Agriculture: The New Global Warming Bad Guy? Written By: David Neubert 2007-12-18 08:31:05 We know that coal and petroleum companies are mining the raw materials that contribute to greater levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, but who else is contributing? Surpisingly, agriculture, as Mike Brune from Rainforest Action Network (RAN) says:
We launched a major new campaign taking on giant Agricultural companies ADM, Bunge, and Cargill for violating human rights and clearing rainforests to make way for massive soy and palm plantations. Clearing tropical rainforests for plantations, what we call agri-sprawl, generates more than 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. This is the reason why Indonesia is the world’s third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and Brazil is #4.
Number one and two for now are The U.S. and China, respectively, but that order is expected to reverse soon. I find it very interesting that the top two countries are digging up hydrocarbons stored in the Earth's crust and burning them, while Indonesia and Brazil are burning hydrocarbons (wood) sitting on the surface.
These agricultural companies trade at higher valuations (earnings multiples) but benefit from the same high prices of energy and global commodiites that are driving up the price of energy. Higher commodity prices and demand mean more land is being put to work. Since a dense rainforest holds more hydrocarbons (burnable substances), burning down the rainforest to build a farm relseases CO2.
Blondie Goes Green at the AlwaysOn GoingGreen Conference Written By: Daniella Reichstetter 2007-09-12 22:42:45 I’d consider myself moderately “green.” I do what I can, when I can. I recycle. I choose environmentally friendly products like Method to clean my home (quick disclaimer: I also worked there).
I have a local, organic farm share of fruits and vegetables delivered weekly to my apartment. I write to you from my abysmal excuse for an office where high efficiency light bulbs illuminate my laptop screen. I genuinely thought it was a good idea the first time I heard about using the wattage output from a gym’s workout equipment in order to fuel the gym’s ongoing energy requirements. I use OB tampons.
I come from a family of construction and real estate gurus, so naturally the panel on green buildings at the AlwaysOn GoingGreen conference not only intrigued me, I even knew a little bit about the subject. Luckily it took place on the first morning of the event. The take-away is simple. There are two major ways to make construction greener. You can make changes to the architecture/design of the building, and you can make changes to the materials you use. For optimal green building, these two must compliment each other… while keeping pricing competitive with conventional methods in order to attract mainstream adoption.
Just the Beginning Written By: Daniella Reichstetter 2007-09-12 22:51:36 Most presenters at AlwaysOn's GoingGreen conference agreed that we are just beginning to scratch the surface of green opportunities out there, whether referring to distributed power generation or water innovation. And there are many, many smart people scratching, scraping and digging away at the opportunities.
While many of the presented ideas were longer term solutions or are many years away from commercialization, there were several that addressed short-term solutions with straightforward innovations that can be implemented within a year. Cheers.
