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Home  Preserve the Planet Reference Documents Overview & General
Overview & General - Reference
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Environmental Defense Fund -- Jan. 30, 2009 -- The "cap" sets a nationwide limit on emissions, which is lowered over time to reduce the amount of pollutants released into the atmosphere. The "trade" creates a market for carbon allowances, helping companies innovate in order meet, or come in under, their allocated limit. The less they emit, the less they pay, so it is in their economic incentive to pollute less. (Full Article) |
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World is Facing a Natural Resources Crisis Worse than Financial Crunch |
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By Juliette Jowit -- Oct. 29, 2008 -- The Living Planet report calculates that humans are using 30% more resources than the Earth can replenish each year, which is leading to deforestation, degraded soils, polluted air and water, and dramatic declines in numbers of fish and other species. As a result, we are running up an ecological debt of $4tr (£2.5tr) to $4.5tr every year - double the estimated losses made by the world's financial institutions as a result of the credit crisis. (Full Article) (WWF Living Planet Report 2008 -- pdf ) |
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Coming Ecological Collapse: Failing Ecosystems the Mother of All Bubbles |
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by Glen Barry -- Aprill 11, 2008 -- Within the current sub-prime mortgage and financial bubbles, and food and energy price increases, we are witnessing the logical and inevitable economic consequences of over-population, resource scarcity, inequitable and unreasonable consumption, and unsustainable economic growth. (Full Article) |
by Sarah van Gelder and Doug Pibel -- Oct. 2007 -- Water, forests, and other natural “commons” provide the necessities of life. Shared stories, music, and knowledge enliven our cultures. Today, corporations are trying to enclose these and other commons—or externalize their costs onto them. But a movement is gaining momentum to protect our commons for generations to come. (Full Article)
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World Stands at a Crossroads |
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by Stephen Leahy -- Jan. 19, 2006 -- With 60 percent of the Earth's ecosystems in trouble right now, according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, what will the future be like in 2050? (Full Article) |
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Organizing Ecological Revolution |
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by John Bellamy Foster -- Sept. 30, 2005 -- A keynote address featuring statistics on environmental trends and the global situation today. Foster also highlights a 2002 study by the Global Scenario Group called The Great Transition, which looks at different future scenarios for a society caught in a crisis of ecological sustainability. (Full Article) |
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World Scientists' Warning to Humanity (1992) |
UCS -- 1992 -- Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. (Full Article)
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by Garrett James Hardin --1968 -- Hardin's classic article spurred tremendous debate about the universality of the commons metaphor to the human condition as a whole in the realm of population studies and the environment. The essay also served as popular metaphor for a variety of situations at the intersection of science and society, in realms ranging from biomedicine to university administration to the Internet. (Full Article)
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“Democracy is the ultimate, positive revolution because it gives each and every individual the power to control their lives. And we can work together to create a just, sustainable world.” Bill Blackman
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