Imagine your company has more than 16,000 buildings in the UK alone, many built years before energy efficiency became a hot topic for corporates, and some that predate the industrial age altogether.

How would you even begin to start lowering their energy consumption given that each and every one of those buildings is an independent entity in control of its own operation and finances?

This is the precise challenge facing David Shreeve, environmental adviser to the Church of England, who has to steer the Church towards meeting its self-imposed goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 42 per cent by 2020, before then delivering an 80 per cent reduction by the middle of the century.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Stewardship • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

St. Luke’s parishioners are renovating their old stone and brick church to reduce energy consumption and maximize their use of the space after an energy audit discovered they were practically throwing money out the front door.

“It was a wake up call more to realize that of course this is a serious issue,” said the minister at St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Rev. Gregor Sneddon. “Churches these days, which were at one time almost the fabric of culture and society, are now struggling for their existence and how they’re relevant and meaningful in a secular Western society. So the free lunch is kind of over and we’re wrestling with how do we be efficient and lean in our costs and how we operate.”

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Urban/City Life and Issues • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • Canada

The Bishop of Carlisle has praised the transforming power of a city centre church garden project that has won a national award this month for its work in turning around the lives of homeless people.

St John's Church Gardens in Waterloo (Southwark Diocese) is run by St Mungo's Putting Down Roots project and encourages homeless people to work in the grounds with qualified horticultural trainers. It is one of five sites across London tended by the group.

Bishop James Newcome, lead bishop on healthcare issues, visited the project as part of the national Gardening Against the Odds awards. He urged churches across the country to consider whether they could link up with similar charitable projects, using their land.

Read it all and there is a video for those interested.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources

"Lent is a time of repentance and fasting, of turning away from all that is counter to God’s will and purposes for his world and all who live in it", he said. "This year, I invite Anglicans to focus their Lenten ‘acts of love and sacrifice’ on our contribution to climate change, and on those most impacted by it."

Archbishop Makgoba chairs the Anglican Communion Environmental Network (ACEN) and is Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa which includes some of the countries most vulnerable to climate change. Two of the Church’s dioceses, Lebombo and Niassa in Mozambique, have recently been hit by devastating floods, leaving more than 150,000 people homeless.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of South Africa • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Lent • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

If you haven’t finished your holiday shopping yet, don’t bother.

Skip the mall and the neighborhood store, resist the urge to shop online and, by all means, don’t buy anything you don’t truly need.

So says Kalle Lasn, 70, maestro of the proudly radical magazine Adbusters, published in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mr. Lasn takes gleeful pleasure in lobbing provocations at global corporations — and his latest salvo is “Buy Nothing Christmas.”

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Media • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

One of the holiest sites in Christendom has also been one of the most contested. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem lies on the site where Jesus Christ is said to have been crucified and buried.

Multiple Christian denominations share the church uneasily, and clerics sometimes come to blows over the most minor of disputes. The Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Coptic Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox and the Syriac Orthodox all have a presence in the church.

But the most recent conflict at the 4th century church was over something entirely different: an unpaid water bill.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Middle East • Israel • * Religion News & Commentary • Inter-Faith Relations • Other Churches • Other Faiths • Judaism

Islands that are most vulnerable to rising oceans are seeking an insurance program to protect against damage related to climate change, adding to pressure on industrial nations to increase aid committed to fight global warming to more than $100 billion a year.

The islands are proposing a “loss and damage” mechanism that would insure and compensate countries that suffer from extreme weather, erosion and drought. The request is raising tension levels among more than 190 industrial and developing nations at United Nations climate talks in Doha this week.

“All we are asking is that they help us with these issues that aren’t our doing,” Malia Talakai of Nauru, lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, or AOSIS, a bloc of 43 island nations, said in an interview in Doha. “We are trying to say that if you pollute you must help us.”

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Hemp, once a major US crop, has been banned for years because of its close association with cannabis. But several states now want to resume hemp farming, and two states voted this month in favour of legalisation of cannabis. Could change be in the air?

There's an all-American plant that weaves its way throughout the nation's history.

The sails of Columbus' ships were made from it. So was the first US flag. It was used in the paper on which the Declaration of Independence was printed.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

Among the many disconcerting leaps of logic taken by the federal government is the omission of food and fuel prices from its measures of the consumer price index — inflation. Somehow that doesn’t ease the bottom-line purchasing pain at the grocery store and the gas pump.

OK, so as of Friday, the average price of a gallon of regular had fallen by more than 30 cents over the last month.

Still, that was more than 6 cents higher than it was on that date a year ago — and nearly double what it was in early 2008.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Dieting/Food/Nutrition • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Personal Finance • The U.S. Government • Energy, Natural Resources

The U.S. will become the world’s top producer of oil within five years, a net exporter of the fuel around 2030 and nearly self-sufficient in energy by 2035, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency.

It’s a bold set of predictions for a nation that currently imports some 20% of its energy needs.

Recently, however, an “energy renaissance” in the U.S. has caused a boost in oil, shale gas and bio-energy production due to new technologies such as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Fuel efficiency has improved in the transportation sector. The clean energy industry has seen an influx of solar and wind efforts.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

Among the politicians who have come to know him over the past few months, there was celebration yesterday, and from all benches. He was invited to join the banking commission with cross-party support, as he was a capitalist who was tough on the City. “In a dark sea of thick and wholly unworldly bishops, he sparks a little,” says one MP. “Talking to the bishops in Parliament seldom leaves you with the impression that they believe in God. I think this one actually might.” The only concern was that he might be too religious for the job.

No one would question the strength of Rowan Williams’s faith. But when he joined fights, they tended to be secular ones: criticising the Government over its cuts, or giving his blessing to environmentalist campaigns. The logic of this is undeniable: that to keep its relevance in the modern world, the Church needs to insert itself into popular debates. But decline continued, each Sunday brings a new closure and the British Social Attitudes survey found that 64 per cent of people never set foot in any place of worship. Dr Williams has had to keep the Church alive in one of the least religious countries on earth.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources

Bishop Welby, 56, the 105th archbishop of Canterbury, is said to have been chosen over three other leading contenders: the archbishop of York, John Sentamu; the bishop of Norwich, Graham Jones; and the bishop of London, Richard Chartres. Bishop Welby is regarded as an evangelical conservative in opposing same-sex marriage, but he is also said to take a more liberal position on the ordination of female bishops, favoring the elevation of women to senior church positions.

He told reporters that, at a forthcoming ballot, he would vote in favor of the ordination of women bishops. On the issue of same-sex marriage, he said: “We must have no truck with any form of homophobia.”

“I am always averse to the language of exclusion,” he said, suggesting some readiness to listen to the arguments of those who disagree with him. But he made clear that he supported a statement earlier this by Anglican bishops opposing government plans to legalize same-sex marriage.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources

New Haven is home to the first and only American patent of a pedal-driven bicycle, and it’s now home to the first “Bicycle Friendly University” in Connecticut.

The League of American Bicyclists has awarded Yale a spot on its list of Bicycle Friendly Universities. The bronze-level designation extends over four years. Currently, there are 44 universities on the list, including Princeton, Cornell, and Stanford.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • Young Adults • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

(ACNS) Abp [Thabo] Makgoba, who is the Chair of Anglican Communion Environmental Network, said “What might a world where Christians take their moral responsibilities seriously look like?

“Our network tries to link people from different Provinces to reflect on the environment. It is hoped that we will have representatives throughout the Communion. Even at this stage we are calling for those Provinces without an environmental network to appoint one.”

Referring to the nexus of water, food and energy, Abp Thabo asked the audience: “When you are receiving Communion, have you stopped to think about the water that we use to mix with the wine. Where has it come from? How clean is that water? Have you stopped to think about...those who do not have access to basic and of the resultant illnesses that go with poor sanitation and water? When you receive...wafers, have you spared a thought for those who do not have food?

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Consultative Council • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Demographics are destiny, some say, and there’s plenty of truth to that. If you live in the South, you’re more likely to be an evangelical Christian than if you live in San Francisco. And if you live in San Francisco, you’re more likely to be an environmentalist (or at least recycling your soda can) than if you live in San Antonio.

More unusual are people who combine the two: Evangelical environmentalists. Rare, but rising in influence, evangelical environmentalists are equally well versed in ecology and theology. They and other proponents of the “creation care” movement may be harbingers of a cultural shift, albeit a slow one.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • US Presidential Election 2012 • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals

As biblical orthodoxy puts it, you cannot serve both God and mammon. Twenty-five years ago, having chosen to serve God and study theology, Justin Welby gave up an 11-year finance career that had seen him rise to the ranks of group treasurer with a major U.K. company, Enterprise Oil. Ordained as a priest in 1992, he was appointed Bishop of Durham just last year.

He is now the current front-runner to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury: the most senior cleric in the Church of England....

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources

‘At the beginning of the 21st century, does Christianity have a view about an ideal human society?’ Responding to this question, Bishop George Browning, past convenor of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network, reflects that such a society must ‘address rapidly growing inequity and ... confront an economic system which operates as if resources are infinite and that humanity can somehow exist as if it is not part of an unfolding ecological crisis.’

In a new series of reflections, Bishop Browning explores the roots and meaning of Sabbath and how a fresh understanding and practice of this biblical concept can reconnect economics to ethics, and shape human society in a manner that is consistent with the creation upon which it depends.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

From a craggy limestone ledge above the place called Pe' Sla, Linda Kramer admired the land she loves.

"This is it," the 65-year-old Episcopal priest said with a sweep of the hand. "This is Pe' Sla, the holy place."

Her gesture took a visitor's eyes down the slope of Flag Mountain, out over a ponderosa pine forest speckled with beetle-killed trees and on to the tawny prairie beyond. There, the undulations of grass and thicket and occasional pine spread out across the high prairie north of Deerfield Reservoir for roughly 4,000 acres.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources

Radical changes to tackle climate change were discussed by over 90 participants from Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches from 22 countries at the 9th Assembly of the European Churches Environment Network (ECEN) this week.

Held at Elspeet in the Netherlands, the theme of ‘Eco-Justice, Growth and Hope’ concentrated on the tensions between the desire for conventional economic growth and the increasing ecological threats to Planet Earth.

Delegates spoke of difficulties and struggles in all their countries; a combination of the effects of climate change, environmental destruction with loss of biodiversity and resources such as water, and the ongoing global economic crisis is challenging people and communities across our whole society. And churches are encouraged to be stronger advocates for creative change in the face of these growing concerns.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * Religion News & Commentary • Ecumenical Relations • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Gasoline prices are up sharply in the past month on surging crude oil costs and refinery woes, and now are likely to make 2012 the costliest year ever at the pump.

Nationally, gasoline averages $3.70 a gallon -- up 30 cents since mid-July and is now higher than year-ago levels in 39 states. Prices are likely to continue climbing through August, with little relief until after Labor Day.

The swift, month-long, 9% price climb has lifted 2012's average to $3.61 a gallon, vs. 2011's $3.51, which had been the most expensive year ever for motorists. Even with demand expected to recede after the peak summer driving season, 2012 will surpass last year's price, says Brian Milne of energy tracker Telvent DTN .

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Middle East

Like their owners, cars have been piling on the pounds in recent decades. When the Volkswagen Golf was launched in 1974 it weighed 0.75 tonnes and was 3.8 metres long. By 2008, when the mark six Golf was launched, its weight had soared by more than 50% and it had stretched by 38cm. Apart from making their cars roomier, motor manufacturers have added all sorts of gadgets and safety devices and each of these has meant a gain in weight. Finally, however, the pressure from regulators to make cars more fuel efficient, and the rising cost of materials are combining to make carmakers slim down their models.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Law & Legal Issues • Science & Technology • Travel • * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Energy, Natural Resources • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Europe

She has been arrested 40 or 50 times for acts of civil disobedience and once served six months in prison. In the Nevada desert, she and other peace activists knelt down to block a truck rumbling across the government’s nuclear test site, prompting the authorities to take her into custody.

She gained so much attention that the Energy Department, which maintains the nation’s nuclear arsenal, helped pay for an oral history in which she described her upbringing and the development of her antinuclear views.

Now, Sister Megan Rice, 82, a Roman Catholic nun of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, and two male accomplices have carried out what nuclear experts call the biggest security breach in the history of the nation’s atomic complex, making their way to the inner sanctum of the site where the United States keeps crucial nuclear bomb parts and fuel.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • Politics in General • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

With a box of Bibles as cargo, John Bird steered his Chevy Suburban off a two-lane road in the oil patch of East Texas and pulled up to the isolated derrick of Energy Drilling Company Rig 9. He was delivering the holy books to a man named Robert Bailey, the site superintendent, known in industry jargon as a tool pusher.

The two men had never met, and Rig 9 was a modest destination, a cluster of turbines and trailers around a steel tower, all of it surrounded on three sides by a cattle ranch. On a brilliant autumn Saturday, the kind normally reserved for the Texan religion of football, Mr. Bird had driven there, 140 miles from his home outside Houston, on behalf of the Oilfield Christian Fellowship.

He had helped found the lay ministry 20 years earlier with the aim of evangelizing among the itinerants and tough guys and hard livers who populate the rigs. That effort took the textual form of a Bible interspersed with testimonies from oil workers, sized to fit in the back pocket of overalls and titled “God’s Word for the Oil Patch: Fuel for the Soul.”

