Green (Living) Review

Telling Piketty the real reason why economies can't keep growing

piketty-capital-21st-century-inequality-ecological-crisis-environment-limits-growth

Thomas Piketty’s “Capital” is an extremely important contribution to the study of economics and inequality over the last few centuries. But because it fails to address the real limits on growth—namely our ecological crisis—it can’t be a roadmap for the next. (Photo: Dai Luo / Flickr)

By now, it’s no secret that French economist Thomas Piketty is one of the world’s leading experts on inequality. His exhaustive, improbably popular opus of economic history—the 700-page Capital in the Twenty-First Century—sat atop the New York Times bestseller list for weeks. Some have called it the most important study of inequality in over 50 years.

Piketty is hardly the first scholar to tackle the linkage of capitalism with inequality. What sets him apart is his relentlessly empirical approach to the subject and his access to never before used data—tax and estate records—that elegantly demonstrates the growing trends of income and wealth inequality. The database he has compiled spans 300 years in 20 different countries.

Exactingly empirical and deeply multidisciplinary, Capital is an extremely important contribution to the study of economics and inequality over the last few centuries. But because it fails to address the real limits on growth—namely our ecological crisis—it can’t be a roadmap for the next.

Inequality and Growth

One of the main culprits of inequality, according to Piketty (and Marx before him), is that investing large amounts of capital is more lucrative than investing large amounts of labor. Returns on capital can be thought of as the payments that go to a small fraction of the population—the investor class—simply for having capital.

The Magic of Mullein

We are so lucky to have Mullein growing wild here in South Carolina. It is so prolific and easy to find and grow. This year a dear friend blessed me with a few "starter" plants, along with the warning to keep them contained or they would go everywhere. I brought them home and planted them about 2 months ago in an old galvanized tub. My goodness, they have grown! They are getting ready to bloom, so I will be harvesting, and drying, the leaves before that happens so that I can create all of the beneficial remedies that Mullein can make. This photograph is my pot full of Mullein just a couple of months after planting.

mullein

The German Democratic Republic had few raw materials

by Michael smith (Veshengro)

The German Democratic Republic had few raw materials and therefore they had to base their production of goods had to be based on longevity and as can be seen was no mistake as still to this very day many products made in that country some forty or fifty years ago work as good as the day they were made.

The photo here shows a raw food processor for the RG 28 hand food mixer made by VEB Elektrogerätewerk Suhl which still works after well over thirty years since it was made.

This product, like others made in the GDR, can be opened and easily be repaired. Something that today, unfortunately, simply is no longer possible in most cases, which is stupidity in the extreme.

We too now, despite of what we are led to believe, are facing a raw material shortage, such as in the case of bauxite, the ore from which aluminium is produced, but also others and, for the sake of the Planet too, we must therefor change the way industry (and we in general) work. Products must be made – once again – with longevity and repairability by design. And we must get away from needing to replace things every six month to a few years simple because they have become “obsolete”.

Non-renewable raw materials are under pressure and thus, aside from needing to look at the use of secondary raw materials, we must turn (back) to renewable materials for the production of our goods, such as wood, where appropriate.

Wood used to be used for many application where we, today, find aluminium or, more often, plastics, and that included cases for radio and television sets, and there is no reason why this should not be the case again.

And, there are also plastics that are not oil-based and while they are not the greatest thing either as to environmental friendliness if and when the products are made in such a way that they can be repaired and kept alive for as long as at all possible then using such materials for casings and such like may be excusable.

Facing a serious shortage of non-renewable raw materials of all kinds leading us to a situation, on a worldwide level, as the German Democratic Republic faced from almost day one, and we thus need to take a look how they overcame the problems.

It is true that it did lead to shortages, compared to what was available in capitalist countries where raw materials came could be had by the boat load from anywhere in the world. And this, in turn, as products were thus also expensive, compared to the equivalent ones in the West, led products having to be made in such a way that they would last and could be repaired and thus kept alive almost indefinitely.

And, while it is true that the German Democratic Republic certainly was not a model of green this was a rather sustainable way of working and we must get our industries to get back to this.

In addition to that an entire sector of the economy in East Germany, as the German Democratic Republic was often referred to in the West, was geared to repairing things that stopped working or that got damaged and that economic sector was a thriving one. Not because things got broken and damaged but because people wanted to keep things alive; had to, in fact, and that included everything from bedlinen to radios and television sets and everything in between.

There is maybe, just maybe, a lesson in this we all can learn from.

How losing out on an allotment made me get creative about growing veg

Mark Ridsdill Smith – The Guardian’s regular Vertical veg man - explains in this feature how he began growing food on his small balcony and windowsills. The happiness he found completely changed his life

Live better vert veg Over several years Mark has grown hundreds of pounds worth of produce on a small balcony Photograph: Mark Ridsdill Smith

When I put my name down on the Camden allotment waiting list in 1998 I expected to wait. But years passed and I barely moved up the list. My long-nurtured dream of growing my own food seemed no closer to fruition. The only thing growing was my frustration.

I was working in the centre of London, and living in a first floor flat with an 8ft by 6ft balcony, six window sills and a small patch of concrete (where the bins lived). I had imagined that it wouldn't be possible to grow anything in the limited space I had, but a year after putting my name down on the list, I started experimentally growing herbs in a few pots on the window sills of my first floor flat. The following year I tried tomatoes, then aubergines. Still, I clung to the idea that one day I’d have my own piece of ground to grow in.

Vertical Veg man: six of the best edible flowers

Continuing our series about growing food on balconies, patios and window sills, the VV man gets a taste for edible florals

Vertical veg man edible flowers: nasturtiums There’s something rather special about serving up a salad sprinkled with edible flowers. Not only are they beautiful and uplifting, singing of summer, they are either impossible to buy in food shops or wickedly expensive if you do find them. They make a beautiful and unusual present: a flower arrangement to satisfy all the senses.

Edible flowers are an easy way to brighten your container garden, and to add colour and novelty to your salads. Some of them taste delicious, and they all look lovely in the pot and on the plate. They also have other uses. Many will attract bees and other beneficial insects to your container garden. I’ve found bees particularly keen on chive flowers and borage, while coriander and dill flowers are a magnet for hoverflies.

The good news is that if you like the idea of regularly using flowers in your cooking, or being able to give bunches away to friends, it is easy to grow a supply for yourself in just a few containers.

Here are six of the best edible flowers for containers and small spaces.

Could co-operatives replace private business to create a stronger economy?

The Greene Hill Food Co-op, New York Photo © The Nabe

Contrary to some perceptions, co-operative businesses are flourishing more than ever in the UK. Following a research project into the potential of the co-operative model, Rob Harrison proposes why it could offer an alternative to capitalism

It’s one thing to point out the flaws in our current economic system, but another entirely to propose a practical working alternative. A failure to offer clear suggestions was one of the main criticisms levelled at the wave of Occupy protests that swept the world in 2011.

More often than not, co-ops tend to perform better than other companies on social and environmental issues. Perhaps, if co-ops replaced all private businesses, the crazy ‘race to the bottom’ (when companies compete to cut wages or emissions controls the fastest in order to sell cheaper products) of unregulated international competition would somehow melt away? It’s an intriguing idea, and one that Ethical Consumer magazine explored through an essay prize, conference, online discussion, and book published with New Internationalist called People Over Capital, which gives 16 different viewpoints on this practical question.

The project found that co-ops are in fact already thriving. With the recent troubles at the Co-operative Bank liberally spread across the press, you might be forgiven for thinking that the co-operative movement is in retreat or disarray, but the reality is the opposite. In 2012, the number of co-ops in the UK increased to more than 6,000 and their turnover grew to £36bn.

Co-ops are very much an international movement as well. There are more than 800 million members of co-operatives in the world. Between them, they employ over 100 million people. This is 20% more than multinational businesses. The largest 300 co-ops in the world have a combined annual turnover of $1.1tn. In Finland, the co-operative sector is said to account for 21% of GDP, in Switzerland 16% and in Sweden 13%. Meanwhile, three-quarters of all fair trade goods are produced by co-operatives in developing countries.

These Recycled Plastic Dividers Can Create A Bike Lane In A Second

The Armadillo is just a small, gentle bump that reminds cars to stay out of cyclists' turf. Easy and cheap to install, it could help more cities take the extra step toward more complete streets.

Painted bike lanes are safer for cyclists than riding in the middle of the road, but bike lanes that are separated with a curb are even better. For example, one study found that cyclists in separated lanes had 80% fewer accidents than those in regular bike lanes. But it’s often tricky to convince city governments to take the extra, more concrete step of separation. One product from a U.K. design firm aims to help.

The “Armadillo” is a low-slung recycled plastic bump that can be installed along the edge of a bike lane. Set at an angle, the bumps allow enough space for bikes to ride back out into the street if they need to, something that isn’t as easy with a full concrete curb. But it still keeps cars out.

In cities where bike lanes are routinely ignored--like New York, where cyclist Casey Neistathilariously documented the number of illegally parked cars along one bike route a couple of years ago--having something like this to physically separate the curb is one way to make lanes more usable.

It’s a gentler reminder to drivers than a concrete curb, says Anthony Lau, managing director at Cyclehoop, the company that makes the product. “They’re not very high, so if a driver strays in the road they’ll just feel a bump and move away from the edge. It’s not like driving over concrete, which would just destroy your wheel.” Ambulances and other emergency vehicles could drive over the separator if necessary.

Why the food movement and family farmers need to learn to get along, little dogies

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This article is part of a mini-series on the plight of the mid-sized farm. Read part 1 on the difficulties of organic farming and part 3 on breaking the cycle of bigger farms and fewer farmers.

If I were still working the Smith family land, I’d be a fifth-generation Montana rancher. Instead, 628 miles, countless pairs of skinny jeans, and one internet job separate me from the family profession. Even after nearly a decade away, though, it doesn’t take much to take me back.

About a year ago, my boyfriend and I were clutching hands and whispering sweet nothings in a dive bar’s midnight air. When the jukebox switched to “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” the crowd and smell of stale beer faded away as I sat back, invisible hat in hand, to gaze at a hidden Montana horizon. My boyfriend glanced up from his beer to see his love-filled girlfriend transformed into a wistful, weatherbeaten Clint Eastwood squeezing back a horse-turd tear. “You’ve got to make me a mix of old country songs,” he said. “You don’t make mixtapes of songs like this,” Eastwood growled, squinting and drifting back to Hank Williams, Sr.

I’m gruff and conflicted when it comes to agriculture. While I love the farmers markets and food scene of Seattle, I miss our family cattle ranch, and the wheat farm my grandparents recently sold. I’ll dim the lights, massage my kale, and devour stories about food, but I feel a gulf between the world of the food movement and that of the mid-sized farms I grew up on and around. I watch countless cool-but-teeny urban ag projects pop up in cities across the U.S. that inspire but grapple with problems of scope. Meanwhile, Big Ag strengthens its hold and swallows up everything in the wide miles between — where much of our food actually comes from, where I come from. And so, whenever classic country comes on, I get dust in my eye thinking of the red dirt roads and the disappearing, simpler life they lead to. But was it ever really so simple?

My music-induced nostalgia has international company. In a Radiolab segment on music, Columbia University anthropologist of music Aaron Fox explains that, counterintuitively, country and western has roots in American urbanization. The first hit country song popped up in 1927, the year the U.S. population majority transitioned from rural to urban. “Country music is born when the country becomes a nostalgic ideal,” Fox says in the Radiolab segment. The crying steel guitars and vocalizations conjure up feelings of migration and regret, he says. And now, classic country is popular in developing countries, where everyone from Australian Aborigines to Zimbabweans (who fill soccer stadiums to see Don Williams play) understands the language of leaving the land behind afresh.

Drawing inspiration from Ben Adler’s mixtape love letter to the parks that birthed hip hop, I planned on writing about the waning of the family farm and accompanying it with a mix of my favorite old, nostalgic country songs. Combining Patsy Cline and sad stats about disappearing U.S. farmland proved too depressing for me, though, and the story stayed stuck until author, farmer, and chef Dan Barber visited the Grist office. Beyond being a third-plate philosopher andfirst-rate raconteur on food issues, he caught my ear and surprised me when he skipped the farmers market to argue for the plight of mid-size farms like the one I grew up on.

Constituting about 45 percent of our agriculture, these farms are “too big to pack up a pickup truck and sell at a farmers market, but they are increasingly much too small to compete in the Walmartification of the food system,” says Barber. “They’re literally stuck in the middle.”

Kids whose time is less structured are better able to meet their own goals, says CU-Boulder study

Children who spend more time in less structured activities—from playing outside to reading books to visiting the zoo—are better able to set their own goals and take actions to meet those goals without prodding from adults, according to a new study by the University of Colorado Boulder.

The study, published online in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, also found that children who participate in more structured activities—including soccer practice, piano lessons and homework—had poorer “self-directed executive function,” a measure of the ability to set and reach goals independently.

“Executive function is extremely important for children,” said CU-Boulder psychology and neuroscience Professor Yuko Munakata, senior author of the new study. “It helps them in all kinds of ways throughout their daily lives, from flexibly switching between different activities rather than getting stuck on one thing, to stopping themselves from yelling when angry, to delaying gratification. Executive function during childhood also predicts important outcomes, like academic performance, health, wealth and criminality, years and even decades later.”

The study is one of the first to try to scientifically grapple with the question of how an increase in scheduled, formal activities may affect the way children’s brains develop.

Munakata said a debate about parenting philosophy—with extremely rigid “tiger moms” on one side and more elastic “free-range” parents on the other—has played out in the media and on parenting blogs in recent years. But there is little scientific evidence to support claims on either side of the discussion.

Jane Barker, a CU-Boulder doctoral student working with Munakata and lead author of the study, said, “These are societally important questions that come up quite often in social commentary and casual conversations among parents. So it’s important to conduct research in this area, even if the questions are messy and not easy to investigate.”

For the study, parents of 70 6-year-olds recorded their children’s daily activities for a week. The scientists then categorized those activities as either more structured or less structured, relying on existing time-use classifications already used in scientific literature by economists.

“These were the best and the most rigorous classifications we could find,” Barker said. “They still fail to capture the degree of structure within specific activities, but we thought that was the best starting point because we wanted to connect this with prior work.”

In that classification system, structured activities include chores, physical lessons, non-physical lessons and religious activities. Less-structured activities include free play alone and with others, social outings, sightseeing, reading and media time. Activities that did not count in either category include sleeping, eating meals, going to school and commuting.

The children also were evaluated for self-directed executive function with a commonly used verbal fluency test.

The results showed that the more time children spent in less structured activities, the better their self-directed executive function. Conversely, the more time children spent in more structured activities the poorer their self-directed executive function.

Because some of the existing time-use categories might not reflect the real amount of structure involved in an activity, the researchers also did several rounds of recalculation after removing categories that were questionable. In each case the findings still held. For example, the time-use categories classify media screen time as unstructured, but the degree of structure depends on whether a child is watching a movie or playing a video game. However, when media time was removed from the data, the results were the same.

“This isn’t perfect, but it’s a first step,” said Munakata. “Our results are really suggestive and intriguing. Now we’ll see if it holds up as we push forward and try to get more information.”

The researchers emphasize that their results show a correlation between time use and self-directed executive function, but they don’t prove that the change in self-directed executive function was caused by the amount of structured or unstructured time. The team is already considering a longitudinal study, which would follow participants over time, to begin to answer the question of cause.

Other study co-authors are undergraduate alumnus Andrei Semenov, doctoral student Laura Michaelson and professional research assistant Lindsay Provan, all from CU-Boulder, and Hannah Snyder, a former CU-Boulder doctoral student and current postdoctoral researcher at the University of Denver. The study was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Read the study at http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00593/

How to Make Your Own Almond Milk - The Nickel Pincher

Why bother with the store-bought stuff full of additives you don't need when almond milk is so easy to make?

homemade almond milk

Almond milk is a great alternative to dairy milk and a delicious beverage in its own right. Drink it straight up, pour it on cereal, blend it into a smoothie, or use it in just about any recipe that calls for milk, including cream sauces, puddings, salad dressings, and baked goods.

While almond milk is easy to find in nearly every grocery store these days, the commercial products often contain way too many added sweeteners, salt, thickeners, stabilizers, and other iffy ingredients. Plus, it comes in cartons that aren't always easy to recycle.

Homemade almond milk, on the other hand, is incredibly simple and affordable. My recipe is below, but if you prefer cashew, hazelnut, or even coconut milk, you can substitute those nuts or seeds for almonds in the recipes (for coconut milk, see the last recipe for the slight variation it takes to make it).

Homemade Almond Milk
Yield: about 2 cups

Ingredients:
1 cup whole raw, organic almonds
2 cups cold water

Special equipment:
Blender or food processor
A nut milk bag or a piece of clean muslin
Colander and large bowl

Directions:
1. Put the almonds in a large glass jar, cover them with water, and let them soak overnight on the counter. Drain off the soaking water.

Why bother with the store-bought stuff full of additives you don't need when almond milk is so easy to make?

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