The role of politicians has been far more significant in pushing the countrys development than that of bureaucrats.

The structure of administration in India, nowadays called the iron frame, was modelled by the British on their own system of civil services. No wonder then that audiences in this country can appreciate the biting irony of the British television series Yes Minister. In a sense, the series is a parody of bureaucracy all over the world. But the concept of the administrator as not just a rigid upholder of rules and regulations but also as the denizen of elite clubs signifying a luxurious lifestyle is very recognizably part of both British and Indian cultures.

From the point of view of the common man, government officials in this country seem to occupy a God-like world cocooned from the grinding reality of life. This may not be entirely true but Kaushik Basu, former Chief Economic Advisor to the UPA government, certainly wrote wittily about his experiences in this role. He described the way in which doors in South Block magically opened for him while his briefcases seemed to float on their own to his office. For an ordinary mortal, this seemed a strange world where an individual neither opened doors nor carried briefcases on his own.

There is one crucial difference, however, between the British and Indian civil services. The latter was created to control a subjugated population, while the former was meant to deal with ones own people. Here administrators have been taught to control and suppress people who could conceivably revolt at any time against alien masters. Sadly, seven decades after Independence, the bureaucracy has not been taught that its role has changed. Or, if they have been told so in the legendary training academy at Mussorie, it is with the caveat that law and order is their primary responsibility. As one top bureaucrat told me, we have never been taught how to be facilitators to development, we have only been taught how to control and restrain the masses.

The same person told me this country will never grow or prosper till the entire system of civil services is demolished. Amazingly, another Secretary rank officer made identical comments in a private conversation. One of them even told foreign investors at a closed door meetingat which I was present inadvertentlythat his junior officials were not likely to reply promptly to any queries though they had given him assurances to this effect. He warned that most times, on calling they would be told sahib is in a meeting.

Though media in this country constantly portrays bureaucrats as being harassed by political leaders, and this does happen in many cases, there is another side to this story. This is based on the accountability factor. The politician in a democracy is held accountable for his actions every five years during an election. It is at this point that even the most corrupt of politicians needs to flaunt his achievements in bettering the life of his constituents. In contrast, the bureaucrat faces no such issues. He has no reason to seek any change in the status quo, given the fact that his is a lifetime job with immense comforts.

My brief stint of working in a non-profit organisation brought home this fact rather dramatically. The NGO was trying to persuade a state government to launch a major health initiative by providing the required technical expertise. Officials in the health department were utterly disinterested in the proposal. But when it was finally presented to the then Health Minister, he was delighted by the plan. He took an on-the-spot decision to implement it despite stiff opposition from officials, who could provide no valid reason for their hostility. The minister recognised that the scheme entailing minimal financial involvement would bring about a significant improvement in childrens health. Like any canny politician, he also realised that this visible success story could be highlighted in the future. The department officials, however, saw no gain to themselves by accepting a project submitted by a resource-starved NGO.

In fact, the oft-told stories of bureaucrats being roughly treated by political leaders are undoubtedly true but there are others regarding the staunch obstinacy of the bureaucracy in stalling policies that can bring about much-needed uplift of people. It may go against prevailing thinking, but one must accept that the role of politicians has been far more significant in pushing the countrys development than that of bureaucrats. The dismantling of the licence raj regime was opposed most virulently by officials who were set to lose their draconian powers to control all levels of industry. Udyog Bhawan in the pre- liberalization era was where top corporate honchos could be seen waiting meekly for hours outside the offices of not just senior officials but junior babus for a mere five-minute meeting. Narasimha Raos initiation of economic reforms brought such power crashing down.

Even so, red tape is still rampant in the government. Despite this regimes efforts to digitize services to eliminate any element of discretion, ways and means are found to ensure that considerable power remains in the hand of the ubiquitous babu. Even the process of filing income tax returns online is said to be short circuited in some cities for small businesses who are forced to meet officials in person. Similarly, the complexity of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) at the outset meant that it has taken literally years of revisions before becoming somewhat comprehensible for taxpayers.

The solution for these problems cannot be a complete demolition of the so-called iron frame of administration and governance. But the present government can surely take a few steps towards loosening the stranglehold of the civil services. First, there should be a greater induction of domain experts into specialised areas of governance including the public sector. For instance, it would make sense to have technocrats heading ministries like power, telecom, coal and petroleum. Rather than generalist IAS officers who take time to learn the subject and then move on after a few years to another sector. In fact, such ministries should be declared off-limits to the generalist officers.

Second, the process of administration at the district and panchayat level needs to be revamped as well. Here too domain experts in agriculture and rural development need to be placed in positions of authority so that work in these sectors can be carried out efficiently.

Third, the entire process of recruitment to the government needs to be revamped in conjunction with human resources experts. It needs to be more in line with the needs of an evolving society rather than continue the traditional patterns of employing babus that were established decades ago.

A multitude of other changes can be proposed but that might need another really long article. Suffice it to say the human resources available for governance are not being used to their full potential in this country. An emerging economy like India needs visionary and dedicated personnel who can help the country emerge from its chrysalis and become a powerhouse of energy and growth. Recruitment for the government needs to focus on those who have the required skills to facilitate development and enable a faster pace of growth, not just for the elite but for the common man. It is high time this government takes action on this issue to ensure a significant improvement in the quality of governance.

Sushma Ramachandran is a senior journalist

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Bureaucracy needs revamping to enable growth and development - The Sunday Guardian

From pv magazine 07/2020

Solar PV is scaling, fast. On track to terawatt scale Fraunhofer ISE estimates around 12 TW will be installed by 2030, while PV consultancy Amrock puts the 2050 figure at 70 TW to 80 TW it is a disruptive, low-cost, clean energy source.

Growth poses lucrative opportunities, particularly for manufacturers; yet, a dark cloud lingers. As Pierre Verlinden, Amrock MD, said during pvmagazines recent Virtual Roundtable (see p. 58), at 1 TW, the industry accounts for 94% of todays silver market, 35% of copper, and 32% of MG silicon. Even at todays GW level, waste is worrisome, toxic materials integral, and raw materials finite.

The World Economic Forums 2020 Risk Report confirms such issues are not confined to the few, but rather represent disruption for the many.

In response, multilateral global partnerships are forming to investigate how circular manufacturing models can play a revolutionary role. The goal is not just avoiding environmental destruction; equally, innovative business models, new revenue streams, resiliency and long-term economic stability are targeted.

Global thinktank SustainAbility wrote in its 2020 annual trends report: From food and fashion to electronics and the built environment, circular thinking keeping resources in use for as long as possible to extract the maximum value will continue to gain momentum in 2020.

In Europe, the unveiling of the European Green Deal and associated Circular Economy Action Plan this March has seen heightened sustainability activity. For example, Sitra, Technology Industries of Finland and Accenture released a playbook, Circular business models for the manufacturing industry, in May. In it Sitra states: Circular economy offers companies the opportunity to turn inefficiencies in linear value chains into business value. These inefficiencies look beyond production waste, focusing on underutilised capacities, premature product lives, unsustainable materials, wasted end-of-life value and unexploited customer engagements.

Reviewing a number of globally established businesses, the playbook identifies proven circular business results. These include Wrtsil achieving a 45% reduction in production development expenses and a 50% reduction in assembly time using modular engine architecture, and Caterpillar reaping 50% higher gross profits from selling remanufactured products at a 20% discount. Ford has also cut costs by around 20% by swapping aluminum for steel, while Michelin is selling tires-as-a-service, with a revenue potential of 3 billion in 10 years.

Overall, five working circular manufacturing business models are identified to achieve such results (see chart to the left). Work on circular projects in the PV and storage sectors is also underway, including three Horizon 2020 European Commission funded projects Circusol, Cabriss and Super PV and Fraunhofer ISEs Green Manufacturing Consortium. As discussed below, similarities between the industries and business models mentioned above can be drawn, and knowledge transferred.

With 8.25 million in funding, Circusol or Circular Business Models for the Solar Power Industry aims to formalize reuse, repair and refurbishment value chains for PV and storage. It also demonstrates the potential of Product Service System (PSS) business models over a four-year period.

Its report calculates there will be 8 million tons of PV waste, 13 GW of EU solar power that second-life PV could serve, and 25 GWh of second-life batteries by 2030. These resources could reap benefits if changes are made, like user not owner business models, economic stimulus and facilitation packages, rather than regulation, and transition from a few global, to many regional players. Key are reuse, repair, remanufacturing, repurposing and recycling.

To realize a vision, barriers must be understood. Circusol has identified 48 of these in R&D, design, technology, grid, collaboration, recycling, regulatory and market. These could be addressed via short- and long-term actions, as outlined in the table to the right.

In addition to value chains, Circusol investigates how circular PSSs could support change. Specifically, it wants to catalyze markets for second-life PV modules (see pp. 68-69), and the remanufacturing of disused EV batteries for stationary PV systems (watch out for pvmagazine 08/2020). It sees further potential in novel product technologies with lower environmental footprints, like mounting structures comprising renewable materials.

The intended role of a service-based business model approach is to enable coordinated product management (collection, sorting, refurbishment, testing, certification) and mitigate user concerns about the reliability, performance and lifetime of second-life PV products, writes Nancy Bocken and Lars Strupeit of Delft University of Technology, in a 2019 paper titled Towards a Circular Photovoltaic Economy: The Role of Service-based Business Models.

For example, opportunities exist in sharing excess electricity with other users through microgrids, aggregation services, and trading platforms, and enabling sharing of electric storage capacity at the community level. Delivery of these actions would require the coordination of responsibilities across several partners of the value chain, a role that a solar service firm potentially can adopt, they say.

Circusol divides cPSS into three categories: product, use, and result oriented. The first, pPSS involves selling products combined with services in the use phase, such as a product and after-sales repair. With uPSS models, the use of, or access to, products is central, like renting/leasing products; while the rPSS model focuses on services, not products, which could be a fee for service.

A benefit of service-based business models is the opportunity to gather valuable data on performance and service needs on a large number of systems, thereby enabling incremental optimization of system design and operation, say Bocken and Strupeit. They also allow for easier repair, reuse and recycling, among other benefits. See pvmagazine 06/2020 and listen to our Virtual Roundtable Sustainability Session to learn more about Circusol, and partners imec and PV Cycle.

Complementing Circusol is the Super-PV project, which aims to reduce PV module LCOE by 26% to 37% via innovation in electronics, and module and solar system design. With a budget of 11.6 million, it is focusing on areas like Module Level Power Electronics (MLPE) developments ensuring higher power output, performance monitoring and data collection on the string level, and nano-coatings for modules, which are anti-soiling, easy-to-clean and anti-reflective. These innovations are already showing promising results after the first tests. It is the second year of the Super PV project out of a total of four years, Tadas Radaviius, project manager at Lithuanian-based Solitek told pvmagazine. Work will now focus on demonstration of these innovations in desert, tropical, and cold climates.

The Lithuanian module maker is also looking into circular business models for second-life panels and refurbished batteries, while investigating alternative non-toxic materials like lead (pvmagazine 09/2020 will cover circular materials), new panel designs, and integrating radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. This latter issue ties into Circusols short-term action 1, and long-term action 3, and the creation of a central digital repository of information.

As Radaviius explains, RFID tags could contain information useful for installers and recycling companies, like technical parameters and material composition. Another option RFID unlocks is the creation of an online database documenting information on each panel or PV system, which could be accessible to a number of stakeholders like manufacturers, installers, recycling companies, and researchers.

A third Horizon 2020-funded project is Cabriss, or the implementation of a circular economy based on recycled, reused and recovered indium, silicon and silver materials for PV and other applications. The aim of the group, which includes 16 European companies and research institutes, and has access to 9.26 million in funding, is to develop a circular economy based on PV waste manufacturing and end-of-life modules. It is focusing on technologies to recover secondary materials from modules and production waste; and to manufacture modules from these.

We managed to develop all technologies required to separate, purify and recycle PV waste manufacturing and end-of-life modules, Luc Federzoni of France-based research institute CEA and David Pelletier, project manager at French solar energy institute CEA-INES, told pvmagazine. This involves opening the modules via non-thermal processes to recover over 95% of materials like silicon, aluminum, silver and indium, and the EVA. However, they say it is currently difficult to find profitable business models while recycling volumes are still small.

Several innovative, resource-saving production technologies for wafers and cells are concurrently being investigated. These mainly involve Si-kerf waste from PV manufacturing to produce low-cost silicon substrates, including ingots made from recycled Si via a hot-pressing process, say Federzoni and Pelletier. PV cells and modules with an efficiency of 18.5% and containing 100%-recycled silicon have reportedly been produced. This is a promising technology and the process is said to be ready for industrialization.

New cell technology using epitaxial deposition of silicon directly from silane, which avoids energy intensive processes and eliminates kerf loss, is another area of development. Further R&D is still needed but feasibility has been demonstrated on small solar cells, they say.

Protocols measuring the quality of recycled material and its suitability for making new solar cells tie into this work, although a standard for remanufacturing cells with recycled materials is said to be lacking. What we precisely managed to industrialize was the re-use of the materials for other sectorial applications. This is the case for Si and In.

