from a great article in Harpers this month:

Another way of understanding the presence of gift economies—which dwell like ghosts in the commercial machine—is in the sense of a public commons. A commons, of course, is anything like the streets over which we drive, the skies through which we pilot airplanes, or the public parks or beaches on which we dally. A commons belongs to everyone and no one, and its use is controlled only by common consent. A commons describes resources like the body of ancient Music drawn on by composers and folk musicians alike, rather than the commodities, like “Happy Birthday to You,” for which ASCAP, 114 years after it was written, continues to collect a fee. Einstein’s theory of relativity is a commons. Writings in the public domain are a commons. Gossip about celebrities is a commons. The silence in a movie theater is a transitory commons, impossibly fragile, treasured by those who crave it, and constructed as a mutual gift by those who compose it.

Hi,

I am an environmental and natural resource economist who studies the effects of projected climate change on our state’s built environment. The built environment in my current project includes bridges, roads, water/sewer, and many different types of buildings.

Prior to arriving in Alaska, I was an economist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (Boulder, CO USA) where I built sophisticated models to study the effects of weather variability on the U.S. economy.

As a researcher who works in the arctic where these changes seem to be the most pronounced, I am happy to write in to climate commons to report on my observations.

many people have asked me what art and science have in common? I am more interested in what they don’t have in common I think. Of course there are shared subjects (climate change, the Arctic, glaciers, etc.) and shared investment in a process of inquiry, research, and analysis. But even each of those things can be broken down and found to share only the most gross of efforts. But that seems less useful than contemplating where their differences lie, or more aptly, how they might come together to create a greater whole? I am interested in focusing on the role of research that both artists and scientists share an active engagement with.

The [NECC web site] has an interesting list of resources, including the [2006 Report Card on climate change Action].

Third Annual Assessment of the Region progress Towards Meeting the Goals of the New England Governors Eastern Canadian Premiers climate change Action Plan of 2001

[John Elkington] writes for Inside Green Business on the emergence of sustainability.

An extract:

Be prepared. October 2007 will mark the twentieth anniversary of the World Commission on environment & Development report, [Our Common Future], also known as the Brundtland Commission report, which began the process of driving the concept of sustainable development into the political mainstream. Whether or not we take up the challenge, we will have an unparalleled opportunity to assess our progress to date. But for anyone who attended this year’s [World Economic Forum] (WEF) annual summit, the answers were already clear–and they are far from comforting.

Read the full article on Inside Green Business. Signup required.

Real Cost of oil Equates to $10 Gallon Gasoline
Source: IAGS
[Apr 02, 2006]

SYNOPSIS: Milton Copulos, president of the [National Defense Council Foundation] and Senior Fellow at the [Institute for the Analysis of Global Security] tells Senate the ‘hidden cost’ premium for imported oil amounts to $825 billion.

“A set of oil supply disruptions similar in scope to those of the 1970 could carry a price tag as high as $8 Trillion - a figure equal to 62.5% of our annual GDP or nearly $27,000 for every man, woman and child living in America,” warned Milton Copulos, president of the National Defense Council Foundation and Senior Fellow at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS).