Natural Capitalism Essay Example

Natural Capitalism Essay Natural Capitalism by Amory Lovins (www. natcap. org) Capital It’s the accumulated wealth in the form of investments, factories, and equipment. An economy requires four types of capitalism to function: 1. Human capital – labour intelligence, culture and organization 2. Financial capital – cash investments, and monetary instruments 3. Manufactured capital – infrastructure, machines, tools and factories 4. Natural capital – resources, living systems ecosystem services The first 3 forms of capital are used to transform natural capital into the stuff of our daily lives: cars, highways, cities, bridges, houses, food, medicine, hospitals and schools. Capitalism is a financially profitable, non-sustainable aberration in human development and does not conform to its own accounting principles. It liquidates capital and calls it income and it neglects to assign any value to the largest stocks of capital it employs – the natural resources and living systems, as well as the social and cultural systems that are the basis of human capital. This deficiency in business operation can’t be corrected by simply assigning monetary values to natural capital for 3 reasons: 1. Many of the services we receive from living systems have no known substitutes at any price. Ex; oxygen production by green plants. 2. Valuating natural capital is a difficult and imprecise exercise. -Biological services flowing directly into society from the stock of natural capital are estimated at $36 trillion vs the annual gross world product estimated at $39 trillion. 3. Machines are unable to provide a substitute for human intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, organizational abilities and culture. The sum value of human capital is 3x greater than all the financial manufactured capital reflected on global balance sheets. Conventional Capitalism: In order to bring about any comprehensive economic and ecological change we must understand the basis of present economic thinking. The Industrial Revolution brought about this primary economic ideology summ arized below: * Economic progress can best occur in free-market systems of production and distribution where reinvested profits make labour and capital increasingly productive. Competitive advantage is gained when bigger, more efficient plants manufacture more products for sale to expanding markets. * Growth in total output (GDP) maximizes human well-being. * Any resource shortages that do occur will elicit the development of substitutes. * Concerns for a healthy environment are important but must be balanced against the requirements of economic growth, if a high standard of living is to be maintained. * Free enterprise and market forces will allocate people and resources to their highest and best uses. We will write a custom essay sample on Natural Capitalism specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Natural Capitalism specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Natural Capitalism specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Natural Capitalism: Four central strategies of Natural Capitalism are: 1. Radical Resource Productivity: It’s the cornerstone of natural capitalism because using resources more effectively has three significant benefits: * Slows resource depletion at one end of the value chain. * Lowers pollution at the other end * Provides a basis to increase world-wide employment with meaningful jobs. The result is lower costs for business and society. Radical resource productivity strategies can nearly halt the degradation of the biosphere, make it more profitable to employ people and thus safeguard against the loss of vital living system and social cohesion. 2. Biomimicry: It’s reducing the wasteful throughput of materials (eliminating the very idea of waste) by redesigning industrial systems on biological lines that change the nature of industrial processes and materials. Materials are constantly reused in a continuous closed cycle thereby eliminating any waste product or toxicity. . Service and Flow Economy: It’s an economy that is based on a FLOW of economic SERVICES that can better protect the ecosystem services upon which it depends. It’s a fundamental change in the relationship between producer and consumer, a shift from and economy of goods and purchases to one of service and flow. This concept entails a new perception of value, a shift from the acquisition of goods as a measure of affluence to an econ omy where the continuous receipt of quality, utility, and performance promotes well-being. This concept offers incentive to put into practice the first two innovation of natural capitalism: 1. Restructuring the economy to focus on relationships that better meet customers’ changing value needs 2. Offer rewards automatically for both resource productivity and closed-loop cycles of material usage. 4. Investing in Natural Capital: It’s the re-investment in sustaining, restoring, and expanding stocks of natural capital, so that the biosphere can produce more abundant ecosystem services and natural resources.

