Blog fog

Not sure about other bloggers but occasionally there is so much I want to talk about – I end up a tad paralysed and in a blog fog!  That’s happening to me now, so today, I thought I’d answer some of the personal questions a few of you have asked me via email.

(1) From Sherry B, the question to me is: are you intending to live off-the-grid and how will you be going about this?

Sherry: I really don’t like what I’m seeing in the world these days. Global warming, destruction of forests and animal habitats, the selfishness of people and so on. I do believe that the future will be one of water shortages, food scarcity, urban distress as people increasingly move into cities looking for water and food, increasing conflict between different ethnic groups. And I think ultimately this will lead to human extinction. There is no reason to believe that humans are exempt from extinction, especially if the world population numbers continue to explode.

So I am fully intending to withdraw from mainstream society. We are currently looking for land in Europe. Anywhere on this stressed out planet is likely to suffer from global warming but the indications are grim for Australia. Prof Ross Garnaut just released a new paper on carbon pricing and emissions as part of his Climate Change Review. You can read it here.  Indications are that parts of Europe won’t be so badly hit by climate change, so we’re looking for land that has its own water source, where we can grow vegetables, generate our own power and live a quieter life.

(2) From PaisleyDays comes the question: Are you paranoid about everything or just biometrics?

PaisleyDays: Love your name! I’m sure some people might answer, yep she’s paranoid about everything. But actually I’m reasonably laid back. I don’t fret about being attacked by strangers. I never really worried about the Communists invading during the Cold War. I don’t believe that the CIA, FBI or ASIO is tracking me or listening in to my phone calls (and dudes, if you are – you would have found out by now that I’m a pretty boring person who leads a relatively quite life!). So no, I’m not totally paranoid.

I do subscribe to the odd conspiracy theory now and then. I reckon that Lee Harvey Oswald was set up and that dark forces probably knocked off Prez Kennedy (dark forces being US Government types). I’m 50/50 on whether an alien was ever autopsied.

Biometrics and the erosion of our civil liberties though is a conspiracy for sure. The State/Government is attempting to control us and we are submissive sheep going along for the ride bleating the mantra “if you have nothing to hide, then why worry about having your fingerprints, irises and face scanned”. That mantra is a cop out if you ask me. The essence of the State/Government is that it is to serve you. But particularly since 9/11, we have seen an expansion of executive power in Western democracies, a detachment from the rule of law and a full-frontal attack on civil safeguards. Our relationship with the very Governments that are supposed to serve us has altered – and not in our favour.

(3) From ConstantCravings comes the question: why don’t you talk about KM more?

ConstantCravings: true to say my “day job” involves me in Knowledge Management. I’ve been in this field/discipline/profession (depends on your view as to which it is!) for about 12 years now. Do I ever get tired of it? Absolutely!  It’s a tough field to be in because organisations still don’t “get it”. Some places I’ve worked in have equated KM with IT. Others are very hierarchical and bureaucratic, so it’s still about “who you are and what you know”. Some organisations I’ve been in say they are innovative/adaptive/flexible but when it comes to trying to implement something fresh like a particular KM strategy, suddenly they’ve lost that  desire to be innovative.

So I guess like most KM practitioners, I go through phases. Some days, I think it’s a great job to be in and I’m making some headway or contributing to change; other days, I wonder why I’m bothering!

I could blog a lot more about KM sure but there are some sharp minds out there doing this already – Dave Snowden and Patrick Lambe to name two. And frankly, what keeps me energised and engaged is ranting and talking about all the stuff that ThinkingShift is about – from aliens, to LOLCats, to privacy, to the environment and climate change. When you’ve got the planet to fret about and bizarre things happening in this world of ours, why worry about KM!

Thx for your questions!

Green but hungry

Due to teaching over the last few weeks, I’m WAY behind on bringing you stuff. So you may have seen this already but maybe not! The New York Times recently had a ‘green issue‘ that includes advice on how to make your carbon footprint smaller. The issue is divided into 7 sections that you can browse: Act, Eat, Invent, Learn, Live, Move and Build. Each section is stuffed full of great articles and advice. I must say I hadn’t considered Pig Power before (in the Invent section). There are 150,000 pigs in Reynolds, Indiana doing their bit for the environment by eating, sleeping and…eliminating their waste, which is collected into a massive, US $15 million “anaerobic digester” where the pig’s waste is converted to methane, synthetic gas and biodiesel. Reynolds is hoping that the pigs’ efforts will generate 100% of the town’s electricity demands and part of its transport-fuel.

