Climate Change: a quick recap on Cancun Climate Talks:

Check out the debrief on SustainableBusiness.com.  A few minor points were agreed on, including a target of stopping climate change at (an admittedly severe and totally inadequate) 2 degrees Celsius (bad news as runaway climate change could easily cut much higher and action on greenhouse gas emissions is slow to come).  Also, a Green Climate Fund of US$100bn is to be established to help poor nations save forests and develop cleantech.  Where's the bling coming from?  Good question... to be decided.  At least they got that far.  No replacement for/extension to Kyoto seems to be in the cards as big polluting countries are still in deadlock.

Forest Stewardship: At least not all the news out of Mexico was bad-- local forest management programmes handled at a community level are turning some very positive results on economic, environmental, and social fronts.  Model worth repeating elsewhere perhaps? 

Peak Fertiliser: As with other commodities in deminishing supply, fertiliser is likely going up which will have knock-on effects for conventional food production.  Natural gas is getting in tighter supply, and it is a major ingredient in making ammonia in fertilisers.  Phosophorous is also getting harder to come by.  Perhaps it's time for some organic alternatives...

BioChar: ... which segues nicely to BioChar (check out this article on the pros and cons of the stuff) as a potential alternative for enriching soil quality and locking up carbon at the same time.  Does take energy to produce, as well as organic matter which could come from numerous sources-- not all of them necessarily good.  Worth exploring though.

-In other more light-hearted news-

• Interesting read on social entrepreneurship, and balancing business and marriage from the cohorts behind Stonyfield Farm organic yogurt/milk products.  Very insightful. 
• New app aims to help smoother driving, fuel savings by... get this... making sure you don't spill water.  Strange idea, or pure genius?