The World’s Top Richest People

World’s Top Ten Billionaires 2014

First Published: March 2014 ADawnJournal.com

Forbes magazine recently published its annual ranking of global billionaires. Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates is on the top spot, pushing down Carlos Slim, who was on the top last year. Here are the top ten global billionaires for 2014:

The Top 10 billionaires

Bill Gates ($76B)

Carlos Slim Helú ($72B)

Amancio Ortega ($64)

Warren Buffett ($58.2B)

Larry Ellison ($48B)

Charles/David Koch ($40B each)

Sheldon Adelson ($38B)

Christy Walton ($36.7B)

Jim Walton ($34.7B)

Liliane Bettencourt ($34.5)

Source: Forbes.com

Here are some highlights from the ranking:

– There were a record number of 1,645 total billionaires.

– Bill Gates ranked #1 in 15 of the last 20 years.

– Due to Facebook’s recent $19B accension of WhatsApp, its founders Brian Acton and Jan Koum became 551th and 202th on the list.

– The US continues to dominate the list (492 billionaires), then Europe (468) and Asia (444). Country-wise, China (152) and Russia (111) have the most billionaires after USA.

– Some new countries were added for the first time: Algeria, Lithuania, Tanzania, and Uganda.

– More than 30 Canadians made it to the list.

– About 1000 people dropped off the list and 16 passed away.

– 1080 billionaires were self-made, 207 were inherited, and 352 were partly inherited.

– A record number of 172 women billionaires (up 25 percent from last year) made it to the list. Total new 268 billionaires were added to the list.

Australian Parliament Rejects Emissions Plan

Green Movement In Australia

Published Date: Aug 16, 2009

The green movement in Australia has suffered a blow this week, as the parliamentary vote on tackling global warming saw the opposition win out with 42 votes to the government’s 30. This is seen as a major setback for the movement in Australia but not a final blow, as Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said after the vote in the country’s senate that the government would seek to re-introduce the bill after the mandatory three month waiting period. This brings into the situation a possibility of some very interesting developments not just on the environmental issue but some potential constitutional developments.

One of the notable eventualities which could arise from this reverse in the Senate is that, if the government pushed forward the same legislation and was then defeated, it could potentially trigger a general election. This makes the potential legislation quite a powerful issue, and could well lead to some political horse-trading as the ruling Labour party looks to win over some of the current skeptics. As things stand, t he votes against the bill outnumber the votes for it by twelve. In order to gain a majority, seven senators would be required to change their vote.

As things stand, opposition to the legislation makes, as politics often does, for strange bedfellows. The government was essentially leveraged by opposition on both sides – from Green members who did not feel that the measures proposed went far enough towards tackling climate change, to members of the Conservative opposition who viewed it as being excessive. The measures proposed certainly go further than any yet proposed by a government, in offering a system of carbon trading which would require the more polluting companies to pay for their carbon emissions and rewarding companies who went some way to being carbon neutral.

One of the issues raised by conservative opposition legislators was that to adopt the propositions of the bill would be to put Australia in a disadvantageous position ahead of the conference on climate change to be held in Copenhagen in December. The government has argued that their position would only be weakened by going to Copenhagen without having adopted a coherent and radical plan for the reduction of carbon emissions. This gives the government a dilemma. Trying to win over enough senators means either adopting tougher measures to win over the Greens and alienating the conservative bloc, or vice versa.

Prime Minister Rudd may not be overly inconvenienced by an early election. Australia is due to go to the polls in late 2010 anyway, so bringing the election forward by a year while his approval ratings are high (and they far exceed those of the leader of the official Opposition) may not be the worst thing that could happen. It would also give the government a clear mandate. Australian voters are believed to favour strong action to cut down on pollution, and if they backed an incumbent Premier on a platform of environmental reform it would make it significantly harder to oppose the legislation in Parliament.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Thegreenlivingblog.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on August 16, 2009.

Some Facts About Philippines Economy

The economy of the Philippines

First Published Date: April 8, 2014 ADawnJournal.com

With its over 100 million population and 95.4 percent literacy rate, the Philippines – a once poor country that suffered from sluggish economic growth – turned out to be one of the fastest growing in the world. GDP growth was 7.6, 3.9, 6.8, and 7.2 percent in from 2010 to 2013 consecutively.

In the first and second quarter of 2013, GDP grew at 7.7 and 7.5 percent, making the Philippines the fastest performing country in Asia followed by China and Indonesia. The Philippines economy in 1998 was less affected by the Asian Financial Crisis than any other Asian countries.

Filipino economy is made of 57 percent services sector, 31 percent industry, and 12 percent agriculture. The Philippines has the world’s largest business processing outsourcing centre and a strong industrial manufacturing sector for electronics for multi-national corporations.

In terms of natural resources, the Philippines is rich in oil, coal, copper, chromite, and nickel. Its major trading partners are Japan, USA, China, Hong Kong, and South Korea.

In terms of its 2012 GDP, the Philippines is the 40th largest country largest economy in the world. Its unemployment rate is at 7.01 percent and 26 percent people live below the poverty line. The Philippines ranks 59th out of 148 countries in the 2012 – 2103 Global Comparativeness Index, 89 out of 178 countries in the 2014 Economic Freedom Index, and 94th out of 175 countries in the 2013 Corruption Perception Index.

The Philippines, while greatly improving its economy, still it has a lot of work to do. The country faces many challenges, such as improving governance and the judicial system, upgrading its infrastructure, improving its extreme poverty, improving ease of doing business, attracting more foreign investments, and reducing corruption.

As we look forward, the Philippines is working hard to move forward into the future with its remarkable growth. Goldman Sachs predicts that the Philippines will be the 14th largest economy in the world by 2050. HSBC predicts that by 2050 Philippines will be 16th largest in the world and the largest in Southeast Asia.

How To Talk An Enviroskeptic Around

How To Talk Green To Non-Green Folks

Firest Published Date: October 25, 2013 ADawnJournal.com

Many people in this day and age do not view the environment as a cause for concern at all. This does not just show itself in climate change skepticism, although that does seem to be the forefront issue that gets the most attention from the doubters. No, the attitude of people who do not view the environment to be an issue – enviroskepticism, for want of a better word – is gaining currency as a response to the growth of the green movement, and what is more, it seems to be gaining popularity in no small part from a tactic of blaming people who have Green concerns for trying to guilt-trip individuals into not enjoying themselves. The theory goes that people with an interest in Green issues have such boring lives themselves that they will do anything to spoil everyone else’s fun.

That, of course, is nonsense. But it is a simple enough message to digest and gets people off the hook for environmentally unfriendly behaviour, so it is a popular one. Those of us who genuinely care about environmental issues, therefore, have a tougher job on our hands, faced not only with the problems besetting our environment but also the twin fronts of apathy and antipathy which face the movement. People who say “oh yeah, I do worry about the environment, but there is so much else to worry about too” are understandable. Those who say “Green issues are unimportant – they are just a front for people who want to stop others doing what they want to” are the truly dangerous ones. Not only is their message destructive and entirely false – it’s also a seductive one for people who do not really want to live responsibly and welcome the chance to make their lack of concern a human rights issue.

The fact of the matter is that with the global economy in the extremely poor shape it is in, the enviroskeptics have the perfect chance to spread their message. Don’t want to positively impact your carbon footprint? Blame the credit crunch for making it too expensive to try. Want to buy a gas-guzzling car? Well, the hybrid fuel cars are more expensive upfront, aren’t they? It is not your fault the cheaper cars are the ones that hurt the environment more.

The only way to counter this kind of message is to bring a message that addresses the same concerns, without sinking to the levels often inhabited by enviroskeptics. Yes, hybrid fuel cars are more expensive, but they will pay for themselves over time – you will spend less cash filling your car up with hybrid fuel than if you keep the pure gas one. And you will not have to do it as often because the fuel efficiency of a hybrid car is better. A lot of Green decisions, it is true, cost a little more up front. But in the long run they will save you money, and this is where the Green counter-attack on the enviroskeptic appeals to greed need to be addressed.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Thegreenlivingblog.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on Feb 6, 2009.

Save Our Dying Oceans

Oceans Threatened By Garbage Waves

First Published Date: November 2, 2013 ADawnJournal.com

With the news in recent weeks that global warming may be happening quicker than anyone had expected, it was only to be expected that further bad news would be on its way. And lo and behold, the latest news on the environment seems to show that things are getting worse on levels other than a climatological one. The latest news is that an increase in irresponsible trash dumping is likely to have a more profound effect than expected on seas already suffering, the effects, of global climate change – and worse yet, this is a worldwide trend. The revelations come from a report by the US-based group Ocean Conservancy that tracks and catalogues what they refer to as “a global snapshot of marine debris”.

The breadth of the action – nearly 400,000 volunteers set to the task, in 104 different locations – has revealed the extent of the problems of irresponsible dumping. On that one day alone last September, nearly seven million pounds of trash was collected from waterways from oceans to lakes, and from rivers to canals. That amounts to the weight of eighteen adult blue whales, and accounts for only what was found on that one day. What it demonstrates is a worrying tendency for humanity to put things where they cannot see them, and hope that they will go away. The only logical outcome of this attitude is a major pollution problem that will have results that so far can only be imagined.

On that single day in September 2008, 11.4 million items of garbage were collected. Included among these were cigarette butts, food containers and plastic bags. Although the latter of these has already come in for some scrutiny and has been targeted by conservation plans – with supermarkets now charging for plastic bags in some place, and offering stronger, re-usable canvas bags at a discount – the rest currently go unnoticed, and are providing a serious concern. The effects of toxins contained within the cigarette butts alone really do not bear thinking about. One other effect of the research was to show exactly which items are causing pollution off the coasts of which nations.

In the Philippines, 11,077 diapers were picked up. Off the coast of Britain, 19,504 fishing nets were found. Across Canada, the major offender appeared to be cigarettes and cigarette butts, with 323,706 showing up. As well as these, straws, beverage bottles and food receptacles were found to be a major source of the problem, which hints at beach parties and similar events carrying much of the burden of blame. The overall outcome of such polluted oceans is damaged marine ecosystems and polluted beaches – affecting more than one major industry very adversely indeed. In respect of this, another International Coastal Cleanup is being arranged by Ocean Conservancy for the 19th of September, 2009. Again, the focus will be worldwide, with a close eye being kept on what the figures are this time.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Thegreenlivingblog.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on March 14, 2009.