links about us archives search home
SustainabiliTankSustainabilitank menu graphic
SustainabiliTank
Languages:
English flagItalian flagGerman flagSpanish flagFrench flagPortuguese flagJapanese flagKorean flagChinese flagArabic flagRussian flag

Reporting from the UN Headquarters in New YorkReporting from Washington DCReporting from UNFCCC Meetings
Other UN CitiesThe US StatesThe New Climate
Global Warming issuesPolicy Lessons from Mad Cow DiseaseUN Commission on Sustainable Development
californiatexashawaii
floridaalaskalouisianaillinois

 
The US States:

 

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 4th, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.com)

 from: <eban@lclark.edu>
July 3, 2008

Dear friends,

Focus the Nation is supporting PowerVote, a terrific national campaign by Energy Action to engage young people around climate change in the fall election. Please forward widely this call for participation at the PowerVote training camp in August. The deadline for applications is JULY 7th.

Meanwhile, Focus is also HIRING organizers to build Focus the Nation 2009, and help save the future- based out of our office here in Portland.  Check out our job ad and apply today!

Along with Hunter Lovins, Winona LaDuke, Steve Schneider and others, Eban will be speaking at the Rothbury music festival outside of Grand Rapids this weekend—the festival is sponsoring an exciting “think-tank” focused on global warming solutions.

Thanks for the work you are doing.

Eban Goodstein, Project Director
Chungin Chug, Communications Director

POWERVOTE  — please forward widely

Dear Educators,

We need your help in finding amazing young student leaders who are interested in having the chance to build a strong set of organizing and campaign skills and who are interesting in playing a pivotal role in our nation’s historic upcoming election.  Last fall we all came together to make Power Shift 2007 a reality - over 6,000 young people came to Washington DC for a life-changing weekend to learn and take action on  the defining issue of our generation, global warming.  They listened to thought provoking panels, sat-in on informative workshops and stormed Capitol Hill for the largest lobby day on global warming ever.  It took all of us to make this happen, and we all contributed in our own way, from advising students, organizing campus groups or just passing the word on.  We want to say THANK YOU to each and every one of you, and also ask you for your help as we set-off on our next great big endeavor.

With the election season in full swing there are huge opportunities to have discussions with young people about global warming, our future and civic engagement - that’s why we’ve launched Power Vote  http://www.powervote.org), a national campaign to turn up the volume on climate change in the elections and engage millions of young people on the issue.  Between now and November, we’ll be out on the campaign trail asking the candidates what their plan is on global warming, educate young people on candidates positions on the issue, and continue to build a broad and diverse movement to fight for a clean and just energy future.

We are currently looking for young leaders who would be interested in working on the Power Vote campaign, and we would love your help in identifying these people.  To prepare them for the fall and beyond, the Energy Action Coalition is hosting a MEGA training camp lead by the exceptional trainers at Wellstone Action.  Selected students and youth will get to participate in a life-changing intensive five-day training, which will equip them with many essential skills to organize and strategically campaign for change.  We have registration fee-waivers and travel scholarships available.  We do not want cost to be a barrier for anyone.  You can find out more about the training here: http://energyactioncoalition.org/powervo…

We are currently looking for applicants and it would be a great help if you could pass the information below to any young person who you think would be interested, and pass it onto listservs and other forums.  The application deadline is July 7th, so please spread the word soon.

Thanks again!
Arthur, Brianna, Madeline, Ragini, Jessy, Kassie, Whit, and the whole Energy Action team

Focus News
Forty Percent of Car Trips are within two miles of your home: Take Clif Bar’s Two-Mile Challenge and ride or walk instead! Check it out.
Nike rejoins Focus for 2009. Nike brings to Focus the Nation over a decade of business commitment to global warming solutions on a global scale. Watch for future info about our partnership to green campus athletics.
Join BRITA Climate-Ride 2008!  Focus is partnering with this four day, NYC-DC cycle event this September. Join the Focus the Nation team.
The Focus the Nation Wind Turbine! Thanks to Native Energy, Focus the Nation teams can offset their projects and help build a wind turbine on a family farm in Minnesota .
What Did You Teach at Focus the Nation? Help us collect educational material on global warming solutions; find out what others are up to at ClimateChangeEducation.org.
The President’s Climate Commitment: Has your University or College President signed on?
Donate to Focus—Stop Your Junk Mail! Sign up with 41 Pounds, and a portion of the income is donated directly to us here at Focus the Nation.

