The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility

Tag Archive for ‘Ecology’

Thought Trap: ‘Consumer Society’ is the Problem

Author Frances Moore Lappé says it’s easy to join the chorus that “consumerism” is out of con¬trol and is killing us. “But the message is a nonstarter for a couple of reasons,” she writes. “For one, it doesn’t fit most people’s everyday lives, even in an ostensi¬bly wealthy country like the US.”

Thought Trap: Growth vs. No Growth?

In her continuing series on the environment, author Frances Moore Lappé says that while acclaimed environmentalists have long decried economic growth as a root of the environmental crisis, she sees that analysis as a “thought trap.” ”While I deeply share these luminaries’ vision, she writes, “the no-growth frame troubles me.”

Our Challenge: Developing an ‘Eco-Mind’

In the first part of a multi-part series, author Frances Moore Lappé suggests we need to change the way we frame problems if we want to come up with real solutions to our environmental challenges. “The hard fact of human existence,” she writes,” is that if our mental frame is flawed, we’ll fail no matter how hard and sincerely we struggle.

Environment: Assessing the Real Costs of “Externalities”

For decades environmentalists have argued that economics should take into account the costs borne by such externalities in order to discern the true overall value to society of any given action or activity. The company or utility that operates the polluting factory, for instance, should be required to compensate the larger society by paying for the pollution it produces so as to offset the harm it does.

Hydroelectric Dams – The Good and Bad

Hydroelectric dams are among the greenest and most affordable electricity sources in the world—and by far the most widely used renewable energy sources—but they also take a heavy environmental toll in the form of compromised landscapes, ecosystems and fisheries.