Check Out Wiser Earth

From WiserEarth:   http://blog.wiserearth.org/

A way of checking your organization's health.

Chances are that your organization’s success is reliant on building and maintaining healthy inter-personal and inter-organizational networks. But do you have any idea whether they are ‘healthy’? Can you think of an effective way to improve them? Fortunately for us, The Monitor Institute has just released a helpful new tool: ‘The Healthy Network Diagnostic’. It’s based on extensive interviews with nonprofit network experts and was tested in the field with many of the Packard Foundation’s grantees. Read this presentation below for instructions and the diagnostic test.

Check out Paul Hawken's site - WiserEarth - it is well worth the visit. 

The Idea of Justice

I finished reading The Idea of Justice, by Amartya Sen,  last weekend.  He is not focussed on ideal  and unrealizable theories of perfect  justice, but instead, on how we can reduce injustice in the world we live in.

In Chapter 6, he dissects global justice. 

There is clearly an important issue in the neglect of the interests and perspectives of those who are not parties to the social contract or polity but who bear some of the consequences of decisions taken in that particular polity.....

(That certainly describes the citizens of the developing world who will, according to the World Bank, suffer most of the consequences of climate change while causing very little of it to date.) In Chapter 16, he links democracy, justice, and  public discussion and reasoning.  He states that

It is hard to escape the general conclusion that economic performance, social opportunity, political voice and public reasoning are all deeply inter related.  ....Democratic feedom can certainly be used to enhance social justice and a better and fairer politics.  The process, however, is not automatic amd requires activism on the part of politically engaged citizens.

In Chapter 18, he makes the point that, although a global state and democracy are  impossible to achieve, activists who agitate for better global conditions do

ask very relevant questions and thus contribute constructively to public reasoning.....Active public agitation, new commentary and open discussion are among the ways in which global democracy can be pursued.

I conclude that environmental activists and agitators are not only saving the environment but creating a more inclusive democracy through questioning the status quo - or greenhouse gas emissions as usual.  Climate change activists press us to think about the future.  The subtext to their message  is that we, the ciitzens,  must become more engaged in politics  and more willing to question and constrain elites. 

Climate Change and Water

You would think that anyone who has been blethering on about climate change as much as I have would know about the connections between water, climate change, and energy usage.  However, I did not until I found a paper entitled Climate Change and the Global Water Crisis: What Businessess Need to Know and Do at                           http://www.pacinst.org/reports/ungc_climate_water/index.htm

Water  is used for extracting, refining, processing, and transporting all forms of energy, from coal to solar.  Large volumes of water are used as cooling water in conventional thermal generating plants. Energy production can also cause signicant water pollution.  A much less recognized connection between water and energy are the vast amounts of energy used to treat, distribute, and use water. Water is heavy . . . .Energy needs are particularly high for places where water is .... piped over long distances and steep terrain.

Climate change will increase water demand due to droughts; reduce the quality of available because of sea level rises and extreme flooding (does anyone remember the lack of drinking water in Haiti after Hurricane Jeanne dumped two meters of water in 36 hours?;) and melt the glaciers that supply water to China, Pakistan, Indian , and western Canada .

The authors of the paper suggest that companies should manage their risk in various ways.  To me, the most important is that businesses 

seek opportunities for collective action as water and energy are connected to social, cultural, and environmental issues ... by pooling resources and bringing together a wide range of expertise and knowledge through partnerships for a common goal.

A velvet climate revolution will require us all to pool our knowledge and expertise in pursuit of the common goal: survival.  And presumaly, we all wish for more than a mere Hobbesian survival:  we all want a  socially and environmentally just culture living within  limits imposed by the environement.   Cooperation is and will be absolutely necessary - between people, nations, and businesses.

The Ethics of Climate Change

Finally - a mention of ethics in the mainstream media.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/climate-change/copenhagen-and-the-ethics-of-climate-change/article1404694/

Imagine the world being shuffled like a deck of cards and redealt. Canadians suddenly no longer know who they are, where they live, how much money they have, what their status is – they exist behind what U.S. philosopher John Rawls termed a veil of ignorance.

Thus separated from the biases of their former selves, they can consider the morality of a given issue. Would they condone the carbon emissions of the tar sands if they found themselves living in an impoverished society on the equator, struggling for a sliver of industrialization while temperatures rise and bake their land?

No, of course they wouldn't condone the gHG emissions of the developed world.....

Justice For All

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/17/un-leaked-report-copenhagen-3c

A confidential UN analysis obtained by the Guardian reveals that the emissions cuts offered so far at the Copenhagen climate change summit will lead to global temperatures rising by an average of 3C.  The analysis seriously undermines the statements by governments that they are aiming to limit emissions to a level ensuring no more than a 2C temperature rise over the next century, and indicates that the last 24 hours of negotiations will be extremely challenging.

A rise of 3C would mean up to 170 million more people suffering severe coastal floods and 550 million more at risk of hunger, according to the 2006 Stern economic review of climate change for the UK government - as well as leaving up to 50% of species facing extinction. Even a rise of 2C would lead to sharp decline in tropical crop yields, more flooding and droughts.

Rajendra Pachauri said "the tragedy of the situation is that those countries that have not at all contributed to the problem of climate change will be the ones that are most affected"  (picture from Guardian site.)

What values do we espouse?  Do we really want our leaders to  sign a treaty leaving the poorest vulnerable to stavation?  The picture above wasn't taken by a time traveler - climate change is impacting people and ecosystems as  I type.   Do we wish it to get worse?

So Much For Justice

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/08/copenhagen-climate-summit-disarray-danish-text

The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations. It is understood to:
• Force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that were not part of the original UN agreement;
• Divide poor countries further by creating a new category of developing countries called "the most vulnerable";
• Weaken the UN's role in handling climate finance;
• Not allow poor countries to emit more than 1.44 tonnes of carbon per person by 2050, while allowing rich countries to emit 2.67 tonnes.
Developing countries that have seen the text are understood to be furious that it is being promoted by rich countries without their knowledge and without discussion in the negotiations.  "It is being done in secret. Clearly the intention is to get [Barack] Obama and the leaders of other rich countries to muscle it through when they arrive next week. It effectively is the end of the UN process," said one diplomat, who asked to remain nameless.

So much for social justice.... the countries that created the problem will punish the poorest who are already suffering.... This will work out well.....