What, you need a bigger flat screen movie/entertainment display? We have a deal for you.

The Globe and Mail's, Grant Robertson highlights the growing presence of bigger TVs in both our homes and landfills. Falling prices on new flat panel, LCD, and plasma televisions illustrate the problems with an economic system that fails to internalize costs of resource use and waste disposal. What do you do with the TV after it's obsolete? Can we afford to recycle all of these TVs?

Special to Corpobligation - Chanda Tannis, BA, LLL 

    What are the roles of NGO's in Corporate Social Responsibility? This was a question and concern which was reflected during the Canadian Roundtables on CSR of extractive industries during 2007. It appeared that large and small corporations felt under 'attack' by NGOs and that corporations felt that NGOs were themselves not accountable. NGOs might for example, disseminate information to indigenous communities that made the company out to be worse than it really was. Consequently, the companies were not able to let the communities decide for themselves if the increased economic benefits outweighed possible downsides, such as environmental or cultural degradation, if that were to be the case in that specific community, that specific country, with that specific corporation. Does the fact that accountability is important beyond the "corporate" sphere mean that we should remove the "corporate" from CSR?

From the Kyoto Protocol of 1990 to the Bali Conference of 2007, greenhouse gas emissions have risen along with the rhetoric of corporate social responsibility and "governments social and environmental responsibility (GSR). Almost every serious company or government has a platform or mission statement claiming that they are doing their part in fighting climate change. The question is whether government commitments at the Bali Climate Change Conference can actually make a difference in the actions of businesses and individuals? Can we as developed country citizens recognize the truth of the statement: The industrialized nations, as the main causers of climate change, are in the responsibility to support such processes (Peter Hoeppe's, head of the Geo-Risk research department at Munich RE).

240,000 South African miners are participating in a 24 hour strike to protest safety conditions

• According to the BBC, "More than 180 workers have been killed this year in the country's mines, with another two dying in recent days, slightly fewer than 200 deaths in 2006."
• In October, South African mines were closed for 6 weeks after 3200 workers were trapped underground, by the order of Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica.
• BBC quoted, "Harmony Gold's Patrice Motsepe at the time: "Our safety records both as a company and a country leave much to be desired.""

Un-Corpobligation quote:

"The strike is just a prelude of things to come, things are coming to a head," Nick Goodwin, a resources analyst, told Reuters.

"Any changes to mine design as a result of this audit would affect the costs, and hurt the company's bottom line," he added.

Canada undertook a wide ranging consultation process on how its extractive industry should be regulated (CSR Roundtables). This culminated in a report by an Advisory Committee made up of industry, civil society and government representatives. Finance Minister Flaherty has made some strong statements about Canada's committment to social responsibility: 

“Accountability, transparency, fairness—these are the principles of this international partnership, designed to increase the disclosure of resource revenues in developing countries,” Minister Flaherty said following a meeting of Group of Seven (G7) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. “They are principles Canada supports, and we intend to play a leading role in ensuring that citizens, not just governments or foreign companies, share in their nation’s prosperity.”

The report has now languished on the shelves for 8 months. Stephen Harper is visiting Tanzania and announcing a major aid project at the same time as Canadian corporation Barrick Gold is facing criticism from civil society. What will happen after Stephen Harper's visit to Tanzania? Will the New Democratic Party commit to holding the Conservative government accountable?

In the moments of doubt, the moments of futility where the odds seem impossible, words from artists like Drew Dellinger , Poet, Professor and Activist, can speak to us on a deep level. The narratives that activists, business people, students, consumers, builders, and all sorts of other types of artists create a future that will either be a better future or a future with an end in environmental death. What a choice, eh?

Here is an excerpt of a recent poem that he read at the Be the Change Conference, London, UK

hieroglyphic stairway

it's 3:23 in the morning
and I'm awake
because my great great grandchildren
won't let me sleep
my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was plundered?
what did you do when the earth was unraveling?...

Listen to Drew reading the poem via Treehugger.com - You need quicktime to hear