This latter issue touches on industrial symbiosis where waste or byproducts of one industrial process become raw materials for another key to a circular economy. In solar, benefits could be reaped by collaboration with TV manufacturers, for example. The full interview with Federzoni and Pelletier is available at pv-magazine.com.

Stating that now is the time to reinvest in the European manufacturing industry and take advantage of the TW-scale opportunities ahead, Germanys Fraunhofer ISE established the Green Manufacturing Consortium in 2019. It is a German publicly funded project, comprising 20 industrial partners, four institutes and two industry associations, including First Solar, Meyer Burger, Total, Wacker, VDMA, Oxford PV and Von Ardenne.

The goal is to develop an economic-ecological evaluation methodology for a sustainable future factory 10 GW in size and easily scalable beyond that for the production of innovative PV modules. Via a comprehensive energy and material flow model of scaled and vertically integrated PV fabs we will simulate changes in production capacity, factory layout, supply systems, production facilities and processes as well as recycling of materials through recycling processes and other value-added stages, explained Jochen Rentsch, head of Department Production Technology Division Photovoltaics.

In a recent report, Fraunhofer calculated that 1.9 billion investment would be required for such a 10 GW factory, covering an area of 500,000m2 and creating up to 7,500 jobs. Director Andreas Bett said reestablishing a European PV manufacturing market represents a big opportunity to ensure energy security by reducing dependency on imports, lowering costs and addressing sustainability. Why transport large and heavy PV modules the long distance from Asia and cause CO2 emissions and added cost? For example, module costs of 0.20/W can be soon realized, and transport costs from China to Europe can be up to 0.025/W, he wrote. As the chart here shows, the emissions of manufacturing modules in Germany are also much lower than in China, because of the stricter environmental controls in place.

Fraunhofer gives a further nod to Europes R&D centers, which are working on sustainable solar technologies like those mentioned in Cabriss, including kerfless wafers and high efficiency solar cells using tandem structures.

Responding to fears that sustainability could mean more expense, the reports authors say reducing and reusing materials, combined with higher efficiencies, and longer module lifetimes means end products should not be more expensive.

Strengthening this argument, the authors point to significant decreases in Capex costs and the replacement of traditional Al-BSF cells by PERC cells in industrial production. The already significant cost reduction and the prospect of even further reducing the cost in PV production leads to the conclusion that local production can bring cost advantages. This is a new development.

The year is 2050. Solar PV has reached terawatt-scale, with legislation on air pollution and waste. Caps on carbon have been filed away, digital dust stacked high upon their long-forgotten folders. Breaking news flashes detailing toxic spills and unjust labor conditions are inconceivable to todays generation. Landfills have been eradicated; just as in nature, the concept of waste does not exist.

Every particle entering and leaving factories is beneficial to businesses, their employees and the environment, all of which are thriving. Everything fits into a continual technological or biological loop maximum value extracted to the benefit of all societal and environmental stakeholders. This is a bold vision, yet with cooperation and innovation, it is achievable. The groundwork is now already being laid.

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The weekend read: Making solar sizzle - pv magazine International

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. Middlebury College faculty and staff authors have again put forth a slate of books representing a diversity of interests and scholarship. Although the annual reception celebrating the authors could not take place this year, Jim Ralph, dean for faculty development and research,notes the importance of recognizing the dedication of those who have published books.

This years list of books, published in 2019, points to the remarkable imaginative and analytical powers of Middlebury Colleges faculty and staff, said Ralph.This listwith titles on topics ranging from history to geochemistry to pressing contemporary issuescould serve as a terrific starting point for readers seeking to expand their liberal education.

Books continue to be an important vehicle for conveying knowledge and stimulating insight on a topic, says Ralph. I know I speak for our community when I say how proud we are all of their achievements. The publication of these books also shines a light on the intellectual and creative vitality of our community.

Following is a list of books published by Middlebury faculty and staff in 2019:

Tara Affolter,Through the Fog: Towards Inclusive Anti-Racist Teaching.Charlotte, NC: IAPInformation Age Publishing, Inc, 2019.

Drawing from over 20 years of teaching experience in the U.S., ranging from prekindergarten to postgraduate, Affolters work illustrates personal, practical, and theoretical ways for teachers to grapple with the complexities of race and racism within their own schools and communities and develop as inclusive anti-racist teachers.

Matthew Dickerson,The Voices of Rivers: On Places Wild and Almost Wild. Boston, MA: Homebound Publications, 2019.

This work of creative narrative nonfiction interweaves elements of nature writing, personal narrative, outdoor writing, and environmental writing. In 2017, Dickerson was selected to be artist in residence at Glacier National Park (Montana) for the month of June, and then in 2018, he was selected to be artist in residence at Acadia National Park (Maine) for the month of May. This collection contains essays written in those times and places as well as essays set in some national forests, national parks, and state parks of Alaska from 2015 to 2018.

Elizabeth Endicott,Mongolia 19782017: Memoirs of a Part-Time Mongolist.Manchester Center, VT: Shires Press, 2019.

This memoir is a personal account of the authors 14 trips to Mongolia spanning the years 1978 to 2017. The book offers observations on the Mongolian way of life as it has evolved from the socialist period to a new post-socialist reality. Over 150 of the authors photographs document the social and cultural transformations in the Mongolian countryside and in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city.

Natalie Eppelsheimer,Roads Less Traveled: German Jewish Exile Experiences in Kenya, 19331947. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2019.

Drawing on archival sources in Kenya, Great Britain, Germany, and the U.S., as well as other literary, governmental, journalistic, and historical sources,Roads Less Traveledexamines the experiences of German Jews who managed to escape from Nazi Germany to the British colony of Kenya. This study explores the historical background of Jewish emigration to Kenya, analyzes first-person accounts of former refugees and descriptions of life in the colony, and pays special attention to the experiences of refugee children in Kenya.

Irina Feldman,P. Baker, F. Lagos, and R. Pareja(Eds).Latin American Marxisms in Context: Past and Present.Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019.

The opposition to neoliberal development patterns in Latin America has gone beyond social-democratic reformism to a revival of Marxist theoretical perspectives and political practices in the beginning of the 21st century. This book provides an insight into the rich diversity of Latin American Marxism, historically and contemporarily. Given the global interest in the revival of radicalism in Latin America, it should appeal to non-Marxist as well as Marxist scholars with interests in topics from political economy to cultural theory.

Irina Feldmanand A. M. Lopez-Zapico(Eds).Resistiendo al imperio: Nuevas aproximaciones al antiamericanismo desde el siglo xx hasta la actualidad.Madrid, Spain: Slex Ediciones, 2019.

This volume revisits discourses and practices from Latin America, Spain, and the United States labeled as anti-Americanist, analyzing these political and cultural phenomena as practices of resistance in the face of imperial advances of the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Felicia A. Grey,States and Non-participatory Memberships in the WTO.London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

This book examines non-participatory memberships, or why states choose not to use the benefits of international institutions to which they belong. To investigate this question, the author explores why states choose not to litigate within the World Trade Organizations Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). The research contributes to the literature on global governance and institutions generally, and of the WTO specifically. Additionally, the project includes comparative case analysis of WTO agreements and international disputes: China and Jamaica; Guatemala and Mexico; the United States and Mexico. This volume will interest policy makers, trade professionals, academics, and anyone who is interested in development studies.

Christian Keathley, Jason Mittell,Catherine Grant,The Videographic Essay: Practice and Pedagogy.Online:http://videographicessay.org, 2019.

This digital open-access book, adapted from a print version previously published in 2016 and revised for 2019, collects a series of writings, conversations, and examples of videographic criticism that emerged out of the ongoing Scholarship in Sound and Image summer workshops that have been offered at Middlebury since 2015. In recognition of the pedagogical work discussed in this online resource, Keathley and Mittell were awarded the Society for Cinema and Media Studies inaugural Innovative Pedagogy Award in 2020.

Gary Margolis,Time Inside.Peterborough, NH: Bauhan Publishing, 2019.

A book of poems.

Michelle McCauley,J. J. Dickinson, N. Schreiber Compo, R. N. Carol, B. L. Schwartz (Eds).Evidence-Based Investigative Interviewing: Applying Cognitive Principles.Routledge Press, 2019.

Evidence-Based Investigative Interviewingreviews the application of cognitive research to investigative interviewing, revealing how principles of cognition, memory, and social dynamics may increase the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. It provides evidence-based applications for investigators beyond the forensic domain in areas such as eyewitness identification, detecting deception, and interviewing children.

Bill McKibben,Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?Henry Holt and Co., 2019.

Falteris an account of our current peril on a hotter planet, and the way that rampant inequality, spurred by libertarian market fantasies, has left us in a particularly weak place to meet the crisis. It argues that nonviolent social movements might offer a way out. A New York Times bestseller, it was named by the Washington Post as one of the 10 best books of the year.

Laurie L. Patton,Who Owns Religion? Scholars and Their Publics in the Late Twentieth Century.Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2019.

Who Owns Religion? focuses on a periodthe late 1980s through the 1990swhen scholars of religion were accused of scandalizing or denigrating the very communities they had imagined themselves honoring through their work. While controversies involving scholarly claims about religion are nothing new, this period saw an increase in vitriol that remains with us today. Authors of seemingly arcane studies on subjects like the origins of the idea of Mother Earth or the sexual dynamics of mysticism have been targets of hate mail and book-banning campaigns. As a result, scholars of religion have struggled to describe their own work to their various publics, and even to themselves.

Lana Dee Povitz,Stirrings: How Activist New Yorkers Ignited a Movement for Food Justice.Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019.

In the late 20th century, government cutbacks, stagnating wages, AIDS, and gentrification pushed ever more people into poverty, and hunger reached levels unseen since the Depression. In response, New Yorkers set the stage for a nationwide food justice movement, organizing school lunch campaigns, establishing food co-ops, and lobbying city officials. Stirrings uses the political history of food advocacy organizations to explain why such groups focus almost exclusively on feeding hungry people rather than on addressing the root cause of that hungerpoverty.

Peter Crowley Ryan,Environmental and Low-Temperature Geochemistry, Second Edition. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN: 978-1-119-56858-2, 2019.

Environmental and Low-Temperature Geochemistrypresents conceptual and quantitative principles of geochemistry in order to foster understanding of natural processes at and near the earths surface, as well as anthropogenic impacts and remediation strategies. It provides the reader with principles that allow prediction of concentration, speciation, mobility, and reactivity of elements and compounds in soils, waters, sediments, and air, drawing attention to both thermodynamic and kinetic controls. The scope includes atmosphere, terrestrial waters, marine waters, soils, sediments, and rocks in the shallow crust; the temporal scale is present to Precambrian, and the spatial scale is nanometers to local, regional, and global.

Paula Schwartz,Today Sardines Are Not for Sale:A Street Protest in Occupied Paris.

Oxford University Press, 2020. (This book was intended for release in late 2019, so it is included on this years list.)

Based on a rich documentary record, together with the oral testimony of surviving participants and witnesses, Today Sardines Are Not for Saleuses a microhistorical approach to probe multiple dimensions of a single short-lived event and its repercussions over time. The author shows how gender shaped an illegal public protest action under a French collaboration government and German occupation.

Yoko Ogawa.The Memory Police.Stephen Snyder, trans. New York: Pantheon, 2019.

The Memory Policeis a fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss. The English-language edition was a 2019 National Book Award finalist, was named one of the New York Times's100 Notable Books of the Year, and is currently a finalist for the Booker International Prize.

Allison Stanger,Whistleblowers: Honesty in America from Washington to Trump.New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019.

Winner of the Association of American Publishers PROSE award in the category of Government, Policy, and Politics.

Max M. Ward,Thought Crime: Ideology and State Power in Interwar Japan. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019.

Thought Crimeexplores the development of the Japanese Peace Preservation Law (Chianijih) from its initial passage in 1925 to suppress communism and anticolonial nationalism to its expansion into an elaborate system to ideologically convert thousands of political criminals throughout the Japanese Empire in the 1930s.The book illuminates the complex processes through which the law articulated imperial ideology and how this ideology was transformed and disseminated through the laws application over its 20-year history.

Richard Wolfson,Essential University Physics, 4th edition. Pearson, 2019.

This is the fourth edition of the less is more calculus-based physics textbook thats designed to give students a concise, progressive text with a lively writing style and real-life applications; it costs less and weighs less than standard university physics texts.

Read the original post:

Faculty and Staff Authors Compile Impressive List of Works - Middlebury College News and Events

Did you know that many invasive plant species have taken hold in this area, changing the plant communities along our coastline? Chrissy Smith with the Friends of Netarts Bay WEBS said these invaders, often introduced as ornamental plants, can take over an area making it hard for other plants to grow, and impacting the ecosystem.

These plants have the ability to shift soil composition, change the available food source for local animals and create less than desirable habitats, Smith said in a press release.

Under normal circumstances, WEBS would be hosting an in-person event this July in conjunction with the Explore Nature Series to help people identify invasive plants and map out areas of the coastline where invasive plants exist.

Last year we piloted an effort to map invasive plants with a small group of volunteers, Smith said. This year, we launched a larger program in February but it never truly had time to get off the ground before the pandemic hit.

