Cate Gable's Page

Oil ended the day in after hours trading at $139.12 (at my local pump the price of gas is $4.35/gallon); it takes roughly $1.57 to equal one euro these days; and jobs fell for the 5th month in a row, pushing the unemployment rate to its highest level since 1986! Global climate change not withstanding and recession or not, the weather is decidedly chilly.

We all know that global warming has spawned a big market for hedging against climate instability; now there's a market for brokering future weather to small players.

"Weather derivatives are financial instruments that can be used by organizations or individuals as part of a risk management strategy to reduce risk associated with adverse or unexpected weather conditions." (wiki) There are a couple sites pricing the future of weather that have created products that can be taken advantage of by sm… Continue

Water rationing has started in the San Francisco East Bay as-of the middle of May. Based on a news article by Kelly Zito for the SF Chronicle (complete article posted in the Library). "Residents of single-family homes throughout much of Alameda and Contra Costa counties are required to immediately reduce water use by 19 percent; golf courses face 30 percent cuts; refineries and manufacturers must trim 5 percent."

The problem is that there is no provision for people who have already done their b… Continue

From BBC news site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7424535.stm

Excerpt from article by Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

Damage to forests, rivers, marine life and other aspects of nature could halve living standards for the world's poor, a major report has concluded.

Current rates of natural decline might reduce global GDP by about 7% by 2050. [This seems too conservative to me. CG]

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) review is model… Continue

In 1987, in a public referendum, Italian voters overwhelming demanded that the four nuclear power plants in Italy be decommissioned. (Remember that the Chernobyl nuclear disaster was in April of 1986.)

Yesterday Industry Minister Claudia Scajola said building "a group of new-generation nuclear power stations" would reduce the country's reliance on oil and gas. He indicated that construction would begin by 2013.

Too bad global leaders haven't spent these interveving years since Chernobyl more a… Continue