Lambert Surname Meaning and Family History

Lambert Surname Meaning and Family History The Lambert surname is a Low German form of the name Landberht or Old English Landbeorht, meaning bright land or light of the land, derived  from the Germanic elements land meaning land and berht, meaning bright or famous. The surname may also have derived as an occupational name for lamb-herd. Lambert is the 27th most common last name in France. Surname Origin: French, English, Dutch, German Alternate Surname Spellings: LAMBERTH, LAMBETH, LAMBUTH, LAMBER, LAMBERTE, LAMBURT, LAMBRETH, LUMBERT, LAMBRECHT, LAMBERTIS Famous People with the Surname LAMBERT Miranda Lambert  -  American singer and songwriterPaul Lambert  - Scottish football (soccer) playerAdam Lambert  - American singerAlbert Edward Lambert - British architectAylmer Bourke Lambert  - British botanistJohann Heinrich Lambert   - Swiss mathematician and physicistJoseph-Franà §ois Lambert  - French adventurer and diplomatPercy E. Lambert - race car driver; first person to drive a car 100 miles in an hourJordan Wheat Lambert - American chemist; helped to invent Listerine ®Rachel Lambert Bunny Mellon - American  horticulturalist,  gardener, and philanthropist; granddaughter of Jordan Wheat Lambert Where is the LAMBERTSurname Most Common? According to surname distribution from  Forebears, the Lambert surname is most prevalent in the United States, where it ranks as the 294th most common surname. There are greater numbers of Lamberts based on percentage of population, however, in countries with a sizable French-speaking population, including France (where the name ranks 20th), Monaco (23rd), Belgium (26th), Bermuda (31st), Luxembourg (34th), and Canada (134th). Surname maps from  WorldNames PublicProfiler  indicate the Lambert surname is especially common in northern France, especially in the regions of Champagne-Ardenne and Franche-Comte along the border with Belgium. It is also especially common in the Wallonie region of Belgium and in Quebec, Canada.   Genealogy Resources for the Surname LAMBERT French Surname Meanings and OriginsDoes your last name have origins in France? Learn about the various origins of French surnames and explore the meanings of some of the most common French last names. How to Research French AncestryLearn about the various types of genealogical records available for researching ancestors in France and how to access them, plus how to locate where in France your ancestors originated. The Lambert DNA ProjectThis project seeks to establish relationships among individuals with the Lambert surname- and variants such as Lambard, Lamberth, Lambeth, Lambreth, Lamburt, Lombard and Lumbert- on a worldwide basis, using Y-DNA testing in combination with traditional genealogy research. Lambert Family Crest - Its Not What You ThinkContrary to what you may hear, there is no such thing as a Lambert family crest or coat of arms for the Lambert surname.  Coats of arms are granted to individuals, not families, and may rightfully be used only by the uninterrupted male line descendants of the person to whom the coat of arms was originally granted. LAMBERT  Family Genealogy ForumSearch this popular genealogy forum for the Lambert  surname to find others who might be researching your ancestors, or post your own Lambert query. FamilySearch - LAMBERT GenealogyExplore over 2.5 million  results from digitized  historical records and lineage-linked family trees related to the Lambert surname on this free website hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. DistantCousin.com - LAMBERT Genealogy Family HistoryExplore free databases and genealogy links for the last name Lambert. GeneaNet - Lambert  RecordsGeneaNet includes archival records, family trees, and other resources for individuals with the Lambert surname, with a concentration on records and families from France and other European countries. The Lambert Genealogy and Family Tree PageBrowse genealogy records and links to genealogical and historical records for individuals with the Lambert surname from the website of Genealogy Today. - References: Surname Meanings Origins Cottle, Basil.  Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1967. Dorward, David.  Scottish Surnames. Collins Celtic (Pocket edition), 1998. Fucilla, Joseph.  Our Italian Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 2003. Hanks, Patrick and Flavia Hodges.  A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1989. Hanks, Patrick.  Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003. Reaney, P.H.  A Dictionary of English Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1997. Smith, Elsdon C.  American Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997. Back toGlossary of Surname Meanings Origins

