This month, updates from:
Alternative energy, natural resources and textile manufacturing.
Alternative energy:
Checking solar panel alignment prior to installation.
Solar energy accounted for 21% of new energy sources coming online this year. Also, manufacturing of these panels is moving east, to China, Malaysia and to some extent, the Philippines.
If the US solar business is booming, why are jobs in it declining? (via Quartz)
Natural resources:
At the end of another year resisting the Northern Gateway pipelines in British Columbia, there is growing recognition that Canada has failed to add value to its natural resources, choosing instead to extract and liquidate rather than consider long-term impact and alternative products.
Failure to add value to resource wealth chains Canada to its colonial past (via The Globe & Mail)
Textile manufacturing:
Bangladesh increases the minimum wage in the garments manufacturing sector from approximately $40 to nearly $70, as attention remains focused on a largely under-regulated industry and with lax legal enforcement. Global retailers insisted for years this would cause their sales to drop. The Bangladesh government believed any such measure would have retailers take their business elsewhere. So far, nothing like this has happened.
The Tragic Number That Got Us All Talking About Our Clothing (via NPR: Planet Money )
