The report is full of maybes, but the message is clear: children who are given sweets daily have poor self-control and tend to become unhappy, violent adults. It’s not just the red ones either. Parents know that red food colour has a tendency to make children frenetic and irritable, but this study illustrates the consequences …
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Author:astraea
Sovereign wealth funds: much ado about some money
Sovereign wealth funds: much ado about some money by Charles Kovacs* The first sovereign wealth fund (SWF) was established by Kuwait in 1953,[1] and was followed by many others from 1973-4, after the first oil crisis.[2] Since then, each major jump in oil and gas prices increased the number and size of SWFs; after 2000, …
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The power of the internet: online advertising overtakes TV
According to Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers online advertising spend is now greater than TV advertising spend in the UK. The study lumps all online methods together but it remains a milestone. Apparently TV spend has a higher return though that may be changing – personally I rarely follow an on-line ad link, but then …
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The recession has not slowed humanity’s consumption of the planet.
You would have thought that an economic recession, which has slowed spending, raised unemployment and impacted trade, would have had a beneficial effect on humanity’s ecological footprint. But it has not. The Consumption Explosion continues. Humanity’s footprint is still as large as ever. Today is “ecological debt day”, the day that humanity has used the …
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Guide to Socially Responsible Investment
See here the Guide to Socially Responsible Investment by NEF (pdf).
Happy Planet Index 2.0
See here the Happy Planet Index by NEF (pdf).
Dirty politics costs you millions.
Transparency International’s 2009 corruption survey is out. There is no improvement in the swathe of corruption that stifles the work of everyone. It is a dirty scum of waste that feeds the rich, all over the world. The report notes that in the US corporations spent an average of $200,000 a year on lobbying every …
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Green rankings for US big 500 companies
Newsweek has produced a ranking of America’s 500 biggest companies according to green criteria. It is useful to get a quick overview of the initiatives taken by America’s biggest companies. However, the ranking omits companies that are much greener, like Interface, because they are not in the biggest 500. It is also noteworthy that there …
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Smoking bans’ benefits greater than expected.
Two new studies report that smoking bans cut the number of heart attacks in Europe and North America by up to a third. This “heart gain” is far greater than both originally anticipated and the 10% figure recently quoted by England’s Department of Health. Second-hand smoke is thought to increase the chances of a heart …
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Zero Growth: The Future of Business – Ethical Corp/Jonathan Porritt
The big interview: Jonathan Porritt – When real progress means standing still Business must see that zero growth is the future for developed economies, according to Jonathan Porritt Interview by Eric Marx As he prepared to step down in July as chief environmental adviser to the UK prime minister, Jonathan Porritt headed out for one …
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