OFG-HowToFreeYourself.svg

books

Energy

Poorest Countries Barred From Building Green Economy

UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan has   issued a rallying call for 2024, in a statement   claiming that the rich countries are using the green   transition as an excuse to boost their own economies   at the expense of developing ones. According to the UN’s trade chief, the world’s   advanced economies are greenwashing to make their   own eco-credentials look better, while preventing poorer countries from developing quickly.

Grynspan attacked the EU for taking Indonesia to the WTO over its restrictions on nickel exports and requirement to process the ore locally. She said Jakarta wanted to move up the value chain by making products from the nickel.  It is only reasonable for a country with an overstretched electricity grid to want to use its own nickel tp produce its own batteries, fro example – rather than being forced to export to China or Canada.

UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan has issued a rallying call for 2024, in a statement claiming that the rich countries are using the green transition as an excuse to boost their own economies at the expense of developing ones.

“They don’t want it to be exported in the raw form, but with value added. So they were taken to arbitration in the WTO. They lost in the first instance precisely because global trade rules have not been adjusted,” she said.   She said that the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures should be reformed.  Jakarta has appealed but because the US has blocked the formation of a WTO appellate body, the case has stalled. The EU is considering taking enforcement actions such as tariffs on Indonesian goods.   It makes for a “chaotic system” where richer, bigger countries have more power.

“Many trade rules forbid policies that can be used by developing countries. And the developed countries have more fiscal space to subsidise in the areas that are good for ‘quote, unquote’, the environment,” Grynspan, told the Financial Times in an interview.

She said the international trading system, which had allowed states such as South Korea and her native Costa Rica to progress, was no longer working for the poorest.  “Trade and investment have been the two pillars for developing countries to really go on to a path of dynamic growth,” she said. But they now face two big problems, locked out of markets by the fast pace of technological change and facing new barriers erected in rich countries.  “The least digitally prepared countries are falling farther behind in digital,” said Grynspan. “The other problem is that industrial policy …could affect developing countries’ ability to compete.”

The US landmark Inflation Reduction Act has $369bn of subsidies and tax breaks for domestically produced goods such as electric vehicles. The EU has responded in kind with increased subsidies and policies to stimulate production of silicon chips, critical minerals and green technology.  “Developing countries see a lot of these policies as protectionist. They don’t have the …

Read More »

Seed catalogs

It’s the middle of winter, cold, dreary, but something I start receiving in my mailbox makes me long for the warm days of spring, the seed catalogs. Those shiny, colorful pages full of picture of ripe fruit and veggies and herbs. I have already started buying some things, a week ago, while on one of my rare trips to town (it’s a 3+ hour drive to town), I was in a Sam’s Club store, I was about to start heading for the check out lanes when I spotted something green and leafy sticking out from an odd aisle.

Read More »

Tough Times Survival Guide vol 1 – book review

1192_1459_largeReading, learning, it’s what I enjoy doing. Before the internet, I would go to the three local libraries in my hometown, I would check out as many books as each on would allow, take them all home, read-read-read until I had gotten through all of them, then I return the books to their respective homes and start all over again. I tended to read non-fiction, I preferred them over fiction most of the time. With the exception of a few notable authors such as Stephen King, Jean M. Auel, and such…

With the advent of the internet and ebooks, I mostly read what I can get in digital format, including audiobooks. So these last couple of books I’ve read, I have held in my hand, turned pages, it was quite old-school for me. J I love it. Now, on to the book review.

Read More »

Makeshift Workshop Skills for Survival and Self-Reliance book review

61naptestel-_sl160_-9729446 I typically do reviews on eBooks, but a while back I was contacted by James Ballou to do a review of a hard copy, Makeshift Workshop Skills for Survival and Self-Reliance, published by Paladin Press. Of course I was thrilled to review his book; honestly I had seen it previously and had been interested in reading it, so I jumped at the chance. It turns out that my instincts were correct, this is a great and useful book!

Read More »

Getting the Children Involved

When deciding on changing to a more self-sufficient lifestyle it’s important to include your children in on the reasons why and it’s benefits. Some children may just be fortunate enough to grow up in this lifestyle but most will probably be making this journey with their parents.

We’ve have been lucky in that our children have embraced this lifestyle and are actively pursuing ways to improve our self sustainability. Also they haven’t had any social problems at school since global warming and being environmentally responsible with trash is a topic touched on in my children’s public school. They are almost as impatient as us to be completely off the grid. Planning our gardens this year is to be less for learning and more for what is necessary for us to fulfill our vegetable and herb needs. Though we know that during our first full gardening year we will over and under plant some crops we are excited to know that we are planning on producing most of our grown food ourselves.

Our children also have a way of making sure we don’t lose site of the big picture. Sometimes we get so mired in on project that we forget that it is just part of a bigger plan and perfection is not needed for it to work. Also their pride and excitement about doing something about the way our world has been being treated is infectious to those they come in contact with, such as teachers, other children, coaches, an so on. Including our children in our plans and why we chose it also open the dialogue between us. Since parents are not always informed on the environmental studies of children nor are the teachers as well versed as we would like we are able to discuss it with them and minimize some fears and expand on some topics. After one such class my oldest daughter was afraid to eat fruit for fear of pesticides. Since we go for organic and I thoroughly was any vegetable or fruit that comes into our home I was able to soothe her fears.

What brought this home to me about including children in the journey is that there is not many books out there that can help explain and/or make this way of life seem if not “normal” just not “odd”. I am volunteering at my children’s school book-fair and only noticed 2, though one was the same book just easier for younger children, at the fair. I saw multiple books on “High School Musical”, “Narnia”, and even “Indiana Jones” but to only see those two that touched on this topic was a little disheartening. The book Down-to-Earth Guide To Global Warmingby Laurie David & Cambria Gordon and their “Get Down to Earth: What You Can Do To Stop Global Warming” was a nice thing to see tucked in with all the …

Read More »

Put A Little Green in Your Spring Reading

When we started our journey to get off the grid we did not even realize that there was so many wonderful books available to help inform and encourage us. So we would like to share some of those we started with as well as some recent ones we’re still enjoying with you.

Since so much of the lifestyle we relish has now become more of an accepted, if not “hip” thing, the amount of space in our local bookstore has not only grown but better organized. The nice thing about that is that there is more information then ever out there to encourage more and more people to chose this path for themselves. On the other hand we really do advise reading part if not all of a book before adding it to your library. Libraries are a great source of information and many of the books that now grace our ever growing library was first read on loan. Another source, if you are lucky enough to have one where you live, is a book swap. We are fortunate in Baltimore to have “The Book Thing” which is a great place to drop off old book so they can begin a new life and give some a new home.

So above we have listed a few we thought would make great spring/summer reading. As always we are always happy to hear comments from our readers so if you have enjoyed or even dislike one please fell free to post a comment. Also if you think we missed out on promoting a book that should be read also feel free to post that also.

Also reminder that the Great Energy Efficiency Day by the Alliance to Save Energy is still taking registration for April 16, 2008. Then on Sunday April 20, 2008 Earth Day Events will be happening around the globe. You can see whats happening near you here. Let’s make this April a month to remind all those politicians that want our votes come November that our Environment and Energy Usage/Needs are a concern we want taken seriously and worked on. So as the Earth Day Organization is encouraging make sure your registered to vote for the coming elections and then let the politicians know we will be voting for not only our future but those our children and that of future generations to come.

Read More »
Mobile

Amazon Kindle

Wireless off-grid reading machine – never suffer from damp books again.

Read More »

off-grid.net

Join the global off-grid community

Register for a better experiencE on this site!