Ellen Brown, JD writes: On October 15, the Presidential candidates had their last debate before the election. They talked of the baleful state of the economy and the stock market; but omitted from the discussion was what actually caused the credit freeze, and whether the banks should be nationalized as Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is now proceeding to do. The omission was probably excusable, since the financial landscape has been changing so fast that it is hard to keep up. A year ago, the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke through 14,000 to make a new all-time high. Anyone predicting then that a year later the Dow would drop nearly by half and the Treasury would move to nationalize the banks would have been regarded with amused disbelief. But that is where we are today.

Congress hastily voted to approve Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s $700 billion bank bailout plan on October 3, 2008, after a tumultuous week in which the Dow fell dangerously near the critical 10,000 level. The market, however, was not assuaged. The Dow proceeded to break through not only 10,000 but then 9,000 and 8,000, closing at 8,451 on Friday, October 10. The week was called the worst in U.S. stock market history.

On Monday, October 13, the market staged a comeback the likes of which had not been seen since 1933, rising a full 11% in one day. This happened after the government announced a plan to buy equity interests in key banks, partially nationalizing them; and the Federal Reserve led a push to flood the global financial system with dollars.

The reversal was dramatic but short-lived. On October 15, the day of the Presidential debate, the Dow dropped 733 points, crash landing at 8,578. The reversal is looking more like a massive pump and dump scheme – artificially inflating the market so insiders can get out – than a true economic rescue. The real problem is not in the much-discussed subprime market but is in the credit market, which has dried up. The banking scheme itself has failed. As was learned by painful experience during the Great Depression, the economy cannot be rescued by simply propping up failed banks. The banking system itself needs to be overhauled. (10/17/08)
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Michael Klare writes: Given the magnitude and scope of the current economic crisis, the world will no doubt experience a significant economic downturn — of what degree and duration, no one can say — profoundly affecting all aspects of U.S. and international society. Of the many areas that will be impacted by the downturn, the environment stands out in particular. It’s closely tied to the tempo of resource consumption, and significant efforts to ameliorate environmental decline will prove very expensive and out of reach for already-stretched budgets. The question thus arises: Will the crisis be good or bad for the environment, especially with respect to global warming?

To put this question in perspective, it is necessary to first look at the environmental situation prior to the crisis. Gathering Crisis

By all accounts, the steady growth in the world economy — much of it driven by phenomenal economic expansion in China, India, and other nations — was producing a corresponding increase in demand for energy of all forms, especially greenhouse-gas emitting fossil fuels. …

How will the current economic crisis affect this picture? As in so many things, there’s both good news and bad news. The Upside

The good news is that economic hard times will cause people to drive less, fly less, and otherwise consume less energy, thus lowering expectations for greenhouse-gas emissions. According to the most recent projections from the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, global oil demand in 2008 will be 240,000 barrels per day less than in its earlier predictions, and 440,000 barrels per day less than in its predictions for 2009. Many experts believe, moreover, that demand will drop even further in the weeks and months ahead as the economic crisis deepens and consumers around the world cut back on their travel and energy use — and the less oil consumed, the less CO2 emitted.

As petroleum consumption declines, the price of oil is also likely to drop — thereby discouraging investment in many costly and environmental hazardous energy projects. …

But there is a downside to all this as well. Most serious is the risk that venture capitalists will refrain from pouring big bucks into innovative energy projects. At an energy forum organized by professional services firm Ernst & Young on October 9, experts warned of a sharp drop-off in alternative energy funding. …

Governments could also have a hard time coming up with the funds to finance alternative energy projects. Moderators at the presidential debates repeatedly asked both John McCain and Barack Obama what programs they would cut in order to finance the massive financial-rescue packages the Bush administration has engineered in order to avert further economic distress. Both insisted that their respective energy initiatives would be spared any such belt-tightening. It is highly likely, however, that costly endeavors of this sort will be scaled back or postponed once the magnitude of the financial rescue effort becomes apparent. The same is true for Europe and Japan, who have also pledged to undertake ambitious energy initiatives in their drive to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. (10/17/08)
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BBC Environmental Science — An attempt to create a pioneering carbon-neutral farm is starting in Italy. A range of new technologies is being installed at the farm in the central region of Umbria as part of an experiment to cut its CO2 emissions to zero over the course of the next year. They include everything from electric farm vehicles to sun-reflecting paint on storage buildings.

It is all taking place at the Castello Monte Vibiano Vecchio olive oil farm, north of Rome. With its vineyards and olive trees, this beautiful corner of Italy might look like it has escaped the intrusions of climate change, but the farm’s owners say they, too, have to play their part in making the world greener. “We want to go further than anyone else,” says Lorenzo Fasola Bologna, Monte Vibiano’s chief executive.

One of the key investments is in a unique solar powered battery re-charging centre. Built by the Austrian company Cellstrom, the centre is a shed-sized box with 24 solar panels on it that houses a revolutionary liquid-based battery. The battery can, for the first time, store solar energy.

Until now, electricity generated by the sun has generally had to be used immediately. It is one reason why opponents say solar power is limited. No longer.

Depending on the amount of usage, the battery centre can store solar-sourced electricity for up to three days. They are working to extend that to 10 days and more, enabling the farm to continue operating through foggy days when the sun does not shine. It means that golf carts and electric bikes will become the key means of transport for farm workers and that they can all charge up at the battery centre.

Cellstrom estimates the farm can save 4,500 litres of petrol every year and reduce CO2 emissions by 10 tons. (10/17/08)
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BBC Animal Science — The population of the endangered West African chimpanzees in Ivory Coast has fallen by about 90% in less than 20 years, a study has suggested. Researchers found 90% fewer nests than a similar audit carried out in 1990, which suggested the chimp population had crashed from 12,000 to about 1,200.

Increased levels of deforestation and poaching and were likely to be main factors for the decline, they added. Details of the survey’s findings appear in the journal Current Biology.

Ivory Coast, thought to be one of the last strongholds for the species (Pan troglodytes verus), was believed to be home to between 8,000 and 12,000 individuals. This estimate was primarily based on a nationwide survey carried out in 1989 and 1990. When scientists carried out the most recent count in 2007, using the same techniques as the 1990 audit, they discovered a very different situation.

“Our results show that there has been an alarming decline in chimpanzee numbers, and that urgent action is required to prevent them disappearing entirely,” the team wrote.

The researchers revisited 11 sites that had been surveyed 17 years earlier.

“The dramatic result was that in most areas where we had found chimpanzees (in 1990), there were now none left,” said co-author Christophe Boesch, who was also involved in the earlier survey. “We were expecting a decrease but not such a dramatic one,” he told the BBC.

Professor Boesch, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany, said poaching and deforestation were on the increase as a result of the nation’s rapidly growing human population. The number of people living in Ivory Coast is now estimated to be 18m, up from 12m in 1990.

“The forest has been cut back in order to grow cash crops and other things,” he explained. “Also, chimpanzees, like many other species, are hunted for their meat. In some regions, including West Africa, something called ‘empty forest syndrome’ has been recorded. This is where the forest itself is still intact but it has been emptied by hunting.”

The researchers said that there was a link between increases in human populations and higher rates of poaching and deforestation. They added that the civil unrest in the nation since 2002 was likely to have exacerbated the problems. (10/17/08)
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