a catastrophic climate scenario.

We can complain about how difficult it would be to achieve such a goal -- that it is not economically feasible to develop and deploy the amount of renewable energy technologies prescribed. But the bottom line (if you believe the climate scientists) is clear. We either meet the goal or face extinction. Nature does not observe the same set of economic rules that we do.

So tell me again, what's so uneconomic about renewables? (GW)

Half of Global Electricity To Come From Renewables IEA Says

By David Appleyard,

Energy World Magazine

October 1, 2008

Nearly 50% of global electricity supplies must come from renewable energy sources in order to cut CO2 emissions in half by 2050, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says in its latest study, "Deploying Renewables: Principles for Effective Policies."

Meeting these very ambitious objectives to “minimize significant and irreversible climate change” will require unprecedented political commitment and effective policy design and implementation, the IEA said. The IEA is also urging governments to adopt effective policies based on five key design principles to accelerate the exploitation of the “large potential for renewable energy.”

Nonetheless, the IEA also recognizes the scale of such an undertaking, saying in a statement, “this is a huge challenge and part of the entire energy revolution we need to achieve.”

Commenting at the launch of the study, Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the IEA, said, “Only a limited set of countries have implemented effective support policies for renewables and there is a large potential for improvement. Several countries have made important progress in recent years in fostering renewables, with renewable energy markets expanding considerably as a result. However, much more can and should be done at the global level - in OECD member countries, large emerging economies and other countries - to address the urgent need of transforming our unsustainable energy present into a clean and secure energy future.”

The report says that there are still significant barriers which hamper a swift expansion and increase the costs of accelerating renewables’ transition into the mainstream. If these were removed, it could allow renewables to be exploited much more rapidly and to a much larger extent.

“Governments need to do more. Setting a carbon price is not enough. To foster a smooth and efficient transition of renewables towards mass market integration, renewable energy policies should be designed around a set of fundamental principles, inserted into predictable, transparent and stable policy frameworks and implemented in an integrated approach,” Tanaka said. “Moving a strong portfolio of renewable energy technologies towards full market integration is one of the main elements needed to make the energy technology revolution happen.”

The report concludes that renewable policy design should reflect:

Removal of non-economic barriers, such as administrative, grid access, poor electricity market design, lack of information and training, and the tackling of social acceptance issues
A predictable and transparent support framework to attract investments
The introduction of transitional incentives, decreasing over time, to foster innovation and move technologies quickly towards competitiveness
The development and implementation of appropriate incentives guaranteeing a specific level of support to different technologies based on their degree of maturity
Consideration of the impact of large-scale penetration of renewable energy technologies on the overall energy system, especially in liberalized energy markets, with regard to overall cost efficiency and system reliability

"Investments in people seem so short in supply"

2008-10-01T04:53:00.006-04:00

They say that patriotism is the last refuge To which a scoundrel clings.
Steal a little and they throw you in jail,
Steal a lot and they make you king.
There's only one step down from here, baby,
It's called the land of permanent bliss.
What's a sweetheart like you doin' in a dump like this?

Bob Dylan - "Sweetheart Like You

What is there to say? This evening the U.S. Senate will vote on the unprecedented bailout plan that would authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to spend nearly a trillion dollars of taxpayer funds to rescue corporate bankers from their insatiable greed. Meanwhile the needs of millions of the poorest people in in the world will drop farther down on the list of our national priorities. (GW)

No "Bailout" for the World's Poorest

By Thalif Deen
IPS News
September 29, 2008

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 29 (IPS) - As a spreading financial crisis threatens to deepen the economic recession in the United States, the news of an unprecedented 700-billion-dollar bailout package reverberated through the corridors of the United Nations last week as over 100 world leaders gathered in New York for the annual talk-fest: the 63rd session of the General Assembly.

At a time when the United Nations is seeking increased financial assistance from rich nations to help developing countries meet the faltering Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including a 50-percent reduction on extreme poverty and hunger by 2015, the current U.S. economic crisis and its predictably negative fallout overseas is expected to be a major setback.