New Books & Videos on Fighting Global Warming

On video: Jon Isham and Eban Goodstein talk about their recent books on building the global warming solutions movement–  Fighting for Love in the Century of Extinction (Goodstein) and Ignition (Isham and Waage)

Other recent books of note: Gary Braasch’s Earth Under Fire; and Gary and Lynn Cherry’s How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming, Laurie David’s Down to Earth Guide; Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendrick’s Apollo’s Fire and  Fight Global Warming Now from Step it Up.

Global Warming Organizing Films: Everything’s Cool (Dan Gold and Judith Helfand);  Revolution Green (Stephen Stout and Jessica Kelly)

Focus Update is the e-bulletin of Focus the Nation. If would prefer not to receive this update, please reply to this message with UNSUBSCRIBE in the header.

Eban Goodstein
Project Director
Focus the Nation
 info at focusthenation.org
  Permalink | Printer Friendly Printer Friendly | Email This Article Email This Article
Posted in Reporting from Washington DC, Canada, Global Warming issues, The US States

###

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 4th, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.com)

 from:    gcr-eletter at angelnexus.com about Green Chip Review

Independence Day Greetings from Portugal.

By Sam Hopkins

It’s no accident that I’m overseas on America’s Independence Day. And maybe it’s no surprise either that the first tones of Portugal I’ve taken in on this trip are ones of energy freedom.

“New enterprise, generated by nature…”

So far my Brazilian-accented Portuguese has drawn some strange looks from police officers and shopkeepers as I ask for directions or coffee, but when I read this sign for the national power company’s new renewables division this morning, I only had to kick it around in my own noggin to understand.

International Companies are Dominating the Cleantech Space: Many of the world’s new energy technologies are being developed in countries outside the United States. Germany, for example, is mother to the modern solar industry. The Danes have all but cornered the wind industry with the now-famous Vestas Wind Systems. Green Chip International is taking full advantage of this phenomenon. Its latest German solar recommendation is up about 11% in under two weeks. Everyday, international renewables companies are delivering monster gains.

The new slogan for Energias de Portugal, which trades over the counter in the U.S. as EDPFY, not only exemplifies the transitional energy economy moving Europe from fossil fuels to clean power sources…

It also represents a fresh Age of Exploration in a country that was once one of the most powerful and adventurous empires in the world.

Along with Spain, Portugal is part of a 21st-century Iberian revival that mixes European Union green energy goals with the desire to stand out as individual national economies.
We’re seeing that phenomenon kick into high gear in Denmark, Germany, Norway, Scotland, and here in warmer climes too.

Spain’s Iberdrola Energy (MADRID:IBE) launched its own Iberdrola Renovables (Renewables) as a separate listing on the Madrid Stock Exchange in 2007. Most of Iberdrola’s renewable might comes from the stiff Spanish breeze. Tiny towns and big cities in Europe’s southwestern reaches are now getting electricity from wind turbines, and selling their surplus to the grid.

Now EDP is using its own country’s strength in wind, hydroelectric power, and the world’s largest wave energy array, Pelamis, to chart its course forward.

But here’s the interesting thing…

Energias de Portugal Renovables will be based in Spain, because Chairman Antonio Mexia knows the larger Iberian market can be cooperative and competitive at the same time, building a critical mass of companies and generation capacity that will benefit everyone.

The Lazy Investor’s Portfolio is whst this e-msail we got proposes

EDP has nearly 500 megawatts worth of new capacity in Spain planned for construction in the near term, helping it towards the goal of 10,500 MW worldwide just four years from now.

And you can tap that momentum with EDP Renewables’ forthcoming stock listing here in Lisbon, which we anticipate will be highly successful.

We’ll keep you up to date on EDP and the entire Iberian clean energy scene with Green Chip Review and Green Chip International.

###

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 4th, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.com)

We received an e-mail showing how little costs to buy gasoline (in German called Benzin) and diesel fuel if you live in a so called developing oil-exporting country or in the USA

Date: July 4, 2008

1 Liter = 0.264174 gal (US Liq)
US$ 1 = Euro 1.5682 as of 7/4/2008

The Austrian e-mail evokes the following list. We went then and looked up other countries and found that Austria is actually a bargain when compared to other developed economies.

