What Companies Aren't Telling You

Do We Really Know What's Happening Behind Closed Doors?

christinadimitriadis.com

It's what the businesses and companies don't tell us that makes us pull our hair out.  We stay up all night-- well maybe some of us-- thinking about how we don't really know what's happening.  It's what they do tell us that makes us wonder.

We have these environmental regulations for companies to see how 'green' they are and if they actually like to let people know about it.  "However, we’re still in the dark about a lot of things regarding corporate environmental records. Many firms, including some that score well in Newsweek’s Green Rankings, also spend millions of dollars lobbying politicians on environmental issues and contributing to campaigns. These activities impact our elections, our regulations and ultimately can have a tremendous impact in worsening—or improving—the environment" stated by Aaron Chatterji.  We're still "behind closed doors" about all of this because the rankings aren't actually very trustworthy.

We don't seem to know much at all.

Many companies' political transparency scores were compared with their environmental transparency scores.  These scores were very weakly correlated.  What this means is that firms who actually are open about their environmental activities don't really tell anyone about their political activity on the environment.

My question for the readers is, are companies really trustworthy when it comes to being green?

SOURCE: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/10/22/green-rankings-what-sustainability-reports-don-t-tell-you.html

-Authority: Aaron Chatterji, Michael Toffel

Don't Underestimate the Big Guy

Africa has a ton of natural resources. Why are they so poor when Japan has almost no natural resources and is very rich?

African Resources: oil, diamonds, gold, iron, cobalt, uranium, copper, bauxite, silver, petroleum, but also woods and tropical fruits

Why are they not selling this?
-William Easterly is Professor of Economics at New York University, and co-director of its Development Research Institute.
“Western media and celebrity activists portray Africa stereotypically, mired in helpless destitution, when in fact the continent is making economic and social strides. While many African countries are still very poor, markers such as rises in gross domestic product, as well as cell phone and Internet use, should be celebrated and encouraged. Those who want to help Africa should consume more African goods and create less negative propaganda”
-basically states that Africa has goods to sell but Westerners keep focusing on the negative of their continent

Africa through history
-Since the beginning of civilization Africa has been pointed too as the different one
-countries use up resources and do not help africa at all
-Ex: Dutch held control of a country in Africa, Rwanda, when left turmoil ensued because of the corruption
-Europeans created an image of Africa that was the perverse opposite of Europe's - its mirror image
-Abolitionists argued that Africa was a place of suffering because the slave trade provoked war, disease, famine and poverty
-Anti-Abolitionists argued Africa was such an awful place that becoming a slave seemed like escape
-Either way, Africa was full of 'savagery' and constant war

"What man or nation has ever become rich by holding out a begging bowl?”
Source: Opposing Viewpoints; Africa Through Western Eyes - The World's Dark Continent or Capitalism's Shining Light? and Opposing Viewpoints; Africa Needs Trade More Than Aid

What The Election Means For Energy Policy

Now that Barack Obama has been reelected, what does it mean for the future of America's energy. In debates there were a few heated moments between the president and Governor Romney. Overall, the main differences came down to how to regulate the drilling for fossil fuel at home, what renewable energies to invest in, and and how to approach the possibility of running the keystone pipeline into the U.S.

http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-1392728191

Now that Barack is has officially been reelected, he can continue to implement his all the above plan. This plan is designed to incorporate many different energy sources. Barack believes that through investing in all of these sources, the country will not only make gains in the amount of clean energy dependence, but also eventually bring down the cost of energy.

In one of the debates between Obama and Romney, the issue of drilling on U.S. soil came up. This is where the two had a stronger difference of opinion. Romney made it seem as if drilling in the U.S. was more important to his energy policy than investing in renewable energy. He brought up the point that Obama has highly regulated those who have tried to drill in the U.S. and made it hard for anyone to begin drilling in the U.S. Obama's response was that he does believe that the U.S. should drill on it's own soil but he made it clear that investing in clean energy was more important.

Overall, If you believe that America's future in energy is going to be through clean energy sources, and that action needs to be taken as soon as possible to develop those energies, Obama's win supports your beliefs. However, If you believe that America needed a quick fix, even if it had some harsh side effects, Romney's beliefs would have supported your own.
How do you see Obama changing Americas energy future?


http://carnegieendowment.org/ieb/2012/08/02/what-does-u.s.-election-mean-for-world-economy/d5mp
This article was published on Carnegie Endownment, also known as The Global Think Tank,  and was written by Uri Dadush. This website is a non profit website.

