economy

The IMF's most recent World Economic Outlook study includes a climate change analysis. The report is one of the first to capture broad, deep data concerning the potential costs of climate change to the world economy and the economic result of a worldwide implementation of greenhouse gases mitigation strategies, such as cap-and-trade and carbon emissions tax. Tamirisa, co-author of that analysis, outlines the IMF's conclusions.

Politicians are failing to comprehend the breadth of the US infrastructure crisis. Only disasters move our representatives to act — and in an election year, even those actions seem spotty at best and disingenuous at worst. The United States has much more than failing bridges to find, fund and fix. A comprehensive report by Dr. Denny Wilkins.

It’s an age old discussion regarding climate change and the big reason for why many countries are so hesitant to hop on the “green train”, what will the economic impacts be of going green? A tough debate and not easily solved. Now I am no economics major, I have my back ground in micro and macro, but the site I am presenting to you expresses the situation in a very user friendly way.

U.S. wind power is growing at a breath-taking pace. Representatives from top wind turbine manufacturers including GE Energy, Gamesa, Siemens and Vestas, discuss U.S. wind energy's future outlook.

This morning on NPR, President Bush tried to blame congress for the nation’s high gas, food, and electricity prices. Apparently, Congress has been thwarting the President’s attempts to fix the economy: “I’ve repeatedly submitted proposals to help address these problems,” the president said. “Yet time after time, Congress chose to block them.” His answer: Drill in ANWR.

Either we should add the pollution cost of shipping food over long distances to the prices we pay in the grocery store, or we should eat more locally grown food, right?

Check out a Minnesota bus that runs on recycled vegetable oil.

Richard Lobb, Coalition for Balanced Food and Fuel Policy, is interviewed about a study that finds federal ethanol subsidies are contributing to rising food prices.

Despite intense debate surrounding the growing global food crises, the European Union today defended expanding the use of biofuels in all 27 member countries. Part of the EU’s climate change package, the current proposal sets a target of meeting 10% of transportation fuel with biofuels by 2020.

NPR’s Morning Addition briefly interviewed World Bank President Robert Zoellick last Friday concerning world food prices. Zoellick called it a “perfect storm of things coming together…” and listed 7 different issues contributing to the increasing cost of food, which led to rioting in Haiti and Egypt last week, along with a general strike in Burkina Faso.

After covering 22 of the most popular myths about biodiesel, I realized I’d only given lip service to a major issue: increasing food prices. If I use biodiesel made from soybeans right now, am I contributing to the larger problem of increasing commodity prices and starving poor people?

Perhaps the scariest aspect of the recession lurking on the edges of the economy is whether it will cause corporate cost-cutters to move in and trim away all the good green initiatives that have recently taken root in companies.

The recently declassified report submitted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee analyzes how Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey respond if Tehran acquires nuclear weapons.

A new online interactive by Yale University economists lets anyone see how even under the worst conditions, a move to a cleaner, less fossil fuel-dependent economy is good for the United States. The main point is that for many steps in changing the U.S. economy, the cost is negative.

The Boston Globe has a great article on how ecology and economy are driving Cohousing to grow as a movement.