50 months to avoid climate disaster, from The Guardian

50 months to avoid climate disaster – and a change is in the air | Andrew Simms | Environment | guardian.co.uk: "Monday 1 October marks the halfway point in a 100-month countdown to a game of climate roulette.

On a very conservative estimate, 50 months from now, the dice become loaded against us in terms of keeping under a 2C temperature rise. This level matters because beyond it an environmental "domino effect" is likely to operate. In a volatile and unpredictable dynamic, things like melting ice, and the release of carbon from the planet's surface are set to feed off each other, accelerating and reinforcing the warming effect.

The time frame follows an estimate of risk of rising greenhouse gas concentrations from the world's leading authority on climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that passed a certain point, it will no longer be "likely" that we stay the right side of the line. Some consider even a 2C rise too much, but it is the limit that the EU and others have signed up to."

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Local Choices, Global Effects

FDI in retail: Why 30% local rule is 100% trouble for MNCs - The Economic Times: "But shouldn't these people be over the moon? The government has after all granted their wish and a long-pending one at that. Companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's biggest retailer, have long been lobbying to enter India.

Yet, it is obvious why retailers are not ecstatic. The government's welcome mat to multinational supermarkets is riddled with riders. Under the new rules, foreign multi-brand retailers must invest at least $100 million and half that amount must be ploughed into back-end infrastructure in rural areas.

That's not all. State governments will decide if they want foreign players and stores will be permitted only in cities of at least 1 million people. Retailers must also source 30% of the value of goods purchased from small- and mid-sized domestic suppliers."

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High flying Chinese, low flying west

China's economic slowdown has yet to thin the wallets of globetrotting shoppers - The Economic Times: "Rich Chinese tourists paying $40,000 to hunt elk in Utah or booking the entire first-class cabin for a family flight to France show, China's economic slowdown has yet to thin the wallets or dull the appetites of its deep-pocketed elite.

China's "Golden Week" holiday, a popular time for overseas travel, starts on Saturday. This year it coincides with the Mid-Autumn Festival to create a rare eight-day break, and visitors to Europe will not be there to get a taste of austere living.

Helen Shen, a travel planner in Shanghai, said a private business owner had booked the whole first-class section of a Lufthansa jet to fly his family of four to Paris this month.

Shen is one of many luxury travel organisers who still see the money rolling in from executives and members of the "fu er dai" - the second generation of wealthy families - despite China's economic uncertainty"

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Sustainability - saving money by doing good?

How luxury hotel chain Hilton is the fighting the sustainability battle - The Economic Times: "Rebel American singer-songwriter Pete Seeger can rest easy now with his evergreen 'Where have all the flowers gone' . Guests at Delhi's Hilton Janakpuri are now greeted by miniature plants in their rooms instead of flowers. Executive housekeeper Shiv claims that only the lobby areas have flowers while real plants adorn guest rooms: "The flowers wither away in a day or two but the plants are here to stay. So our housekeeping staff waters the plants every day and we've so far saved about 50% of what we've had to pay for flowers, by switching over."

Down south, Hilton Chennai is on power drive with wind energy fuelling its electricity needs. "With wind alone, we save about 10% of our electricity costs," says Roger Brantsma, General Manager, Hilton Chennai, who has recently started using water from the hotel's sewage treatment plant for landscaping and gardening. "That offsets cost by 25% if we had to buy water from the open market." "

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