Addressing delegates last week, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the current gloomy outlook threatens the well-being of billions of people, "none more so than the poorest of the poor."

"This only compounds the damage [already] being caused by much higher prices for food and fuel", he added.

Ban has called for 72 billion dollars per year in additional external financing to achieve the MDGs by 2015.

As one Asian delegate put it: "The 72 billion is peanuts compared to the 700 billion the White House wants to dish out to save some of the Wall Street firms from going belly up."

"And the urgent needs of developing nations will now be the least of the priorities of the United States and other Western donors," he predicted.

Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockman of Nicaragua, the newly-elected president of the General Assembly, warned that the current financial crisis will have "very serious consequences" that will impede the significant progress, "if indeed any progress is made", towards the targets established by the MDGs, "which are themselves insufficient".

"It is always the poor who pay the price for the unbridled greed and irresponsibility of the powerful," he said, taking a passing shot at the staggering 700-billion-dollar bailout proposed by the administration of President George W. Bush to save the high-stakes investment banks of New York from bankruptcy and collapse.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told delegates that "money doesn't seem to be a problem, when the problem is money".

"Let us look for a moment at what is happening on Wall Street and in financial markets around the world. There, unsound investment threatens the homes and jobs of the middle class," he added.

There is something fundamentally wrong, he argued, "when money seems to be abundant, but funds for investment in people seem so short in supply".

Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding told the General Assembly that the crisis currently rocking the world's financial markets reflects the inadequacy of the regulatory structures that are essential to the effective functioning of any market.

But it is more than that. It represents the failure on the part of the international financial system to facilitate the flow of resources into areas where they can produce real wealth -- not paper wealth, he added.

Golding said the world is not short of capital: "What it lacks are the mechanisms to ensure the efficient utilisation of that capital."

As the economic meltdown in the United States continues, the casualties are piling up both among commercial and investment banks: Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual (allowed to collapse with no government bailout); American International Group, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley (allowed to survive with emergency financial assistance, including some from the government); Merrill Lynch has been folded into Bank of America and Citigroup has taken over Wachovia Bank.

The outrage against Wall Street, described as the world's financial capital, is also directed at the high salaried chief executive officers and the middle rung bosses who make multi-million-dollar salaries, with stock options and perks that set them up in a privileged class by themselves.

According to one report, the lowest salary on Wall Street was around 280,000 dollars a year in a country where the average low or middle class employee would go home with a pay packet of 50,000 or 75,000 dollars per year.

In 2007, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, was paid 68.7 million dollars -- described as "the most ever for a Wall Street CEO."

As the entire U.S. economic edifice is in danger of collapsing, the White House has been called upon to save some of the biggest financial institutions in the country and, at the same time, redress the excesses of Wall Street business tycoons who earned multi-million-dollar salaries and extravagant bonuses.

The greed factor in the crisis is that these same tycoons, who are responsible for mismanaging their companies, still insist on continuing with their same lavish lifestyles and lofty salaries even after the massive taxpayer-funded bailout.

But these salaries and bonuses are likely to be curbed as part a return for the bailout package.

Addressing the 192-member General Assembly last week, the President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the economy of any country is "too serious an undertaking to be left in the hands of speculators".

Ethics must also apply to the economy, he said. But, unfortunately, in the race for profits, the ethical factor has ceased to exist.

The president quoted the Brazilian economist Celso Furtado who once said: "We must not allow speculators' profits always to be privatised, while their losses are invariably socialised."

And as a postscript, the Brazilian president added: "We must not allow the burden of the boundless greed of a few to be shouldered by all."

In the 1987 Hollywood movie 'Wall Street,' Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas plays the role of a ruthless corporate raider, Gordon Gekko, who forsakes all business ethics to climb to the highest echelons of the business world.

His speech to a meeting of stock traders is still considered a classic on Wall Street: "The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works."

"Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind."

Douglas, who is the U.N.'s goodwill ambassador for disarmament and a "messenger for peace", was at the United Nations last week to participate in the International Day of Peace.

Responding to a reporter who asked him: "Are you saying, Gordon, that greed is not good?," a visibly annoyed Douglas shot back: ""I am not saying that. And my name is not Gordon. He's a character I played 20 years ago."

Cow power

2008-09-30T04:56:00.001-04:00

I don't think that anyone would argue that dairy farming is "natural". Dairy cows aren't natural. I mean just try imagining a herd of Holsteins roaming in the wild. Not possible.

That doesn't mean that dairy farming can't be sustainable -- or a least approach sustainability. This much we can be sure of: as long as cows exist there will be manure. Keeping that manure out of our streams and lakes, and turning it into energy puts us on a sustainable path. (GW)

Electricity From What Cows Leave Behind

By Katie Zezima

New York Times

September 24, 2008

Sheldon, Vt.

For years, the cows at Green Mountain Dairy here produced only milk and manure. But recently they have generated something else: electricity.

The farm is part of a growing alternative energy program that converts the methane gas from cow manure into electricity that is sold to the power utility’s grid.

Central Vermont Public Service, which supplies electricity to 158,000 customers around the state, was among the first utilities in the country to draw electricity from cow manure on dairy farms. About 4,000 utility customers participate by agreeing to pay a premium for the electricity.

“We realized we could help meet a customer demand for renewables, help solve a manure management problem and make these farmers more financially secure,” said Steve Costello, a spokesman for Central Vermont Public Service.

Four Vermont dairy farms are producing electricity for the utility, and two more are expected to be online by year’s end, Mr. Costello said. The utility hopes to add six more farms by 2010.

Residents and businesses that get their electricity from the program pay a premium of 4 cents a kilowatt hour above the typical rate of 12.5 cents. Most of that money goes to the farmers, who must purchase their own equipment, which can run up to $2 million per farm. Most farmers expect to make back their investment in 7 to 10 years.

The brothers who own Green Mountain Dairy, Bill and Brian Rowell, were looking to squeeze more profit from their farm, where they have 1,050 cows and have begun acquiring 600 heifers. Milk prices had dipped and they wanted another source of income.

They also thought that the huge amount of waste their cows produced could be used for something other than fertilizer. So they decided to give electricity a try, armed with about $750,000 in federal, state and utility company grants.

“We saw this as an economic and environmental management tool,” Bill Rowell said. “It’s helped to diversify our farm,” which was named the 2008 Vermont Dairy Farm of the Year.

The Rowells’ cows live in a barn where a mechanical scraper sweeps the animals’ waste into a large drain. The waste is then pumped into a huge sealed concrete tank known as a digester, which holds 21 days’ worth of waste and is kept at a temperature of 101 degrees Fahrenheit. Anaerobic bacteria break down the organic matter in the waste, producing a mix of methane and other gases, known as bio-gas. The gas is burned in an engine that runs an electrical generator.

The cow waste produces 250 to 300 kilowatts of electricity daily, enough to power 300 to 350 homes, according to the utility.

“We’re making a resource out of a waste stream,” said Bill Rowell, who is running for the State Senate.

In return, the Rowells receive a payment based on the wholesale cost of power, which averages about 7 cents per kilowatt hour, plus the 4-cent premium. Mr. Rowell said they earned about $200,000 from electricity annually, and with the additional cows should receive $235,000 to $240,000 in revenue from electricity.

The Rowells are also transforming commercial waste. The farm processes about 500,000 gallons of waste and outdated ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s each year and puts it in the digester. The free ice cream, which the company drops off, helps the Rowells generate more electricity and saves Ben & Jerry’s the cost of disposing of it. “We’re improving our processes, and they’re improving theirs,” Mr. Rowell said.

The digester produces more than electricity. After 21 days, the waste is pumped through a separator, which siphons off the liquid into a silo and drops the solids into a barn.

