Best of The Panelist
by The Panelist, USA on 07.13.07
The backlash on the green trend has finally arrived, and the question now is if the current wave of environmentalism has staying power. Our favorite recent article for clarity and wisdom comes from an article in the New York Review of Books about tobacco companies, which hints that, like smokers in the 1950's, what eco-conscious people really want is meaning and identity.
How close is $80-a-barrel oil? That's the question that seems to be on the minds of oil traders and stock investors alike. Just four years ago, crude oil was going for around $20-a-barrel. Now it's up over $70 and continues to rise. Some take the view that rising crude oil prices will cut into Big Oil profits, but another way to look at this is in terms of rising gas prices driving a demand for alternative energy.
Last week, Germany’s Environment Ministry recommended a shift in subsidies from solar energy installations to offshore wind farms. With Germany's impressive track record of renewable energy legislation, we have to wonder if the future will cause fickle investors to flock to wind now that solar subsidies have been cut in Germany. On the surface, this might look like a victory for wind power, but if you do a bit of digging, a different picture emerges.
It used to be that biotech referred mainly to big pharma, however energy giants now want in on what many feel is the upcoming biotech revolution. The next big thing could be "bio-refineries" that produce alternative energy for mass consumption. Currently, most of the excitement is focused around cellulosic ethanol, which takes conventional ethanol to the next level. Such a process would involve using living components, enzymes and microbes that have been bio-engineered, to speed up key processes in the manufacture of biofuels.
In its recent report, "Going Green," Forbes attempts to examine the efforts of many different companies to be both green and profitable. It asks the eternal question, “What’s a fad and what’s real?” While it is by no means a complete answer to this question, the Forbes report does a good job of covering companies both new to this sector and veteran, as well as a wide variety of industries. The Financial Times also published a special report, "Corporate Citizenship and Philanthropy," in order to discuss its new ranking tables of NGOs and issues related to the connections between the private and social sectors.
Also this weeks Barron's has an item on a green portfolio, from an investment quality viewpoint.
why why why do we bother we mis as well let global warming kill us because were to stupid to figure out just by recycling and using flouresent light bulbs. I could bet our demand on oil would be cut by AT LEAST %50.
Reduce
Reuse
Recycle
common sense
I love that picture, when i was in switzerland it was all over the place, to me it looked like, "if you're on fire, run this way!"
Backlash has arrived? No staying power? Yeah, whatever. I wonder how many times throughout the past couple of centuries someone has said something like: The backlash against the anti-slavery movement has arrived and now the question is how much staying power that movement has. It sounds like the real fad then and now is not anti-slavery and the green movement - these are ever increasing and predominant CONSTANTS - but rather backlashes against them. The backlash is the fad. How many times over the years have I now heard people say: The green movement is petering out. Oh well, some people never learn (or they simply need something to write and can't think of anything better).
As for the need for meaning in life comment, it is completely irrelevant. We all need meaning in life. We all try to find it in the things we do. Some people find it in the religion they practice. Some in their work. Some in trying to improve the environment. Some in making money. Some in ending poverty. In each thing some people will start doing something (like trying to make lots of money) because that is what they believe gives meaning in life, while others will start trying to become rich businessmen for whatever other reason and end up in the process of becoming rich finding meaning in it which reinforces their continued dedication to the business.
But asserting that people are turning to the green movement for meaning is also a distortion because the reality is that we NEED the environment. This is not something indispensible. I may not do anything to solve the hunger in Africa and that may or may not end up directly affecting me, but environmental degradation and global warming will end up affecting us all negatively to some degree, directly or indirectly. It is like saying people are turning to food because they find meaning in it. No, they turn to food because they NEED it. How they turn to food can be argued as a need for meaning. Take the Japanese culture for instance. Their food preparation rituals give meaning to the practicers of those rituals. To say that the Japanese turned to food for meaning would be wrong. They needed food and they developed some meaning in life through traditional practices of its consumption. I didn't turn to the environmental movement because I lacked meaning in life. I turned to it because I don't want the degradation of the environment screwing me over, or my family or loved ones or friends or anyone for that matter. Now that I have been a 'green' for so long, some practices in my 'green' life give 'meaning' to my existence.