Clean Indoor Air

Deep Green Permaculture has a fantastic article entitled "Indoor Plants" on which plants to grow indoors to achieve clean, healthy air and a comfortable living environment in your home.

CNN and Permaculture

Slowly the term permaculture is becoming mainstream. This is good news. CNN has started a series called "Going Green" as part of the news on environmental issues. On of the 4-minute episodes focused on Geoff Lawton and permaculture, it is entitled "An oasis in the desert".

Oil and Dollars

The fact that oil is priced and traded in US$ has a mayor impact on the value of the currency. Yes, in forex trading any currency can be sold and bought in seconds, so dollars can always be converted into euros, but buying crude in $ and then selling the $ is not the same thing as buying in - say - euros.

It is not the same at the national level, nor is it the same thing for the individual. If you live in the Euro zone, it is currently impossible to invest in crude oil without having to go through two currency exchanges and submitting yourself to foreign legislation and trade rules. Through a broker one can buy Brent crude in London or US crude on US exchanges, as well as crude-based instruments. When you buy one goes through a currency exchange, and again when one sells. Besides the risk in the primary instrument (crude) one has to go through the risk of currency fluctuations. Having to deal with a US exchange can also be seen as a risk. So, I for one am looking forward to the day when I can trade crude and crude-related instruments in euros on a European exchange following European regulation.

Looks like my desire might come true within a couple of years. Major oil producing countries are cooperating and discussing the move to price and sell crude in non-US currencies, possibly a basket containing the euro, gold, yen, yuan and a Middle-Eastern currency in creation.

When it happens this will cause the US dollar to lose in importance and in consequence in value. What can the US do to avoid it? Bribe Saudi Arabia? Wage war? Or maybe the US will drop the dollar on purpose in order to move to a world currency whereby eliminating their vast national debt.

Cell Phone

Before you make your next call on your cell phone, read this message: The Environmental Impact of Cell Phones.

Seven Sins

Mahatma Gandhi once wrote about the "Seven Social Sins":

• politics without principles, 
• wealth without work, 
• pleasure without conscience, 
• knowledge without character, 
• commerce without morality, 
• science without humanity, and 
• worship without sacrifice.

How many of these seven sins have we as a society committed in the last years and decades? Does this have anything to do with our current crisis? At least 3 sins have heavily lead to where we are: 

• Politics is run by lobbyists and Wall Street, 
• Printing money and making money through speculation and exchange manipulation is commonplace, 
• Commerce exclusively focuses on profits and ignores resources, nature and health.

Mahatma was a truly wise man.

View on China

China is a crucial component to the world economy. So, I always find it interesting to read about China, its political and economical direction. Newsweek published this article on China entitled "Everything You Know About China Is Wrong".

In a nutshell, the article states: Chinese government debt, once negligible, is now officially about 30 percent of GDP. High for China, low in comparison to US. The state sector controls half the total economy, and with the current stimulus package of $600 billion it is expected that the state sector actually grows in comparison to the private sector. Politicians are going green. The green stimulus package amounts to $218 billion, the largest in the world! China is still a massive polluter but it is also the biggest producer of renewable energy.

Orange Juice

Do you know what's inside a glass of orange juice? Industry makes you believe it is all wholesome healthy goodness. Not quite so. Listen to an expert that explains the industrial process orange juice makers go through to deliver the orange-colored liquid to you. Very education, I promise. You can find the video on "How pure and natural is your orange juice" and "The great orange juice scam".

$70 Billion

$70 billion. It is a gigantic number. This is the amount of tax payers money Goldman Sachs received. Goldman takes the $70 billion gift, buys distressed assets in the collapsed market and makes $10 billion in revenue in a single quarter. The just released quarterly figures show a $3 billion profit! And guess what? Big bonuses for all the employees. Goldman Sachs has 31,700 employees and they are on track to earn an average of about $700,000 apiece in 2009. They are expected to pay $17 billion in bonuses in 2009. To top off the arrogance, a leading Goldman Sachs director told the press as justification for the high bonuses that "this is good for the economy".

Who are the guilty ones? Goldman Sachs is unethical. No doubt. But the Obama team made it all possible. The Obama team with its ex-Goldman staff decided on the bail-out package and conditions. They are the ones that made it all happen. Social justice is a long way off.