The liquid manure is used as fertilizer, while the solids are used for cow bedding. The bedding saves the Rowells thousands of dollars a month on sawdust, and they sell the excess to garden stores.

Other utilities across the country are purchasing power from farms as part of their renewable energy portfolios. Some, like Central Vermont Public Service, charge their customers a premium, while others do not.

Alliant Energy, which supplies electricity to rural customers in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, draws power from four digesters and is working to add more. About 20 independent farms in Wisconsin have digesters and sell electricity to various utilities, said William A. Johnson, manager of biofuels development at the utility.

“Our economy is agriculture, and people recognize that supporting the industry is a positive,” Mr. Johnson said. The utility charges 2 cents a kilowatt hour more for cow power.

“Rural customers, in particular, are very excited that something that is considered by some to be a liability, manure, has become, in essence, a resource,” Mr. Johnson said.

In Ohio, Buckeye Power went online with a digester at the end of August and plans to turn waste from a chicken farm into electricity next year.

“We were interested in finding a type of green power that was, No. 1, not intermittent, like wind or solar,” said Steve Oden, a spokesman for Buckeye, which will not charge extra for the power.

Marie Audet’s family farm in Bridport, Vt., was the first in the Central Vermont system and went online in 2005. The family invested $1.3 million and expects to make that back in four years.

“We’re saving money by not using sawdust, reducing original waste by recycling and generating revenue by selling electricity into the grid,” Ms. Audet said.

And many customers here have chosen to pay more for power that is both renewable and supports local farmers.

Maggie Hatch, who owns the Newbury Village Store in Newbury, Vt., operates half of the business with cow power. The renewable power adds $200 to $400 a month to the store’s electric bill, but Ms. Hatch and her husband, Gary, say it is worth it.

“It’s worth it to us to spend that money to help the producers and use power that helps sustain the environment,” Ms. Hatch said. “When you live in a place like we do, which is a beautiful part of the country, you’re really aware of the environment and want to keep it that way.”

Sharing the catch

2008-09-29T05:15:00.001-04:00

It didn't take long for the first European-Americans to wipe out the American Buffalo. The swiftness and extent of their decimation is mind-boggling even by modern standards. Fish are more difficult to track down and capture, but the combined actions of fishers from around the world have finally succeeded in nearly depleting global fishing stocks.

Is there anyone out there who doesn't believe that finding real and lasting solutions to the critical problems facing society are most likely to be found when the public and private sectors work together to determine the appropriate mix of market forces and regulation? (GW)

Study: Privatization could avert fisheries' collapse

By Eoin O'Carroll
Christian Science Monitor
September 26, 2008

Replacing the fishing season with a quota system could prevent fisheries from being depleted, a new study has found.

Writing in last week’s issue of the journal Science, a trio of researchers has found that the world’s handful of fisheries with a “catch share” system, in which individual fishermen own long-term rights to a percentage of a predetermined catch limit, are half as likely to have collapsed than traditionally managed fisheries, in which fishermen try to catch as many fish as possible during a fishing season.

The study’s authors – two from the University of California at Santa Barbara and one from the University of Hawaii – surveyed 121 fisheries with catch-share systems and compared them with catch statistics from 11,135 fisheries around the globe from 1950 to 2003. Their conclusion: “Implementation of catch shares halts, and even reverses, the global trend toward widespread collapse. Institutional change has the potential for greatly altering the future of global fisheries.”

It can’t happen soon enough. As the Monitor reported in June, one-quarter of the world’s fish stocks are overfished, and another half are fished to full capacity. One study found that, if current trends continue, the world will completely run out of seafood by midcentury.

So how does a catch-share system work? First, marine scientists establish a safe level of annual catch for a species or group of species. Then, each individual boat or fleet is granted the right to a percentage of that catch, and they have all year to fish for it. The allowable catch fluctuates from year to year, but the percentages are guaranteed. Fishermen can buy and sell these shares, but no new shares are allowed.

The Washington Post quotes Galen Tromble, fisheries chief at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, who explained how fishermen qualify for the shares:

Each share system operates differently, Tromble said, but federal guidelines dictate that anyone who has “substantially participated” in a fishery deserves part of the overall quota and that no individual can have “an excessive share.” In the red snapper fishery in the Gulf of Mexico, which switched to a share system on Jan. 1, 2007, managers set quotas based on the 10 best consecutive catches an individual had brought in from 1990 to 2004.

David Krebs, who owns Ariel Seafoods in Destin, Fla., and has been fishing there since 1969, owns almost 6 percent of the gulf’s annual red snapper catch, just below the maximum share. Krebs noted that red snapper used to fetch $1.50 a pound dockside and has risen to $4.50 a pound as the fishing pressure has eased. He calls the new system “truly a success story.”

“It’s the most versatile tool that allows a fisherman to fish when the market needs the fish,” Krebs said.

A 2007 report by the Environmental Defense Fund found that the benefits of catch sharing go well beyond preventing fishery decline. In a study of US and Canadian catch-share fisheries, the EDF found that revenues per boat increased by 80 percent, as fishermen sought to maximize the value of their share by delivering fish according to market demands. Bycatch – species other than the ones fishermen were trying to catch – was reduced by 40 percent. And safety more than doubled, as fishermen were able to stay ashore during bad weather and did not have to rush to catch as many fish as possible as they do during a constricted fishing season.

A success story can also be found in the Alaska halibut fishery, which converted to a catch-share system in 1995. By that year, the stocks had become so depleted that the fishing season had dwindled to only a few days, during which time prices were low because the market was flooded. Today, the season lasts almost eight months, and a boat can remain in the water until it has caught its share. Fisherman can land bigger fish and sell them at higher prices. And according to the Economist, since the system was put in place, search-and-rescue missions have dropped by more than 70 percent and deaths by 15 percent.

The system has its critics. The BBC quotes fisheries expert Daniel Pauly who calls catch sharing “an elegant solution to a big problem,” but worries that they raise insurmountable barriers to entry:

“[T]here is unfairness in allocating the shares initially, because you are giving something to the biggest fishers and the others are not getting access and will not get access for ever.”

“So I think it’s one of the tools that can be introduced in specific fisheries, but you shouldn’t look at it with the degree of absolutism and even fanaticism that has characterised the discussion in some countries.”

Additionally, the EDF report found that, while full-time employment rose among fisheries operating under catch-share systems, the number of available crew positions at any given time decreased by half.

The study comes just as the European Union is examining its fisheries policy. As the Worldwatch Institute’s Ben Block notes this week, many European fisheries are on the verge of collapse. Block’s report quotes Chris Costello, the study’s lead author, who says that catch-sharing systems could offer a solution, provided that they are tailored to meet the needs of local communities:

“Every fishery in the world could benefit from some form of incentive-based management system,” said Costello, a resources economics professor at University of California in Santa Barbra. “The critical feature is to design those incentive-based schemes for the biology of the species, the culture of the communities, and the economies of the fisheries.”

Energy and food are truly needs of humanity

2008-09-28T09:53:00.004-04:00

The critical challenges facing humanity today are not due to inadequate supplies of food or energy. Buckminster Fuller often reminded those who would listen that people around the world are suffering because of what he called a 'crisis of ignorance'.

What he meant was that political leaders, hell-bent on perpetuating their control over their constituents, refuse to reveal the full menu of options available for meeting the basic needs of everyone. Those options do indeed exist.

It is difficult to deal with other pressing issues if people are malnourished and without adequate supplies of energy to meet personal needs and to power local and national economies. (GW)

Food and fuel crises require results, not just promises, Malaysia tells UN debate

UN News Centre
September 27, 2008

The global food and fuel crisis will be not resolved unless countries start turning their statements and promises of assistance and reform on the issue into reality, Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim told the General Assembly tonight, calling for a multi-track approach to tackling the problems.

