Asiaing.com: Free eBooks, Free Magazines, Free Magazine Subscriptions

The United States in the 21st century faces an enormous challenge—successfully managing the transformation from a predominantly carbon-intensive economy to becoming a predominantly clean energy-based economy.

The reality of global climate change due to rising carbon emissions makes it imperative that the U.S. economy dramatically cut its consumption of traditional fossil fuels, the primary source of carbon dioxide (CO2) delivered into our atmosphere by human activity. Rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere is in turn the primary cause of global warming.

America’s clean energy economy is dawning as a critical component of the nation’s future.

Global investment in sustainable energy reached $155 billion in 2008, a modest increase of 5% over 2007. Following several years of over 50% growth, this marks a dramatic slowdown as a result of the global economic downturn.

When the President took office, the Nation was experiencing the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression. This decline was not simply the result of a normal downturn in the business cycle; also contributing to it were irresponsible choices made by our public and private institutions that generated a meltdown in our credit and capital markets. As a result, the economy was in the midst of a severe collapse.

East Asian economies – Singapore and Hong Kong SAR – occupy the top two positions in the Enabling Trade Index ranking, followed by Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden, according to The Global Enabling Trade Report 2009, released today by the World Economic Forum. Canada, Norway, Finland, Austria and the Netherlands complete the top-10 list.

The Global Enabling Trade Report 2009 measures and analyzes institutions, policies, and services enabling trade in national economies around the world, highlighting for policymakers a country’s strengths and the challenges to be addressed. The Report includes the most current data and recent analysis of the factors enabling trade in industrialized and emerging economies, as well as the latest thinking and research from trade experts and industry practitioners.

Clearing the Air on Oil Sands Myths identifies a growing body of oil sands “spin” from federal and Alberta politicians and the oil sands industry. This resource provides the full context and facts about oil sands development with concise, referenced information on its environmental impacts.

Amid the important and often heated debate over education reforms such as merit-based teacher pay and charter schools, the nation is missing an obvious opportunity to use new technology to improve dramatically the education our children receive.

The new thinking should start with the heavy, often outdated textbooks students carry in their backpacks and read at school or home. We shouldn’t wait a decade or two to begin to achieve what is inevitable—an education system where each American schoolchild has an eTextbook, like Amazon’s Kindle, loaded with the most up-to-date and interactive teaching materials and texts available. The “Kindle in every backpack” concept isn’t just an educational gimmick—it could improve education quality and save money.