Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

By Felix Dodds , Adjunct Professor in Environmental Sciences and Engineering and Senior Fellow, Global Research Institute, University of North Carolina and Eela Dubey Finance consultant  In October there was a very interesting briefing by UNCTAD of its report on Debt Vulnerabilities in Developing Countries: “A New Debt Trap? and its Trade and Development report.” It was the first of these reports that interested me most due to its coverage on the alarming trends in debt and extent of the debt crisis. As the report points out, the global economy has been fueled by debt. The world's total gross  debt to GDP ratio is at 223 percent , with advanced economies holding the largest share of debt stocks.  A debt stock simply refers to the total value of the debt that a nation owes to all lenders. According to the Report, at the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, global debt stocks surpassed their historical record level at $142 trillion. Now, with global ...

Terry Waghorn , Interviewer I cover the intersection of innovation and sustainability. 3/26/2014 @ 5:24PM Felix Dodds: Rio+20 to a New Development Agenda Author and global sustainable development leader Felix Dodds has been working with sustainable development for more than two decades observing and participating in international development meetings, including the 2012 Rio+20 Conference and the original Rio Earth Summit in 1992, the Conference on Human Settlements in 1996, the Johannesburg Summit in 2000, and the Millennium Development Goal meetings in 2005. His most recent book, From Rio+20 to a New Development Agenda: Building a Bridge to a Sustainable Future, written with Elizabeth Thompson and Jorge Laguna-Celis, provides an insider look at the 2012 conference and how it came about during one of the worst economic crises to date. The book i...