Hey! It’s a blowout!
June 15, 2010Leave a Comment
It is up to us all to take a stand to preserve our resources–like oil and gas–unless we genuinely believe we are the last generation to need to them. If that is the case, we can all party hardy now, because tomorrow will never come.
It’s not a spill: a gentle, gradual thing like [...]
How many disasters does it take to change a light-bulb?
May 4, 2010Leave a Comment
Apparently an infinity.
Deepwater Horizon is just one disaster, like the Exxon Valdez, 29 dead miners in a Massey mine in West Virginia, and a floating island of plastic garbage as large as a continent in the Pacific. The EPA is concerned with air quality, fishermen with their livelihood, and coastal communities from [...]
Uncertainty: After the SEC guidance
March 10, 2010Leave a Comment
A month after the SEC’s clarification on climate risk, little is clarified.
All in all, the guidance seems to require a level of ambiguous prognostication that would make an astrologer proud. Even looking at the basics, the guidance requires more speculative than concrete reporting, including the:
Impact of legislation and regulation, both existing and potential
Impact of international [...]
Apple Shuns CSR Report at February’s Shareholder Meeting
March 9, 2010Leave a Comment
In a highly competitive industry, Apple could benefit from more transparency.
In a proxy filing issued in January, Apple’s Board of Directors urged shareholders to vote against a shareholder resolution proposed by As You Sow, an environmental group specializing in shareholding advocacy, and co-sponsored by The New York City Office of the Comptroller and the Green [...]
Smithfield Foods Shows Reluctance Over Sustainability
March 9, 2010Leave a Comment
Smithfield Hires Chief Sustainability Officer, Hit with Lawsuit in Same Week
Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer and processor, has a notorious history of unsustainable practices, covering the three pillars of Environmental, Social, and Governance.
As it hungers to absorb smaller pork and other meat companies around the world, Smithfield has been charged with violating federal [...]
Ghost Busters style of fiscal responsibility.
January 18, 2010Leave a Comment
The partisan slingshots that ricochet around the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission–amplified by media pundits on all sides–brings to mind a scene from the film “Ghost Busters”. Our heroes, armed with super duper atomic weapons, try them out for the first time in hotel in midtown Manhattan. Out of control, they destroy everything around them. When [...]
Chaos in the markets
December 15, 2009Leave a Comment
Meeting rising consumer demand for green/clean products is increasingly difficult, as that demand is coupled with price sensitivities that cannot be met in uncertain regulatory environments. Getting to some clarity may become the job of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Right now, the EPA looks like best bet because it has a mandate to [...]
It’s Energy, Stupid!
November 30, 20091 Comment
ClimateGate: We’re once again chasing the wrong story. It’s not about climate; it’s about energy, carbon, energy, jobs, energy and oil. Following a rash of articles about the leaks of emails suggesting that climate scientists occasionally have doubts, we hear that some US senators are crowing, and the Wall Street Journal has announced the end [...]
The Road to Copenhagen
September 17, 2009Leave a Comment
Climate change is still with us.
In spite the focus on health care, the search for economic melt-down culprits and a lingering war in both Afghanistan and Iraq, world leaders are preparing for the United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen, December 7-18. John Kerry, Senator from Massachusetts and Tim Wirth, President of the United Nations Foundation [...]
Thoughts on Van Jones
September 9, 2009Leave a Comment
If a cat is an animal, does it follow that all animals are cats?
If we listen to news today, it would seem so. If a mom doesn’t want Obama talking to her kids, and she lives in Texas, then everyone in Texas doesn’t want Obama talking to their kids. If Van Jones considers himself a [...]