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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (8822)	1/5/2007 2:31:08 PM
From: Ron	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36921

Polar bears & business flares By Thomas Kostigen, MarketWatch Jan 5, 2007 SANTA MONICA, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Polar bears may be put on the endangered species list because of global warming. What else may become extinct? How about oil, water, trees, fish and food? The way in which we buy and consume -- create our economy -- is going to have to change; we are running out of the resources to support it. And that means more ethical choices will have to be made with regard the products we buy and the companies in which we invest. Sustainability, the new buzzword, is already making its way into consumer and capital markets. The success of Whole Foods Market Inc , Seventh Generation, the hybrid car market, as well as the fanfare behind solar and clean energy is paving the way for other industries to become more, for lack of a better word, conscious. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc sees this and is changing the way in which it operates, touting more energy efficient light bulbs and organic food. DuPont is another unlikely candidate that is advertising its desire to become more socially responsible. DuPont's chief executive Chad Holliday says, "What's good for business must be good for the environment and for people worldwide or you are not moving toward sustainable growth." Critics, of course, says this is all "greenwashing," with corporations acting just a little more ethically and gaining a whole lot more publicity from it. I'll take a little more than less of anything any day. However the situation upon us requires urgency. We all need to become stakeholders in this economy and force change for the better through more sustainable investments and consumptions. Here's why: Oil, even if production isn't going to run out anytime soon (although Peak oil followers say it will), or if you refuse to see the connection between it and carbon emissions, is on people's minds. Prices and the use of petroleum in the production of so many products are forcing other technologies and energy sources upon us. To support our economy the US needs to import 58% of the oil it consumes. If you don't see a reason to change or opportunities to invest in the energy sector to better harness resources, there is something wrong with you. Available fresh water is less than 1% of all water on earth. And the usable supply of water is less than 1/100th of this amount. Some scientists estimate that by 2025, fully one-third of the world's population with experience water shortages. Already, half of the world's population uses unclean water. This also affects our food supply. RSA, a British journal, reports water scarcity in less than 15 years will cut global food production by 350 million tons a year, or as much as the total U.S. grain harvest and the equivalent to a loaf of bread every week for every person on the planet. How many more reports of illness resulting from tainted food are going to have to make their way to the front pages of newspapers before we wake up to the fact that we need to pay more attention to our food supply -- and make it cleaner. Fish too are dying from contamination. And trees are falling to make more products. (Trees are the largest and longest living organisms on earth. They remove carbon from the air, and allow us to breathe what they make out of it -- oxygen.) Global warming is kicking our natural resources vulnerability into high gear. Indeed, its footprint can be seen across almost the entire capital market sector. It's rather easy to see how: population is responsible for global warming, manufacturing is responsible for global warming, and consumption is responsible for global warming. These are the basics. They are the simple actions, reactions and results of our existence. (The more carbon that is released into the air, the higher the earth's temperature becomes and the results are...see above.) Now we even know that we are operating at overcapacity. Is the price of fuel at the pump higher? Do you drink bottled water? Are you just a little concerned about the type of food you put into your body? This is the type of consciousness of which I am speaking. It's the types of things that unite right wing Christian evangelicals with far left hippie tree huggers. The environment is a universal concern. So why not look at it as an opportunity, an investment in our future? There are more than 200 mutual funds that are deemed socially responsible. They invest in companies that have a conscience. There are products you can buy at the store that are more sensitively made (Fair Trade coffee, for example), and there even bigger statements like solar panels to be made with your money. Creating a sustainable economy starts with the consumer. There has to be a market that supply can feed. Then the supply chain changes. We are seeing the beginnings of those changes now. And you can choose to invest in it. Or you can choose to stay on the fence and watch as the world's resources become extinct. Remember, you're one of them, as are polar bears. marketwatch.com