Falling, Surging, Plunging, Soaring - Paul Krugman

My last post could be changed to "54 Days - Change We Must Participate in!"



Paul Krugman, 2008 Nobel Prize Award in Economics, used these interesting words juxtaposed in his November 21 article published in the New York Times titled "The Lame-Duck Economy"

Stock Market falling, employment surging, manufacturing plunging, interest rates (corporate bonds) soaring.

Krugman asks, "How much can go wrong in the two months before Mr. Obama takes the oath of office? The answer, unfortunately, is: a lot. Consider how much darker the economic picture has grown since the failure of Lehman Brothers, which took place just over two months ago. And the pace of deterioration seems to be accelerating."

He concludes by stating, "But nothing is happening on the policy front that is remotely commensurate with the scale of the economic crisis. And it’s scary to think how much more can go wrong before Inauguration Day."

A few days after I read Krugman's article came across a web page of the Natural Capital Institute - "Helping society towards a socially just and environmentally restorative existence" and read the quote below by Bill Moyers.

"An unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda, is less inclined to put up a fight and ask questions and be skeptical. That kind of orthodoxy can kill a democracy or worse."

Paul Hawken is the founder and executive director of The Natural Capital Institute.(NCI) I wrote about him and his new book titled "Blessed Unrest" in my post on August 20, 2007.

Hawken and NCI launched the Wiser Earth project on Earth Day, April 2007. "Since its release, WiserEarth's functionality and tools have co-evolved with its users. Starting out as a directory, WiserEarth now offers social networking tools and groupware for people to connect and collaborate around issue areas.

Interestingly, at the same time Wiser Earth was starting, myself and some local friends started the Idaho Common Adventure Network to "Share Place Based and Environmental Interests." I have also joined Wiser Earth and several other organizations trying to learn more about how to encourage citizens to become more involved in local, regional and global environmental issues they care about.

There are a lot of new Geospatial and networking tools that are available to encourage individuals and groups to start projects and become more involved in decisions that affect their lives. Last week I prepared an online presentation related to GeoWeb Common Adventure Networking that I also presented to the 2008 Idaho Environmental Summit. I plan to write another post examining my two plus year involvement with that organization in a few days.