Development Blogs.com

Over at MobileActive.org, Katrin Verclas has launched a series of articles on mobile phones in economic development, with a survey of the latest issue of BusinessWeek, which features "interesting sumamries of the state of affairs in mobiles in economic development. This apparently just to make it easy for us to get MobileActives around the world up to speed!" Not to mention Worldchanging readers new to the tremendous adoption rates of mobile phones around the world, and how they're faciliating economic opportunities in developing nations like Kenya and India. Katrin also surveys some more comprehensive reports on mobiles and economic development, including "the famous Robert Jensen study on the now proverbial economic success of fishermen in Bangladesh upon introduction of mobiles in...

It seems like the world is getting downright giddy about stopping global warming. Congress has held more than 75 hearings on the topic this year, climate-friendly technologies are making it into venture capitalists’ dreams and millions tuned into Live Earth, a seven-continent global warming anthem. But it turns out there’s a big gap between awareness and action. Last month, three top power company execs gave investors the inside scoop on what they expect on climate change. I couldn’t help but be curious if their projections and time frames for reducing greenhouse gases lined up with NASA scientist James Hansen’s oft-repeated warning that we have less than 10 years to take strong action on global warming to avoid its worst consequences. But in listening to the first two execs...

(A collaborative series by Hassan Masum, David Zaks, and Chad Monfreda.) How much is a pristine lake worth?  A clean atmosphere?  An oil field? Answering these questions takes us from the heart of economic philosophy to the frontiers of analytical science.  It turns out to be very difficult to give objective monetary values, even in principle.  But as our analytical capabilities and understanding of ecosystem services increases, we're developing useful valuation methods that will form the basis for future policy and financial activities. Our last post explained the biophysical basis of ecosystem services.  In this post, our goal is to explain how people come up with those intriguing currency figures for ecosystem values, and look at a couple of...

Guest writer Mindy S. Lubber is President of Ceres and the Investor Network on Climate Risk Flying home (sleep deprived) from five intensive days and nights at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, I am trying to draw a few clear conclusions that I can share with my family, friends and colleagues.  The Forum covered myriad issues from trade, famine, Middle East unrest, and climate change, to name just a few.  What emerged, most clearly in Davos, whatever the issue, was a clear consensus that unilateralism in our interdependent world is unacceptable. "Despite the multiple challenges we face in the world today, I am optimistic," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the closing address.  "The issue of global climate change hangs in the balance, yet despite...

Ask Mark Shorrock, CEO of the Low Carbon Accelerator fund, how he got into green investing, and he will cite childhood trips to a bird reserve where he still pays an annual "pilgrimage", choosing to do his French schoolwork on Greenpeace, and sitting on top of Scottish mountains while in the middle of his earlier career as a film producer. Not much about money or business - at least on the outset - but the 36 year old is successfully presiding over a unique beast, a publicly-listed venture capital fund that launched late last autumn, raising £45m capital from City investors which he is now busy spending on a raft of small companies that definitely aren't traditional. Their mission is simple: "Low Carbon Accelerator invests in a diverse portfolio of unquoted private companies...

Guest writer Mindy S. Lubber is President of Ceres and the Investor Network on Climate Risk As the climate change conversations heat up here at Davos, the question was finally asked, "Why are we not ready to act on the central truth that energy conservation and energy efficiency are the cheapest, quickest, largest source of energy?” Or as David Gergen, Harvard professor and adviser to many U.S. presidents said, using Amory Lovins’ oft-used phrase, “Are we ready to address negawatts? The U.S. is the Saudi Arabia of negawatts.” I am delighted that the message coming from Davos this year is loud and clear – that we must address climate change and energy security, that we must act now, and that voluntary efforts are woefully inadequate to the challenge we face and so there must...

by Worldchanging San Francisco local blogger, Britt Bravo Kevin Danaher is the co-founder of the nonprofit Global Exchange which co-sponsors the Green Festivals with Co-op America. Kevin talks about the Global Citizen Center, a large mixed use building in downtown San Francisco that will serve as a hub for ecologically and socially responsible enterprise, education and economic development. Below is a transcript of my interview with him for the Big Vision Podcast. Kevin Danaher: My name is Kevin Danaher. I am a co-founder of Global Exchange, which was founded by myself and two other people, Medea Benjamin, my wife, and Kirsten Moller who has been the Executive Director of Global Exchange since we started in 1988. Our main goal is to educate the American people about what is really...

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Alana Herro writes for Eye on Earth (e²), a service of World Watch Magazine in partnership with the blue moon fund. e² provides a unique perspective on current events, newly released studies, and important global trends. Over the past 10 years, more than 5,300 Chicago school children from impoverished neighborhoods have tutored their peers and earned free computers for their homes. Five parks in Calgary, Canada, have become pesticide free, and a formerly homeless 70-year-old woman in Madison, Wisconsin, received free crochet lessons in exchange for cooking and cleaning for neighbors. All three of these community success stories can be attributed to a single trend: “complementary currency” programs. Complementary currency, a form of exchange that aims to ”complement”...

Alana Herro writes for Eye on Earth (e²), a service of World Watch Magazine in partnership with the blue moon fund. e² provides a unique perspective on current events, newly released studies, and important global trends. Addressing a packed World Bank auditorium on September 26, Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz discussed the issues and challenges associated with globalization in today’s rapidly changing world. Stiglitz was in Washington, D.C. presenting his latest book, Making Globalization Work. The book follows on his popular 2003 critique, Globalization and its Discontents, but aims to move beyond identifying problems to outlining solutions. Among the issues Stiglitz addresses in the book are the links between globalization and the pervasive poverty, inequality,...

After lunch here at Pop!tech, we’re serenaded by Rodrigo y Gabriella, who play flamenco-styled music with the passion of their Mexican thrash-metal background. Then Ze Frank introduces the evening’s three-minute standup talks with his own three minute talk on making an Earth Sandwich. Which leads Tom Friedman to get up and start his talk by saying, “My reaction to Ze Frank’s earth sandwich is the same reaction as to the lady guitarist: What the fuck am I doing here?” What he’s doing is giving a talk titled, “Why this is not your parents’ energy crisis.” His first reason: the war on terror is fueled by our energy purchases, on both sides of the equation. He gives the example of two stories he saw emerging at the same time in the New York Times: a refusal to expand CAFE fuel...