Forest Trends released this informative report in May 2008.
http://ecosystemmarketplace.com/documents/acrobat/PES_Matrix_Profiles_PROFOR.pdf
Author: rickpace1
The Micro Compact House…living in a box
I made a mistake in a web search and ended up considering whether to live in a box….
America’s Most Walkable Cities
I’ve found in traveling that there are times when it is IMPOSSIBLE to get across the street to a restaurant or shop that you can see a block away….
This site sorts out the ‘walkability’ factor:
Electric Cars
Treehugger.com put together an overview of electric vehicle development. I’ve seen a few of these and, for urban commuting (which is much of America’s driving), they make a lot of sense. Speaking of sensible, it’s fun just to look at some innovative machines where care has been taken to engineer the energy systems. Hurrah for scale appropriate, sensible, and thoughtful design!
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07/17-electric-cars-overview-2005-to-2008.php
Home Valuation Code of Conduct
The current mortgage problems have hatched the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (sounds like the Boy Scouts….and maybe that is not a bad model).
http://www.freddiemac.com/singlefamily/docs/030308_valuationcodeofconduct.pdf
There has been substantial rumbling in the appraisal community because it restricts who might order appraisals for mortgage lending…only the lender….real estate agents or mortgage brokers can’t order the appraisal. It also changes the protocol of the appraisal process and the transferability of appraisals.
Appraisers are afraid it will upset existing relationships (which from my reading it would) and therefore cost them substantial monies (which is probably a reasonable assumption). It would make much greater use of AMCs (appraisal management companies) and therefore consolidate how lenders get appraisals.
Pipeline Damage Assessment from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
The recent energy price increases have caused a huge discussion of whether to expand exploration and recovery of domestic oil resources. Part of the discussion has been about the safety of the exploration and pipeline infrastructure…and folks have used the Katrina and Rita hurricanes as an argument on both sides of the issue.
Here’s a link to the report prepared for the Minerals Management Service assessing the damage:
http://www.mms.gov/tarprojects/581/44814183_MMS_Katrina_Rita_PL_Final%20Report%20Rev1.pdf
Rules vs Principles…Part 2
The federal agency appointed in 2005 by Congress to oversee the development of offshore wind, tidal, and wave energy projects has released its proposed regulation. It is 450 pages and reported to be far from easy to understand.
Tom Jensen, a lawyer who helps wave and tidal start-up companies navigate the federal permitting process, says “On the surface at least. a set of new rules as thick as a phonebook sends a strong signal that the infant renewable energy industry should expect a very heavy regulatory hand from the Interior Department.”
Wendy Williams, a Cape Cod-based science writer, wrote an editorial this morning in the Providence Journal regarding the Minerals Management Service’s proposed regulations. She’s followed the Cape Wind Project and written a book about it.
There has been for some years a proposal to put a wind farm off of Cape Cod’s south shore. It has been very controversial and the politics has been nasty. One of the primary opposing groups, Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, is a fossil fuel funded group. Ms. Williams and others see the hand of the Alliance’s cadre of attorneys in the proposed regulations.
Ms Williams states “The MMS proposed regulations call for a series of auctions for a particular site that proceed according to the sites use. A site will be opened for a bid for exploration of its feasibility, and, later another bid will occur for the final construction of a project. This means that a company could spend a lot of money finding out whether a particular site is appropriate for wind, wave, or tidal development, but,after gathering the data, not have enough money to succeed in the final bid to allow for project development. Some large company like Exxon could step in and take the site over.”
There’s nothing new in America’s industrial history about the pioneers get overwhelmed by monied interests. At least we could develop sensible governance of these emerging industries without ‘cooking the rules’ …which Ms. Williams implies. I’m still wondering if it is not easier to be fair in a principles-based governance vs a rules-based governance?
Katoomba Meeting Presentations, Etc.
Rebecca Vonada just emailed to say that the presentations and other material from the Washington Katoomba Meetings are now available at:
http://www.katoombagroup.org/~katoomba/event_details.php?id=20
The Ethics of Climate Change
John Broome, in a June 2008 article in Scientific American, raised a number of ethical questions related to climate change:
Climate change raises a number of ethical questions. How should we -all of us living today -evaluate the well-being of future generations, given that they are likely to have more material goods than we do? Many people, some living, others yet to be born, will die from the effects of climate change. Is each death equally bad? How bad are those deaths collectively? Many people will die before they bear children, so climate change will prevent the existence of children who would otherwise have been born. Is there nonexistence a bad thing? By emitting greenhouse gases, are the rich perpetrating an injustice on the world’s poor? How should we respond to the small but real chance that climate change could lead to worlwide catastrophe?
Before your teeth start to hurt from trying to think about the ‘nonexistence’ of children… the article is about cost-benefit economics. Most of the rest of the article is about ethical considerations in determining discount rates.
The last of his questions has been in my mind for some time….How should we respond to the small but real chance that climate change (or, for that matter, any human induced environmental change) could lead to worldwide catastrophe? If you want to discuss it in moral terms, what right does anyone have to cause environmental change?…and from where do those rights arise?
International Financial Reporting Standards
I reviewed this article and found it interesting for a number of reasons:
1)The key underlying theme for IFRS is that it is principles based rather than rules based like U.S. GAAP. An advantage of a principles based system is that a principle can be more generally applied and leaves the specific application to management. A disadvantage of a rules-based system is the proliferation of standards and interpretations as each specific situation is addressed….this is an important thing to consider when developing reporting standards for ecosystem services. Rules-based standards in complex systems are going to be very ‘complicated’ and perhaps literally ‘miss the forest for the trees’.
2) It points out the importance of being able to communicate about complex systems in a global marketplace…and the difficulty of creating practices.
3) The idea of ‘standards’ in measuring complex environmental systems creates lots of contradictions. Perhaps ‘ethical principles’ is more effective.
4) The length of time to evolve these standards, even with the reasonably long history of corporate accounting, is significant.
For the entire article:
Richard Pace 