Information vs. wisdom: Ideas, not money, alleviate poverty

I once believed that capital was another word for money, the accumulated wealth of a country or its people. Surely, I thought, wealth is determined by the money or property in one’s possession. Then I saw a Deutsche Bank advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that proclaimed: “Ideas are capital. The rest is just money.” [More]

Sustainability puts ‘student’ back in Student Symposium

The week of April 14 to 21, HPU will celebrate International Week 2007. This year’s Global Citizenship Symposium activities will expand to include, in addition to Friday’s Intercultural Day and Saturday’s presentations and workshops, a focus on sustainability that will comprise on-the-mall student exhibits Monday, a sustainability workshop with a national expert Wednesday, and a student exploration of campus sustainability on Saturday at the Hawai‘i Loa campus. [More]

EARTH TALK:
Are Kyoto Protocols failing?

As of the end of 2006, 169 countries had signed onto the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement forged in Kyoto, Japan in 1997 calling on the world’s industrialized nations to reduce emissions of so-called “greenhouse gases” thought to be contributing to global warming. The agreement called for a 5.2 percent reduction overall in the release of six pollutants—carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), and perfluorocarbons (PFCs)—by 2012 in relation to 1990 levels. [More]

The United States and Australia together account for 30 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Regrettably, neither country has agreed to sign the Kyoto agreement, which calls on the world’s industrialized nations to reduce emissions contributing to global warming.

Getty Images photo courtesy Earth Talk

Easter’s date controversy

In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII established our modern calendar and fixed the rules determining the date of Easter. This year Easter falls on April 8, but it can shift from year to year by as much as a month on Gregory’s calendar. [More]

What to do about gasoline prices

In response to recent rises in gas prices, we are once again hearing calls for the government to “do something” to force prices lower. But no matter what the price of gasoline is, such calls are wrong. All market fluctuations in the price of gasoline, up or down, are a good thing—and none of the government’s business. [More]