Due to restrictions with COVID-19, WEBS is hosting a virtual presentation on Saturday, July 25 instead.

While we cant go out on the trails and actually look for these plants, we still wanted to give people an opportunity to learn about local invasive plants, their impacts, how to identify them and what you can do to help - including volunteering in the future with the new Weed Detectives community mapping effort, said Smith.

Smith added that if you have participated in past Weed Detectives volunteer training events, this is a great opportunity to review and learn about new plants as they emerge during different seasons.

This virtual presentation at 10 a.m. on July 25 is a part of the Explore Nature Series. Explore Nature Series events are hosted by a consortium of volunteer community and non-profit organizations, and are meaningful nature-based experiences highlight the unique beauty of Tillamook County and the work being done to preserve and conserve the areas natural resources and natural resource-based economy. They are partially funded through the Tillamook Coast Visitors Association and the Travel Oregon Forever Fund.

To learn more or register for Weed Detectives, visit http://www.netartsbaywebs.eventbrite.com. And be sure to follow the Friends of Netarts Bay WEBS and the Explore Nature Series on Facebook and Instagram.

Original post:

Be a Weed Detective July 25 | Community - Tillamook Headlight-Herald

Covid pandemic is unprecedented in human history. Any disaster including the Spanish Flue of 1918 which infected 500 million people and claimed about 20 million lives, did not affect so many countries. The Second World War saw the death of about 70 million people, but did not involve every country in the world. The covid-19, despite lower death rates, about half a million so far, disrupted social lives and national economies in countries and regions of the world.

Disruption of lives in multiple dimensions and of such huge magnitude has forced a serious rethinking on how we run our lives, states and societies. The debate between lives and livelihoods is raging in many countries. Before the pandemic, the focus of economies has been on enhancing GDP, as a measure of a countrys growth and power. In developing countries, ensuring ease of doing business was the priority of planners. That has now to be replaced by ease of living. Such shifts in approaches call for a change in roles of the institutions that govern as well as serve the people.

There are three kinds of institutions in any country-state or government, market or business, and civil society. The state produces citizens, the market creates consumers, and the civil society comprises communitarians. The roles of running people lives have been handled either by state or market, or jointly, whereas civil society has been a bystander. Under globalization, in the last three decades, the market has dominated peoples lives more than the state. Consequently, we have had more consumers than communitarians or conscientious citizens. The practices of individualism and consumerism overrode the values of compassion, solidarity and interdependence.In fact, the state has been in retreat since the heydays of Ronald Reagan in USA and Margaret Thatcher in UK. Reagans wisecrack in 1986, I am from the government and I am here to help would not generate any ridicule today. As covid-19 delivers shocks to systems of unparalleled magnitude, people would like their governments to turn up and rise to the challenge of this pandemic.

Reagans approach of diluting the state and according primacy to the market became an orthodoxy that coincided with globalization. The idea that gained currency worldwide was, the state should roll back and reposition itself, it should not try to control inequality and help the disadvantaged.

Admittedly, we have been on such a trajectory for over 30 years. Only a few social democratic states like those in Scandinavia tried to maintain some role of the state in minimizing inequality and in providing safety nets for the less fortunate and the marginalized. Or else, the individual consumer preceded the collective interest. But this pandemic tells us to go backs to the community-ness where people pulled together.The passion for high-growth led by the market has let us down massively. Nature, bio-diversity, ecological balances have been destroyed. In the pursuit of profit, the critical services like healthcare, sanitation and education have been neglected, which, in turn, has diminished the prospects of people earning sustained livelihoods.

The development economists like E.F. Schumacher, in his pioneering work, Buddhist Economics strongly advised looking after the people not the capital. This is where we need the state. Elected by the people and representing them the state should retrieve and re-assert it role.

India, like other developing countries, put emphasis on ease of doing business. Now it should shift to promoting ease of living. People would like first to live before they become richer through higher growth. The debate between lives and livelihoods is sterile. Both are complementary. People cannot survive without livelihoods, and likewise, unless they are healthy and skilled, they cannot eke out a living. Depending on doles which come in dribs and drabs or not come at all, is not an option.

At the same time, not all activities are best run by the market model. Many professional spheres like education, science, or medicine need not be run as commercial enterprises, suggested by economists like Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek, or Milton Friedman. The former socialist French Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin once famously said, We are not against the market-based economy, but market-based society.

Remember, the states with stronger healthcare systems managed the covid epidemic better-Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan etc. Also countries with special universal safety nets like those in Scandinavian region and Germany dealt better with poorer sections of their societies than the countries without such welfare schemes.Now, in the wake of this system- threatening pandemic, people demand from their states rights to lives and livelihoods, the natural and constitutional human rights. The states can provide those only with people-centered planning and strategies. Needs of human beings must precede the needs of business. Societal well-being must be the goal of economies, not the size of GDP.

There have been initiatives and experiences of putting people first. The Bhutanese king Jigme Singye Wangchuk coined the concept in 1979 of GNH in lieu of GDP. Gross National Happiness (GNH) should the measure of a countrys development, he suggested. Recall Helena Norberg Hodges experience in Ladakh based on dependence on local resources than global technology. Her books, Local is our Future: Steps to an Economic Happiness (2019), and Ancient Futures: Lessons from Ladakh, published in 1991, which speak for localization, not globalization, are models to look at. She forcefully argued that globalization has no future, climate chaos is intensifying, stress and anxiety disorders are of epidemic proportions. Why are we in thrall to the global market? Why do we cling to the wreckage? These are the questions we must address after the horrifying trail of panic and pain left the world over by covid-19.

A call for greater role of the state may give rise to statism of another kind, more a big brother state than a great society. The governments may want greater control of civil liberties and political rights and entrench themselves in power, like Victor Orban did in Hungary. Chinas response to criticism of mishandling covid has been suppression of dissent, and elimination of dissenters. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi too has ignored the Opposition in dealing with the pandemic. Therefore, in redefining the role of the state, we should talk about state capacity, not state power.

Furthermore, the Government as the representative body of the people having their mandate should play as team leader, not the leader. The society is greater than the government which comprises the majority of a certain party or an alliance. It is again a procedural majority, not an absolute one. At any time, we advocate a partnership between the government, the market and the civil society and the partnership is needed more in such emergencies as the present pandemic. The state has limited outreach and its resource is stretched in disaster situations, hence it must rope in the business for augmenting resources and the CSOs for reaching out to the unreached.

Finally, one would advocate a state based on pluralism-technological, economic, social and political. Switching back to local leading to isolationism or dirigisme is not the antidote. The state should play the role of a balancer or reconciler of multiple ways of planning and living. Such pluralism as well as synthesis have been our heritage, and let us preserve them.

Prof. D.K.Giri is the Secretary General of the Association for Democratic Socialism (ADS), New Delhi. ADS is a non-party political think tank doing research and advocacy on progressive politics.

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Covid Redefines the State | DK Giri - Mainstream

"From day one, any discussion of herd immunity or survival of the fittest or, you know, 'Say farewell to the elderly,' are the things that just did not sound right for us," Jordan's Prime Minister Omar Razzaz tells NPR. "So we went for a very different model in Jordan, based on social solidarity."

Jane Arraf/NPR

Jordanian Prime Minister Omar Razzaz sits in the front room of his family home in a middle-class Amman neighborhood of traditional white stone houses with small gardens and low walls. Unusually, in a region where senior officials typically live in gated compounds far from public view, the residential street has been kept open to traffic to minimize disruption to Razzazsneighbors.

Razzaz, an MIT and Harvard-educated economist, was appointed by Jordans King Abdullah II to head a new government two years ago, following anti-government protests that were sparked by IMF-mandated tax increases seen as bypassing the rich. Although hed served previously as education minister, Razzaz was seen as a relativeoutsider.

The small, resource-poor kingdom is surrounded by dangers from neighboring countries: a war in Syria, conflict between the U.S. and Iran in Iraq, and Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank it occupies something Jordan says poses a danger to the entireregion.

But those issues have taken a back seat to controlling the coronavirus a feat Jordan has accomplished with an early and severe lockdown. The country of roughly 10 million has registered 1,131 coronavirus cases, with 11deaths.

Razzaz sees vulnerable groups in other countries paying a disproportionate price for policies that dont prioritize them, and says Jordans approach from the start was to protect the mostvulnerable.

From day one, any discussion of herd immunity or survival of the fittest or, you know, Say farewell to the elderly, are the things that just did not sound right for us, Razzaz tells NPR. So we went for a very different model in Jordan, based on social solidarity, in fact, helping the weakest. We did everything we can to make sure our children, our elderly, our refugees you know, the haves and the have-nots areprotected.

In mid-March, Jordan was one of the first countries in the region to shut its airports and borders for all but essential goods. Arriving passengers were sent into compulsory quarantine. All but emergency workers and security forces were confined to their homes, with even grocery stores shut and the army distributing bread to poorneighborhoods.

The government cut public sector salaries and allowed businesses to reduce workers wages, but banned them from laying offemployees.

Razzaz says in the last four months, almost half of Jordans population received some form of governmentassistance.

This week, the country announced it would reopen its airport to flights from a dozen countries where coronavirus rates are also low. With no cases of local transmission on most days, Jordan has stopped enforcing mask wearing and reopened restaurants and shoppingmalls.

Razzaz says industry production is now back to pre-coronavirus standards, and Jordan is exporting pharmaceuticals and food to othercountries.

Jordan took a chance with the lockdown, he says, but felt it had little choice, given the prospect of its health care system being overwhelmed with COVID-19cases.

When we took the steps that we took, we did that not because we were certain about the outcomes. So theres always hindsight But were very, very glad we did what we did. And a lot of countries that waited longer, including the U.S., are having a harder time containing the coronavirus, hesays.

Razzaz and health officials note Jordan remains on guard for a possible resurgence of the virus as its airportreopens.

The longer-term challenge is an already fragile economy in which unemployment is rising sharply. Tens of thousands of Jordanians have lost their jobs in the Arab Gulf states, as those economies decline due to the pandemic and a plunge in oilprices.

The official unemployment rate for the first quarter of the year had already topped 19%. Some economists expect the real rate could reach 30% by the end of the year, with many of the unemployed youngpeople.

Razzaz says, though, he is not worried by the prospect of renewed demonstrations that could be sparked by the economiccrisis.

While some countries worry a lot about social unrest, we see it as people expressing views about that hardship, he says. Were going to be proactive with employment and job creation. And if you get frustrated and want to shout, we have a constitution and set of laws and institutions that allow that to happen in democraticways.

The other wild card facing the kingdom is Israels annexation threat. Jordan, along with Egypt, is one of only two Arab countries in the region to have signed a peace treaty with Israel. Jordans king says he might suspend the 26-year-old treaty if Israel takes unilateral steps to claim sovereignty over parts of the WestBank.

Israel cites Jewish ties and a strategic need for it, but most of the international community opposes such a move, which could doom Palestinian hopes for an independentstate.

Jordan, where a majority of citizens are of Palestinian origin, would be the country most affected by Israels move, and instability could ripple across theregion.

Razzaz says Jordan has not changed its insistence on the need for an independent Palestinian state alongsideIsrael.

If you dont provide a just solution for the Palestinian people and sovereignty, you are pushing them and the region towards despair and extremism. So will there be conflict under such conditions? Yes, there will be, definitely, he says. I think what His Majesty and Jordan have been doing is sounding the alarm bells.

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Jordan's Prime Minister Says His Country Contained COVID-19 By 'Helping The Weakest' - OPB News

Jacinta Barrins

Business Botswana (BB), the private sector representative body`, has admitted that the sector has been hit hard by Covid-19 but will bank on their recovery plan to spur it up.

The private sector recovery plan follows shortly after government launched its economic transformation recovery plan worth about P20 billion.

The private sector recovery plan is also supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Botswana led by its Resident Coordinator Jacinta Barrins who has assured BB of strong backup.

CEO of Business Botswana, Norman Moleele, said the private sector has lost a lot due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The losses that the private sector incurred are not yet quantified but it is a devastating without doubt. We anticipate that the recovery plan once put in action would mitigate against the damage caused by Covid-19 to a wide range of businesses within the private sector, he said.

According to Moleele, the recovery plan intends to position the private sector becoming the driving force of economic development by being a key player in sectors such as agriculture.

Covid-19 has ruthlessly exposed the vulnerabilities of our economy and society. We do not produce ample food to feed the nation. We do not make enough of what Batswana need in their households, or what firms themselves need to produce goods and services, he added.

He noted that as Business Botswana they are keen on fostering new opportunities that would unlock more commercialisation value singling out the research and tertiary institutions.

Moleele highlighted that institutions of higher learning such as University of Botswana (UB) and Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) are very significant; saying partnerships between them and private sector players are crucial l in transforming the economy.

The relationship between the industry and institutions of learning cannot be underestimated. We recognise the commercial value of the research and development projects that these two universities are pursuing and we will court private sector to adopt them, Moleele highlighted.

UB Vice Chancellor, Professor David Norris, reiterated his institutions desire to partner with the industry to commercialise their R& D initiatives.

Speaking recently while receiving P100 000 cash donation from the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Prof Norris said UB enters an entrepreneurship trajectory linking with private sector.

