How the World Works - Salon.com

According to the FAO, “Average world rice consumption per person is set to increase by 0.5 percent to 57.3 kilo per year, up from 57 kilo in 2007.”

Whether that means going from one meal a day to two or three, or a Western-style epidemic of ballooning portion-sizes, the FAO doesn’t say. But it should give some pause to those who would blame the spread of biofuels for everything that is suddenly awry in grain markets. While it is true that competition from other crops (corn, soy) is depressing rice production in the United States, almost everywhere else in the world, rice harvests are booming — including Africa, where the FAO reports that “large expansions” are “anticipated in Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Nigeria.”

Logic+Emotion: Whispers

Life’s whispers are often soft and subtle. They come without warning. The whispers are always there—but we’re not always listening. The noise we surround ourselves with often keeps the whispers at bay. We become incapable of hearing them, until we choose to. At this point we see through fresh eyes.

I’m choosing to listen. But first I had to slow down and stop in order to do so. I had to be willing to miss the train if it meant learning something, even if just for the day. The whispers are there, waiting for us to notice them. But only if we’re open to turn our own volume down, even if only for a brief moment in time. For me, this moment just happened to be the right one.

Taking from where the Nytimes suggested the increase in public transport usage in America, Krugman says that:

But … as of 2005, only 4.7 percent of American workers took mass transit to work. So even a 10% surge in mass transit ridership would take only around half a percent of drivers off the road.

The point isn’t that nothing can be done — it’s just that serious reductions in driving would require a lot of long-term rearrangement of the way we live. It will come — but not quickly.

More on comparisons between, US, Canada and Europe,

A tale of three cities

What’s more, as far as I can make out from the data, a lot more Canadians than Americans (as a percentage of the population) have switched to public transit over the past year; because the system is there, they have more flexibility.

All in all, this comparison is a reason not to believe apocalyptic warnings about the long-run effects of energy scarcity: there’s a lot of substitution possible. America’s main problem is that we have a capital stock — cars, public infrastructure, and housing — designed for dirt-cheap oil. And the transition may be nasty.

From Tom Peters

Simple & crystal clear (to me): To give a high-impact, well-regarded, occasionally life-changing speech “to customers” I first & second & third have to focus all my restless energy on “satisfying” … myself. I must be … physically & emotionally & intellectually agitated & excited & desperate beyond measure … to communicate & connect & compel & grab by the collar & say my piece about a small number of things, often contentious and not “crowd-pleasers,” that, at the moment, are literally a matter of personal … life and death.

I crave great “customer feedback”—but in no way, shape, or form am I trying to “satisfy my customer.” I am, I repeat, trying instead to satisfy me, my own deep neediness to reach out and grab my customer & connect with my customer over ideas that consume & devour me.

Hence … my “Job One” is purely selfish & internally focused, to be completely captivated by the subject matter at hand. That is, to repeat in slightly different words, Job One is … self-motivation.

Warren Bennis, my primo mentor, in On Becoming a Leader, said, “No leader sets out to be a leader per se, but rather to express him- or herself freely and fully. That is, leaders have no interest in proving themselves, but an abiding interest in expressing themselves.”

Business Pundit asks the question, Will Products That Enable Energy Independence Be Big Business?

While the Micro Fueler product certainly isn’t cheap, and may or may not succeed, it does raise an interesting question: do products like this one, which would help to decentralize the source of energy in the US, have the potential to generate big profits?

A real interesting one. Past experience shows that centralization provides economies of scale, efficient production and better utilization of resources for providing energy. However, the downsides are flexibility, costs and the possibility of a large breakdown in case of any downtime.

Decentralization can be helpful to check out new products, can work in remote areas where the grid is not available. The other possibility is “non-consumers” like villages in India. Now, the question is of profitability.

I think that decentralization is a phase that will be strong between now and the clean energy future. How long is that? we do not know. Depending on the market needs, the cost of implementation and the break-even number for the products, these decentralized energy products may be profitable. But, there are lots of variables to work with.

The Nytimes writes that:

With the price of gas approaching $4 a gallon, more commuters are abandoning their cars and taking the train or bus instead.

Atanu looks at the global energy needs in the future and analyses the option of using solar or nuclear energy for India and concludes:

As far as I am concerned, the answer to the question–solar or nuclear–is a no-brainer. It has to be solar. Otherwise India is up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

” When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir? “

- John Maynard Keynes

Quote of the day (Gil Friend)

BBC NEWS | Special Reports | The cost of food: Facts and figures

The cost of food: Facts and figures
Explore the facts and figures behind the rising price of food across the globe.

Line graphs showing rising food prices 2005-07 and price rises by food type, 2007

Graphic illustrating price rises in corn, rice, soya and wheat

As biofuels get the blame, the BBC provides a FAQ which provides some analyses into the real causes.

What are the main causes?

The first reason why prices are rising is growth in the world’s population, which is expected to top nine billion by the middle of the century.

That is an incredible number of mouths to feed and will put pressure on a range of resources, including land, water and oil, as well as food supply.

But lurking behind the headline figures for population is an even more significant factor pushing up prices, and that’s the economic miracle driving emerging economies such China and India.

To put it bluntly, rich people eat more than poor people, and all this economic growth is generating a whole new tier of middle-class consumers who buy more meat and processed food.

The FAO estimates that processed food now accounts for 80% of food and beverage sales.

What other factors are involved?

There is also the added environmental pressure all these extra people are loading onto the planet, as well as the impact of climate change.

Desertification is accelerating in China and sub-Saharan Africa, while more frequent flooding and changing patterns of rainfall are already beginning to have a significant impact on agricultural production.

And global warming has played a significant role in another driver of rising prices: the shift in agricultural production from food to biofuels.

Ethanol production is on course to account for some 30% of the US corn crop by 2010, dramatically curtailing the amount of land available for food crops and pushing up the price of corn flour on international commodity markets.

So what is happening in India? The report argues that the real issue is the purchasing power of the poor and farm productivity.

There has never been an acute shortage of food in India, not even during the infamous famine in Bengal in 1943 in which more than 1.5 million people are estimated to have died of starvation.

The problem then - and now - is entitlement or access to food at affordable prices.

Given the low purchasing power of India’s poor, even a small increase in food prices contributes to a sharp fall in real incomes.

The current crisis in Indian agriculture is a consequence of many factors - low rise in farm productivity, unremunerative prices for cultivators, poor food storage facilities resulting in high levels of wastage.

Kleiner Perkins going greener | Cleantech.com

Kleiner Perkins said the $500 million Green Growth Fund is intended to help speed mass market adoption of solutions to the world’s climate crisis.

John Denniston, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, will co-manage the new fund along with Ben Kortlang, plucked from Goldman Sachs where he previously co-directed alternative energy investments.
[...]

The VC firm also announced the formation of KPCB XIII, a $700
million fund that will invest in cleantech, information technology and
life sciences ventures.

Kleiner Perkins said within the cleantech sector, KPCB XIII would
mainly back early-stage entrepreneurs, while the Green Growth Fund
would support companies that have already entered their growth phase.