Hash libraries for C Programmers

Hash libraries for C Programmers This page lists a collection of libraries that will help you in programming in C. Libraries here are open source and used to help you store data, without having to roll your own linked list etc data structures. uthash Developed by Troy D. Hanson, any C structure can be stored in a hash table using uthash. Just include #include uthash.h then add a UT_hash_handle to the structure and choose one or more fields in your structure to act as the key. Then use HASH_ADD_INT, HASH_FIND_INT and macros to store, retrieve or delete items from the hash table. It uses int, string and binary keys. Judy Judy is a C library that implements a sparse dynamic array. Judy arrays are declared simply with a null pointer and consume  memory only when populated. They can grow to use all available memory if desired. Judys key benefits are scalability, high performance, and memory efficiency. It can be used for dynamically sized arrays, associative arrays or a simple-to-use interface that requires no rework for expansion or contraction and can replace many common data structures, such as arrays, sparse arrays, hash tables, B-trees, binary trees, linear lists, skiplists, other sort and search algorithms, and counting functions. SGLIB SGLIB is short for  Simple Generic Library and consists of a single header file sglib.h that provides generic implementation of most common algorithms for arrays, lists, sorted lists and red-black trees. The library is generic and it does not define its own data structures. Rather it acts on existing user-defined data structures via a generic interface. It also does not allocate or deallocate any memory and does not depend on any particular memory management. All algorithms are implemented in form of macros parametrized by the type of data structure and comparator function (or comparator macro). Several further generic parameters such as the name of next field for linked lists may be required for some algorithms and data structures.

How convincing is Porters model of national competitive advantage in Essay - 3

How convincing is Porters model of national competitive advantage in explaining the characteristics and performance of the business systems of major economies - Essay Example There are some critical factors within this model such as demand and factor conditions, firm’s strategy, competition and structure, chance factors, supporting and related industries, and government intervention. Porter’s model of national competitiveness is regarded as an appropriate framework for evaluating firm’s competitive position. On the contrary, this model is not considered as a suitable framework from economist’s perspective. It is stated as a model that helps to determine competitive position of a company rather than a country or nation. This study would reveal real world scenarios where Porters model was beneficial enough to analyze competitive position of nations. The study has been divided into various subsections where theoretical model will be elaborated along with its application on nations. Michael Porter designed a new model to analyze the reason behind firms belonging to specific nations happen to design better strategies in comparison to other firms. Porter took into consideration ten countries such as UK, Germany, USA, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Singapore and Switzerland (Davies and Ellis, 2000). The main objective for designing this model was to identify why some regions possesses competitive advantage compared to rest. Diamond model was designed by Michael Porter was to predict sector’s or country’s competitive advantage. This particular model has been elaborated in figure1. As per figure1, this model helps in designing a structure required for achieving competitive position in a sector. The factors of this model play a significant role in context of achieving competitiveness for long-term (Smit, 2010). All the factors represented within diamond model are determinants of sectors. These factors encompass skills and assets which are important for competitive advantage of an industry. It even consists of information that provides guidance

Final Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Final Reflection - Essay Example The summary of â€Å"Is Facebook making us Lonely† helped us a lot in understanding audience awareness. The article helped us how to write keeping the dispositions of audience towards the writer. The authors discussed the topic in an excellent way keeping their audience in mind. The summary of the article also informed us about the details involved in responding to audience. The article itself served as a role model for us as to how to communicate with audience using facts and rhetoric together. The subject of the article was very interesting and authors were successful in keeping the interests of the readers at all times. The summary of the article also helped us to learn about summarizing and paraphrasing. It helped us understand how to read and summarize a particular work without ignoring every small detail. I personally learned how to concisely summarize a long article in a few pages. This course has also helped me recognize the importance of rhetorical stance especially through the class discussions. In the class discussions we learnt how to maintain a clear stance throughout the discussion without changing sides. It was more about building a whole case around a central thesis. This helped my writing a lot because previously there was less coherence in my work. I used to discuss many things in a single paper and did not focus too much on a central theme or purpose. Class discussion made me understand how important it is to think about a purpose when writing about a topic. Research paper probably helped me the most as it made my research skills better. I learned how to use search engines and other sources to get the relevant information in a less amount of time. There is loads of information now at our disposal but it is very difficult to extract the right kind of information in a short time. I believe that research paper writing helped me research in a better way. When I was doing the paper I had to analyze other people’s work and