Sustaining our valuables

If you believe in global warming or not, I believe we can all agree on the fact that there is something peculiar going on with Mother Nature. Now, I do not want to be arguing if global warming is real or not I want you to understand that we need to sustain our valuables. Valuables being; fresh water, healthy plant and animal life, healthy oceans, oil, minerals, all our resources. Without these resources we cannot sustain life.

On average, every human being on Earth needs 2.2 hectares to maintain our current lifestyle.  This means we would require 1.3 Earths simply to sustain our current demand for natural resources, and that doesn't account for growing population and rising standards of living around the world. By using our resources more efficiently, we can all reduce our footprint and ensure that we live within the capacity of the earth. If everyone lived like your country, how many earths would we need?

Country	Average ha required per person	Number of times the global average	Number of Earths required if the world lived like this country
Global	2.2	1	1.3
United Stated of America	9.6	4.4	5.7
Canada	7.6	3.5	4.6
United Kingdom	5.6	2.5	3.3
Australia	6.6	3	3.9
New Zealand	3.9	1.8	2.3
Europe (EU25)	4.8	2.1	2.7
China	1.6	0.73	0.95
India	0.8	0.36	0.47
Bangladesh	0.5	0.23	0.30
Cote d'Ivoire	0.7	0.32	0.42

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2007/09/17/3515/global-warmings-toll-on-the-economy/


http://www.supergreenme.com/go-green-environment-eco:To-preserve-the-limited-amount-of-natural-resources-we-have

Oil Rush helps the economy

Source: Opposing viewpoints in context
Reliability: Since it is on a database, i would consider the information that i gained very accurate and useful for my passion project.  Article was created in the summer of this year so the information is really present and accurate.

        Recent findings in North and South Dakota have put families and business's in a mad scramble to set claim to the recent super giant oil reserves.  I kid you not that it has come to the point that there are not enough construction crews to build homes and apartments complexes for the oil rush workers.  We are seeing what is equivalent to the California gold rush in the mid 1800's except this rush is of black gold.  
       I believe that if we are to instill the idea of drilling anywhere that we can, we will be able to see a vast majority in our economy and a major decrease in unemployment.  Many people will argue that there isn't oil in all of our country.  The fact is that with recent new technology, we are able to find oil in places that were thought to have no oil.  The technology used to find this oil is the new ability of being able to drill horizontally instead of only vertically.  This has helped us find oil in places like under vast mountain ranges where we could drill because of the seep peaks of the mountains.
        Oil drilling in North Dakota has led the state to have the lowest unemployment rates in the entire county at 3%.  Fi we can start drilling as much as possible, then we will be able to create a lot more jobs and increase our use of domestic oil rather than relying on imported highly taxed oil. If the state of North Dakota has seen such an improvement to their economy, how come other states aren't adopting there ideas?


      

Politics makes people cry

For those of you debating the policies of Obama & Romney: 

Who will speak for the poor during the 2012 election?

With all the focus on the middle class this 2012 election, politicians have failed to address the poor and how the well-being of the lowest class. We all heard Mitt Romney's infamous statement, "I'm not concerned about the very poor," Of course, he only was made this statement because he was trying to keep focus on the , but middle class and improving the economy, but it does show how little attention has been paid to the poor throughout this election.

One could argue that the middle class needs to be the focus of the election, due to the economic crisis we're in and that effects them the most. I agree with that, but the the statistics are still alarming that there are tens of millions of Americans living without basic needs, which seems to be ignored by politicians. The serious deprivations are mainly among children, who are obviously not to blame. Today's children are who will be shaping our future though. Serious attention, education, and resources need to be provided to these destitute children and Americans we fail to address. 

Addressing the middle class will most likely help reduce poverty also. One of the best solutions to poverty is an established and good economy. The best way to improve the lives of the poor is jobs and working, which can only be achieved through education, health, and the infrastructure of economic and social life. In addition to improved employment, we need to focus on keeping kids in school and not giving up.

How will the candidates plan to address the issue of poverty in America? 

Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context