Read here: Goldman Sachs Posts $3 Billion Gain, video discussion on the Goldman Sachs profits

And 2008 was no different as this article shows: Wall Street banks in $70bn staff payout. Goldman Sachs, for example, paid $12 billion in bonuses in 2008.

War

What are reasons for war? There is nothing that truly justifies war. Yet, humankind over and over again goes into war. Politicians sell us war. How? In the past when the church was ruling it was for religion. Nowadays with worldly politicians ruling they justify it in the name of freedom, in the name of peace, in the name of democracy, etc. It is all lies. The Iraq wars were certainly not about freedom, nor democracy, nor world peace.

Many suspect that it was about oil. Al Bartlett in an interview from the Blind Spot documentary eloquently said that the in the Iraq wars the US used middle eastern oil to punish middle eastern people. Have a look at this interview snippet. The US doesn't have enough oil to fight the war in Iraq without having to cut back somewhere else, so it uses Iraq oil to fight the Iraqis. What sad irony.

Last week I found another argument why the US entered into war with Iraq. The reason is to keep the US dollar strong. Iraq wanted to stop selling oil in dollars and start selling its oil exclusively in Euros. That would strengthen the Euro and weaken the dollar. The US could not print paper money (out of nothing) to buy oil, but would now have to buy Euros in order to buy part of its oil. Also, that Iraqi policy would send the "wrong" message to the world and other middle eastern country might follow. Hence, the US had to intervene. Here are the details at "Dollars, Oil, and the Big Wipe Out".

It is all so intertwined: politics, finance, economics, peak oil, ...

Also have a look at this related article outlining how oil producers are collaborating to price and sell oil in Euros and a basket of currencies.

Hyperinflation

Will the US have hyperinflation? I do not doubt it. For many reasons. Here is one of many articles out there that sheds light on this issue: "Killing the Goose" by John Mauldin.

It says: "There have been 28 episodes of hyperinflation of national economies in the 20th century, with 20 occurring after 1980. Peter Bernholz (Professor Emeritus of Economics in the Center for Economics and Business (WWZ) at the University of Basel, Switzerland) has spent his career examining the intertwined worlds of politics and economics with special attention given to money. In his most recent book, Monetary Regimes and Inflation: History, Economic and Political Relationships, Bernholz analyzes the 12 largest episodes of hyperinflations - all of which were caused by financing huge public budget deficits through money creation. His conclusion: the tipping point for hyperinflation occurs when the government's deficit exceed 40% of its expenditures."

"The US federal expenditures are projected to be $3.653 trillion in FY 2009 and $3.766 trillion in FY 2010, with unified deficits of $1.580 trillion and $1.502 trillion, respectively. These projections imply that the US will run deficits equal to 43.3% and 39.9% of expenditures in 2009 and 2010, respectively. To put it simply, roughly 40% of what the US government is spending has to be borrowed."

So, the tipping point has been reached. If you belief in historic data, the US is headed for hyperinflation.

Democracy

Are we living in a democracy? Officially, yes. Everyone says so. We have elections. But is that the true reality?

We are not living in a democracy. More and more industry and government are teaming up and democracy is for sale. The laws are created in the interest of industry not in the interest of the individual, the people. Power is shifting away from governments and politicians and being invested instead in transnational corporations and trade organizations.

Everything, people, resource and nature are used to serve the well-being of the corporation. An ad placed by the Government of the Philippines in Fortune magazine reads as follows: "To attract companies like yours … we have felled mountains, razed jungles, filled swamps, moved rivers, relocated towns … all to make it easier for you and your business to do business here."

No politician ever makes it into the polls if he does not have the support of the corporations. Anyone that you are allowed to vote for in elections is pre-selected and pre-approved by the industry. With your ballot you may chose between Mr. A, B or C, but all three have the same pre-determined principle plan regarding the truly major issues, their difference only lies in the minor areas. The main objective of government is to satisfy corporations. Over time the government has been deeply undermined by corporate staff.

And what do corporations do? They are legally prohibited to be social, to treat nature in a sustainable way. They private the gain and externalize the cost in order to follow their legal obligation to seek profit.

How to get back to responsible policies, to politicians that act in favor of people, nature and resources? Sometimes I see a revolution the only way out. There are many types of revolutions though, think of Mahatma Ghandi.

Here is a truly excellent article entitled "The Roots of Change – in Ourselves, or Government and Industry?" that sheds light onto this topic. A must read in my humble opinion.