Peter Bosshard
Peter Bosshard is policy director of the U.S.-based non-profit group International Rivers, which works to strengthen the social and environmental standards of governments, financial institutions and the dam industry. Before joining International Rivers in 2002, Peter was director of the Berne Declaration, a Swiss advocacy group. His favourite river is the Albula in the Swiss Alps.
Bailing out environmental subprime lenders?
My phone conversation with Henry Paulson Last night, I got a phone call from Henry Paulson. While the members of the U.S. Congress were dragging their feet on the $700 billion package for Wall Street, the Treasury Secretary urged me to quickly send some cash to bail out the imprudent banks. For our family, Paulson explained, the bill would be $7,000. If we wanted to pay up for all members of International Rivers in the US, the amount would be $1.2 million. This would cover the salary and bonus of Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan Chase's CEO, for one month, and give the bank some breathing space to offload its bad debt to the taxpayers. ...
Power sector scandal leaves Nigeria's poor in the dark
In January, Nigeria's new President Umaru Yar'Adua announced that between 1999 and 2007, the administration of his predecessor Olusegun Obasanjo spent $10 billion on the power sector without building any new power plants. A leading legislator soon raised the figure to $16 billion and started a parliamentary investigation into the matter. The scandal is now unfolding. It shows how corruption results in mega-projects that benefit the powerful but neglect the needs of the poor. Many Nigerian homes and businesses are forced to rely on generators for electricity because of lengthy and frequent power cuts in the oil-rich nation. ...
VIEWPOINT: West's 'dirty work' fuels China's resource spree
China's quest for resources is stretching the planet's ecological limits. But whose fault is it? China is rapidly buying up the world's resources. The new global superpower is exploring oil fields in Africa and Central Asia, drilling for gas in Burma, building hydropower dams in the Mekong region, prospecting for minerals in the Congo and cutting down forests in Indonesia. China's hunger for raw materials is pushing up the price of oil and other resources, and stretching the ecological limits of the planet. ...
