From Colin Tudge, whose address I unfortunately largely missed at yesterday’s Green Economics Conference (love to know what happened to the 8.56 from Paddington to Oxford…), a couple of nice thoughts\/facts:<\/p>\n
There are more people in jail in America than working on the land.
\nThe reality is ecology, the market is mere fantasy. (As a suggested response who say “we can’t do this because of the market.”)<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI also learnt about a fascinating scheme in Alaska, the Alaska Permanent Fund<\/a>, which takes about an eighth of the state’s oil revenues and invests them for the benefit of all, with residents being paid a dividend each year that makes a small basic income for all. <\/p>\n
And that basic income<\/a> is an idea taking off in parts of the developing world, including South Africa, Namibia<\/a> and Mozambique. <\/p>\n
There was a lot more excellent stuff, including an interesting outline of the state of trafficking law – about enter big changes now that the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against the Trafficking<\/a> has come into force (which it did on Feb1, with sufficient countries ratifying it), and the UK government has promised to ratify it by the end of the year. <\/p>\n