Why is it so easy to save the banks – but so hard to save the biosphere?
Agreements to bail out banks happen in days – but despite some good progress at Durban, we still don’t have a legally binding deal to bail out the planet

The US and other nations began talking seriously about tackling climate change in 1988 – yet we still don’t have a legally binding global agreement. Photograph: Corbis
They bailed out the banks in days. But even deciding to bail out the planet is taking decades.
Nicholas Stern estimated that capping climate change would cost around 1% of global GDP, while sitting back and letting it hit us would cost between 5 and 20%. One per cent of GDP is, at the moment, $630bn. By March 2009, Bloomberg has revealed, the US Federal Reserve had committed $7.77 trillion to the banks. That is just one government’s contribution: yet it amounts to 12 times the annual global climate change bill. Add the bailouts in other countries, and it rises several more times.
This support was issued on demand: as soon as the banks said they wanted help, they got it. On just one day the Federal Reserve made $1.2tr available – more than the world has committed to tackling climate change in 20 years.
Source: The Guardian Friday 16 December 2011 Read more
Opinion:
It’s an old article, but nevertheless pertinent.
The banks scream poverty and the governments cave in and give the babies the pacifier.
But when it comes to the planet, they turn a deaf ear and let the baby scream. The worse the offender, the faster they turn away from the problem.
Posted by Alex Jones on July 23, 2012 at 9:36 am
It is capitalism : to let banks fail costs money, to save the environment costs money. People with the money hate spending money.
LikeLike
Posted by argentumvulgaris on July 23, 2012 at 12:16 pm
>Alex, of course it boils down to money, the answer is obvious.
AV
LikeLike
Posted by Phi Asset Managers on July 23, 2012 at 10:10 am
Reblogged this on Phi Asset Managers.
LikeLike
Posted by argentumvulgaris on July 23, 2012 at 10:14 am
>Phi, thanks for the reblog, appreciated.
AV
LikeLike
Posted by smallftprints on July 23, 2012 at 8:47 pm
I think that we are quickly coming to the point where it will be a war between greed & sustainability. It’ll get ugly but in the end I believe sustainability will win … only because greed will destroy itself. Hopefully, greed won’t take us all down with it!
LikeLike
Posted by argentumvulgaris on July 23, 2012 at 9:31 pm
>SF, I have been saying that for four years, it will come, and it will be ugly. The US will have martial law within a short time. Think what these FEMA camps are for; and tonight I read of new battalions of Marine police being formed, it will enable policing to be done with war policy. If you don’t know about FEMA camps, google it. They are concentration camps for Americans, and they exist NOW!
AV
LikeLike
Posted by argentumvulgaris on July 23, 2012 at 9:33 pm
>SF, check this, http://coyoteprime-runningcauseicantfly.blogspot.com.br/2012/07/marine-corps-creates-law-enforcement.html
AV
LikeLike
Posted by argentumvulgaris on July 23, 2012 at 9:34 pm
and this: http://coyoteprime-runningcauseicantfly.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-nationwide-fema-camps-should-raise.html
LikeLike