The Austrian 1.32 Euro/liter is 2.16 times what the complaining American sissies are paying, but only 78.7% of what Norwegians are paying or 80.7% of what the Dutch are paying.

On the other hand Japan at 0.99 Euro/liter is another chaeap-shot so is Canada at 0.88 Euro/liter.

And you know already what we think? Those that pay more for their gasoline have also decreased their dependence on oil by efficiency methods and conservation - they also developed alternatives to oil and have started building the economy of the future. So, it is actually the US that is falling behind while it transfers its funds to the Gulf States hoping that the increased National Debt will devalue the US$ to the point that it remains valueless paper in their hand.The problem is that they do not sit on the money anymore. They actually buy assets with that money - among that buying spree they also buy up chunks of America. So what then? Will they agree to American taxation without representation - or the US will eventually find out that Bush made a Faustian Deal with the US oil companies and with his Arab friends.

Our advice to our Austrian readers is thus - DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE TAX ON FUEL - BUT MAKE SURE THE MONEY IS USED SO THAT EVENTUALLY YOU WILL HAVE TO BUY LESS OF IT.

The following is what we got in the mail - then look at what we added for the sake of analysis. if our other readers want to get the actual numbers in US dollars, please use the above conversion factors.

BENZINPREISE INTERNATIONAL

Benzin that is Gasoline - but much of the posting is about Diesel - this because in Europe the motor-fuel of choice is high quality Diesel.

Afghanistan Normalbenzin € 0,43

Algerien Diesel € 0,11

Aserbaidschan Diesel € 0,31

Ägypten Diesel € 0,14

Ãthiopien Super € 0,24

Bahamas Diesel € 0,25

Bolivien Super € 0,25

Brasilien Diesel € 0,54

China Normal € 0,45

Ecuador Normal € 0,24

Ghana Normal € 0,09 !!!!!!!

Grönland Super € 0,50

Guyana Normal € 0,67

Hong Kong Diesel € 0,84

Indien Diesel € 0,62

Indonesien Diesel € 0,32

Irak Super € 0,60

Kasachstan Diesel € 0,44

Katar Super € 0,15

Kuwait Super € 0,18

Kuba Normal € 0,62

Libyen Diesel € 0,08 !!!!!!!

Malaysia Super € 0,55

Mexico Diesel € 0,41

Moldau Normal € 0,25

Oman Super plus € 0,20

Peru Diesel € 0,22

Philippinen Diesel € 0,69

Russland Super € 0,64

Saudi Arabien Diesel € 0,07 !!!!!!

Südafrika Diesel € 0,66

Swasiland Super € 0,10 !!!!!!

Syrien Diesel € 0,10 !!!!!

Trinidad Super € 0,33

Thailand Super € 0,65

Tunesien Diesel € 0,49

USA Diesel € 0,61

Venezuela Diesel € 0,07 !!!!!

Vereinigte Arabische Emirate Diesel € 0,18

Vietnam Diesel € 0,55

Weißrussland Diesel € 0,51

EU und dem Finanzminister sei dank ist der Österreicher bzw. Europäer dumm
genug sich abzocken zu lassen (Mineralölsteuer und Mehrwertsteuer auf
Benzin).

Bitte dieses E-Mail weiter zu schicken damit wenigstens einige Leute
erkennen wie stark Österreich geneppt wird.

Benzinpreise auf der eigenen Webseite

And looking at international prices for July 4, 2008 at - http://benzinpreis.de/international.phtm…

Land Normalbenzin in € Superbenzin in € SuperPlus in € Diesel in €

Österreich 1,26 1,29 * 1,28 1,32 *

UK 1,40 1,46 1,50 1,58

Finnland 1,47 1,50 1,50 1,36

Frankreich 1,39 1,34 * 1,44 1,37 *

Irland 1,26 1,26 1,15 1,43

Island 1,35 1,40 1,47 1,50

Israel - 1,05 - -

Italien 1,36 1,46 1,34 1,45

Japan 0,99 1,08 - 0,79

Kanada 0,88 0.87 0.82  0.90

   
   

Neuseeland 1,03 0,97 - 1,46

Niederlande 1,56 1,61 1,69 1,31 **

Norwegen 1,60 1,61 1,46 1,56

Schweden 1,37 1,39 1,36 1,47

Schweiz 1,24 1,21 * 1,23 1,37 *

Ungarn 1,29 1,26 1,20 1,31

###

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 4th, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.com)

Groundbreaking Lawsuit Accuses Big Oil of Conspiracy to Deceive Public About Climate Change.  Now you see why the Bushies love “tort reform”…

Posted by Democracy Now!, www.Democracy Now!  on July 3, 2008.
Attorney Stephen Susman helped file a groundbreaking lawsuit earlier this year on behalf of 400 Inuit villagers in the Alaskan town of Kivalina who are being forced to relocate because of flooding caused by global warming. The suit accuses 20 oil, gas and electric companies–including ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips and Peabody–of being responsible for emitting millions of tons of greenhouse gases causing the Arctic ice to melt.

