Ban Ki-moon and Al Gore: Green growth is essential to any stimulus

[babylonsister]

Green growth is essential to any stimulus

By Ban Ki-moon and Al Gore

Published: February 16 2009 19:40


Economic stimulus is the order of the day. This is as it must be, as governments around the world struggle to jump-start the global economy. But even as leaders address the immediate need to stimulate the economy, so too must they act jointly to ensure that the new de facto economic model being developed is sustainable for the planet and our future on it.

What we need is both stimulus and long-term investments that accomplish two objectives simultaneously with one global economic policy response – a policy that addresses our urgent and immediate economic and social needs and that launches a new green global economy. In short, we need to make “growing green” our mantra

First, a synchronised global recession requires a synchronised global res­ponse. We need stimulus and intense co-ordination of economic policy among all main economies. We must avoid the beggar-thy-neighbour policies that contributed to the Great Depression. Co-ordination is also vital for reducing financial volatility, runs on currencies and rampant inflation as well as for instilling consumer and investor confidence. In Washington last November, G20 leaders expressed their determination “to enhance co-operation and work together to restore global growth and achieve needed reforms in the world’s financial systems”. This needs to happen urgently.

Stimulus is intended to jump-start the economy, but if properly conceived and executed it can also launch us on a new, low-carbon path to green growth. Some $2,250bn (€1,750bn, £1,569bn) of stimulus has already been announced by 34 nations. This stimulus, along with new initiatives by other countries, must help catapult the world economy into the 21st century, not perpetuate the dying industries and bad habits of yesteryear. Indeed, continuing to pour trillions of dollars into carbon-based infrastructure and fossil-fuel subsidies would be like investing in subprime real estate all over again.

Eliminating the $300bn in annual global fossil fuel subsidies would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 6 per cent and would add to global gross domestic product. Developing re­newable energy will help where we need it most. Already, developing economies account for 40 per cent of existing global renewable resources as well as 70 per cent of solar water heating capacity.

Leaders everywhere, notably in the US and China, are realising that green is not an option but a necessity for recharging their economies and creating jobs. Globally, with 2.3m people employed in the renewable energy sector, there are already more jobs there than directly in the oil and gas industries. In the US, there are now more jobs in the wind industry than in the entire coal industry. President Barack Obama’s and China’s stimulus packages are a critical step in the right direction and their green components must be followed through urgently.

We urge all governments to expand green stimulus elements, including energy efficiency, renewables, mass transit, new smart electricity grids and reforestation, and to co-ordinate their efforts for rapid results.

more...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0fa98852-fc45-11dd-aed8-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

[Hannah Bell]

1. There's no "green growth".

[babylonsister]

2. Tell that to Al Gore; he's been wasting his life, I guess. nt

[Hannah Bell]

5. al gore's mission is to turn climate change into a market opportunity.

he works for the banksters & his "environmental concern" is of recent vintage.

[babylonsister]

6. You are full of crap.

You need to read more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore_and_the_environment

Gore has been involved with the environment for a number of decades. In 1976, after joining the United States House of Representatives, Gore held the "first congressional hearings on the climate change, and co-sponsor hearings on toxic waste and global warming."<2><3> He continued to speak on the topic throughout the 1980s<4> and was known as one of the Atari Democrats, later called the "Democrats' Greens, politicians who see issues like clean air, clean water and global warming as the key to future victories for their party."<1><5>

In 1989, while still a Senator, Gore published an editorial in the Washington Post, in which he argued

Humankind has suddenly entered into a brand new relationship with the planet Earth. The world's forests are being destroyed; an enormous hole is opening in the ozone layer. Living species are dying at an unprecedented rate.<6>

In 1990, Senator Gore presided over a three-day conference with legislators from over 42 countries which sought to create a Global Marshall Plan, "under which industrial nations would help less developed countries grow economically while still protecting the environment." <7>

The Concord Monitor says that Gore "was one of the first politicians to grasp the seriousness of climate change and to call for a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gases. <8>

[Uncle Joe]

7. I love the smell of burning crap in the morning, it smells like victory.

On edit with apologies to "Apocalypse Now."

