Letterheads Envelopes Business Cards for a Sustainable World

Thank you for visiting the Straight Talk on Sustainability Forum.  The forum contains thought-provoking articles that challenge conventional wisdom in a number of important areas:

• International financial organizations' role in allowing corporations to gain control of resources in developing countries
• Economic benefits derived by a company from "going green" that can far outweigh any extra costs involved
• Governmental policies that negatively impact both suppliers to local markets and the environment
• True environmental and economic costs to produce nuclear power that have been underestimated or underreported.
• Every single technological product or process since the Stone Age, including the domestication of crops and livestock, having come at the cost of drawing down the capital stock of the planet
• Making individual decisions about one's level of consumption
• Unchecked population growth and its environmental impact

When readers submit relevant general comments, the forum's moderator will post them here, the latest post on top.  Other postings that are relevant to a specific article will be posted on the article's page.

12-06-2007, Comment from Tom Kemper, President, Dolphin Blue

Visitors to Dolphin Blue's website see what may be interpreted as relatively anti-corporate views expressed in popular writings that are published in our "Straight Talk on Sustainability" forum. Clearly, however, some corporations are increasingly adopting more sustainable goals and practices. I applaud those who are doing so, and invite those not yet doing so to join us in creating a sustainable planet for future generations. 

Important advances by those responsible corporations are reported in the section titled "Green Business in the News" that appears to the left of the forum. Please check it out.

News articles go out of date and are replaced, but forum contributions will retain a relative permanence on DolphinBlue.com.  Therefore, we encourage corporations like Xerox to contribute reports about their environmentally responsible adoption of sustainable practices and about their ongoing commitment to protecting the environment.  Thanks to Patty Calkins for contributing her report about advances at Xerox.

7-25-2007, Comment from Courtney

As a 30-year-old woman who has never had an overwhelming desire to birth children myself, I recognize that it is easier for me to approach the topic of population control than it might be for women who emotionally crave the experience of the birthing process and/or having a child who carries her genes.   However, the topic of sustainable population is something everyone should feel comfortable discussing and an idea that needs to be brought into the limelight. Living in Texas and driving the wide open country roads, it's easy to think that space is never-ending and there is always room to expand.  But as soon as one turns to the news and hears of severe water shortages and concern of near future fuel sources being expended, reality sets in.   There are many examples of how our expanding global population, even here in the USA, is creating more of an uphill battle as we struggle to reduce pollution, find/buy enough energy to serve the growing masses and figure out where to put the growing piles of waste. I am a spiritual woman, and I find it slightly disconcerting that at every wedding I attend and in most every church-related context, couples are often verbally encouraged, even expected, to procreate.  What would happen if instead we first encouraged one another, as people who serve God and love our neighbors, to take care of what we already have?   To foster, to adopt, to care for older community members?  Yes, this is a tennant of all faiths, but it seems to take a backseat to our desire to create something new and one's very own.    Every life is absolutely precious, and no, there should never be some mandate informing us of how many children we can or can't have, but at least we should open lines of communication amongst family, friends and communities about what it really means to care for each other and our planet.  Bringing a new life into the world is an infinitely impactful decision.   I hope that we can periodically step back from our emotions and discuss the implications that birthrate has for sustainability as humans.