According to Companiesandmarkets.com, the 2008 value of the carbon market is USD $126 billion, an increase of over 1000% in 3 years. Whilst all estimates can be debated and there’s too many nuances for a pithy response, the bottom line is: there’s money in that carbon!

Frost & Sullivan will be revealing its top African investment opportunities for 2010 in an online analyst briefing on Thursday, 3 December. The briefing will provide insight into the industries that Frost & Sullivan projects will offer the highest returns on investment in the coming year. The markets covered will be telecommunications, business process outsourcing, renewable energy, biofuels, mining and desalination.

New mobile phone technologies like social network MXit enable banking and currency alternatives for transactions, potentially useful in African nations without full support for banking infrastructure nation-wide.

The Bread for the World Institute “Hunger 2010: A Just and Sustainable Recovery” Report has been released, and identifies the need to reduce poverty and hunger as a key to long-term recovery and leadership. The report identifies the current U.S. economic crisis as an opportunity for change…

December 8, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Midtown Manhattan the Financial Times, will host “Ukraine: Opportunities and Challenges,” a strategic conference focusing on Ukraine’s economic outlook, evolving business environment, key investment opportunities, and the challenges that need to be overcome to reach Ukraine’s potential.

There may be some surprises in the Transparency International’s 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), a measure of domestic, public sector corruption. Whilst war zones are among the worst, kick-backs, crony capitalism and nepotism means some Western countries fare less well than you might think. It seems institutions and process matter. Read more…

A global meeting of the WISE – at the World Innovation Summit for Education established by the Qatar Foundation, seeks answers to the problems of global innovation in Doha, Qatar.

The recent International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) conference in Cairo, quoted World Bank research linking each 10% increase in internet to a 1.3% increase in economic growth.

VIDEOS, Rwanda — Engineers Without Borders-USA are doing a great job in this Rwanda project.
Rather than more political policy, it is these hands-on initiatives that practically help people.
Local matters.
Local economics, local innovation. That’s the 2thinknow view.
Practical small things help people here and now. In this generation, not in 100 years, as may be the macro-level solution.
Practical ideas improve lives in positive ways & move beyond the ‘too-hard basket’.
What’s yours? Thoughts? Experience?

NEWS, Mauritius — The small island nation of Mauritius is worried about climate change.
So worried that they are using inbound tourism dollars to set up a sovereign wealth fund.

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COMMENT –Jared Diamond’s work, Guns Germs and Steel is a pivotal work in the understanding of past phase change within societies. Jared is unique in his cross-disciplinary approach combining many fields — biology, anthropology, history, medicine and others.
I haven’t finished Collapse yet but in this talk from TED, Diamond outlines the key principles of societal collapse.
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Diamond’s observations & books have been extraordinarily influential to my thinking and writing.
Especially my work on 2thinknow nascent trend analysis, allowing for the prediction of trends & events.
I started reading …

REVIEWS — SlideShare has created a contest on the Economic Crisis. Tell the crisis in 30 slides, it has over 200 entries. A few entries are good summaries from different views.
Of course 2thinknow entered, given the positive feedback we have been receiving on our  predictions of the crisis.
Today, our “Credit Crisis. The Short Explanation.” slides were spotlighted on the main page of the slideshare.net website.
Pretty nifty profile for a set of slides, we thought. Even better in PowerPoint with the animations. You can download them!
Another one I really liked was …

Africa is often neglected in terms of innovation, but Africa needs a plan for innovation. A 100 year plan…

YOUR SAY, East Europe –People in English-speaking countries awareness of European foods is in some cases, low. Especially East European cuisine.

Following the huge popularity of our Serbian food article, and given this journal is read in over 975 cities worldwide, we would like to extend an invitation to you.
For Our East European Readers!
Please, write an article about the local cuisine of your city, region or country.
We want to know about what national foods you like to eat, what are the best examples of national cuisine, what you get homesick for …

REVIEWS, Global – Here’s some quick questions.
Have a book addiction?
Need to get a textbook for school?
Want to sell read fiction or used textbooks?
Want to opt-out of consuming and then shelving books?

The BookMooch website (www.bookmooch.com) allows you to do these things.
How BookMooch works basically
Simply register, make a list of books you’d like to send, and a list of books you’d like to receive.
You get points for everyone you send, and use points for everyone you receive. You can also use points for charities.
The only money you pay is postage for books …

COMMENT, Global, Easter — As we sit down and eat our chocolate eggs, and hot cross buns, there is much to be said about Easter and Christianity.
At this time of year, with also various Jewish and Muslim festivals, it seems natural to question one’s faith.

Yet tolerant Christianity is so central to our civilized Western world, as to be indivisible from it.
We forget the Western World is laid of Christian stone…
Laws are a substitute for basic Christian values, in a society of solid values, laws are needed less. For values, not …

VIDEOS, Youtube — From the Anglican Bishop of Ballarat, a regional centre of Victoria, Australia, not far from Melbourne.
Although I am not Anglican, this is a very accessible Easter message.
It is the sense of ethics, of Judeo-Christian ethics some say, that is missing to various degrees from around this commercial world.
And this well-spoken, accessible, message reminds us of how much Christian ethics are fundamental to the function of a society. And how, long-term deviation from ethics results in the inevitable decline of given societies.
It is ethics that make, build and …

Food, real food. We take it for granted – yet more often than not what Westerners are eating is not ‘food’, but produced artificially in labs. As Felicity Lawrence, Peter Singer, Jim Mason and Greg Critser (among others), have argued the time has for consumers come to demand and purchase only real food, and not ’substitutes’. This flight to food is fundamental to human health and wellbeing, now and in the future.

COMMENT, USA, Australia – Let’s start with the USA economy.
US sliding into a chasm
The debate on whether the US economy is in recession or not seems to be over.
The bear is among us.

For months people have been standing up that the US economy is not as bad as first believed. The US recession was predicted by 2thinknow in December 2007, using our innovation models.
Before Christmas, many were sitting on the fence. I called this recession, in this journal, in straightforward terms before Goldman Sachs, or UN made their announcements.
Of course …

COMMENT, Global – The places where we eat and live are our cities.
2thinknow rank and recognize innovation cities. Cities are important.
But there is a smaller unit that is critical to social change. This true key to positive change in our society is the role of where we eat and talk.
Families around the kitchen table.
It’s where families come together, eat, fight and discuss.
And despite feminism, it is still largely a female manager of the home and kitchen table. Let’s be realistic!
That’s why, as Western democracies are run by a cabinet of …