[babylonsister]

8. Hi, Uncle Joe!

I get really tired of people talking out of their hindquarters, ya know?

:hi:

[Uncle Joe]

10. Peace to you, babylonsister.

:hi:

[Hannah Bell]

11. i read plenty.the evidence for gore "holding hearings on global warming" in the 70s is - david corn.

show me the documentation, & the actual title of said "hearings," cause i don't believe it was "global warming". There's no period documentation offered for any of the enviro activities before the 90s, so no way to know what exactly they consisted of & how significant, & they weren't what he was known for back in the day. i was there.

gore can start with his own food intake & estate if he's sooooo concerned, instead of using more resources than 40 people & justifying it because he bought some "carbon offsets".

but he's all about carbon trading, banksters' wet dream.

there's no green growth. you can't "grow the economy" without increasing resource use. & carbon trading is all about capturing the economic benefit of the growth in the hands of a select few.

[babylonsister]

12. Have you ever heard of google? You really should try it...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/12/climatechange1
Timeline: Al Gore

snip//

1976

Gore quits law school in March 1976 to run for the House of Representatives. He wins a Congress seat and is then re-elected three times, in 1978, 1980, and 1982.

Gore holds first congressional hearings on the climate change, and co-sponsors hearings on toxic waste and global warming.

****************************

http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/winter0607articles/al-gore-heats-up.html

snip//

Gore did not recently crack the books on the environment. He has been studying it since his undergraduate days at Harvard where he studied under Roger Revelle, one of the first people to measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When he went to the U.S. Congress in 1976, Gore held the first congressional hearings on global warming and continued to raise public awareness of this issue while he served as a U.S. senator and vice president. His first book about global warming, Earth in the Balance, was a bestseller in 1992. Gore also developed a slide show, which he says he has presented more than 1,000 times.

[Hannah Bell]

13. reading comprehension? you really should try it....

"period documentation"

you offered me another version of corn's summary. same incidents, similar verbiage.

until earth in the balance (92), enviro was not what gore was known for.

& during his vp days, when (presumably) he had some kind of power, his accomplishments were not so significant.

the money, honey.

http://virtualglobetrotting.com/category/buildings/homes-celebrity-government/

[babylonsister]

14. Aren't you something. You give Corn an awful lot of credit. And you

are denying the proof in front of your face. Sorry, that doesn't make it a lie. Bye now.
When you wake up and feel like dealing with reality, go search google, or read his biography, or his books.

[Hannah Bell]

15. your refutation = canned summary, no original documentation,

avoidance of the key points, i.e. there's no such thing as green growth.

i was an adult in the 70s. enviro wasn't what gore was known for.

gore's enviro stand is about as sincere as his "social security lockbox" rhetoric, another bit of populist bait & switch aimed to confuse the real issues.

[AnnieBW]

3. One good opportunity on last night's news

NBC News did a piece on an ethanol plant in Minnesota that was built last year, but the company declared bankruptcy before it even opened, because the price for corn tanked. Of course, the economically-depressed farmers are all hurting because they planted large amounts of corn to supply the plant, and are now stuck with it. This is a good example of where the government is needed. The Energy Department could easily step in, buy that plant and contractors to get it running - thereby providing ethanol and jobs for the locals.

[babylonsister]

9. The good news is, maybe we'll have more corn in the

markets this year. I do hope this is only temporary and these plants will also get help, if ethanol is really the wave of the future.

[Hannah Bell]

16. oh good, more $$$$ for archer daniels midland. ethanol, yay!

more scams.

[Uncle Joe]

4. This is great and forward thinking.

I believe if the world pulls together for projects such as this, world wide peace has a better chance of breaking out.

I also believe it was depression and every nation or alliance for them selves which seeded the field of World War II.

Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, babylonsister.:thumbsup: