Welcome to the November 2008 Green InSight eNewsletter!

Jon Dougal Editor, Green InSight

"Life Shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage" Anais Nin

"Dare Greatly" Theodore Roosevelt

"For all serious daring starts from within" Eudora Welty

"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult" Seneca

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, who’s face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who’s errand comes short again and again, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat" Teddy Roosevelt

Our President elect is one who dared. All of us in the green marketplace are wondering what is going to happen to our projects, and dreams and our future now that funding, budgets and expectations are in question. I offer “we have no choice but to proceed.” If you have been in the green game for any length of time you have been daring all along, now is when you need your most daring attitude – We hope you find some inspiration in the words above. keep on keepin on!

This insightful and progressive newsletter is concerned with present energy issues and technologies as well as the future of energy. The information is brought to you in living color, on widescreen digital HD format, and sparing paper use with our long shelf-life, greedy little electrons to deliver the latest from the far corners of the alternative and renewable energy empire to foster sustainable development. We exalt your feedback and contributions of your latest experiences and reactions to our content. Sustainability is not just our mission, it is our passion.

Peak Oil

By: André Angelantoni, President, Post Peak Living

The most recent analysis of Peak Oil and Energy from our Energy Futurist!

Read the full article ►

Lumber Industry Threatened by Glut of Unsold Homes

By: Timothy R. Brown – October 23, 2008
Source: Business Week (www.businessweek.com)
JACKSON, Miss.

The fall in stocks, mortgages collapsing, and the credit crunch has hit the construction industry very hard.  We need to remember that one of the prime indicators for the economy for decades has been new home starts.  The stronger the economy has been the higher the new home starts has been.  But is really a reverse relationship.  Actually the more new homes built the more jobs are created.  Plumbing parts and accessories, doors, windows, and lumber are where the jobs are created not just the labor of building those houses. There is an old Chinese proverb that says "in every problem is a gift" maybe the southern California fires have just created a new housing boom in the area.

Read the full article ►

Consumer Organization Offers Unique Perspective on How Individuals Define CSR

By: Sally Greenberg - October 20, 2008
Source: PRNews online (www.prnewsonline.com)

Green InSight has run several articles on corporate social responsibility and on socially responsible investing many times. Presently (or shall we say- before the meltdown of mid October) there was ca $5 Trillion dollars parked in socially responsible funds. These are investors who like to put their money where their values are. Now we need to look at how various folks perceive the CSR and what's coming connected to social justice a bigger and becoming more paramount issue.

Read the full article ►

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Delivers Keynote at TLMI Annual Meeting

Sustainable packaging a key topic at converting and printing industry conference

Source: PACKAGING DIGEST
Date: October 21, 2008

Have you ever sat in a fast food restaurant and watched the waste bin/trash fill up. It is mindless how much trash is accumulated in a short amount of time and none of it is biodegradable. The packaging industry is just now seeing the need for converting to sustainable practices as petroleum based packaging materials increase in price they are getting the message; albeit for the wrong reason.  The following account of Robert Kennedy's speech to the packaging industry is very telling.

Read the full article ►

Terms of Biocontainment (Synthetic Biology Debate)

By: Stewart Brand – November 17, 2008
Source: The Long Now Foundation (www.longnow.org)

Janine Benyus, in her break-through book “Biomimicry” of 1997 recalibrated the bar for green products. The book showed us how to use nature as a model for the design of new products. Waste equals food – is the credo of Mother Nature, there is no waste, which humanity is so good at creating. Since then she has been hired my many mega corporations and they are founding research teams to explore the concept. Below is a discussion of the next evolution of biomimicry brought to you by the Long Now Foundation. This appears to be the first public debate anywhere on the rapidly emerging technology called “Synthetic Biology.” Jim Thomas is the most informed and influential critic on the subject. Drew Endy is its leading promoter and practitioner. The technology seems to cross-pollinate with GE foods.

Read the full article ►

Obama’s Promise??

Create Millions of New Green Jobs

By: Jon Dougal – November 18, 2008

With a new president, our hopes for change are probably over the top. It is what the majority (slight) voted for - change. How much change will actually happen as a result of all the financial whoas? The U.S. is essentially out of money. With the bail out of the securities industry and now the coming auto industry, the treasury probably has no choice but to print money- thus devaluing the dollar’s value. Luckily??- the remainder of the world’s major economies are also suffering, raising the value of the dollar in the international relationship. There is a projection that 45,000 new jobs will be created in California in the solar industry alone; as a result of current and pending legislation. Can the President’s promise bear fruit in the short term with little money?

Read the full article ►

Dire Forecast For California Real Estate

By: Jon Dougal – November 18, 2008

Climate change and global heating have been a mantra of environmentalists and green builders for at least the last 10+ years. Empirical data has always been short as a method of convincing the naysayers. It almost arrives too late, but new data has surfaced by a creditable organization with no hidden agenda about the costs of GHG’s, and climate change. It is like the old studies of whether cigarettes hurt your health, how many studies were needed. Now the evidence is clear enough that people will hear it through their wallets, and they better listen.

Read the full article ►

Interested in sponsoring our next eNewsletter issue? Contact Jon Dougal at (415) 798-1933 or editor@greenmotion.org.