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • Energy, Natural Resources

In 2009, Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberté paid $35-million for a round-trip ticket to the International Space Station, where he trained his lens on several of the Earth's endangered water systems....There are nine pictures in all. Check them out.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources

Crude’s down 28% since its February high. Corn’s down about 17%. Gold’s down 12%.

This slide in commodities, though, is a reaction to slowing economies, which makes for a curious leap of logic when one tries to argue that falling commodity prices will help boost those same economies.

“It makes little sense to expect a fall in the oil price to kick-start global growth if it is weak demand which pushed prices down in the first place,” Capital Economics economist Andrew Kenningham wrote. While cheaper gas prices do act as a transfer of income from oil producers – think Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips – to consumers, it’s likely to have only a small effect on global GDP, “depending on the propensities to spend and save among producers and consumers.”

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Personal Finance • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Energy, Natural Resources

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * General Interest • Animals

More than one hundred international participants, including representatives of churches and civil society, have gathered in Bogor, Indonesia for the Global Forum on Poverty, Wealth and Ecology. On 19 June, they spoke together about poverty eradication and the concepts of economic and ecological justice lying at the heart of Christian ethics.

The forum will continue till 22 June and will conclude the AGAPE (Alternative to Economic Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth) study process initiated by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 2006 at its 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

The AGAPE studies have focused on the relations between poverty, wealth and ecology, undertaken in Africa in 2007, Latin America and the Caribbean in 2008, Asia and the Pacific in 2009, Europe in 2010 and North America in 2011.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Poverty • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * Religion News & Commentary • Ecumenical Relations • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church now has the ability to harness the sun.

In recent days, the church, located in Southeastern Athens-Clarke County, installed a 7.5-kilowatt solar array that will be used to generate energy that will help to significantly lower the church’s energy costs.

A main purpose of the solar array, though, is to make the church a better steward of the environment. And it also will allow more of the church’s resources to go toward helping those in need instead of toward power bills, said Andrew Lane — also known as “Captain Planet” — chairman of the Green Guild/Creation Keepers at St. Gregory the Great.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Parishes • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Stewardship • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Governments can, of course, and must, play their part in all this. Governments need to give fiscal incentives to green development. They need to promote programmes that encourage us all to reduce our waste. They need to ‘green’ our economy, both at home and worldwide. And we, all of us, not least the faith communities, need to collaborate in that and support governments in that vision.

But at root, the question remains the same: what kind of world do we want to hand on? Imagine that you have a child’s or a grandchild’s birthday coming up. You want to give them a present. You want to give them something that will genuinely mean something to them, that will enrich their lives, that will be part of lasting growth and well-being. And that’s what we’re challenged to do here. It’s a challenge that I think will resonate for absolutely everybody across the world. Simply enough: what’s the gift we want to give? The gift of a world that’s more free from pollution, a world whose future is more secure, a world where more people have access to food and clean water and healthcare? Yes. But also a world in which we’re transmitting the wisdom of how to inhabit a world, how to inhabit a limited environment with grace, with freedom, with confidence.

Read it all or, if you choose, watch the video.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Rowan Williams • * Culture-Watch • Children • Globalization • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

More than 80 people gathered to view artwork and dance, and to hear poetry and music, as part of “eARTh Night: The Art Around Us” at St. David’s, Austin, on Sunday, April 22. The event celebrated the beauty of the world and the creativity of artists who expressed that beauty in a variety of media.

With almost 100 entries submitted by local writers and artists, the event featured photographs, paintings, felt constructions, jewelry, mosaics and an editorial cartoon by Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Ben Sargent. Members of Art from the Streets at Trinity Center, which serves downtown homeless neighbors, provided more than a dozen entries.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Parishes • * Christian Life / Church Life • Liturgy, Music, Worship • Parish Ministry • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources

Workshop topics will include God’s Creation and poetry, Celtic spirituality, ecology and the eucharist, ethical investments, ecology and the economy, climate change, how to become an eco–congregation and helping children and young people nurture respect for the earth....

ECI chairperson, Sr Catherine Brennan, looks forward to welcoming a broad section of people to the conference from both north and south of the border. “The stark sign of our time is a planet in peril at our hands and it is poor people who suffer most from environmental impoverishment,” she says. “Commitment to the poor and commitment to the well–being of life on this planet must go together as two inter–related dimensions of the one Christian vocation....

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Ireland • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

The idealism, ambition, self-assurance and total hubris at the heart of this salmon escapade are all hallmarks of the [Patagonia's Yvon] Chouinard executive style. His approach to leading a company is perhaps best understood as a sort of performance art—less about the bottom line than about providing a road map for future entrepreneurs. "I never even wanted to be in business," he says. "But I hang onto Patagonia because it's my resource to do something good. It's a way to demonstrate that corporations can lead examined lives."

That mission is already well under way. Chouinard's new book, "The Responsible Company," published this month, offers detailed checklists for making money without inflicting undue societal harm. Even megacorporations are paying attention to him these days.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Psychology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

In 2009, the Episcopal Church memorialized the Genesis Covenant, which is a national, ecumenical effort by religious communities to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from every facility they maintain by at least 50% within 10 years.
Most congregations find they save money when they implement the Genesis Covenant because they reduce their energy use. But the benefits go far beyond that. Community is built as people work together toward a common goal....

Read it all and follow the links.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Stewardship • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Israel’s military chief said in an interview published Wednesday that he believes Iran will choose not to build a nuclear bomb, an assessment that contrasted with the gloomier statements of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pointed to differences over the Iran issue at the top levels of Israeli leadership.

The comments by Maj. Gen Benny Gantz, who said international sanctions have begun to show results, could relieve pressure on the Obama administration and undercut efforts by Israeli political leaders to urge the United States to get as tough as possible on Iran.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Middle East • Iran • Israel

For much of this year, Americans' economic confidence has been threatening to break out of the range seen since Gallup began Daily tracking of economic confidence in January 2008. It actually did so by one percentage point when economic confidence reached a new weekly high of -17 in the week ending March 25. After pulling back in early April, confidence in each of the past two weeks is once again within two points of that previous weekly high.

The continued high confidence seen this past week is likely due, at least in part, to gas prices stabilizing and even showing signs of decline....

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Psychology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Energy, Natural Resources

T he discovery this week of a massive light crude oil field in southern Iran adds another layer of complexity to one of the world's most acute problems. Iran and Israel appear to be heading for war unless something unexpected happens and this week's discovery will only strengthen the resolve and confidence of Tehran.

For many Australians the name Iran conjures images of bearded and severe Ayatollahs and a wide-eyed President Ahmadinejad occupying the no-man's land between sanity and fanaticism. We see a persistent stream of refugees who seem to validate the assumption they must be fleeing a toxic regime. Since this country could easily become the biggest, cataclysmic news story of the year, it is worth spending a few minutes trying to understand its pathology....

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Middle East • Iran • Israel

Europe threw its weight behind Spain yesterday after a diplomatic war broke out between Madrid and Buenos Aires over Argentina’s decision to take over a multibillion-pound energy company.