You know, we need to educate ourselves around how to live more sustainably so check out the green issue. At the same time, arm yourself with information about rising food costs – this is going to be the real dark age ahead I think – riots over scarcity of food and a global food crisis. There have already been food riots in Haiti, Egypt and the Philippines. Basic food stuff is going to become unaffordable and forget about purchasing organic food because it will be too pricey. The UN recently named 36 countries as staggering under a food crisis, of which 21 are in Africa.

A ThinkingShift reader in Thailand says that the price of B grade rice has increased to AU $950 per ton, rising from $383 per ton at the beginning of 2008. According to stuff I’ve been reading, the rice crisis is being caused by a variety of factors: support and financing for agriculture has been neglected whilst Asian countries build cities; overpopulation; climate change; the credit crisis. But the crisis has hit us fast. In the last 18 months, a commodities super-cycle has risen its ugly head. This means that investors who used to plough their money into equities and mortgage bonds (and who have been spooked by the sub-prime mortgage debacle) are now taking their money and investing in food and commodities: gold and oil, sugar, wheat and rice, cocoa and cattle. So investors reap a profit out of the very basic food stuff and commodities that those who live on $2.00 per day depend on. Poor people simply will not be able to afford the basics of sugar, rice, wheat and so on. The World Bank estimates food prices have risen by an average of 83% in the past three years and is warning that at least 100 million people could be tipped into poverty as a result.

We should all be arming ourselves with information on this global food crisis because it will threaten global security. So check out the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN – their website has two reports looking at crop prospects and the food situation in 2008. Read the recent speech by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, delivered in Bern on April 29, 2008. As a result of the impending food crisis, the UN has established a task force.

Are we going to witness a revolution of the hungry? In the Ivory Coast, for example, thousands of hungry people marched on the home of President Laurent Gbagbo, chanting “we are hungry” and “life is too expensive, you are going to kill us”. In Egypt, at least 10 people have died over the past two weeks, in riots that erupted at government-subsidised bakeries. According to the UN, 1 out of every 80 people relies on somebody else to provide for basic food requirements.

We have basic rights as humans: the right to privacy (which as you know I think is stuffed in our society) and the right to food. How dark is our future going to be?

Online green corporate governance network

Okay, this week I admit I’ve been a bit introspective pondering the English language, cemeteries and heroes, so time for a change of pace. I just had a week’s holiday and for once decided to stay at home rather than schlepping overseas. This resulted in time to read and contemplate, hence the posts of the last few days.

So…..today’s post is something pretty interesting to me and anyone interested in global warming-related corporate social responsibility issues. GreenMachines.net has just launched the internet’s first green corporate governance network – a social network with the mission of helping to turn climate-related corporate decision-making into a public process so that the technological and economic power of business corporations is focused on the fight against global warming.

There are four online discussion areas on the network:

• The Whistle: looks at whether particular corporations are violating laws designed to reduce greenhouse gas emission. Whistleblower protection is provided by Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 549 U.S. __ (2007), in which the US Supreme Court gives the EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the tailpipes of new motor vehicles – meaning that the United States Supreme Court has found that carbon dioxide is a “pollutant” within the meaning of the Clean Air Act and the Court’s reasoning applies equally to other greenhouse gases. So anyone who thinks a company is violating the Clean Air Act by unlawfully emitting greenhouse gases can report the violation on the network.
• The Long View: an area for discussing carbon footprint-reducing investments that corporations can make to develop or implement carbon dioxide (“CO2”) capture and/or sequestration technologies.
• Value-Added: here the network can share information about the steps a company can take to develop or implement CO2 capturing or sequestering technologies or find information on how to publish a Corporate Sustainability Report.
• Deconstruction Zone: an area to discuss and highlight the accuracy of a company’s Corporate Environmental Responsibility Reports or other green PR.

All four forums are moderated and anyone can join. Under New Posts, I found a whole lot of stuff on court cases involving non-compliant companies; companies that are seen as having the greenest tech brands; what specific companies like Wells Fargo and Chevron are doing around sustainability; and a link to measuring and managing corporate carbon footprints.

Quite timely really given the recent article in The Economist. US economist, Robert Reich’s new book, Supercapitalism, denounces CSR as a dangerous diversion that is undermining democracy. Reich has apparently had a Damascene conversion and following many years of preaching the CSR gospel, now believes that companies cannot be socially responsible and that CSR activitists need to focus on getting Governments to solve social problems. He debunks many CSR arguments and maintains that socially responsible companies are not necessarily more profitable and that many companies are using CSR as a propaganda tool to fool the public into thinking that problems are being addressed.

I suspect a good cat fight will erupt over this book – check out the overview of the book in The Economist article.