Turnitin Sucks :: plagiarism police

Turnitin Sucks It's with a great deal of interest that I've been following the most recent uproar in the blogoshpere about Turnitin.com and about whether or not higher ed is taking the proverbial low ground in the ethical battles by the increasing use of Turnitin. It is my opinion and always has been that there is something fundamentally wrong with the whole process of requiring students to turn in their work to the plagiarism police. I think this graphic from the Honk Kong Polytechnic University is especially humorous. I didn't have their permission to show it on my site so I created my own sign at the Ronald McHummer site. About 2-3 years ago we had the conversation on campus about whether we should license (or is it subscribe to) the Turnitin service. Of course there were some people who were in favor of it, but the majority was put off by the same things that have always bothered me about the deal. The arguments at that time against using Turnitin appear to still be the main arguments. In no particular order, they include: "I am currently taking a course that requires me to submit my papers to Turnitin. My objection to Turnitin is that they are not only infringing my copyright, but that they are doing so for commercial profit. If they want to make money from storing my paper in a database, they should pay me for a license." (EricSmith comment on Slashdot) "Why are we violating authorial integrity to teach students that violating authorial integrity is wrong?" (by Bob, first comment) "can shift attention away from teaching students how to avoid plagiarism in the first place. In â€Å"Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices,† the Council of Writing Program Administrators urges teachers to â€Å"use plagiarism detection services cautiously,† for they should â€Å"never be used to justify the avoidance of responsible teaching methods.† "I find it more than a bit ironic, that this company works with WebCT and Blackboard, who argue that one should use Course Managment software to protect student's privacy (alah FERPA) when turnitin.com fundamentally violates student's rights." (Dave, Sept. 7, 18:05) "It's just like music composition. People with similar music education backgrounds end up producing similar music. That's just how it is. Are you seriously going to argue that the standard educational texts HAVEN'T been mined for every bloody original idea they contain a thousand times over?" (read the whole comment by Cadallin)

Of Morality and Spirituality Essay

The moral sacred Philippines started from a dream, and now that it continues to progress it can be one good evidence that as long as someone believes in an idea, it can be possible. As long as its aim is for the goodness of the citizens, it can be a reality. This concept does not want to create a world of perfection but rather a world of morality and spirituality. That world is where we can clearly distinguish the right ones from the bad. It is where we can not only think about ourselves but also the community, the government, and the nation. This dream can all be possible if we just go and believe that the land where we stand can be a better habitat of mankind. From Genesis 1:27, God created mankind in His own image. This verse proves that each of us is spiritual at heart. We just have to go and find the path through our hearts. We are created in His likeness which gives us the realization that all living things have something good in the inside. If we believe, make something to make this work, the moral sacred Philippines will make sense. A. WRITING AS A SOCIAL ACT The event connects with how writing can be a social act. In the said event, one does not only think about himself but also for the people around him. As for writing, a writer does not only write for him or for him to understand but also for his readers and audience. You write alone, but you always write for others. Readers matter. Once a writer sets his or her thoughts to any medium, whether paper, blog, status update, there is the potential for audience interaction. Ideas and creativity are created outside ourselves. Writers can never be more creative without the experiences and thoughts the people have. They continue to interact with people. Writing is a social act. Writers choose to see the beauty and brilliance of the world around them. Writing is nothing without the world and mind that surrounds them. B. WRITING AS A MORAL ACT Morality and spirituality is what the event focuses on. As for writing, writers do not only write everything that flows from their thinking, he must be careful. Something that anyone who writes words of any kind would do well to remember. Words have their moral consequences. The responsibility is particularly great for writers who deal with spiritual issues. Every word they write leaves its mark upon their soul and upon the souls of those who read their work. Their words may become sacraments, visible signs of an invisible grace, or they may turn to poison and ashes. It may signify the abyss or nothing at all. Writers must strive against mediocrity in one’s work, aiming always higher for lucidity of thought and beauty of expression with still being careful with the words they use. Every piece they make has an effect in this world. They are part of our moral conversation as a society. They weigh in. The creation of literature worthy not only its high artistic calling but of his stature as a creature created in the image and likeness of God.