Hal’s Recent Comments

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  Conserve your own personal energy

  We all have a "foot print".  But how many depends on how far you travel, metaphorically speaking.  So conserve your own energy and get going on finding more solutions.  

  It's the needle of the compass that requires so little energy to use but the mountains you navigate that cost so much time.  

  I leave you with another question, since that seems to be the best way to communicate something:

  Where are we going?  And how long will it take us?

  Child of activists. Environmentalist turned economist, now passive revolutionary communalist. Always looking for a good conversation and a skinny dip.

  On On eco-friendly transport for the not-so-rich posted 2 years, 8 months ago 23 Responses

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  Wow

  A lot of debate!  That is good, but to get to the point the solution is being revealed in new business management and students who are forcing transparency and accountability INTERNATIONALLY.  So:  Let the students be the judge if they want to?  Find a solution to Coca cola's problems (ie. corporate responsibility to shareholders....maybe). The Corp. doesn't feel-at all.  Nothing.  It is just a tool, like some people :)  

  So it is up to the people to feel and search and solve and the business to respond.  Coke wants to sell and excuse me for wanting to buy.    

  Finally- So everyone is doing their part. The students are smart and active, the India Resource Center is providing facts and Coca Cola is trying to dodge the bullets.  

  Keep shooting and we will all benefit from your becoming better marksmen (and women!).  

  Also...Thanks Grist!On Coca-Cola learns a tough lesson about corporate sustainability posted 3 years, 2 months ago 3 Responses

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  The 5th, 6th and Seventh "E"

  Empathy- I like the comment that the real tragedy of the commons is the break down of society and culture.  With empathy, the benefit humans and the environment receive are most closely aligned with my view that life is for living, not preserving, sustaining, conserving or owning.  Maybe too idealistic for a gristly topic but it just may be that "all you need is love".  As for corporate empathy I can only say that you shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water.  The Easiest way to change corporate actions is to change the fact that corporate decisions must always make the shareholders stake increase.  $$$???  I believe that's true:  Any decision that will decrease or not increase shareholder value is illegal for corporate heads to make?  Any lawyers around?  See the movie Corporation which compares corporate action to the actions of a sociopath, or read a good book.

  Evolution- Just like life evolves, economics does too.  We no longer live in the industrial age where supply and demand determine price, even though many business minded people would like you to believe and may even believe themselves.  We live in the information age where there is more power in knowledge than in any tangible widget.  For ecologist who want to understand more about economics, for every word in ecology you can find a corresponding word in the study of economics.  But, beware of the economic terms that you can't find an ecological equivalent, either we aren't ready to understand it or it just ain't natural.  Still evolution and natural law prevail and encapsulate any and all Ages we live in.  So simply said:  The environmental problems will not be solved with a silver bullet but can be more properly addressed with an active debate and interest in where we, as a species and a society, want to go.  

  Furthermore, address the problems of the environment, economy, and society with the same breath.  They are interrelated to the point of confusion because they are all similar systems that we are trying to work on without the realization that they, we, and them are all one system.  Problems will end when they lose their energy.  Still, if the problem is not caused by your actions but affecting you, like some of these issues are, not doing anything is actually doing something, in which case you should do something else.  We will evolve to find a way to end these problems.  If we don't, the problem will cease to exist just shortly after we do.  The evolution of the problem is still key to identifying the solution.  There is so much potential in our ability to adapt that it should suffice to have your mantra be "elevate":  Another e-word which can be applied to environmental improvement.  Elevating will improve your talent to make better decisions based more on your understanding of the world and less on the consensus of the mass media.  And in the end, all we individually have is our decisions, and our decisions are all we really need.  Develop the resource you know best, yourself.

  Energy- The final e-word addresses environmental problems.  Energy is the capacity to do work, or, power.  No wonder it is in demand and constantly changing forms.  It is the string that ties the problems, and their solutions, together.  I don't believe that government or the free market will either be able to solve or manage energy most appropriately.  Energy is available for everything and we don't understand "everything" sufficiently to legislate or expect the simple act of business transactions (however perfect the information) to yield solutions to environmental problems.  The life and  time we spend here is fleeting, use it efficiently.

  Child of activists. Environmentalist turned economist, now passive revolutionary communalist. Always looking for a good conversation and a skinny dip.

  On The "Four E's" of environmental improvement posted 3 years, 3 months ago 43 Responses