In the wake of tensions between Britain and Argentina on the anniversary earlier this month of the Falklands invasion, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner risked further alienation around the world by pushing ahead with the nationalisation of Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF), in which Repsol, a Spanish energy group, has a majority shareholding.

In response, Spain launched a trade and diplomatic offensive against Argentina, rallying allies in Brussels and the G20 against the move to take over 51 per cent of YPF.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Europe • Spain • South America • Argentina

Take a very careful look--Wow.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources

Check it out (very bottom on the right).

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources

Across the country, the oil and gas industry is vastly increasing production, reversing two decades of decline. Using new technology and spurred by rising oil prices since the mid-2000s, the industry is extracting millions of barrels more a week, from the deepest waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the prairies of North Dakota.

At the same time, Americans are pumping significantly less gasoline. While that is partly a result of the recession and higher gasoline prices, people are also driving fewer miles and replacing older cars with more fuel-efficient vehicles at a greater clip, federal data show.

Taken together, the increasing production and declining consumption have unexpectedly brought the United States markedly closer to a goal that has tantalized presidents since Richard Nixon: independence from foreign energy sources, a milestone that could reconfigure American foreign policy, the economy and more.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General

The US, Japan and the European Union have filed a case against China at the World Trade Organization, challenging its restrictions on rare earth exports.

US President Barack Obama accused China of breaking agreed trade rules as he announced the case at the White House.

Beijing has set quotas for exports of rare earths, which are critical to the manufacture of high-tech products from hybrid cars to flat-screen TVs.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Law & Legal Issues • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Asia • China • Japan • Europe

Archbishop Makgoba, who also chairs the Anglican Communion’s Environmental Network (ACEN), stressed the timely nature of this meeting. “We heard for months about COP 17 before it took place, but we have not heard much since. I know that a previous meeting at UCT was oversubscribed so the interest is definitely there. I’m privileged that we have been able to draw together again such an impressive panel. This is not just a scientific concern - it is a deeply moral issue as well.”

The Revd Canon Dr. Rachel Mash, coordinator of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa’s Environmental Network, agrees. “Once we have heard from this well informed panel, we and other members of civil society can begin to plan our ‘next steps’ leading up to Rio +20 - the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development taking place in Rio in June.”

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of South Africa • * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Saudi Arabia has raised the price of its flagship Arab Light crude oil for customers in Asia, who buy more than half its crude exports, by $1.25 a barrel for April....

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Asia • Middle East • Saudi Arabia

Rising prices took a toll on Americans’ incomes as the year began, halting a four-month streak of gains and renewing concerns about the consumer’s resilience amid higher gas prices.

That’s according to a report Tuesday that found real median annual household income in the U.S. declined by 1.3% in January from December, to $50,020 from $50,673.

The tick downward follows monthly increases in income from September through the end of 2011, according to the analysis of Census Bureau data conducted by Sentier Research, an Annapolis, Md., firm run by two former Census officials.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Personal Finance • Energy, Natural Resources

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Middle East • Iran

On April 21, the Episcopal Church will sponsor a forum on a critical topic: The Intersection of Poverty and the Environment. Originating from St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Salt Lake City, UT, the two-hour ecumenical forum will be live webcast beginning at 10 am Mountain (9 am Pacific, 11 Central, noon Eastern).

“Through The Intersection of Poverty and the Environment, we will explore the differential effects of environmental degradation and changing climate patterns on the poor – in this country and around the world,” Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • * Culture-Watch • Poverty • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources • * Religion News & Commentary • Ecumenical Relations

Going somewhere? It’ll cost you even more this week, with the national average price of a gallon of regular fuel now up to nearly $3.70 and rising 26 cents to $4.29 in California.

That’s up 14 cents a gallon from a week ago and a 29-cent increase from a month ago. A gallon is now more than 10% more expensive than the $3.35 it cost this time last year, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.

But in California, drivers are wishing prices were still that low. The state’s average cost for a gallon is $4.29, compared to $4.03 a week ago. That’s nearly 15% more than the year-ago cost of $3.74 a gallon.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Personal Finance • Energy, Natural Resources

....Bloomberg News reported last week that “the U.S. is the closest it has been in almost 20 years to achieving energy self-sufficiency. ... Domestic oil output is the highest in eight years. The U.S. is producing so much natural gas that, where the government warned four years ago of a critical need to boost imports, it now may approve an export terminal.” As a result, “the U.S. has reversed a two-decade-long decline in energy independence, increasing the proportion of demand met from domestic sources over the last six years to an estimated 81 percent through the first 10 months of 2011.” This transformation could make the U.S. the world’s top energy producer by 2020, raise more tax revenue, free us from worrying about the Middle East, and, if we’re smart, build a bridge to a much cleaner energy future.

All of this is good news, but it will come true at scale only if these oil and gas resources can be extracted in an environmentally sustainable manner. This can be done right, but we need a deal between environmentalists and the oil and gas industry to lock it in — now.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate

Iran’s government ordered a halt to oil exports to Britain and France on Sunday, in what may be only an initial response to the European Union decision to cut off Iranian oil imports and freeze central bank assets beginning in July.

Britain and France depend little on Iranian oil, however, so their targeting may be a mostly symbolic act, a function of the strong positions Paris and London have taken in trying to halt Iranian nuclear enrichment and bring pressure to bear on Syria, one of Tehran’s closest allies.

Tehran may also be reluctant, when its economy has been damaged by existing sanctions, to deprive itself of revenues from its larger European customers. At the same time, it may be seeking to divide the 27-nation European Union between those who depend on Iranian oil and those who do not

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • Europe • France • Middle East • Iran

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

Another huge winner from Vimeo--watch and listen to it all; KSH.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * General Interest • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

Iran has said an oil embargo adopted by European Union foreign ministers over the country's nuclear programme is "unfair" and "doomed to fail".

The measures would not prevent Iran's "progress for achieving its basic rights", foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.

The sanctions ban all new oil contracts with Iran and freeze the assets of Iran's central bank in the EU.

The EU currently buys about 20% of Iran's oil exports.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Europe • Middle East • Iran

We almost hope this was a political call because, on the substance, there should be no question. Without the pipeline, Canada would still export its bitumen — with long-term trends in the global market, it’s far too valuable to keep in the ground — but it would go to China. And, as a State Department report found, U.S. refineries would still import low-quality crude — just from the Middle East. Stopping the pipeline, then, wouldn’t do anything to reduce global warming, but it would almost certainly require more oil to be transported across oceans in tankers.

Environmentalists and Nebraska politicians say that the route TransCanada proposed might threaten the state’s ecologically sensitive Sand Hills region. But TransCanada has been willing to tweak the route, in consultation with Nebraska officials, even though a government analysis last year concluded that the original one would have “limited adverse environmental impacts.” Surely the Obama administration didn’t have to declare the whole project contrary to the national interest — that’s the standard State was supposed to apply — and force the company to start all over again.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • The U.S. Government • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate • * International News & Commentary • Canada

A shale-driven glut of natural gas has cut electricity prices for the U.S. power industry by 50 percent and reduced investment in costlier sources of energy.

With abundant new supplies of gas making it the cheapest option for new power generation, the largest U.S. wind-energy producer, NextEra Energy Inc. (NEE), has shelved plans for new U.S. wind projects next year and Exelon Corp. (EXC) called off plans to expand two nuclear plants. Michigan utility CMS Energy Corp. (CMS) canceled a $2 billion coal plant after deciding it wasn’t financially viable in a time of “low natural-gas prices linked to expanded shale-gas supplies,” according to a company statement.

Mirroring the gas market, wholesale electricity prices have dropped more than 50 percent on average since 2008, and about 10 percent during the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a Jan. 11 research report by Aneesh Prabhu, a New York-based credit analyst with Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources

"Congress's point of view is that we may be running a risk that this will increase the price of oil but that compared to [the risk of ] Israeli or U.S. military strikes on Iran or a nuclear-armed Iran, the oil market impact of these sanctions will pale in comparison," says Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

Energy analyst Daniel Yergin, chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, says there are no easy answers.

"There are only trade-offs, and many of the trade-offs are difficult ones," Yergin says.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate • * International News & Commentary • Europe • Middle East • Iran

Excessive focus on money is destroying the environment and dehumanizing people, said Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, president of Caritas Internationalis.

Religious communities have a duty to call attention to the importance of the human person, who is "at the center of creation," he said while international leaders were debating the extension of legal limits on the production of greenhouse gas emissions.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

The sport-utility vehicle is making a comeback.

After being largely shunned during the recession, high-riding SUVs and workhorse pickups are regaining favor as U.S. consumers grow more confident and fuel prices remain below the $4 a gallon level that triggered a shift away from larger vehicles.

The rebound was clear Thursday as U.S. auto sales in November hit a 13.6 million annual pace, the strongest in more than two years, with sales of trucks and SUVs surpassing cars at many auto makers. The results are boosting Detroit auto makers that suffered when gas-guzzlers got the cold shoulder in 2008.

Makes this heart sad--read it all; KSH.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Personal Finance • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

The world's leading oil exporter Saudi Arabia faces rising tensions with regional rival Iran and turmoil in two neighbouring countries hit by the wave of Arab unrest this spring as it tackles changes at the top of its ruling family.

The death of Crown Prince Sultan in October led to conservative Interior Minister Prince Nayef's promotion to King Abdullah's heir only a week after the octogenarian monarch had his third back operation within a year.

The stability of Saudi Arabia is of global importance since the kingdom sits on more than a fifth of the world's oil reserves, is a significant owner of dollar assets and acts as Middle East lynchpin of U.S. security policy.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Middle East • Saudi Arabia

The National Association of Evangelicals on Tuesday (Nov. 8) called for greater precautions with nuclear weapons and a renewed effort toward disarmament.

"The rules have changed in the past 25 years," NAE President Leith Anderson said. "Nuclear weapons don't serve as a deterrent to the dangers of our post-Cold War era, which include rogue nations and terrorist groups."

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals

As Daniel Yergin writes in “The Quest,” his gripping history of energy innovation, [George] Mitchell fought through waves of skepticism and opposition to extract natural gas from shale. The method he and his team used to release the trapped gas, called fracking, has paid off in the most immense way. In 2000, shale gas represented just 1 percent of American natural gas supplies. Today, it is 30 percent and rising.

John Rowe, the chief executive of the utility Exelon, which derives almost all its power from nuclear plants, says that shale gas is one of the most important energy revolutions of his lifetime. It’s a cliché word, Yergin told me, but the fracking innovation is game-changing. It transforms the energy marketplace.

The U.S. now seems to possess a 100-year supply of natural gas, which is the cleanest of the fossil fuels. This cleaner, cheaper energy source is already replacing dirtier coal-fired plants. It could serve as the ideal bridge, Amy Jaffe of Rice University says, until renewable sources like wind and solar mature.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • Politics in General

Earlier this week, leaders from diverse faith traditions and communities launched a Canadian Interfaith Call for Leadership and Action on Climate Change. The statement represents a convergence of Canadian faith-based traditions around a common conviction that climate change is an ethical and moral issue that requires greater governmental action, both domestically and globally.

The statement aims to strategically pressure the Canadian government as it prepares for the upcoming United Nations’ negotiations on climate change in Durban, South Africa (COP17). Based on the ‘spiritual deficit’ and individualism witnessed within society, communities of faith are reasserting the messages of their respective sacred texts to live in harmony with the earth and be good stewards of creation.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources

Among the findings in this particular evaluation was that only 11 of the 35 cyber security weaknesses identified in a 2010 review had been fully corrected by the 2011 look-see.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • Economy • The U.S. Government • Energy, Natural Resources

The American phoenix is slowly rising again. Within five years or so, the US will be well on its way to self-sufficiency in fuel and energy. Manufacturing will have closed the labour gap with China in a clutch of key industries. The current account might even be in surplus.

Assumptions that the Great Republic must inevitably spiral into economic and strategic decline - so like the chatter of the late 1980s, when Japan was in vogue - will seem wildly off the mark by then.
Telegraph readers already know about the "shale gas revolution" that has turned America into the world’s number one producer of natural gas, ahead of Russia....

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • Economy • The U.S. Government • The National Deficit • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Asia • Europe • Middle East

The Diocese of Kigezi has once again been recognised by the Ministry of Water and Environment for its outstanding performance in the Water and Sanitation sector.

The Diocese received an award as the 'Most Outstanding NGO' in Water and Sanitation promotion for the financial year 2010/2011 during the just concluded Joint GoU/Development Partners’ Water and Environment Sector Review held at Imperial Royale Hotel, Kampala from 11th -13th October 2011.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Uganda • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources

Speaking at the SA Parliamentary Christian Fellowship Leaders of Christian Churches Dinner at Parliament House on Wednesday night, the Archbishop encouraged our political leaders to dream of a truly human city.

“Adelaide was founded on a bold experiment, a vision for a different sort of human city,” Archbishop [Jeffrey] Driver said. “So many people came here to a new colony because they had been captured by a dream; the dream of a different place where old inequalities and exclusions could be put aside and a new city of human opportunity could be crafted from dream to reality.”

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Australia • * Culture-Watch • Urban/City Life and Issues • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources

As part of efforts to save the environment in the semi-arid Karamoja sub region in northeast Uganda, the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches have launched a campaign to help stop the destruction of vegetation and plant more trees in the vast region.

