Electric-car infrastructure coming to Australia

In just a few years, Aussies will be driving to and fro in electric vehicles, plugging in to a grid...

On the need to distinguish between consumption spending and investment spending

A while back, both Ezra and Ryan pointed to this post from James Surowecki, economics writer for the New Yorker....

The flawed economics of nuclear power

Over the last few years the nuclear industry has used concerns about climate change to argue for a nuclear revival....

New book by Porritt argues that we need to reshape capitalism to deliver a sustainable future

Peter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe.

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We have just published the American paperback version of Capitalism As If the World Matters. The book is written by Jonathon Porritt, one of the foremost environmentalists of his generation and cofounder of my organization, Forum for the Future. The foreword is by Amory Lovins. As well as working with us, Jonathon is chair of the U.K. Government's Sustainable Development Commission. Previously, he was director of Friends of the Earth.

In the book, he tackles the most pressing question of the 21st century: Can capitalism, as the dominant economic system, be reshaped to deliver a sustainable future? He argues that it can be and it must be. He then lays out the framework for a more "sustainable capitalism."

At the heart of the book are two theses: that capitalism is basically the only game in town, with the vast majority of the world's people content for it to remain so for the foreseeable future; and that learning to live sustainably on the planet is a non-negotiable imperative.

Deregulation and inequality are bad for both the economy and the environment

Now that financial apocalypse has been (possibly) delayed a few weeks, let’s focus on the mortgage crisis and see what...

Massive U.N. study attempts to do for biodiversity what IPCC did for climate

When Wall Street saw around $1-$1.5 trillion dollars go up in smoke from the financial sector, the world rightfully freaked...

Snippets from the news

• Penguins will take a hit from climate change. • GAO investigating quick approvals of oil and gas drilling projects...

EPA’s first administrator is bullish on Obama, but not cap-and-trade

Bill Ruckelshaus has been advising President-elect Obama’s transition team on environmental policy, and it’s no wonder: He knows a fair...

Pearlstein: ‘A Detroit bankruptcy beats a bailout’ — but what do you think?

I’m quite interested in hearing your thoughts on two questions: How much of your money, if any, should the government...