The benefits of high energy prices

sergio ferreira — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:49:43 +0000

There is nothing more effective than high energy prices to promote efficiency in its use!

Sarsfield Cabral, Opinion writer for Publico

Is there enough?

Hans De Keulenaer — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:35:15 +0000

There is enough for everybody’s need, but not enough for anybody’s greed.

Mahatma Gandhi

The future we want

Hans De Keulenaer — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:00:16 +0000

We have to encourage the future we want rather than trying to prevent the future we fear.

Bill Joy, Sun Microsystems

Slowing down

Hans De Keulenaer — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 05:36:38 +0000

A reduction in domestic emissions would slow the pace of global emissions increases, no matter what happens elsewhere.

US Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA, April 2, 2007

The challenge of innovation

Hans De Keulenaer — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:00:58 +0000

… good enough for our transatlantic friends… but unworthy of practical or scientific men.

Report of a committee of the British Parliament on the idea of an incandescent lamp, 1878

The R’s of non-sustainability

Hans De Keulenaer — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:00:06 +0000

With tongue in cheek and apologies to the Wal-Mart version we have all heard, please consider these thoughts that are sure to help us NOT achieve sustainability in 2008.

1. Refuse to consider thoughts and opinions other than your own. If you are right and everyone else is wrong, why bother?

2. Remain glued to the status quo. After all if what you have been doing works, why take a chance on changing anything?

3. Reject any idea that even remotely sounds like compromise even though sometimes, that is the best way to accomplish progress.

4. Resist any new technology unless it is absolutely perfect and supports your position. “See I told you it wouldn’t work” can be all so satisfying.

5. Ridicule anyone who appears to be profiting from their work in sustainability, especially if their margin appears to exceed your own.

6. Repel anyone seeking knowledge or help. Everyone knowing as much as you do cannot be a good thing.

Last but not least

7. Resign yourself to the fact that the environmental problem is too large to be fixed. Seek new goals that are easier to achieve!

Dennis Salazar

Competitive through addiction

Hans De Keulenaer — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:00:16 +0000

Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.

George W. Bush, 2006

Taxing labor or pollution?

Hans De Keulenaer — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:01:03 +0000

We need to profoundly revise all of our taxes and charges. The aim is to tax pollution - notably fossil fuels - more, and tax work less.

Nicolas Sarkozy

The biggest threat of China

Hans De Keulenaer — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 07:00:32 +0000

I never will forget a couple of years ago I had a fascinating conversation with the President of China, and we were discussing what our future would be and whether we wished to contain China. And I said, “I don’t wish to contain China.” I said, “The biggest security threat China presents the United States is that you will insist on getting rich the same way we did.” And he looked at me, and I could tell he had never thought of that. And I said, “You have to choose a different future, and we have to help. We have to support you. And that does not in any way let us off the hook. But it just means that we have to do this together.”

Bill Clinton, 1997

Stabilising emissions

Hans De Keulenaer — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 07:00:56 +0000

On Earth Day I made a commitment to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2000. And I asked for a blueprint on how to achieve this goal. In concert with all other nations, we simply must halt global warming. It is a threat to our health, to our ecology, and to our economy. I know that the precise magnitude and patterns of climate change cannot be fully predicted. But global warming clearly is a growing, long-term threat with profound consequences. And make no mistake about it, it will take decades to reverse.

Bill Clinton, 1993