He maintained that the university is keen to partner with the industry in order to promote economic diversification as their new strategy directs them towards being diversified as well.

Meanwhile, Resident Coordinator of UNDP in Botswana Jacinta Barrins said UNDP is keen on working with the private sector by capacitating its growth in its drive to help diversify the economy.

Covid-19, Barrins said, has highlighted how vulnerable the economy is, and as such, has exposed the gaps in social protection systems for economic actors, workers and employers.

This also opens up for the question as to whether it may be the right time to put in place an unemployment insurance scheme. The plan also advocates for the use of local resource-based methods (LRBMs) and technologies, she said, adding that women businesses will be aided too.

See the rest here:

Business Botswana to roll out recovery plan - The Patriot On Sunday

Jordanian Prime Minister Omar Razzaz sits in the front room of his family home in a middle-class Amman neighborhood of traditional white stone houses with small gardens and low walls. Unusually, in a region where senior officials typically live in gated compounds far from public view, the residential street has been kept open to traffic to minimize disruption to Razzaz's neighbors.

Razzaz, an MIT and Harvard-educated economist, was appointed by Jordan's King Abdullah II to head a new government two years ago, following anti-government protests that were sparked by IMF-mandated tax increases seen as bypassing the rich. Although he'd served previously as education minister, Razzaz was seen as a relative outsider.

The small, resource-poor kingdom is surrounded by dangers from neighboring countries: a war in Syria, conflict between the U.S. and Iran in Iraq, and Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank it occupies something Jordan says poses a danger to the entire region.

But those issues have taken a back seat to controlling the coronavirus a feat Jordan has accomplished with an early and severe lockdown. The country of roughly 10 million has registered 1,131 coronavirus cases, with 11 deaths.

Razzaz sees vulnerable groups in other countries paying a disproportionate price for policies that don't prioritize them, and says Jordan's approach from the start was to protect the most vulnerable.

"From day one, any discussion of herd immunity or survival of the fittest or, you know, 'Say farewell to the elderly,' are the things that just did not sound right for us," Razzaz tells NPR. "So we went for a very different model in Jordan, based on social solidarity, in fact, helping the weakest. We did everything we can to make sure our children, our elderly, our refugees you know, the haves and the have-nots are protected."

In mid-March, Jordan was one of the first countries in the region to shut its airports and borders for all but essential goods. Arriving passengers were sent into compulsory quarantine. All but emergency workers and security forces were confined to their homes, with even grocery stores shut and the army distributing bread to poor neighborhoods.

The government cut public sector salaries and allowed businesses to reduce workers' wages, but banned them from laying off employees.

Razzaz says in the last four months, almost half of Jordan's population received some form of government assistance.

This week, the country announced it would reopen its airport to flights from a dozen countries where coronavirus rates are also low. With no cases of local transmission on most days, Jordan has stopped enforcing mask wearing and reopened restaurants and shopping malls.

Razzaz says industry production is now back to pre-coronavirus standards, and Jordan is exporting pharmaceuticals and food to other countries.

Jordan took a chance with the lockdown, he says, but felt it had little choice, given the prospect of its health care system being overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases.

"When we took the steps that we took, we did that not because we were certain about the outcomes. So there's always hindsight ... But we're very, very glad we did what we did. And a lot of countries that waited longer, including the U.S., ... are having a harder time containing the coronavirus," he says.

Razzaz and health officials note Jordan remains on guard for a possible resurgence of the virus as its airport reopens.

The longer-term challenge is an already fragile economy in which unemployment is rising sharply. Tens of thousands of Jordanians have lost their jobs in the Arab Gulf states, as those economies decline due to the pandemic and a plunge in oil prices.

The official unemployment rate for the first quarter of the year had already topped 19%. Some economists expect the real rate could reach 30% by the end of the year, with many of the unemployed young people.

Razzaz says, though, he is not worried by the prospect of renewed demonstrations that could be sparked by the economic crisis.

"While some countries worry a lot about social unrest, we see it as people expressing views about that hardship," he says. "We're going to be proactive with employment and job creation. And if you get frustrated and want to shout, we have a constitution and set of laws and institutions that allow that to happen in democratic ways."

The other wild card facing the kingdom is Israel's annexation threat. Jordan, along with Egypt, is one of only two Arab countries in the region to have signed a peace treaty with Israel. Jordan's king says he might suspend the 26-year-old treaty if Israel takes unilateral steps to claim sovereignty over parts of the West Bank.

Israel cites Jewish ties and a strategic need for it, but most of the international community opposes such a move, which could doom Palestinian hopes for an independent state.

Jordan, where a majority of citizens are of Palestinian origin, would be the country most affected by Israel's move, and instability could ripple across the region.

Razzaz says Jordan has not changed its insistence on the need for an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

"If you don't provide a just solution for the Palestinian people and sovereignty, you are pushing them and the region towards despair and extremism. So will there be conflict under such conditions? Yes, there will be, definitely," he says. "I think what His Majesty and Jordan have been doing is sounding the alarm bells."

Read the original post:

Jordan's Prime Minister Says His Country Contained COVID-19 By 'Helping The Weakest' - KLCC FM Public Radio

Jordanian Prime Minister Omar Razzaz sits in the front room of his family home in a middle-class Amman neighborhood of traditional white stone houses with small gardens and low walls. Unusually, in a region where senior officials typically live in gated compounds far from public view, the residential street has been kept open to traffic to minimize disruption to Razzaz's neighbors.

Razzaz, an MIT and Harvard-educated economist, was appointed by Jordan's King Abdullah II to head a new government two years ago, following anti-government protests that were sparked by IMF-mandated tax increases seen as bypassing the rich. Although he'd served previously as education minister, Razzaz was seen as a relative outsider.

The small, resource-poor kingdom is surrounded by dangers from neighboring countries: a war in Syria, conflict between the U.S. and Iran in Iraq, and Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank it occupies something Jordan says poses a danger to the entire region.

But those issues have taken a back seat to controlling the coronavirus a feat Jordan has accomplished with an early and severe lockdown. The country of roughly 10 million has registered 1,131 coronavirus cases, with 11 deaths.

Razzaz sees vulnerable groups in other countries paying a disproportionate price for policies that don't prioritize them, and says Jordan's approach from the start was to protect the most vulnerable.

"From day one, any discussion of herd immunity or survival of the fittest or, you know, 'Say farewell to the elderly,' are the things that just did not sound right for us," Razzaz tells NPR. "So we went for a very different model in Jordan, based on social solidarity, in fact, helping the weakest. We did everything we can to make sure our children, our elderly, our refugees you know, the haves and the have-nots are protected."

In mid-March, Jordan was one of the first countries in the region to shut its airports and borders for all but essential goods. Arriving passengers were sent into compulsory quarantine. All but emergency workers and security forces were confined to their homes, with even grocery stores shut and the army distributing bread to poor neighborhoods.

The government cut public sector salaries and allowed businesses to reduce workers' wages, but banned them from laying off employees.

Razzaz says in the last four months, almost half of Jordan's population received some form of government assistance.

This week, the country announced it would reopen its airport to flights from a dozen countries where coronavirus rates are also low. With no cases of local transmission on most days, Jordan has stopped enforcing mask wearing and reopened restaurants and shopping malls.

Razzaz says industry production is now back to pre-coronavirus standards, and Jordan is exporting pharmaceuticals and food to other countries.

Jordan took a chance with the lockdown, he says, but felt it had little choice, given the prospect of its health care system being overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases.

"When we took the steps that we took, we did that not because we were certain about the outcomes. So there's always hindsight ... But we're very, very glad we did what we did. And a lot of countries that waited longer, including the U.S., ... are having a harder time containing the coronavirus," he says.

Razzaz and health officials note Jordan remains on guard for a possible resurgence of the virus as its airport reopens.

The longer-term challenge is an already fragile economy in which unemployment is rising sharply. Tens of thousands of Jordanians have lost their jobs in the Arab Gulf states, as those economies decline due to the pandemic and a plunge in oil prices.

The official unemployment rate for the first quarter of the year had already topped 19%. Some economists expect the real rate could reach 30% by the end of the year, with many of the unemployed young people.

Razzaz says, though, he is not worried by the prospect of renewed demonstrations that could be sparked by the economic crisis.

"While some countries worry a lot about social unrest, we see it as people expressing views about that hardship," he says. "We're going to be proactive with employment and job creation. And if you get frustrated and want to shout, we have a constitution and set of laws and institutions that allow that to happen in democratic ways."

The other wild card facing the kingdom is Israel's annexation threat. Jordan, along with Egypt, is one of only two Arab countries in the region to have signed a peace treaty with Israel. Jordan's king says he might suspend the 26-year-old treaty if Israel takes unilateral steps to claim sovereignty over parts of the West Bank.

Israel cites Jewish ties and a strategic need for it, but most of the international community opposes such a move, which could doom Palestinian hopes for an independent state.

Jordan, where a majority of citizens are of Palestinian origin, would be the country most affected by Israel's move, and instability could ripple across the region.

Razzaz says Jordan has not changed its insistence on the need for an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

"If you don't provide a just solution for the Palestinian people and sovereignty, you are pushing them and the region towards despair and extremism. So will there be conflict under such conditions? Yes, there will be, definitely," he says. "I think what His Majesty and Jordan have been doing is sounding the alarm bells."

The rest is here:

Jordan's Prime Minister Says His Country Contained COVID-19 By 'Helping The Weakest' - Capital Public Radio News

Modern in the Making, on view at the Vancouver Art Gallery through January 3, 2021, is the most comprehensive showcase of the mid-century craft and design scene in British Columbia assembled to date, examining ceramics, fashion, furniture, jewelry and textiles that defined West Coast modern living.

Comprising over three hundred works created from 1945 to 1975, this exhibition reveals the multiple ways modernism was interpreted in British Columbia, with the inflection of local histories, materials and knowledge with a recognition of the rich Indigenous cultures that predated the arrival of settler cultures.

"The post-war craft and design period in British Columbia was especially significant because design and craft were activities considered essential for a life of creative pursuit. Modern in the Making: Post-War Craft and Design in British Columbia surveys a period characterized by enormous creativity and innovation that transformed the culture of this region-the reverberations of which continue to be felt today," stated Daina Augaitis, Interim Director at the Vancouver Art Gallery. "Well-crafted objects are currently experiencing a revival, as the handmade has assumed a position of renewed importance in our digital age."

In the three decades following the Second World War, thousands of people immigrated to British Columbia seeking the benefits of its resource-based economy, mild climate, natural amenities and inventive spirit. This optimistic post-war environment fostered the development of exceptional design and craft practices deeply influenced by the tenets of modernism: simplicity, fine craftsmanship and functional design for everyday use.

The exhibition is organized chronologically to document how the aesthetic, material and conceptual approaches to design and craft shifted over three decades of production. The included works reflect the increased demand for a wide range of functional, domestic objects that could complement the new West Coast modern architectural style that had begun to emerge. Highlights include Nuu-chah-nulth weaver Nellie Jacobson's grass buttons and traditional baskets that point to both the ruptures in this region caused by colonial expansion and the importance of Indigenous design in the modernization of British Columbia.

Photo: Ian Lefebvre, Vancouver Art Gallery

more: vanartgallery.bc.ca

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Modern in the Making: Post-War Craft and Design in British Columbia - Dexigner

Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series and our ongoing COVID-19 coverage. if you have a story of how the community is responding to the pandemic please let us know here.

Eviction filings and hearings in Battle Creek are expected to ramp up with the expiration today (July 23) of a statewide moratorium on evictions.

In advance of this expiration, city staff began working on a plan to address what they were being told would be a wave of evictions that are the result of individuals either losing their jobs or having their hours reduced as their employers try to manage the impact of shutdowns and losses in revenue resulting from COVID-19.

Chris Lussier, Community Development Manager for the City of Battle Creek, says part of the citys plan involves allocating about $729,000 to local organizations already working on stemming the tide of evictions and working with individuals who could lose their homes and those who are already homeless.

Antwoine Davis, a Health Care Advocate with Summit Pointe, often helps people in Battle Creek and Calhoun County deal with housing issues. Here she meets with a woman, a potential client, at the SHARE Center in Battle Creek.Those dollars are part of a $5 billion allocation through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Security (CARES) Act that Congress made to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that HUD is re-distributing to municipalities through its Community Development Block Grant program. Of that $5 billion, $2 billion was earmarked for communities, including Battle Creek.

Our strategy focuses a little bit around homelessness prevention and emergency shelter, but the majority of the funds will be going towards rent assistance, eviction diversion, and case management with housing, Lussier says. Were expecting that one of the largest unmet needs is that were going to have this large wave of evictions or a lot of folks who are not able to pay their rent.

The funds, he says, will help people catch up on their rent or be re-housed if they are evicted.

With the lifting of the moratorium, state officials are estimating a backlog of more than 75,000 eviction filings.

Closer to home, there is a waiting list of just over 227 individuals who are hoping to work with staff at Summit Pointe responsible for assisting those facing possible eviction. Summit Pointe, which will receive $440,000 from the citys CDBG funding to cover assistance for back rent, is designated by the state as Calhoun Countys Housing Assessment Resource Agency, according to Maggie Honaker, an independent consultant who is working with the countys Homeless Coalition to address issues of homelessness.

Honaker says Summit Pointes work includes providing intake assessments, housing case management to help people identify and understand the different options available to them, and managing financial agreements negotiated between landlords and tenants.

Maggie Honaker is working with the countys Homeless Coalition to address issues of homelessness.The eviction moratorium was rescheduled a number of times, Honaker says. It was originally set to expire at the end of June. Each time we got near that deadline we had more folks who were calling to get information because they knew theyd be in a financial situation where they were not going to be able to make lump sum payments.

Alisa Parker says, We dont really know what the backlog is. Parker is the Managing Attorney with Legal Services of South Central Michigan which serves Calhoun, Barry, and Branch counties. That organization also will receive CDBG funds.

When shelter-in-place orders were first put in place, Parker says, our numbers were really low because landlords were not able to file cases. In recent weeks weve seen a slow uptick and we are starting to see some of those cases trickle in now.

Parker says she thinks the majority of cases will be for non-payment of rent. She says she anticipates a huge rush starting mid-August into September when the additional $600 in unemployment people have been receiving is no longer available. Those payments, which are on top of normal unemployment benefits, are scheduled to stop on July 31.

Many individuals have been using that extra $600 to cover rent.

If the jobs arent there, Parker says she anticipates higher than normal numbers of people seeking help to stay in their homes or assistance in finding stable housing situations if they are homeless. Those in subsidized housing will fare better because their Section 8 vouchers will fluctuate to continue supplementing monies they dont have.

Most of our cases are low-income folks who are working and have experienced a reduction in hours, Parker says.

With CDBG funds, Summit Pointe and all of its partner organizations working on issues affecting the homeless will have received a total of $2.7 million in local, state, and federal funding to deal directly with the fallout from COVID-19 on the city and countys most vulnerable populations. This includes individuals who had to be relocated from the Haven of Rest Ministries and S.A.F.E. Place, the countys only domestic violence shelter, to area hotels during the height of the crisis.

Through an Eviction Diversion program operated by Legal Services, Parker says the goal is to get clients engaged with H.A.R.A (Housing Assessment Resource Agency) to develop a plan enabling clients to stay in their homes or be re-housed. Last year, she says her staff served about 248 individuals, households, or families through this program, which received initial funding from the United Way Battle Creek Kalamazoo Region.

We negotiate with landlords to agree to dismiss a case based on conditions involving a certain amount of days to get the judgment against a tenant paid while connecting people to service agencies who could provide resources for back rent, Parker says. This allows people to get their case resolved right then and there. Most of the cases that end up coming to us are resolved 85 to 90 percent of the time with that first appearance.

Legal Services' CDBG allocation is covering the cost of hiring a new attorney focused on handling the agency's eviction cases.

Our selling point is that using the courts is going to take you a while, but if we can get the rent satisfied and our tenants remain housed, lets work together to that end, Parker says. Most landlords arent out there to become property moguls. Theyre aiming to make a modest income out of the housing market. They also have bills to pay. A lot of landlords and property managers want to find ways to work with people.

The citys strategy for allocating the CDBG dollars most effectively is based on input from members of a Joint Operations Committee that was established when state-mandated orders to shelter in place began to take effect. The JOC is made up of city and county leadership and also has subcommittees charged with addressing the needs of the areas most vulnerable residents.

We used the priorities that came out of the Joint Operations Committees response to the COVID-19 crisis to do scans of the needs and based our strategy on that, Lussier says. We looked at a number of different things. The overwhelming need was around housing and sheltering the homeless in Battle Creek.

In late March, the Full Blast recreation center was converted to serve as a shelter for clients of the SHARE Center, a day shelter that also serves meals and offers programming for low-income individuals in various housing situations. That conversion cost about $80,000 that will be covered by CDBG funding, Lussier says.

We can use those funds retroactively, he says. Basically, we were using those dollars for converting the facility before we got the money.

Lussier says he expects to have signed agreements this week with different organizations receiving a portion of the CDBG funds. In addition to Summit Pointe, these include Haven of Rest Ministries, Community Action Agency, S.A.F.E. Place, Legal Services of South Central Michigan, and the citys Parks and Recreation Department.

While working through the grant process, Lussier says he knew that a focus had to be on hard-to-reach communities and those that experience challenges to accessing resources. He says representatives with Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation, a program through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, have been hired to work with his group to develop an affirmative marketing plan.

We are paying them to assess the populations least likely to apply for assistance, identifying the barriers, and getting them to apply so they can access resources, Lussier says.

We have over 3,000 families, a lot of these families are already in a pretty vulnerable place. Our guess is that were talking about thousands of families who have a need for these resources. Our hope is that well be able to help 600 families just with these CDBG resources. Were not going to be able to help everybody. The need is going to be greater than the demand.

The vast majority of these people are either part of the citys ALICE population or new to that population because of a job loss or other reductions in income, Lussier says. ALICE is an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed households that earn more than the Federal Poverty Level, but less than the basic cost of living for the county which represents the ALICE Threshold.

The federal poverty guidelines for a family of four in Michigan is $24,600 and the ALICE threshold for a four-person household with an infant and a preschool-age child is $61,000, according to the United Way of the Battle Creek Kalamazoo Region.

Based on the most recent ALICE research, about 46 percent of the countys residents and 50 percent of the citys residents are at or well below the ALICE threshold, according to Honaker.

The homelessness crisis and the anticipated increase in evictions are both very much income-driven and are among the disparities that have surfaced in a big way between those who have means and those who dont, she says.

We have over 8,000 rental units in the city and the number of households that we can support at some level of assistance is going to be about 1,000. Im not sure exactly how many households we can support, Honaker says.

Lussier says he cant predict when the impact of the lifting of the moratorium will be felt. He says he and his staff have been working quickly to determine how the CDBG funding will be allocated.

One piece of anxiety around this for me is that were still ironing things out, he says. I know this will create even more expectation around the resources available and our ability to meet those expectations.

This brings up the need for a much broader conversation that needs to include discussion about housing costs, wage disparities, and the cost of not returning to work, Parker says. Her organizations client base is individuals who fall below 125 percent of the federal poverty level. Many of them are working low-wage jobs that dont cover the cost of basic needs like food, shelter, or clothing for themselves and their families.

Those who are part of the ALICE population arent always able to use the free legal services because they are above that federal poverty level. For them, the loss of a job or decreased work hours will hit them hard, Parker says.

Even if people have jobs and the economy continues to open up, we still dont have a vaccine for COVID-19. Were still anticipating spikes and schools may be online with in-person options, Parker says. But, the reality for most working people is that if you cant bring your kids to work with you, you have no option but to stay home. In a lot of cases thats us every-day, lower-middle-class working people.

Many of these individuals depend on caseworkers with the Department of Health and Human Services to navigate the system and find resources, but Parker says a number of these employees have been furloughed.

We are going to have to figure out a way to maneuver through all of this, she says.

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Battle Creek seeks ways to keep people in their homes as evictions are expected to spike - Concentrate

$8.5 billion forest-based industry poised for investment, innovation and workforce advancements

BANGOR A statewide forest products coalition has awarded a two-year contract for marketing, public relations and coalition building to Sutherland Weston Marketing Communications of Bangor.

Maines Forest Opportunity Roadmap, or FOR/Maine, released an action plan in September of 2018 with a goal of creating actionable steps to grow Maines forest-based economy. The plan included a combination of transportation, community outreach, workforce development, and strategic investment attraction. A federal grant from the U.S. Department of Commerces Economic Development Administration was awarded to the Maine Forest Products Council to help fund the communications and public relations effort.

FOR/Maine is very pleased to be working with a Bangor firm with a full deck of capabilities and long-standing relationships with multiple natural resource and forestry firms, stated Steve Schley, chair of FOR/Maines Executive Committee. Sutherland Weston understands the very broad, diverse goals of FOR/Maine and its partners and has the capacity to integrate all the elements into packages that will inform the public and excite potential investors.

Sutherland Weston has a 15-year history of working with businesses, organizations and causes throughout Maine. The firm will utilize that experience to develop strategies to increase awareness, participation, and collaboration among the key audiences outlined in the FOR/Maines initial report.

Were honored to be selected by this respected coalition, said Cary Weston, partner at Sutherland Weston. We look forward to sharing the many positive stories of innovation happening right here in our state. Our collective goal is to help build a strong and diverse forest products industry for Maines future.

The forest products industry accounts for more than $8 billion in economic activity in Maine. Despite trends in paper mill closures in recent years, the industry is poised for growth as new innovations, global opportunities and consumer trends to bio-based products grow.

More details on the FOR / Maine initiative can be found at formaine.org.

Link:

Maine Forest Products Coalition selects Bangor marketing firm to lead industry growth and awareness campaign - Bangor Daily News

Emilio Lozoya, former CEO of Pemex, was arrested February on suspicion of accepting millions of ... [+] dollars in bribes.

By Adrian Duhalt

There are experiences in Mexicos history (and certainly other countries) that serve as painful reminders that building an economy highly dependent on hydrocarbons is not, in the long term, the cleverest of decisions.

The oil boom in the 1970s and early 1980s and the resulting social and economic crisis left policymakers with valuable lessons that, considering todays conversation around the role of the oil industry in Mexico, should not be overlooked.

Back then, bounty hydrocarbons resources encouraged a nationalist government to bet on the development and expansion of the oil industry. Doing so seemed like a logical step since many believed that resource-based growth was the path to prosperity. Mexicos economic growth rate, which averaged 8.4 percent between 1978 and 1981, helped sustain that argument.

But policy mismanagement, a growing U.S. dollar-denominated external debt, unfavorable international conditions (higher interest rates and lower oil prices) and a short-term vision sent Mexicos economy into a tailspin in 1982. By then, the countrys economy revolved around a single commodity. Oil exports accounted for 77.6 percent of total exports, up from 15.4 percent in 1976, while economic growth dropped to -0.6 percent.

It soon became clear that hydrocarbon wealth could not prevent economic downfall and was not enough to improve standards of living during the rest of the decade.

Fast forward to 2020 and it is hard not to see certain resemblance between Mexicos current policy and the hydrocarbon-heavy approach that prevailed in the late 70s and early 80s. Only on this occasion, Mexicos proved oil reserves are decimated and Pemex, the NOC holding most of those reserves, turned into a cash-burning rather than cash-making machine. In 2019 Pemex lost $36 billion and the outlook for its 2020 balance sheet looks even gloomier owed to the Covid-19 pandemic and lower oil prices.

It has been almost 20 months into the administration of Lpez Obrador (also known as AMLO) and, despite all sort of challenges, his policy to turn Pemex into the backbone of Mexicos hydrocarbon sector remains unmoved. An obvious policy objective for a left wing government, if not for the fact that the rapidly deteriorating economic environment has led to mounting discontentment at home and abroad as Lpez Obrador sidelines private investment.

Local industry associations like the Business Coordinating Council (CCE) have voiced theirconcernsabout how AMLOs energy policies discourage private investment. In the U.S., the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) appear to share the worry as, ahead of Lpez Obradors official visit to Washington on July 8-9, both groups reached out to the Trump administration to express their discomfort with Mexicos energy policies.

As if past experiences did not teach Mexico anything, its government hopes to accomplish its economic goals based on a state-led hydrocarbon-heavy strategy. And against all evidence, President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador seems convinced that his energy program can help Mexico cruise towards a much-needed prosperous future. What Lpez Obrador seems to underestimate is that todays economic environment is far more complex andPemex, the instrument to surmount it, is weaker than ever.

Todays world energy markets are navigating uncharted territories. The outbreak of Covid-19 has forced hundreds of millions, if not billions, of individuals to confinement, slashing oil global demand as a result. And this, along with a global oil supply glut, has led to lower oil prices that are hitting Pemex hard. Mexico, a country with a diversified economic base but with public finances upsettingly reliant on oil revenues, is projected by the International Monetary Fund to experience an economic contraction of around10.5percent in 2020.

As it currently stands, Pemex is ill-equipped to spearhead Mexicos economic recovery once the lockdown comes to a complete end. The companys debt of $105.2 billion and labor obligations of $77.3 billion as of December2019exposea more labor intensive model than more profitable international oil competitors.Falling production, operating and managing deficiencies and recent credit downgrades signal that Pemex could face serious obstacles to becoming the countrys economic engine, particularly at the era of low oil prices.

Hence, to craft a convincing plan to help restore Mexicos economy, the time has come to acknowledge that there is much more to Mexicos hydrocarbon sector than Pemex and that private investment could play an important role as it can develop projects in areas where Pemex has shown no real interest in participating.

The recent visit of Lpez Obrador to Washington fueled speculation about AMLO possibly winding down his nationalistic stance on energy issues. At the White House dinner hosted by President Trump, which was attended by business executives, including those of Sempra Energy SRE and Shell (both firms with several important projects in Mexico), Lpez Obrador was reported assayingthat we are in the best disposition to favor your investments in Mexico.

But considering his usual rhetoric, the question is whether Lpez Obrador will eventually recognize that a sounder economic rebound in 2021 and beyond is more likely to be accomplished with private investment instead of only relying on public spending. The challenging conditions Mexico is confronting today demands boosting other critical activities of both the energy sector (renewables, transport and storage infrastructure) and the broader economy (consumer goods, manufacturing, services, infrastructure). The sooner Lpez Obrador understands the risks associated with building an energy sector dependent on Pemex, the better.

Adrian Duhalt is thepostdoctoral fellow in Mexico energy studies for the Center for the United States and Mexico and Center for Energy Studies at the Rice Universitys Baker Institute.

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There Has To Be More To Mexicos Oil Sector Than Pemex - Forbes

The COVID-19 pandemic has proven to not be a health crisis alone but significantly has disrupted our food security, economic resilience and governance efficacy. Two things have become absolutely clear. First, business-as-usual on how we treat our planet and less-privileged sections of society is no longer viable. Second, humanity is capable of change fast, dramatic, unprecedented change.

We dont yet know how this crisis will end. The World Health Organization warns that worse is yet to come and the impact on the global economy is already unprecedented. IMF projects a contraction of the global economy by 4.9 percent in 2020. Big businesses are cutting millions of jobs, while thousands of small businesses are vanishing. In India, the lockdown led to 27 million young people losing their jobs, while 14 million U.S. citizens filed for unemployment between February and May.

The disproportionate impact of the pandemic on the marginalized, who have been harder hit both from a health and economic perspective, further has fueled the mass protests against racial and class-based injustice.

We need a structural change to recalibrate economic and societal values and provide a more sustainable underpinning for the future.

Underpinning all of this is the urgent need to stop the collapse of Earth systems. We need a structural change to recalibrate economic and societal values and provide a more sustainable underpinning for the future.

Responding to these multiple crises is a huge opportunity to transform the way we live, eat, grow, build and power our societies to launch what the World Economic Forum is calling the Great Reset. Businesses have a role to play in the transition towards a nature-positive-economy and there are wins for early movers.

Businesses have shown their willingness to uphold values of stakeholder capitalism in times of imminent hardship. While an IKEA kit helped hospitals in affected areas, LVMH refurbished its perfume factories to produce hand sanitizer. Surely, the breakdown of the natural systems vital for our survival qualifies for such swift and innovative collaboration. And we have seen in the past year that ESG and low-carbon fundssignificantly outperform general indices and the arrival of multiple zero-carbon and nature-positive unicorns.

The World Economic Forums new report on the Future of Nature and Business provides a blueprint for businesses to play a leadership role in shifting our economic model so that it is compatible with planetary boundaries. The report identified 15 priority transitions with the potential to generate $10.1 trillion in additional business value and create 395 million jobs in 10 years, allowing us to shift away from a resource-extractive model alone.

Specifically, the report identifies three socioeconomic systems that have the highest impact on nature loss and, therefore, also the ones with the largest opportunity to change: food, land and ocean use; infrastructure and the built environment; and extractives and energy. Together, these three systems represent over a third of the global economy and provide up to two-thirds of all jobs.

However, activities in these systems endanger almost 80 percent of the threatened and near-threatened species on the IUCN Red List. It is more urgent than ever to transition these systems are both sustainable and resilient for future.

The report offers a pragmatic action agenda for all businesses who want to build a nature-positive future, while offering significant opportunities for cross-sectoral collaboration and innovation.

Food, land and ocean use. Transforming this system to nature-positive could lead to almost $3.6 trillion of revenues and savings in the next 10 years, while creating 191 million new jobs.

What does this look like in the real world? One new model that incorporates several transitions is regenerative ocean farming. For example, GreenWaves vertical polyculture system which grows a mix of seaweeds and shellfish that produce higher yields, sequester carbon and rebuild reef ecosystems. Practicing this kind of farming across 5 percent of U.S. waters could absorb 135 million tonnes of carbon with no freshwater or other inputs. If expanded to just 1 percent of the global ocean, it could create 50 million jobs.

Infrastructure and the built environment. Transitioning this system towards being people- and nature-positive could generate $3 trillion and 117 million jobs by 2030. The changes needed include switching to a strategically compact built environment that would make our cities more efficient, less polluted and cheaper to build and operate, while allowing more land to be wild. For instance, in Europe, office-sharing could reduce urban sprawl by up to 74 million acres an area the size of Belgium while reducing investment costs and offering flexible working models in times of need.

Greener cities use nature-based solutions to their urban challenges. For instance, one of the Cape Town's main initiatives to avoid future water crises after 2018 is to restore its watersheds, which are severely affected by alien plant invasions. Protecting and restoring its watersheds not only would allow the city to generate enough water to meet a sixth of the citys current annual needs within six years but also do so at one-tenth the cost of other options.

Extractives and energy. Emerging business opportunities that improve efficiencies in how we extract and consumer resources while shifting to more renewable energy could create over $3.5 trillion worth of annual value and almost 87 million jobs by 2030.

Examples include embracing a nature-positive energy transition, that would enable to simultaneously meet climate and biodiversity targets. For instance, Elion, the first Chinese company to commit to 100 percent renewables, developed a comprehensive ecological restoration-based economic model. The model combines one of Chinas largest photovoltaic power stations with animal husbandry, ecotourism and medicinal plants that generate complementary revenue streams while restoring degraded soils. This package successfully has restored nearly 1.6 million acres in the Kubuqi Desert of Inner Mongolia, while obtaining good economic and social value.

Business must lead the way. The speed of change required, government budget constraints in the wake of COVID-19 and current failures in international cooperation mean business is best placed to drive the nature-positive transitions the world needs. To launch the transformation, business leaders should identify the transitions most relevant to their business and the mix of enablers including innovative financial investment models and smart technologies needed to unlock success. They also have a critical role to play in supporting governments to adopt the right policies that will unleash change at scale and facilitate these transitions.

We are at a critical juncture. Businesses have the unique capacity to spearhead our transformation to a more nature- and people-positive future. It is a chance to be at the vanguard of a new era of unlimited promise.

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The future of nature and business: A blueprint for action | Greenbiz - GreenBiz

Its official: the 2021 budget for a popular public-private partnership that once infused millions into the Missouri tech and startup communities has been wholly defunded by the state as Gov. Mike Parson grapples with COVID-19s continued economic fallout.

But supporters of the Missouri Technology Corporation (MTC) hope Parsons move withholding all of the programs $1 million budget allocation as part of $450 million reduction in expenditures from the 2021 state budget is only a temporary setback.

The budget restrictions that included MTC are directly related to decreased state revenue due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, said the Missouri Department of Economic Development, which oversees MTC, in a statement to Startland News and Missouri Business Alert.

MTC will work with DED and the Governors Office to identify as many near-term opportunities that will allow MTC to infuse capital into the ecosystem, such as CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act Funding or the Federal SSBCI (State Small Business Credit Initiative) program, while working to establish a stronger annual budget allocation once the state rebounds from the current economic issues and tax revenue levels return, the agencys statement continued.

Mike Parson, Missouri governor; Discovery Design Truck & Manufacturing, St. Peters; Photo courtesy of the Missouri Governors Office

Missouris new budget went into effect July 1 a day Parson spent touring Missouri businesses like Discovery Design Truck & Manufacturing in St. Peters and Positronic Industries in Springfield.

A substantial portion of the funds withheld from MTC and nearly 105 other line items in the 2021 budget were redirected to Medicaid and other entitlement programs, said Missouri Sen. Dan Hegeman, R-Crosby, who served as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and also sits on MTCs board of directors.

While MTC has certainly been a priority for me, other folks have different priorities and tough decisions have to be made in the budget process, said Hegeman, who outside the Statehouse works as a spokesman for Evergy in Kansas City.

Click here to read more about the Missouri Legislatures May 8 budget allocation for MTC, which ultimately was struck by the governor.

Ground-level impact

Withholding even a years budget from MTC will have a dramatic limiting effect on the states entrepreneurship ecosystem specifically startups and innovation centers, said Ben Johnson, president of NEXT Missouri, an advocacy coalition that lobbies for increased MTC funding.

What is MTC?

The Missouri Technology Corporation is a state organization that supports startups through direct co-investments and a matching grant program (including through efforts like LaunchKC and Digital Sandbox KC), as well as providing funding to nine innovation centers including those at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and Columbia, as well as Innovation Stockyard in St. Joseph.

MTC supports startups through direct co-investments and a matching grant program (including through efforts like LaunchKC and Digital Sandbox KC), as well as providing funding to nine innovation centers such as those at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and Columbia, as well as Innovation Stockyard in St. Joseph.

Among the most impactful job creation efforts from MTC: the IDEA Fund program, which supports new innovation-based, high-growth companies, Johnson said.

The private markets dont often invest at that early riskiest stage and so MTCs IDEA Funds money helps catalyze that private investment to help companies start and grow, he said.

Investing in the IDEA Funds program has allowed MTC to build and maintain a cash reserve, the Department of Economic Development said in its statement. MTC is expected to use the reserve to supplement state funding for the time being.MTC will continue to support startups and innovation centers across the state to the best of its ability in these unprecedented times, the agency said.

MTC funding also largely supports the Missouri Building Entrepreneurial Capacity (MOBEC) Program, which provides funding to nonprofits, universities and other organizations that offer entrepreneurial support programs.

Without its state funding, Johnson said, MTC will have a more difficult time backing such efforts. The reduction in funds certainly hurts the ability for MTC to catalyze private investment or to support organizations that are building on entrepreneurial businesses, he said.

A great friend

This summers hit to MTC funding predates the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson said.

In 2016, MTC received $17 million from the state. The following year, its funding was reduced to $13 million. Johnson described MTC funding as a continued decline.

The state had been making pretty significant investments up to $20 million a year and really created a significant amount of entrepreneurial momentum across the state, he said. Over the last three or four years, thats been chipped away, now down to the million-dollar level.

Sarah Hill, Healium

Sarah Hill, founder of Columbia-based Healium, witnessed firsthand how MTC funding makes a difference in the lives of entrepreneurs, she said.Missouri Technology Corporation has been an incredible partner for us, said Hill, whose company was named one of Startland News Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2020. If it wasnt for their funding, our business would not be alive today MTC allowed us to have credibility as a young company, and when youre trying to raise money, thats incredibly important.

Click here to check out the Missouri Technology Corporations funding portfolio.And MTC doesnt only help business owners but the states economy as a whole, she added.

The state of Missouri has a great friend in MTC, but its not just a friend of entrepreneurs, because that funding directly impacts the states bottom line in the form of jobs, Hill said. We were able to get over that valley of death; We were able to hire more employees; We were able to secure additional IP and secure additional revenue, which ultimately benefits the state of Missouri.

Hegeman remains optimistic that once the pandemic is over, the state will again boost MTC.

MTC is a great resource for startup companies, so anytime we can increase funding for it, it is a positive for those businesses, he said. Startups are very important for the state economy and we need to show that Missouri is a leader for job creators and innovation.

Eighty percent of net new job growth comes from new businesses, Johnson said, noting his belief that investing in entrepreneurship will be critical to COVID-19 recovery.

We think about not just responding to the pandemic and economic crisis that were in now, but really think about recovery, he said. Its going to be new businesses that really drive that recovery and get us back to a buzzing economic engine in the state.

This story was produced through a collaboration betweenMissouri Business Alertand Startland News.

Read more from the original source:

Missouri startup support funding gutted amid COVID; Advocates hope reversing course could fuel recovery - Startland News

When Dominion Energy and Duke Energy unexpectedly cancelled plans to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline on July 5, environmental advocates throughout the Southeast cheered.

But even a few days later, Mark Sabath, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, still seemed a bit shocked by the victory. His organization worked for six years to stop the 600-mile-long pipeline, which would have transported fracked gas through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.

We were surprised in terms of it happening when it did, he says of the companies decision. But it was certainly something we were thinking for a long time should happen.

Of course, should and would are often a world apart. In fact, just a few weeks earlier, the energy companies had won a substantial victory when the Supreme Court ruled that their pipeline could cross the Appalachian Trail.

So when the word came down that Dominion and Duke were throwing in the towel, it caught a lot of people off guard. And it wasnt unique the announcement came along with a wave of other bad news for the oil and gas industry, including bankruptcies and more stalled pipeline efforts.

In his weekly column for The New Yorker, Bill McKibben summed it all up: Its been a truly awful few days for the fossil-fuel industry, which is another way of saying that its been an unexpectedly good few days for planet Earth.

Indeed, at quick glance, the industry looks like its on the ropes, but what does it all mean in the big picture? Here are some takeaways.

In a statement on the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which had ballooned in cost from an estimated $5 billion to $8 billion, the developers blamed the increasing legal uncertainty that overhangs large-scale energy and industrial infrastructure development in the United States.

But theres much more to the story than that. One of the biggest factors, Sabath says, is that the developers and their government boosters didnt follow the rules.

Cutting corners and pressuring the agencies to cut corners with their environmental reviews certainly slowed things down and made it more difficult to finish the project, he says.

Lorne Stockman, senior research analyst at Oil Change International, an anti-fossil-fuel advocacy group, explained in a blog post that federal agencies rubber-stamped eight permits without proper review.

But none of these could stand up to scrutiny when challenged in a court of law, and all were eventually revoked or suspended, wrote Stockman. The fact that [the Atlantic Coast Pipeline] cant be built without violating the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act or the National Environmental Protection Act should be an important and concerning lesson.

This short-circuiting of environmental review is a common thread Sabath sees in two other pipeline decisions that came just a day after the Atlantic Coast announcement.

On July 6 the Supreme Court nixed an attempt by the Trump administration to jumpstart construction on the Keystone XL pipeline stymied for a decade that would carry 830,000 barrels of oil sands from Alberta, Canada to Nebraska. The effort had been halted, pending further environmental review, because the Army Corps of Engineers didnt properly study how endangered species in rivers would be affected by pipeline crossings.

And that same day a U.S District judge ruled that the already-pumping Dakota Access pipeline, long opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux, needed to halt operations until the Trump administration properly conducted the review required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

We certainly saw with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline there was evidence that political higher-ups, at the developers urgings, were sticking to the developers preferred timeline and urging staff not to conduct the kind of environmental review that should have been done, says Sabath. In the end, I think that backfired and its the same thing thats now causing problems for Dakota Access and Keystone XL.

It turns out that the victory for tribes and environmentalists that halted the Dakota Access pipelines flow is now in limbo.

The company behind that project, Canadas TC Energy, has appealed the ruling and asked for a stay on the decision to shut down the pipeline while that appeal is considered. On July 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a temporary stay meaning oil can keep flowing while it considers whether or not to make that stay permanent during the appeals process.

Its too soon to say yet if this will indeed end up being a win for industry, but minimally it gets a tiny reprieve.

And despite some high-profile setbacks, like with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, oil and gas companies have also notched a few other victories.

The same Supreme Court ruling that blocked construction of Keystone XL will allow the continued use of Nationwide Permit 12 on dozens of other pipelines. This permit, issued by the Army Corps, is a general Clean Water Act permit that lets developers expedite permitting for projects crossing waterways by allowing the use of a general, instead of project-specific, permit.

And things could get even easier for pipeline developers after the White House issued a rule that would weaken the countrys bedrock environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act. The new rule would limit public review and speed up permitting for infrastructure projects like pipelines and powerplants.

This new ruling comes after the administration had previously issued three executive orders to help speed up pipeline permitting.

While the industry has faced legal ups and downs, the news is mostly bad from a financial standpoint especially for companies heavily invested in shale gas.

Chesapeake Energy, a pioneer in the fracking industry, filed for bankruptcy protection on June 28 with $10 billion in debts although not before doling out $25 million in bonuses to executives.

Chesapeake may be one of the most well known in the business to falter, but they arent alone. Just a few months ago Whiting Petroleum, once the largest producer in North Dakotas Bakken shale, filed for bankruptcy protection. So too did Denver-based Extraction Oil & Gas. And California Resources Corp, the states largest oil and gas producer, followed them into Chapter 11 in mid-July.

Many more are likely to follow. Rystad Energy, an analytics company, recently warned that 250 oil and gas companies could file for bankruptcy protection by the end of 2021 as demand continues to fall, renewables outcompete them in the energy market, and pressures mount to address climate change.

Even the majors are affected. Last year Chevron wrote down $10 billion in assets, mostly in shale gas holdings.

In many ways, the industry has been its own worst enemy.

Fracking is more resource-intensive than conventional drilling. Companies drilled at a frenetic pace to try to recoup costs, but in the process they produced a glut of gas, further driving prices and profits down.

The reality is that the shale boom peaked without making money for the industry in aggregate, found a report from the financial advisory firm Deloitte. In fact, the U.S. shale industry registered net negative free cash flows of $300 billion, impaired more than $450 billion of invested capital, and saw more than 190 bankruptcies since 2010.

And while exports of liquified natural gas are rising, The New York Times reported that future profits may be meager.

The COVID-19 pandemic has delivered another huge hit, along with an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia that sent oil prices to record lows in March. Last month BP announced they would trim $17.5 billion off their assets as energy demand falls.

Its a harbinger of things to come.

BP said that the aftermath of the new coronavirus pandemic would accelerate the transition to a lower-carbon economy, in line with the goals of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, Reuters reported.

For years environmentalists have warned that oil and gas reserves would end up being stranded assets for energy companies when a shift to a less carbon-intensive economy makes those fossil fuels unburnable.

We are beginning to see this taking shape with these recent pipeline decisions. All of these projects have been in the works for at least six years. And in that time the urgency of the climate crisis has come into sharper view and a number of states have decided to push ahead with clean energy commitments, despite federal opposition to action on climate change.

Some of these states are the same places where new pipelines have been proposed.

We certainly saw that with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, says Sabath. States like Virginia and North Carolina are moving quickly now toward clean energy and zero-carbon goals that are inconsistent with gas and oil infrastructure. It doesnt make sense to have major projects that would lock you into carbon emissions that will not be permitted in your state in a couple of years.

In March Virginia passed the Clean Economy Act to make the states electricity sector carbon free by 2045. And in 2018 North Carolinas Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order to help spur a transition to a clean energy economy in his state.

Ups and downs in the oil and gas industry arent new. But the collision of crises in this current moment the pandemic-induced demand reduction, the political and financial realities of climate change, surging clean energy, and legal reckonings on high-profile projects are a steep challenge.

How well oil and gas companies rebound if they do at all may largely depend on Novembers election.

But beyond politics, theres one other big factor that will determine how this all plays out: the people.

Mounting public opposition and effective organizing against projects that risk environmental and human health have become big forces.

The only reason that there were substantial legal challenges in the first place is because of the epic organizing that preceded the lawsuits, McKibben wrote about the three recent pipeline decisions.

And the communities whose voices are rising to the top are ones that have historically been silenced. People are starting to listen to communities of color, low-income rural communities and tribes, says Sabath. I think and hope that some of those groups who might have been marginalized in the past may be heard now.The NEPA changes may reduce one of the primary tools those groups have for voicing their concerns, but the extremely vocal activist networks that have developed over the past few years will continue to protest and organize.

Those voices in combination with a rising global chorus of opposition to fossil fuel dominance could ensure that mounting economic and environmental crises instead become opportunities for change.

See the original post here:

Oil and Gas in Flux: After a Series of Stunning Defeats, What's Next for the Industry? - The Revelator

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and survey research firm Responsive Management recently released the results of an economic analysis showing that the presence of elk is important to the southern Appalachian community and its economy. The scientific study assessed economic impacts and measured public opinion toward elk among EBCI tribal members and visitors to the Cherokee area.

The public often contacts the EBCI biological staff about elk damage and other elk related complaints, while the community does not always share more positive feedback. After years of addressing community concerns about elk and a three-year survey of local gardener perceptions about elk, the EBCI Office of Fisheries and Wildlife wanted a more comprehensive social and economic study. To better manage elk as a resource, the Tribe is investing in elk restoration and protection, but a better understanding of the communitys perspective and the value of elk to the community is necessary for determining the scope and limits of this investment.

Herds of elk frequent the Boundary on a regular basis. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photo)

From baseline data, experiences and accumulated questions, the EBCI Office of Fisheries and Wildlife commissioned Responsive Management to perform the survey research. The study entailed a scientific, probability-based telephone survey of EBCI members and an online survey of visitors to the area. The surveys explored a range of issues related to attitudes toward elk on the Qualla Boundary. Research also included an economic analysis of spending on elk viewing, which used economic modeling to calculate direct effects, indirect effects, and induced effects of that spending.

Of the $29 million and 400 jobs in the Cherokee area that are generated by elk viewing, the economic analysis calculated that about a quarter of these impacts go directly to the Qualla Boundary itself: approximately $7 million in impacts and approximately 100 jobs result from elk viewing within the Qualla Boundary.

In addition to the beneficial economic impacts, the presence of elk is appreciated by EBCI members: the overwhelming majority of members (80 percent) like having elk around, and 42 percent of members have engaged (or tried to engage) in wildlife viewing of elk.

The majority of EBCI tribal members think the size of the elk population is about right (61 percent); otherwise, they are divided, with 19 percent saying it is too high and 13 percent saying it is too low. (The remainder responded that they did not know).

An overwhelming majority of EBCI tribal members (80 percent) like having elk around, although some of those members like them but worry about the problems that elk cause (24 percent). A small percentage of members (7 percent) regard elk as a nuisance. The remainder have no particular feeling about elk.

Problems with visitor viewing was twice that of problems with the elk themselves: in the past 12 months, 13 percent of members had problems with elk, while 26 percent had problems with people viewing elk. Examples of problems experienced with elk most commonly included damage to gardens and landscaping, while nearly all problems with visitors and tourists viewing elk involved transportation issues, such as traffic jams and illegal or obstructive parking.

A sizeable percentage of visitors (43 percent) had been to Harrahs Cherokee Casino within the past 12 months, with about a third of those visitors saying that having elk in the area influenced their decision to come to Harrahs Casino.

The full report of study results can be access here: https://cherokeenaturalresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Cherokee-2020-Report-20-03-19.pdf

Elk, such as this one photographed at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, are thriving in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and surrounding areas. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photo)

Following the successful reintroduction of elk into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the early 2000s, surrounding communities have benefited from the presence of the species by marketing elk-related recreational attractions to residents and visitors. The most-visited national park in the United States, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, has been home to a growing elk herd since 2001, when elk were first released in Cataloochee Valley. Since then, surrounding towns have prominently advertised elk-related activities unique to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park region.

The prominence of elk in marketing and advertising for tourism-related activities and attractions in and around Cherokee follows the examples of other areas of the country in which reintroduced elk have contributed to local economies thanks to increased tourism and participation in recreational activities involving elk.

Due to the presence of elk and its growing impact on the area, the EBCI wanted to assess the attitudes of its members toward elk presence, quantify any nuisance or conflict issues, and analyze the economic benefits of having the elk on the Qualla Boundary. The Tribe also wanted to weigh the benefits of elk compared to the costs of having elk that, for example, damage gardens and other property or cause traffic issues with tourists slowing to view elk.

As mentioned previously, in the past 12 months, 13 percent of members had problems with elk and 26 percent had problems with tourists viewing elk; in total, those who experienced problems with elk directly or problems with tourists viewing elk is about a third (33 percent) of tribal members. Among those who experienced problems, a majority (78 percent) still like having elk around: after discussing the problems they had experienced, 44 percent said they like having elk on the Qualla Boundary and 34 percent like having elk on the Qualla Boundary but worry about the problems they can cause. Only 9 percent of those who have experienced problems said they regard elk as a nuisance.

The results of this study will help the EBCI community make critical management and restoration decisions about elk. For instance, the benefits seem to outweigh any costs, whether economic or social. Most costs of having elk were related to traffic issues, so the Tribe could invest in mitigation strategies for safe and productive viewing opportunities. If it comes time to consider a draw hunt, many factors in this study will aid decisions, such as the worth of elk on the hoof and public interests. Based on these results, the Tribe may choose certain investments, like stronger laws to protect elk as a resource. The tribe may consider investing in conservation such as research and land management. Ecotourism may thrive with better strategies and greater opportunities for viewing elk. By and far, the visitors and citizens enjoy elk, and the tribes economy and community benefit greatly from their presence on the landscape.

Responsive Management is an internationally recognized survey research firm specializing in attitudes toward natural resource and outdoor recreation issues. Its mission is to help natural resource and outdoor recreation agencies, businesses, and organizations better understand and work with their constituents, customers, and the public (https://responsivemanagement.com/).

If you have any questions, contact EBCI Fisheries and Wildlife Management 359-6110 or email ebcifw@gmail.com

To learn how to safely view elk in Cherokee: https://visitcherokeenc.com/blog/entry/elk-sightings-in-cherokee-tips-for-glimpsing-the-great-big-deer/

You can learn more about EBCI Fisheries and Wildlife and elk management here: https://cherokeenaturalresources.com/fish-and-wildlife-management/

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Cherokee Elk Study shows importance to Appalachian community and economy - The Cherokee One Feather - Cherokee One Feather

This article appeared in the June 2020 issue of Resource Recycling.Subscribe todayfor access to all print content.

This story is the latest in our Steps to Circularity series, which explores projects and viewpoints connecting the business of recycling to the wider circular economy movement.

We know that the world needs a circular economy now more than ever. Cities are looking for ways to meet the expectations of residents and handle materials efficiently. Many companies, meanwhile, have ambitious packaging sustainability targets to meet in the coming years.

In our 2019 Bridge to Circularity report, The Recycling Partnership provided a clear roadmap to improve recycling, one of many steps needed to move the U.S. toward a circular economy so many stakeholders are hoping to see materialize. Its clear, however, that transitioning to a circular economy requires systems change.

Thats why were excited about our new initiative that can guide next steps: The Pathway to Circularity.

The Pathway to Circularity provides a methodology and approach to problem-solving that will address the limitations associated with the recyclability and circularity of certain packaging materials today. This action-oriented and solutions-based initiative navigates current and future packaging and recycling system challenges.

Additionally, one of the principal features of the Pathway to Circularity is that it is a living roadmap, one that can evolve and take into account shifts in innovation, market realities and uncontrollable external factors (like a global pandemic). It is designed to be a dynamic tool, with the flexibility to grow and shift with us, as the system of the future is being built.