Earlier this week a judge in Georgia blocked the construction of a coal-fired power plant because the plant did not set limits on carbon dioxide emissions.

In what is being described as an unprecedented ruling, the judge said the plant could not receive an air pollution permit unless it limits its emissions.

Today we are going to look at the rapidly growing field of global warming litigation.

I am joined here in Aspen, Colorado by the attorney Steve Susman. He is the founding partner of the law firm Susman Godfrey.

Earlier this year he helped file a groundbreaking lawsuit on behalf of 400 Inuit villagers in the Alaskan town of Kivalina who are being forced to relocate because of flooding caused by global warming.

The suit accuses 20 oil, gas and electric companies of being responsible for emitting millions of tons of greenhouse gases causing the Arctic ice to melt. Companies named in the suit include ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips and Peabody. The suit also accuses eight of the corporations of being involved in a conspiracy to mislead the public about the causes of global warming.

Susman and his legal team have adopted a legal strategy similar to that used by lawyers who fought Big Tobacco in the 1990s. Susman was also involved in that litigation – he was an attorney for the tobacco giant Philip Morris.

Steve Susman also recently represented the Texas Cities for Clear Air Coalition in their successful effort to block the energy company TXU from building 10 new coal-burning power plants. The case was featured in Robert Redford’s documentary, “Fighting Goliath—Texas Coal Wars.” Attorney Steve Susman joins me here in Aspen.

Steve Susman is founding partner of the law firm Susman Godfrey. He recently filed a pioneering global warming lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and 20 other oil, coal and electric companies on behalf of residents of the Alaskan Native coastal village of Kivalina.

###

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 4th, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.com)

Cleantech Forums® are the world’s premier cleantech investment platforms, providing unparalleled definition, analysis, networking, deal flow and thought-leadership for the rapidly emerging cleantech industry.

Cleantech currently hosts four forums annually - two in North America and one in Europe and one in China. The Cleantech Forums® are the leading “must attend” capital raising events for investors therefore they are an extremely successful method for cleantech companies to raise capital through our Network. You will have access to several hundred experienced, motivated and active cleantech investors at one time. Forums offer the following:

High quality program with carefully selected speakers and panelists that represent the leaders on the cutting edge in cleantech globally.
Selection and presentation of the highest quality investment candidates available.
Participation and involvement of senior level directors from the leading investment firms active in cleantech globally. These include venture capitalists, private equity, hedge funds, investment banks, pensions, endowments, family offices, angels and corporations
Strong media representation at each forum with major outlets represented such as the New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, Business Week, Bloomberg, etc.
Leading edge information and research on the investment opportunities from the experts in clean technology innovation and trends worldwide.
The Cleantech Forums® are the only capital forums that are designed exclusively to facilitate the finance of companies commercializing clean technologies by bringing together clean technology entrepreneurs and check writers thus providing them with a venue in which deals and relationships can originate and incubate. Our forums are where deals get done.

Cleantech’s commitment is to ensure that these forums remain the industry standard for all pursuing activities related to clean technology ventures. It is this commitment that makes Cleantech Forums® a “must attend” event for most active investors in the clean technology venture space.

With each consecutive Forum we build on the success of the prior event and consistently command the largest gathering of investors interested in clean technology investment opportunities. We hope to see those interested in this compelling new category at one of our upcoming events.

Cleantech Forum® XVIII
September 15-17, 2008
Washington, DC

Cleantech Forum® XIX
October 7-9, 2008
Mumbai, India

Cleantech Forum® XX
December 3-5, 2008
Shanghai, China

Cleantech Forum® XXI
February 23-25, 2009
San Francisco

###

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 4th, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.com)

Brazil reveals bioplastics plan.

BRASILIA (Kyodo) Friday, July 4, 2008. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari on Wednesday that his nation plans to develop bioplastics.

