A 50-Year Farm Bill

Published on January 4th in the New York Times by Wes Jackson and Wendell Berry
The extraordinary rainstorms last June caused catastrophic soil erosion in the grain lands of Iowa, where there were gullies 200 feet wide. But even worse damage is done over the long term under normal rainfall — by the little rills and [...]

www.natureservicesexchange.com

Three years ago we received a USDA Conservation Innovation Grant, in collaboration with economists at the University of Rhode Island, to develop a community-based ecosystem service market. The market prototype was narrowly focused on providing wildlife habitat (particularly for Bobolinks) on farm fields. By concentrating our energies, we were able to gain substantial insight about [...]

The Forest Carbon Portal

http://www.forestcarbonportal.com/index.php

How to Spend a Trillion Dollars

A very insightful article by Michael Grunwald of Time Magazine.
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1871769,00.html

The Economic Impact of the Interstate Highway System

Since we’ve heard a lot about infrastructure improvement, I thought it might be interesting to look at the economics of interstate highways and where enviromental impacts are considered.
Here’s an interesting paper published in 2006.
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:B-QN7iVxKC8J:www.interstate50th.org/docs/techmemo2.pdf+interstate+system+economic+benefit&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Obama Acts on Fuel Efficiency, Global Warming

Normally I would not spend time to point out what the major new services are reporting, but let’s give the new President some attention.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/26/news/economy/obama_energy/index.htm?postversion=2009012613

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Below is a link to the stimulus bill….647 pages. Last week I was becoming a “Republican” about stimulus money…thinking broad tax reductions are better than trying to get huge spending in place. Then I read the Act. First, I’m impressed…with the breadth and complexity of it. If nothing else, it is an amazing concentration of [...]

The Politics of Climate Change

The Guardian yesterday published an article quoting Jim Hansen, head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, as saying Barack Obama only had four years to act to avoid an ecodisaster….and that cap and trade markets for carbon have failed….quite the statement!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/18/jim-hansen-obama
There have been over three hundred comments published on the article and many of [...]

Ponzi Schemes Compared

I received a comment from the fellow who transcribed and first published the 2005 letter to the SEC about Bernie Madoof …and decided (at 4am in the morning…) to review his blog site.
Came across this interesting graphic which compares two Ponzi scheme liabilities…Madoff’s and the Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid Ponzi scheme. Wait a minute!…Social Security, [...]

Global Warming and the Internet

Here is an article on a trend in use of the Internet and information on global warming….I’m not sure I see it the way the author does….but there are some interesting observations.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-grandia/a-troubling-trend-in-glob_b_158288.html