Affluent countries have a particular responsibility to fulfil their commitments on providing aid and official development assistance (ODA) to needy nations, Mr. Yatim told the fifth day of the Assembly’s annual high-level debate.

If they live up to those pledges, they would “set a standard for entire world, rather than on trying to pass the burden of action on to the developing world.”

Governments can and should also play a greater role than the private sector, particularly in developing infrastructure and transferring technology, than the private sector.

“The developing world is still infrastructure-deficient. Pure market solutions to technology transfer cannot be regarded as effective solutions for achieving sustainable development. Government intervention is required if these technologies are to be made available at concessionary rates.”

Long-standing conflicts and tensions around the world, especially those in volatile regions that are also home to leading producers and distribution channels of oil, must be resolved.

“The United Nations must play a more forward thrust in the need for peace and security. Energy and food are truly needs of humanity. As such, the UN must create a synergy of human rights into the matter so that oil and food become basic rights for humanity.”

Speaking to the Assembly debate earlier today, Peruvian Foreign Minister José Antonio García Belaúnde said the food and fuel crises were having a disproportionate burden on the poor.

Mr. García Belaúnde welcomed the Assembly’s recognition of poverty as an issue that required a comprehensive global response, adding that new and ambitious strategies and programmes are going to be necessary to help the poorest.

He warned that the threats posed by the crises were overwhelming existing initiatives to fight poverty and making it harder for struggling countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the set of eight targets for slashing social and economic ills, by 2015.

Franck Biancheri, Government Counsellor for External Relations and International Economic and Financial Affairs of Monaco, said the current situation in many parts of the world was so dire as a result of the food and fuel crises and climate change that drastically stepped-up efforts are needed to achieve the MDGs.

Monaco plans to increase its ODA by 25 per cent every year and to focus its support on the States classified as the least developed countries (LDCs), he said, as part of a plan to reach a target of spending 0.7 per cent of gross national income on assistance by 2015.

Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said yesterday in his address that the focus of international assistance should be on sub-Saharan Africa, which is lagging the most in the race to reach the MDGs.

But he said there had been some noteworthy progress in Africa, too, with the lifting of 400 million people out of extreme poverty, improvements in gender equality and education, and a 27 per cent drop in the infant mortality rate.

For his part, Belgium’s Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht said today that the impact of the crises meant it was critical to find the political will to re-start the stalled Doha round of global trade liberalization talks.

Mr. de Gucht said wealth-sharing remained deeply unequal, despite some of the positive steps taken as a result of globalization and its gradual impact on free trade.

Some of the new emerging economies such as Brazil, China and South Africa need exchanges that are open and equitable so that they can develop at the pace they deserved, he added.

Slovakian Foreign Minister Ján Kubiš, speaking last night to delegates at the Assembly, backed the work of the Task Force on the Global Food Crisis under the leadership of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which was set up earlier this year.

Developing countries need much more support from richer States to increase their food supply, he said in his address.

“Furthermore, fairer international trade rules must be adopted to stimulate agriculture production, first of all in developing countries, and allow access to foodstuffs,” according to Mr. Kubiš.

Andorra’s Head of Government Albert Pintat, who addressed the debate on Thursday, said that the process of liberalizing of trade must be “reinvented” so that small-scale farmers and producers are not unduly hurt, with different rules set for different circumstances in each country.

“Liberalization would also have to involve an expansion of productivity, the development of human resources, basic infrastructures, access to technology and knowledge and respect for the environment,” he said.

"The climate crisis will be there always and we must face it"

2008-09-27T09:43:00.003-04:00

Difficult economic times should not be an excuse to relax efforts designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change. Pressure to do just that is mounting in the European Union and you can bet that U.S. industries will be quick to join the chorus. This is one of many dangers resulting from short-term, linear thinking and policy making.

Political courage particularly here and in the EU will be more important than ever as the U.S financial crisis continues to unravel and reverberate through major European economies. (GW)

EU climate goals under pressure as recession loom

EurActiv
September 26, 2008

Poland has joined Germany in calling for industry exemptions to EU climate rules as a recession in Europe’s major economies is casting doubts on whether Brussels will be able to push through its ambitious CO2 reduction programme.

Background:

Energy-intensive industries in the EU claim that, as the EU tightens its carbon 'belt', producers operating in countries where pollution is cheaper will drive European operators out of business. A global climate change deal, with emissions reduction commitments from both developed and developing countries, is meant to resolve any such imbalance, but negotiations are progressing slowly and will only be concluded in Copenhagen in December 2009.

The EU's aluminium, cement, steel and other heavy industries want Brussels to spell out which sectors could benefit from safeguards in the form of free CO2 emissions allowances before December 2009 in case international climate talks fail. Otherwise, warn heavy industries, the EU will be at risk of 'carbon leakage', meaning that factories would be forced to evacuate their operations, jobs and - crucially - emissions to third countries.

But the Commission does not want to preclude the outcome of global climate talks by publishing such a list before the discussions wrap up. In its proposal for a revised EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) for beyond 2012, the EU executive acknowledges the problem and pledges to identify sectors and special exemptions by 30 June 2011.

EU Industry Commissioner Günter Verheugen yesterday (25 September) gave specific assurances to Poland that 100% free CO2 permit allocation “should be possible” for the country’s energy intensive industries.

Verheugen, speaking at a conference on the Competitiveness Council, repeated the Commission’s position that exemptions should not be formalised before an international climate change deal is reached in December 2009, and insisted that pushing industries out of Europe is not the aim of the EU climate package.

But Brussels’ resolve on the issue may be softening. A non-paper circulated by the Commission cites the aluminium, steel and cement sectors as "likely to be strongly affected [and] would therefore be amongst the substances likely to benefit from partial to totally free allocations" (EurActiv 22/09/08).

The growing financial crisis in the US, which analysts say will have considerable recessionary impacts on major EU economies like Germany, the UK and France, may also make it increasingly difficult for the Commission to justify higher operating costs for industries.

Member states are getting nervous about asking their industries to pay more for CO2 pollution, says Christian Egenhofer, a senior researcher at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels. The “assumptions have gone”, Egenhofer said in reference to likely declining investments and growing constraints on governments’ abilities to use macro-economic instruments towards ‘green’ aims.

Poland’s leaders in particular have been crying foul, arguing that their country’s coal dependent economy, which is still struggling to catch up with Western European economies that were allowed to emit CO2 with impunity for decades, could be severely undermined by the climate and energy package. The country's miners yesterday (25 September) marched on Brussels in direct protest of the EU's climate plans.

Polish concerns are mirrored by the three other members of the 'Visegrad Group' - Hungary, the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic - which have banded together with several of the EU's new member states to call for a revision of their national targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions (EurActiv 02/06/08). A slight delay in the adoption of the EU's climate package to March 2009 may also be necessary to ensure fairness, according to a joint statement by the Visegrad group. This is in contrast to the agenda set by the French EU Presidency, which is pushing for an adoption of the package by December 2008.

The demands of the Visegrad countries were given indirect backing at the beginning of the week (22 September) when German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that her government “could not support the destruction of German jobs through an ill-advised climate policy”, the Financial Times reported.

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, meanwhile, argues that an economic slowdown should not stall the EU’s climate efforts. "The financial crisis is here one day and it is gone another day. But the climate crisis will be there always and we must face it," Dimas told reporters in Brussels on 24 September.

12 Degrees of Freedom

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A guard against rising fossil fuel prices and water levels

"The Saudi Arabia of marine energy".

Revolution in the air

"Investments in people seem so short in supply"

Cow power

Sharing the catch

Energy and food are truly needs of humanity

"The climate crisis will be there always and we must face it"

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