From Guest Blogger Bill Paul: The Hottest Bull Market on Earth

I learned recently that long-time 2GreenEnergy Associate Bill Paul has been doing some truly excellent work in an area of tremendous importance: calling attention to crimes against the environment.  Not only is his work of great value, it’s easy to absorb; he produces short videos that, IMO, have huge impact and “punch.”  I hope you’ll check them out.  Here’s the first of what I hope to be a great number of posts on the subject:

The hottest bull market on earth is not in stocks. It’s in endangered species.

Consider this: a pound of ivory reportedly sold earlier this year for $1,300, up 44% from its reported sale price in 2012 and 381% from its reported sale price in 2011. From $270 to $1,300 in two years!

And this: a kilogram of rhino horn reportedly sold for the equivalent of almost $100,000 in late 2011, nearly double what media reports said a kilogram sold for at the beginning of 2011.

In this raging bull market, the “traders” are black marketers. The “institutional investors” include many thousands of unscrupulous jewelers, art collectors, exotic bird collectors, and restaurants whose entrees, such as shark fin soup, are made from endangered species parts. “Individual investors” include the many millions who naively believe in traditional folk medicines. “Insider trading” occurs every day, thanks to corrupt politicians and wildlife officers.

Led by Interpol, “regulators” periodically round up a bunch of bad guys, but the regulators are no match for a global criminal enterprise that more and more is controlled by transnational organized crime gangs.

Wildlife trafficking is now estimated to be a $19 billion-a-year business. And we haven’t even begun to discuss the tens of billions more being made from illegal logging and fishing, toxic and electronic waste dumping, air and water pollution, and more – some of it connected to publicly-held companies that, for the most part, have yet to be held accountable for their actions.

It all adds up to a war against the planet, a war that threatens to destroy our natural resources, makes it impossible to feed the growing global population, and ruins the health of the nearly seven billion people already alive.

Global Environmental CrimeWatch (http://gecw.tv) is a newscast dedicated to reporting on this “war against the planet.”  I’m its managing editor (drawing upon decades of environmental and investigative reporting experience, including 20 years at the Wall Street Journal). I intend GECW to be a hybrid of “60 Minutes” and “America’s Most Wanted.” The first three episodes are yours to watch right now.

This is the first entry in a new blog that will periodically appear on 2greenenergy.com. I thank Craig for the opportunity and I look forward to what I hope will be an exchange of ideas on how to win this deadly war.