Rev. John Robert Lorech of Anglican Kotido Diocese on Friday launched a program to encourage the local Karimojong communities to shift from using dry twigs to fence off their traditional homesteads to using live hedges.

Under the new strategy being piloted in Nadunget and Rupa sub counties, Lorech said the church would educate the communities to plant kei-apple shrubs to create protective hedges around their homesteads.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

One of the most dangerous and daunting challenges we face is global climate change. This is, at least in part, a direct result of our burning of fossil fuels. Such human activities could raise worldwide average temperatures by three to eleven degrees Fahrenheit in this century. Rising average temperatures are already wreaking environmental havoc, and, if unchecked, portend devastating consequences for every aspect of life on earth.

The Church has always had as one of its priorities a concern for the poor and the suffering. Therefore, we need not agree on the fundamental causes of human devastation of the environment, or on what standard of living will allow sustainable development, or on the roots of poverty in any particular culture, in order to work to minimize the impact of climate change. It is the poor and the disadvantaged who suffer most from callous environmental irresponsibility. Poverty is both a local and a global reality. A healthy economy depends absolutely on a healthy environment.

The wealthier nations whose industries have exploited the environment, and who are now calling for developing nations to reduce their impact on the environment, seem to have forgotten that those who consume most of the world's resources also have contributed the most pollution to the world's rivers and oceans, have stripped the world's forests of healing trees, have destroyed both numerous species and their habitats, and have added the most poison to the earth's atmosphere. We cannot avoid the conclusion that our irresponsible industrial production and consumption-driven economy lie at the heart of the current environmental crisis.

Read it carefully and read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Bishops • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • South America • Ecuador • * Theology

The government’s backing of Solyndra, which could cost taxpayers more than a half-billion dollars, came as the politically well-connected business began an extensive lobbying campaign that appears to have blinded government officials to the company’s financial condition and the risks of the investment, according to a review of government documents and interviews with administration officials and industry analysts.

While no evidence has emerged that political favoritism played a role in what administration officials assert were merit-based decisions, Solyndra drew plenty of high-level attention. Its lobbyists corresponded frequently and met at least three times with an aide to a top White House official, Valerie B. Jarrett, to push for loans, tax breaks and other government assistance.

Read it all. Also, see James Pethokoukis--"Solyndra, the logical endpoint of Obamanomics" which may be found over here.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Law & Legal Issues • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

To dissuade the owners of electric cars from recharging their vehicles at peak times, and encourage them to do so in the wee, small hours of the morning instead, some electricity companies are introducing off-peak pricing for electric cars. Off-peak pricing is a common way of persuading people to run appliances such as washing machines at times of low demand. It is, though, a rigid arrangement that cannot respond to fluctuations in the requirement for power. Far better, reckon Alex Rogers and his colleagues at Southampton University, in England, for car owners to be represented in their interactions with the local power supplier by agents that can negotiate a deal on their behalf. These agents would bargain with one another, and with the power company, to charge the cars in an area in the most efficient way. The twist is that the agents Dr Rogers proposes to recruit for the task are not people, but computer programs.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources

...[This potential] threat came into sharp focus last week, when shaking from the largest earthquake to hit Virginia in 117 years appeared to exceed what the North Anna nuclear power plant northwest of Richmond was built to sustain.

The two North Anna reactors are among 27 in the eastern and central U.S. that a preliminary Nuclear Regulatory Commission review has said may need upgrades. That’s because those plants are more likely to get hit with an earthquake larger than the one their design was based on.

In South Carolina, SCE&G’s V.C. Summer nuclear plant, about 25 miles northwest of Columbia, is among the 27 facilities possibly needing upgrades to better withstand earthquakes, the NRC records show. So are three reactors operated by Duke Energy near Seneca.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • The U.S. Government • Energy, Natural Resources • Politics in General • State Government • * General Interest • Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc. • * South Carolina

A Glasgow-based company has installed its first commercial "alkaline hydrolysis" unit at a Florida funeral home.

The unit by Resomation Ltd is billed as a green alternative to cremation and works by dissolving the body in heated alkaline water.

The facility has been installed at the Anderson-McQueen funeral home in St Petersburg, and will be used for the first time in the coming weeks. It is hoped other units will follow in the US, Canada and Europe.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • --Scotland

A proposed pipeline to convey oil derived from "tar sand" in Canada across the American heartland is facing strong opposition from environmentalists – including faith-based groups – staging nonviolent sit-in protests this week in front of the White House in Washington D.C.

Since the protests began Aug. 20, some 150 activists have been arrested, according to 350.org, one of the organizations involved in the demonstrations, which are planned to continue for two weeks.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Drive through northern Pennsylvania and you'll see barns, cows, silos and drilling rigs perched on big, concrete pads.

Pennsylvania is at the center of a natural gas boom. New technology is pushing gas out of huge shale deposits underground. That's created jobs and wealth, but it may be damaging drinking water. That's because when you "frack," as hydraulic fracturing is called, you pump thousands of gallons of fluids underground. That cracks the shale a mile deep and drives natural gas up to the surface — gas that otherwise could never be tapped.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources

The second meeting of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network (ACEN) will occur in Lima, Peru from Aug 4-10, 2011.

Hosted by Bishop Bill Godfrey of the Diocese of Peru, representatives from Australia, United Kingdom, USA, Fiji, Canada, Melanesia, Brazil, Madagascar, Tanzania and Mexico will report on environmental ministry in their respective jurisdictions. Together they will create an action plan which will become a template for provincial, diocesan and parish-based ministry. Such a plan will connect with environmental ministry at the United Nations and in relation to the forthcoming COP 17 meetings in Durban South Africa in December of 2011.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

If we continue as now seems likely, a crunch is coming – in fact three crunches – our global footprint greatly exceeding what the Earth can support, climate destabilisation becoming severe, and fresh water becoming insufficient to feed the Earth’s large population. These crunches will not, by themselves, destroy humanity but they will cause a Darwinian situation; when the going gets tough there will be survival of the fittest. By mid-century, the Earth could be like a lifeboat that’s too small to save everyone.

To be politically correct, organisations don’t use the term ‘Darwinian’ or talk about ‘survival of the fittest’, but I am increasingly finding that at elite dinner parties there is already discussion of who the survivors will be. China has enormous fighting spirit and will soon be the world’s largest economy. In 2030 it will have 1.4 billion people. The average footprint of a Chinese person is a small fraction of an average American. The Chinese government does more detailed future planning than perhaps any other government and is determined that China will be one of the survivors. China has been buying the steel and resources it will need in the future. To the largest extent possible it has already cornered the market in rare Earth metals needed for high technology.

The USA combined with Canada will be a survivor, because it is economically powerful and resourceful, and with Canada it has a large amount of land, much of which will benefit from global warming – the breadbasket of the future. Europe, in my mind, is a question mark. Japan will struggle....