Amari, who met reporters after holding talks with Lula in the Brazilian capital, quoted him as saying that Brazil has lots of oil but wants to develop bioplastics as part of the country’s contribution to the environment.

Unlike typical plastics, which are made from petroleum, bioplastics are produced from biofuels, including ethanol derived from sugar cane.

Lula is expected to explain his country’s environment protection policies when he takes part in the Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido next week.

We Say Bravo To This Non-G8 Organically Developing Future Economic Giant. Is Not Brazil The Ideal New Addition To That Economic Club Now Called G8? 

###

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 3rd, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.com)

From:    jeh1 at columbia.edu
Subject: Dear Prime Minister Fukuda
Letter sent to Prime Minister Fukuda before the G8 meeting is at http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2…

makes some very interesting points about relative parts of coal, oil, and gas in 2007 emissions and their historic part in the present composition of the air, and the various sources of these emissions.

He makes suggestions and asks for Fukuda’s leadership. Please open the above link in order to read Jim Hansen’s intervention to the G8.

###

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 3rd, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.com)

Now it seems that www.SustainabiliTank.info is not out on a limb anymore by saying that this G8 will be about the US$ rather then about the declared topic of climate Change or about Prices of oil and food.

Bloomberg reports now that it is the US Administration’s malaise of the US$ that made the increase in prices something that turns everyone’s head at Washington. The US economy is the worst performer at Hokkaido time among those assembled there, except for Italy - a country that for years was not capable of holding onto a government.

Bloomberg is nice to Washington and does not give the reason for the US$3.8 trillion Bush increase in the countriy’s debt - the ill conceived insistence on being addicted to the oil industry and the continuing war for oil.

Bush’s Dollar Drop Maps Loss of US Clout at Final G-8 Summit.
Thursday 03 July 2008

by: James G. Neuger, Bloomberg News

The value of the dollar has dropped 41 percent against the euro during Bush’s term in office. Americans find themselves shouldering debt that will burden this and future generations.

When President George W. Bush went to his first Group of Eight summit in 2001, a dominant issue was the dollar - the strong dollar, that is. The U.S. currency was on a record-setting streak, and the free-marketeering president wasn’t going to stand in the way.
On the eve of Bush’s last G-8 appearance, the dollar’s gyrations are again in the crossfire. This time, it is a weak currency, upended by slumping growth, a housing recession and record gas prices, that is gnawing away at the world economy.

The dollar’s 41 percent drop against the euro during Bush’s term writes the economic epitaph of an administration that set out to restore American preeminence. Instead, Bush heads to Japan next week for his final international summit with diminished leverage as Russian and Chinese influence grows.

“Between the economic duress facing the United States and the global community at large and the fact that the clock is running out on the Bush administration, Bush does not hold a good hand,” said Charles Kupchan, an international-relations professor at Georgetown University in Washington. He called the summit a “damage-limitation” exercise to show the world that governments are trying to contain food and oil prices.

Global economic-confidence building crowds the agenda at the three-day summit starting July 7 in Toyako, on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, that was meant to tackle climate change, recommit the rich world to development aid for Africa and strengthen nuclear non-proliferation controls.


Growth Lags
:
Bush represents the worst-performing economy in the G-8 after Italy, with growth of 0.5 percent this year set to lag behind 1.6 percent in the U.K., 1.4 percent in the euro area, 1.4 percent in Japan and 1.3 percent in Canada, according to International Monetary Fund forecasts.
Russia, brought into the G-8 by Bill Clinton in 1998, will eclipse the rest of the club with growth of 6.8 percent this year, the IMF says. Russia’s oil and commodity wealth puts it at odds with the western goal of cutting reliance on fossil fuels. China, seen expanding 9.3 percent, has also frustrated the fight against global warming by locking up energy deals in Africa to slake its economic thirst. China will be among eight non-G-8 members that take part on the summit’s last day.
America’s economic woes with $4-a-gallon gasoline prices will stiffen Bush’s opposition to European and Japanese calls for binding, quantifiable targets for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions, blamed by scientists for pushing up global temperatures.
Global Warming:
Bush took a baby step at last year’s G-8 by acknowledging the need to do something about global warming, edging the U.S. away from the laissez-faire approach that he championed after pulling the U.S. out of the Kyoto climate-protection protocol in a move that met international condemnation in 2001.
With the countdown under way to the presidency of Barack Obama or John McCain, the most the summit can do is set up a framework for pollution-cutting agreements that replace Kyoto when it expires in 2012, said Reginald Dale, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“Most of Bush’s partners are looking to the next president,” Dale said. European leaders will “be trying to pin Bush further down on the nature of commitments that the United States might undertake to reduce emissions in the shorter term.”
Europe’s Bind:
Europe is caught in a bind of its own. Soaring fuel prices and a chorus of protests put pressure on leaders to offer relief instead of weaning consumers away from fossil fuels. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, holder of the 27-nation European Union’s six-month presidency, is pressing for fuel-tax cuts.
Oil prices continued climbing after pressure by European leaders including Britain’s Gordon Brown led Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, to announce for July the third straight monthly increase in production.
“There’s no hope for new achievements or concrete results regarding crude-oil prices or the shortage of food or global warming,” said Koichi Kato, a senior member of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Spiraling food and fuel costs are hitting poorer countries the hardest, increasing the pressure on the G-8 to make good on a 2005 pledge to double development aid to Africa to $50 billion annually by 2010 and to implement last year’s promise to invest $60 billion worldwide to combat deadly diseases.

