The Future Corporation - Paul Polak

TEDxMileh-ligh - Paul Polak - The Future Corporation

Uploaded on May 26, 201 1 • What is the future of the corporation? Paul Polak's vision will likely transform your view of what's possible through capitalism and may change the way current organizations view their business models. His talk details the tremendous shared value that lies within product and system designs for the bottom 90% of the income pyramid.

In the spirit of "ideas worth spreading," TED has created TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxMileHigh, where x = independently organized TED event. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized

TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.

© 2014

Ceres Report on Stresses on Groundwater Caused by Fracing

Ceres, a nonprofit focusing on climate change, water scarcity and sustainability, has issued a report, Hydraulic Fracturing & Water Stress: Water Demand by the Numbers, a Shareholder, Lender & Operator Guide to Water Sourcing. Here are some excerpts:

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© 2014

Philippines still far from water security — ADB

Although the Philippines is surrounded by water and experiences at least 20 cyclones in a year, it is still far from achieving water security, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Based on the National Water Security Index, the Philippines comes out of level two out of five, said Wouter Lincklaen Arriens, ADB’s water resources specialist.

“It means it still has some quite a way to go,” Arriens said Wednesday.

The index contained in the Asian Water Development Outlook 2013 measures the water adequacy of 48 countries in Asia and the Pacific region.

Although institutional arrangement and levels of public investment has been increasing, a level two in the index means that the Philippine government had “inadequate” legislation and policy toward securing water.

Focus on Philippines

According to the latest study, the Philippine lagged in urban water security index, which gauges water services and management in cities. The country scored one out of five.

Urban water security also gauges the country’s public infrastructure and utilities, especially wastewater treatment.

To this, Arriens noted: “Much has to be done, especially in cities which is an area of serious concern.”

The fastest increase in water demand now comes from industries and cities, ADB revealed. “Cities occupy 2 percent of the world’s land, [but] uses 75 percent of its resources.”

The city’s wastewater was often released into rivers and lakes with only a fifth or 22 percent of discharges being treated, the study showed.

The study added that 80 percent of Asia’s rivers are in poor health, jeopardizing economies and quality of life. It estimated that about $1.75 trillion “ecosystem services” per year are threatened while rivers devastation continues.

“In Asia and the Pacific, waste water is often released into rivers, lakes and groundwater untreated or only partially treated… This region has the lowest environmental water security, posing huge challenges for sustainable development,” the study read.

“Public investments, market based approaches, and support from the private sector can reduce pollution and finance the restoration of healthy rivers. Every $1 invested in river restoration program can return more than $4 in benefits,” it added.

Meanwhile, the Philippines scored four out of five in the area of economic water security, which measures a country’s productive use of water to sustain economic growth in food production, industry and energy.

Solutions are available but…

ADB’s outlook estimated that the region needs $59 billion in investments for water supply and $71 billion for improved sanitation.

“Countries should double the current rates in sanitation… Every dollar invested in water and sanitation is likely to return $5 to $46 in reduce health care cost and increased economic productivity,” it said.

To prevent a possible water crisis, ADB explained that water governance should be improved.

“Major changes in water governance are needed in nearly all Asian developing countries. If some Asian developing countries face a water crisis in the future, it will not be of physical scarcity of water, but because of inadequate water governance,” the multilateral agency said. More

 

White paper reveals gas industry scared of global protests

The shale gas industry-commissioned white pape, The Global Anti-Fracking Movement: What it Wants, How it Operates and What’s Next, makes for some very interesting reading.

Gaslands

It was produced late last year by Control Risks, an “independent, global risk consultancy specialising in helping organisations manage political, integrity and security risks in complex and hostile environments”.

The white paper focuses on shale gas, but it also discusses coal seam gas. Shale gas is what features in the film Gasland by Josh Fox, which details the destructive effects of “fracking” on communities in the US.

A global movement has emerged to combat the risks to water and air quality, health and farmland that shale gas mining poses. Australia has both shale and coal seam gas reserves.

The white paper begins with an image of what the world looks like through the eyes of the industry. Big blue splodges mark the shale gas reserves on a global map.

The splodges cover the whole of Latvia and Hungary, almost all of Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Paraguay and South Africa, half of Poland, a third of Libya and Argentina. It includes significant stretches of the US, Canada, Australia, the British Isles, Mexico, India, Bolivia, Colombia and China.

The opening sentence reveals how the shale gas industry sees itself: “Unconventional natural gas is often described as game-changing and transformative, a revolution heralding a golden age of cheap, plentiful energy for a resource-constrained world. But only if it makes it out of the ground.”

This is the story the industry likes to tell itself. Corporations, seeking only to make the world a better place, are unfairly victimised by the masses who are too uninformed to know what’s best for them.

The ruthless quest for profit and the irreversible destruction of the environment and people’s livelihoods are things they prefer to leave out of the story. More

 

Is the Natural Gas Fracking Industry Paying Off Scientists?

Last week the University of Texas provost announced he would re-examine a report by a UT professor that said fracking was safe for groundwater after the revelation that the professor pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Texas natural gas developer. It’s the latest fusillade in the ongoing battle over the basic facts of fracking in America.

Texans aren’t the only ones having their fracking conversations shaped by industry-funded research. Ohioans got their first taste last week of the latest public-relations campaign by the energy policy wing of the US Chamber of Commerce. It’s called “Shale Works for US,” and it aims to spend millions on advertising and public events to sell Ohioans on the idea that fracking is a surefire way to yank the state out of recession.


The campaign is loaded with rosy employment statistics, which trace to an April report authored by professors at three major Ohio universities and funded by, you guessed it, the natural gas industry. The report paints a bright future for fracking in Ohio as a job-creator.

One co-author of the study, Robert Chase, is poised at such a high-traffic crossroads of that state’s natural gas universe that his case was recently taken up by the Ohio Ethics Commission, whose chairman called him “more than a passing participant in the operations of the Ohio oil and gas industry,” and questioned his potential conflicts of interest. As landowners in a suite of natural gas-rich states like Texas and Ohio struggle to to decipher conflicting reports about the safety of fracking, Chase is a piece in what environmental and academic watchdogs call a growing puzzle of industry-funded fracking research with poor disclosure and dubious objectivity.

“It’s hard to find someone who’s truly independant and doesn’t have at least one iron in the fire,” said Ohio oil and gas lease attorney Mark F. Okey. “It’s a good ol’ boys network and they like to take care of their own.” More