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • History • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Asia • China • Canada

On trash day in San Francisco, bins in three colors line the streets, each with a different purpose.

The city requires residents to put recyclable materials into a blue bin, compostables into a green one and regular old garbarge into a black one.

"We even recycle batteries," says Johanna Partin, the mayor's director of climate protection initiatives, adding they can be placed in a clear bag on top of any bin.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • Politics in General • City Government • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

The Anglican Synod of Enugu Diocese Sunday joined the growing condemnation of the forum of state governors over their call for removal of fuel subsidy, saying doing so would render useless, the new minimum wage.

Accordingly, the Synod advised the government to among other ways reduce cost of governance as a means of paying the new wage, explaining that cost of running the democracy of the country has continued to increase by the day.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Nigeria • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Africa • Nigeria

(The above title is from the Ipad edition this morning--KSH).

What’s the emergency, you ask? The White House says that military operations in Libya have disrupted supply. But Libya’s oil has been shut in for months now, and oil prices are down from their highs this year. So on Thursday Obama administration spokesman Jay Carney argued that oil demand is likely to rise over the summer. In other words: It’s vacation season, and the White House is worried about high prices through the summer driving months.

Therein, perhaps, is a political emergency, at least in the White House view: President Obama’s reelection prospects will be harmed if national discontent over high gasoline prices continues....

Whatever the rationale, it is a bad idea.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources • Politics in General • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • * International News & Commentary • Africa • Asia • Europe • Middle East

Check it out if you have not seen it. I had occasion to show it to a friend this morning who was moaning about the over 4 dollars he was paying in Connecticut, whereas whereas where I am in South Carolina we have the 3.30's and 3.40's/gallon--KSH.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

Fill in the blank: Just one short decade ago, about 10 percent of America's corn went to ethanol. Now, the number is closer to _____ percent....

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Dieting/Food/Nutrition • History • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • The U.S. Government • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

The Church of Our Savior, an Episcopal parish on rural Johns Island, was established a little more than 30 years ago to serve the growing populations on the nearby barrier islands of Kiawah and Seabrook.

Its austere interior contains unintentionally Celtic elements, especially the cross inside a circle, which has pagan-Druid origins. When the Rev. Michael Clarkson arrived at Our Savior three years ago from England, where he had been forming Anglican congregations and working for the Church of England for two decades, the Celtic characteristics of his new parish immediately were evident.

And soon he understood why a Celtic theme, which emphasizes the connections between faith and nature, was appropriate for his new parish home.

Read it all from the Faith and Values section of the local paper.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Parishes • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Art • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources

Monks and rabbis have stood alongside Catholics and Anglicans in Canberra to show support for the federal government's plan to tackle climate change.

Leaders from the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC) met Prime Minister Julia Gillard in support of the carbon tax today.

Anglican representative George Browning said the group wanted to assist politicians to create good legislation and the message to Ms Gillard was that the issue was a moral one.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Australia • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • Australia / NZ

Twenty-eight religious leaders will converge on Canberra on 2 June to pressure the federal government to act on climate change.

Representatives from many different faiths, acting under the banner of the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC), will meet with Julia Gillard, Greg Hunt, Andrew Wilkie and around twenty other Members of Parliament.

Bishop George Browning, a member of the delegation, said the time to act is now.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Australia • * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • Australia / NZ

Nearly six of 10 Americans — 57% — say they won't buy an all-electric car no matter the price of gas, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll.

That's a stiff headwind just as automakers are developing electrics to help meet tighter federal rules that could require their fleets to average as high as 62 miles per gallon in 2025. And President Obama has set a goal of 1 million electric vehicles in use in the U.S. by 2015.

The anti-electric sentiment unmasked by the poll shows that pure electrics — defined in the poll question as "an electric car that you could only drive for a limited number of miles at one time" — could have trouble getting a foothold in the U.S.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Travel • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

If it wasn’t already clear, India’s announcement of $5 billion in development deals in Africa should certainly put to rest any question of whether India is dedicated to doing business on the African continent over the long haul.

The pledge of development aid to African countries – essentially a fund to help African countries to meet their development goals – stands in stark contrast to Africa’s largest single trading partner, China.

While China trades large infrastructure projects (built mostly by Chinese labor) for access to African raw materials, India spends money on training Africans to develop their own countries. And while Indian countries certainly have come into Africa as investors, Indian diplomats are quick to stress that the relationship between India and African countries is more one of equal partners.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Africa • Asia • China • India

High gasoline prices have not derailed the economic recovery, but that’s small comfort to Loraine Greene. A customer relations manager in the Hudson Valley of New York, Ms. Greene spent the weekend packing up to move to a rental house much closer to work.

At $4 a gallon, gas is too expensive to justify the 50-mile round-trip commute.

“The option was either to sell my truck and get something smaller, or to try to get closer to work,” said Ms. Greene. She chose to move. The new house is just eight miles from the office.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Personal Finance • Energy, Natural Resources

(ACNS) The Archbishop, who is a participant at the World Economic Forum in Africa, has written to his faithful that the issue of climatic change must be regarded as a moral imperative for all and hopes that others at WEF will take heed of his call. His full statement follows:

In one sense, I imagine I might be ‘preaching to the choir’ about climate change, as we sometimes say in the church. But even if we agree on its reality and the dangers which it poses for our planet and our people, we need to make our witness bolder and take more courageous steps to bring others to our state of awareness and to work for real change.

We in the faith communities know that climate change will be hugely damaging to both people and our planet. We know too that it is not only an environmental, economic and social issue but essentially a moral issue. It must therefore be solved through moral principles....

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of South Africa • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

... if we’ve avoided rerunning the 1930s only to end up with a repeat of the 1970s, the public will judge... [Ben Bernanke] to have failed.

To this, the Fed has a stock response. It points to the all-urban consumer price index (CPI-U) and notes that it was up only 2.7 percent in March relative to the same month a year earlier. Strip out the costs of food and energy, and “core CPI”—the Fed’s preferred measure—is just 1.2 percent. When Google unveils its new index of online prices, it’s likely to tell a similar story.

To ordinary Americans, however, it’s not the online price of an iPad that matters; it’s prices of food on the shelf and gasoline at the pump. These, after all, are the costs they encounter most frequently. And with average gas prices hitting $3.88 a gallon last week, filling up is now twice as painful as when President Obama took office.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Dieting/Food/Nutrition • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Personal Finance • The U.S. Government • Federal Reserve • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

Among the groups joining in the call for reform are the National Council of Churches, the Reformed Action Center and GreenFaith. Both the interfaith statement, which carries 900 signatures, and the Christian statement, with 1,800 signatures, express concern that toxic chemicals jeopardize vulnerable populations such as people of color, children and pregnant women.

"While everyone is exposed to some risk from toxic chemicals, communities of color and poor communities have far more toxic dump sites and toxic consumer products," said the Rev. Fletcher Harper, GreenFaith's executive director and an Episcopal priest. "The world's religions affirm our duty to protect the most vulnerable. We need a chemical policy that offers this kind of protection."

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • Politics in General • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

There are structural problems in the economy as growth slows and middle-class incomes stagnate. There are structural problems in the welfare state as baby boomers spend lavishly on themselves and impose horrendous costs on future generations. There are structural problems in energy markets as the rise of China and chronic instability in the Middle East leads to volatile gas prices. There are structural problems with immigration policy and tax policy and on and on.

As these problems have gone unaddressed, Americans have lost faith in the credibility of their political system, which is the one resource the entire regime is predicated upon. This loss of faith has contributed to a complex but dark national mood. The country is anxious, pessimistic, ashamed, helpless and defensive.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • History • Psychology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Housing/Real Estate Market • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • The U.S. Government • Budget • The National Deficit • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General

The nation's college-bound students are increasingly looking for green — and no, that doesn't mean just money.

Green means eco-friendly, and 69% of college applicants this year say having information about a college's commitment to environmental issues would contribute to their decision to apply to or attend the school, according to a survey of 8,200 students by The Princeton Review. That's up from 64% in 2008.

Academic reputation and financial aid still matter most, but "the environmental factor (is) definitely one of the things that makes a difference," says Tucker Johnson, 19, of Harrison, Maine, who was offered admission to nine schools and must commit to one by May 1. Like other students nationwide, he is visiting campuses this month with a checklist of criteria. Among them: a sincere commitment to sustainability.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • Young Adults • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources

Western powers eager to help Libyan rebels sell oil from territories they control are ignoring the U.N. Security Council's sanctions committee, leaving Libyan crude in legal limbo, envoys and analysts say.

Without definitive guidance on the legal status of Libyan oil from the politically divided U.N. sanctions committee, U.N. diplomats and traders say the oil could remain virtually untouchable as major trading players take care to avoid running afoul of the U.N. sanctions.

U.N. diplomats told Reuters that Security Council members eager to escalate the pressure on Gaddafi's government -- above all France and Britain -- rushed through the two packages of sanctions and may not have foreseen how difficult the U.N. measures would make it to aid the rebels.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • * International News & Commentary • Africa • Libya

As Holy Week quickly approaches and Good Friday and Earth Day coincide, the Episcopal Church has compiled liturgical, educational and other resources for incorporating earth-care themes into services and celebrations.

"This year Earth Day falls within Holy Week, specifically on Good Friday, a profound co-incidence," said Mike Schut, economic and environmental affairs officer for the Episcopal Church. "To fully honor Earth Day, we need to reclaim the theology that knows earth is 'very good,' is holy. When we fully recognize that, our actions just may begin to create a more sustainable, compassionate economy and way of life.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Holy Week • Parish Ministry • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker Thursday said U.S. firms are increasingly looking for an opportunity to raise prices as more expensive commodities squeeze profit margins, raising the risk of inflation.

"In the absence of further energy-price increases, most forecasters do not foresee a significant acceleration in prices this year. We should not take that outcome for granted," Lacker said at the University of Baltimore.

Earlier Thursday, the Labor Department said prices U.S. manufacturers and wholesalers pay for goods and materials rose a seasonally adjusted 0.7% in March as gasoline prices jumped and food prices fell.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Dieting/Food/Nutrition • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Personal Finance • The U.S. Government • Federal Reserve • Energy, Natural Resources

Was there a point early in your career when you thought you could change minds through film?
I guess I did. When I was younger, naive. I thought, Maybe The Candidate will affect young people. The point of that film was that we select people by cosmetics, not substance. I thought maybe that point would get through and they would demand more of their candidates. But I've come to feel that [film] is not going to change anything.

Do you wish you had acted more in recent decades?
Yes. I segued into directing because I wanted more control of the story. But I started as an actor. I am an actor. I think a lot of people think that I don't [act] anymore or that I'm more involved in Sundance. But it's not true.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

The U.S. economy continued to improve over the last month on gains in manufacturing, but firms are feeling the effects of higher energy and raw material costs, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday.

"While many districts described the improvements as only moderate, most districts stated that gains were widespread across sectors, and Kansas City described its economic gains as solid," the U.S. central bank said in its "beige book" summary.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • The U.S. Government • Federal Reserve • Energy, Natural Resources

Every president since Jimmy Carter has called for the country to become more energy independent. Yet none of them have ever done anything to accomplish that. The result is that our reliance on foreign oil has inexorably increased. With the current turmoil in the Mideast, the price of gasoline breaking the $4-a-gallon barrier and the Chinese becoming voracious competitors for imported oil, this would seem an ideal time to pass a law that could lessen our dependence on foreign crude.

Oilmen are incorrigible optimists, and Boone is no exception; he thinks the bill will pass quickly. Not long ago, President Obama spoke out in favor of it, in a speech that included a shout-out for Boone. Already, the bill has attracted 157 co-sponsors. “I think the House can pass it in 30 days,” Boone says.

I hope he’s right. Natural gas is cheaper than oil. It’s cleaner. And it’s ours. If Congress can’t pass this thing, there’s really no hope.  

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • The U.S. Government • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

In evidence to the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy and Power's hearing, April 4th, regarding the "The American Energy Initiative", Douglas-Westwood LLP's Managing Director, .Steve Kopits, gave dire warnings about the likely development of China's future energy demand

"China's oil demand will likely keep pressure on oil prices for the indefinite future," said Kopits. "China consumes 10 million barrels of oil per day (mbpd) on global consumption of about 88 mbpd. ...it is already the second biggest consumer of oil in the world ...we see China surpassing US consumption levels around 2018."

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • Asia • China

Top Federal Reserve officials sent a clear signal that the Fed is unlikely to follow the European Central Bank in lifting interest rates from rock-bottom levels anytime soon, playing down the idea that soaring commodity prices will lead to broader U.S. inflation.

At the Economic Club of New York on Monday, Janet Yellen, the Fed's vice chairwoman, said U.S. monetary policy "continues to be appropriate."

Recent increases in prices of oil, grain and other commodities are "unlikely to have persistent effects on consumer inflation or to derail the economic recovery" and are "not likely to warrant any substantial shift in the stance of monetary policy," she said. The key, Ms. Yellen added, is that households and businesses don't expect inflation to take off in the long run.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Personal Finance • The U.S. Government • Federal Reserve • Energy, Natural Resources

Japanese authorities have raised the severity rating of their nuclear crisis to the highest level, seven.

The decision reflects the total release of radiation at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi power plant, which is ongoing, rather than a sudden deterioration.

Level seven previously only applied to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, where 10 times as much radiation was emitted.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • * General Interest • Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc. • * International News & Commentary • Asia • Japan

Ugh--check it out.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Energy, Natural Resources