Price Surge:
G-8 finance ministers last month identified surging commodities prices as a bigger threat than the credit squeeze to the world economy. Prices for 19 commodities in the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index rose 29 percent in the first half, the most since 1973. Rice, corn and wheat futures have all touched records this year.
Sagging faith in the dollar - it now makes up 63 percent of global currency reserves, down from 71 percent when Bush took office - complicates efforts to tame commodity prices because they are primarily denominated in the U.S. currency.
America’s dependence on imported capital to finance a $9.5 trillion debt - up from $5.7 trillion when Bush took office - has driven down the currency. The decline was accelerated by the subprime crisis that plunged the U.S. into an economic tailspin.
“If Bush could get others at the G-8 summit to demand a stronger dollar he’d have done a final good after a lot of negatives over the years,” said Uwe von Parpart, chief Asia strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald LP in Hong Kong. “Dollar strengthening appears to be the only thing capable of containing or pushing back oil prices.”
Speaking at the White House yesterday, Bush tried to give the markets a nudge: “We’re strong dollar people in this administration and have always been for the strong dollar.”

Friday, July 4, 2008

TSE’s (the Tokyo Stock Exchange) longest losing streak in 54 years.
Kyodo News
The key Nikkei stock index fell Thursday for the 11th straight trading session to mark its longest losing streak in more than half a century on worries over the U.S. economy ahead of the release of key U.S. jobs data.

The 225-issue Nikkei stock average lost 20.97 points, or 0.16 percent, from Wednesday to 13,265.40. The broader Topix index of all first-section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 3.13 points, or 0.24 percent, to 1,298.02.


The Nikkei has shed nearly 1,200 points, or over 8 percent, during the past 11 trading days in the longest losing streak since April 1954, a period of economic uncertainty following the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Norihiro Fujito, a senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co., said a disappointing U.S. employment report and a widely expected interest rate hike in the euro zone will cause the dollar to be sold against major currencies, which may trigger a further spike in soaring oil prices.

“No market will continue sliding endlessly, so a technical rebound will occur in between,” Fujito said.

“But the trend will continue to look south since the cause of the decline is economic fundamentals,” he said, warning that a slowing U.S. economy will eventually ripple into emerging economies and hit Japanese exports hard.

Kazuhiro Takahashi, general manager of the global product planning department at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co., said the Nikkei may still test below the psychologically crucial 13,000 mark.

###

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 3rd, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.com)

 From:    organizers at 350.org
Subject: Tell the G8: The World is Waking Up

Pincas,
I’m writing this from Japan, and I’ve got news to share: the world is waking up to the climate crisis.

Next week, the leaders of the 8 richest countries in the world will meet here in Japan for the annual “G8 Summit.”  This year, the climate crisis is at the top of the agenda-and we have a rare opportunity to hold our world leaders accountable.

Help us send a message to the G8 that it’s time to lead on climate change.

 http://www.350.org/g8petition

The 2008 G8 negotiations can just be another round of empty climate promises-or they can be the first steps on the road to a safe global future.  When it comes to setting the world on a path to 350 and  a safe climate, we want the smartest, the fairest, and the fastest ways to get us there. We can’t allow our leaders to drag their feet — we