Navigating the recycling industry can be tricky, in part because there are currently a lot of gray areas and concepts. There are certain industry standards and thresholds that do not exist, and no one place that shows the concrete steps needed to achieve circularity and true recyclability for materials or packages.

One example is this common question: What does successful sortation at a recycling facility look like? Currently, there is no threshold or standard for successful sortation. The Pathway to Circularity is intended to wash away the gray and bring needed clarity to enable more stakeholders to successfully navigate and advance the circular economy.

Currently, the Pathway to Circularity is focused on recycling and circularity through municipal collection programs, whether curbside or dropoff. For packaging, a gold standard in the industry today is being deemed commonly accepted for recycling. However, many different considerations come to mind when one thinks about a material or package being commonly accepted.

Access, sortation and end markets may be a few concepts that come to mind. But should we be thinking about these as separate check boxes, or should we highlight how interconnected and interdependent recycling and circularity truly are? For example, instead of simply determining whether access exists in a given area, can we think deeper about what access means? Why does a MRF say it will accept a certain material or format? Usually this is indicative of conditions around end markets and material demand, but has that been fully investigated and understood?

The Pathway to Circularity initiative will strive to bring a new depth to these types of conversations and bring to light the interdependence of the varying factors that shape recycling and circularity.

While commonly accepted for recycling is currently the focal point of the Pathway, attaining this status for different materials is not an end point, but a milestone. For a material to remain truly viable in the recycling system, continuous evaluation and, at times, additional work will be necessary. There are examples in our industry today of commodities that have reached common acceptance in collection systems but that require additional action when it comes to increasing demand for the material in reliable end markets.

Each material in the recycling stream will have its own unique path and challenges. The Pathway to Circularity will provide a strategic assessment that guides efforts to address issues at each step in the recycling supply chain.

The Pathway to Circularity provides opportunities to advance circularity with various stakeholders working together. This is an important point because effecting meaningful system change across the U.S. requires industry alignment and consensus.

This industry alignment will be achieved through The Pathway to Circularity Industry Council (otherwise known as the Circularity Council), which includes industry leaders representing various material types, brands, cities and states, MRFs, and retailers. The objective of the Circularity Council, which will meet for the first time in late June, is to form a cohesive network to enable industry alignment, break down barriers, and catalyze system change. The Council will address core program principals, align on the overarching framework, and identify gray areas and other challenges.

Ultimately, the Council will define new industry thresholds needed to successfully navigate the recyclability and circularity of packaging materials today.

Furthermore, in order to improve the system, we must put a focus on individual materials. And this is not something any one organization or business can do alone.

The Pathway to Circularity methodology and emerging strategic assessment process provides the guidance to address unique challenges of specific packages and materials. It serves as a platform to enable pre-competitive collaboration to achieve recyclability through the creation of material and packaging-specific coalitions, which will discuss and solve these packaging challenges.

When formed, each coalition will have different and specific objectives because each material is at a different place on the pathway to achieving circularity. However, the general pathway vision will remain constant. The material coalitions will aim to reach and/or maintain commonly accepted for recycling status for the material. The coalitions will also maximize recycling rates and post-consumer recycled content usage, as well as strengthen and expand end markets.

The Pathways polypropylene recycling coalition is an example of a material-specific collaboration that is helping to build the road to circularity.

Polypropylene (PP) is a valuable commodity that can be separated or commonly commingled with plastics Nos. 3-7. Recycled PP can be used to manufacture many different products, ranging from toys to yogurt packaging to coffee pods. End markets for this material are operating across North America, yet 3-7 bales (which include PP) are being dropped from community recycling programs.

Why? Although multiple factors are at play, MRFs do not generally have the capital to invest in the equipment, such as optical sorters and robotics, needed to capture more of this material. In addition, our data suggests that PP generation rates are as high as or higher than rates of some other recyclable plastics, such as HDPE. However, this information is not widely known or documented, leaving a knowledge gap regarding the volume of PP available for collection.

Through the polypropylene recycling coalition, industry leaders are collaborating to address this challenge head on.

The coalition will provide grants, conduct research and support education to increase curbside recycling access and recovery for PP. By working together, we aim to ensure PP is widely accepted for recycling and ultimately reaches a high recycling rate so it can be reused rather than wasted. The coalition will ensure that recycling facilities can sort PP successfully and maintain robust end markets. The aim is to supply high-quality recycled PP for use in packaging.

Overall, by improving PP curbside recycling programs, the coalition will preserve natural resources and continue to strengthen the circular economy in the United States for PP and all recyclables.

We recognize our goal is a lofty one: Its the creation of a new system that empowers us to be the best possible stewards of packaging design and recycling so we can collectively create a world that values wasting less over consuming more. A lot more is needed, but this is the beginning of a massive shift toward a circular economy for all materials, not just plastic.

Its also important to keep in mind that partnership is part of our name for a reason. We can reach this goal only by working with industry leaders and aligned organizations, including the Association of Plastic Recyclers and the World Wildlife Fund, and with the circular investment sector, led by Closed Loop Partners. And well do it with the help of the elected officials who are critical in addressing policies that are keeping recycling stuck in the 1970s.

Swift action is needed to protect natural resources and abate climate change. The Recycling Partnership stands ready to take on this challenge and calls on the many public and private sector stakeholders to join us in building the system of the future that will provide the foundation for a circular economy in the U.S.

Please contact us at [emailprotected] if youd like to partner with us on these efforts to catalyze change.

Ali Blandina is the Director of Circular Ventures at The Recycling Partnership and can be contacted at [emailprotected]

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Taking on the... - Resource Recycling

COVID-19 and related quarantine protocols have pushed the world even more online than it already was. Global energy consumption for all things digital has been increasing by about 9% per year between 2015 and 2020, and is tracking to be responsible for about 8% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission by 2025, according to the Shift Project. In fact, digital activities in 2020 are estimated to emit as much CO2 as the whole of the Middle East did in 2017.

Many companies recognize this risk and are responding to the call for more sustainably minded business practices. As of July 2020, over 900 companies have committed to take science-based climate action. Additionally, organizations will look to reduce their carbon footprints across leased spaces and data centers. Physical space landlords and data center operators that can offer facilities and services powered by renewable energy will have an opportunity to distinguish themselves in the market, drive business, and make a positive environmental impact.

Rob Johnson, CEO of Vertiv, says, The industry wrestles with capacity challenges and advanced applications that are forcing significant changes to data centers of all shapes and sizes. The message to data center equipment providers is clear: The status quo is not acceptable.

But this brings about a challenge: With such an immediate need for environmentally friendly computing, how can data centers develop more efficient energy use strategies in an increasingly resource-hungry world? While there is no simple answer, providers can take steps in the right direction. Data centers must first focus on managing their existing waste before outsourcing new solutions.

Its important to ask the hard questions: Are you making good use of the energy you have? You can have giant facilities cooled down to the temp of a meat locker, only using 40% of the space, with 25-30% of the servers running with no one knowing what theyre contributing to, Jennifer Cooke, research director at IDC, says.

Finding ways to trim unnecessary energy use is the first step to meet customer demands for sustainable decisions in the supply chain. Akamai seeks to lead the way.

Modern data centers can be a part of corporate efficiency. Since 2015, Akamais platform has grown by more than 182% but used 61% less energy per gigabit of network capacity. As our platform continues to expand, it is our responsibility to minimize our impact as much as possible. Like Akamai, many companies are looking toward their supply chain for emissions reductions, but struggle to incite change. As a thought leader, Akamai is already innovating ways to reduce our own impact through software, hardware, and platform efficiencies; procuring renewable energy in our most critical markets; and partnering with green colocation providers wherever possible. Being born and bred out of MIT, our next logical step to advance sustainable action was to develop meaningful education connected to our roots.

With our ongoing Future of Internet Power (FoIP) efforts, Akamai is working with our peers across the internet ecosystem to develop a new initiative. Enter LESSEN. The Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA), the gold standard in renewable energy procurement, in partnership with Akamai, has announced the creation of the LESsor Sustainable Energy Network (LESSEN). The first-of-its-kind program is a relevant, meaningful, and interactive 10-month educational training for real estate landlords and colocation data center operators with an aim toward developing successful and long-lasting, sustainable energy strategies. LESSEN will build on the success of REBAs FoIP initiative, which has already enabled the whos who of the internet to take action and implement principles to increase environmental sustainability by addressing an industry lag in the development of renewable energy usage across the colocation world.

Industry collaboration and training like the LESSEN program is flint to spark the necessary change in lessening the environmental impacts of modern internet usage. However, it is not the only way. Encouraging collective legislative action toward carbon neutrality is just as important.

Akamai recently participated in a variety of legislative efforts with the help of the Ceres BICEP Network, focused on supporting greener and healthier communities. Along with more than 100 other companies, Akamai sponsored the regional Transportation and Climate Initiative to improve transportation and develop the clean energy economy in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states. Akamai was also a part of the Virginia Clean Economy Act to help scale cost-effective clean energy resources with the intention of putting the state of Virginia on a path toward a 100% carbon-free electricity system by 2050.

Akamai is working to reduce the impact of our business. Our goal is to accelerate meaningful progress toward a net-zero emissions future for our business, and to be part of a broader net-zero emissions movement future for all. But we cant do it alone. Sustainability work requires a collective voice.

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*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from The Akamai Blog authored by Mike Mattera. Read the original post at: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheAkamaiBlog/~3/p3YprFM5EtE/greening-the-digital-economy.html

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Greening the Digital Economy - Security Boulevard

Federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says the government remains fully committed to preserving a quarter of natural land and ocean habitat by 2025, following a call from hundreds of groups to ensure conservation is at the heart of any post-pandemic recovery.

In an open letter published July 13 to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, 235 environmental organizations, including about 50 B.C.-based groups, said they stand ready to provide staff, research and resource support to help Canada devise a strategy to achieve its biodiversity and climate targets.

The letter argues that government investments in forests, wetlands, grasslands, oceans, lakes and rivers can create jobs and help boost Canadas economic recovery as it works to build capacity following the initial wave of COVID-19.

Over the next six to 18 months, we urge the government to support investments in a variety of economic recovery solutions that support climate and biodiversity outcomes, reads the letter, signed by Nature Canada, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the David Suzuki Foundation and others.

Over the longer term, expert advice should be sought by relevant departments on how to structure programs and investments in order to achieve the transformative relationship between society and nature that is needed to ensure a healthy and sustainable future for Canadians.

Canada set a target to conserve at least 17 per cent of land and freshwater, and 10 per cent of marine areas, by this year, as part of the Convention on Biological Diversity. According to federal government figures, by the end of 2019 it had reached this goal for marine areas, but not for land and freshwater.

Those figures show that Canada conserved 13.8 per cent of its marine territory, and 12.1 per cent of land and freshwater by the end of 2019. The proportion of conserved land and water varies widely across the country, with British Columbia conserving the most, at 19.5 per cent.

Last year, dozens of scientists warned the Trudeau government it was not on pace to meet its conservation goals. During the federal election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to increase the amount of land, freshwater and marine areas conserved to 25 per cent by 2025.

The goals under the convention say the original target should be achieved by 2020, but Trudeau said during the campaign that the government was on track to its 17 per cent goal by the end of next year.

In July, Canada also joined the Global Ocean Alliance, which has as its goal the protection of 30 per cent of the oceans by 2030. Meanwhile, Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan said Canada will work toward a new biodiversity target under the Convention on Biological Diversity, next year in 2021.

Harry Crosby, president of North Vancouver-based BC Nature, a federation of more than 50 naturalist clubs across the province, said in an interview that he was encouraged by the promises and the concern which the federal government is showing on the issue of biodiversity and land protection, but wanted to see more details.

Our concern is that there needs to be a coherent policy developed, Crosby said. Its great to talk about spending money on biodiversity, but our concern is looking at the difference between the general policy statements and the practice, whats actually happening on the ground.

Wilkinsons press secretary Moira Kelly said the governments priority remains COVID-19, but climate change and biodiversity loss still present a threat to our economic and physical well-being.

We remain fully committed to preserving 25 per cent of Canadas land and oceans by 2025 and ensuring that nature-based climate solutions are embedded in our plans to fight climate change, Kelly said.

We are always open to hearing innovative and green ways to grow our economy while protecting the environment, and will consider these recommendations with interest.

The letter points out that biodiversity loss is accelerating worldwide, and Canada has a responsibility, as a country with a large land mass containing many ecosystems, for the welfare of planetary diversity.

Out of 80,000 species in Canada, there is only enough information to assess the health of 30,000 of which a fifth are imperiled, they said.

Natural landscapes are key to storing up to 20 per cent of carbon pollution over the next 30 years, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a fact that is key to avoiding the more severe effects of the climate crisis.

In Canada, human disruption is leading to habitat loss, which is putting its Paris climate target at risk, the letter said.

In addition to BC Nature, officially the Federation of British Columbia Naturalists, there are 47 other B.C.-based organizations that have put their names to the letter, including West Coast Environmental Law, Wildsight and the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve Society.

Carl Meyer / Local Journalism Initiative / Canadas National Observer

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Trudeau urged to boost Canada's post-COVID economy by investing in nature - National Observer