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Our Slow-Motion Global Accident
Industry simply doesn't have an incentive to kick its fossil fuel habit.
Have you ever found yourself in the midst of a disaster--like taking a bend in the road too fast on a rainy night--where every second seems impossibly stretched?
The situation unfolds in slow motion. You know exactly how it turns out, even before your car plows into the guardrail. Somehow, there's time to ponder what you could have done differently--slowed at the yellow sign--and wish you could turn back the clock.
That's what it felt like in December at the 2010 UN climate summit held in Cancun, Mexico. The meeting's final hours, when world leaders gaveled through a flawed agreement, felt just as long as the preceding two weeks of negotiations.
Instead of calling the tow truck to haul away the wreck, however, leaders and representatives from the vast majority of the 194 countries present applauded their accord as a victory for multilateralism--saying a weak deal was better than no deal.
Sure, supporters admitted, the so-called Cancun agreement doesn't limit global warming to what scientists--and more than 100 countries--say is safe. Plus, pledges by individual countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions, if you add them up, fall short of this inadequate target. And, yes, the Cancun deal doesn't hold anyone accountable for cutting climate pollution because these new pledges are voluntary.
But besides that--and that a fund promised by rich countries to help poorer nations deal with the impact of climate change has no dedicated source of funding--it's a great step forward. Huh?
We have to do better.
The Cancun deal won't change much in the United States. Obama's goal to reduce our greenhouse gas pollution remains an embarrassingly low four percent from 1990 levels by the end of the next decade. European countries have pledged 20 percent and Brazil 39 percent.
We still don't have a comprehensive climate law--and it's unlikely we'll have one soon.
Industry simply doesn't have an incentive to kick its fossil fuel habit. In fact, the Cancun agreement could open a loophole that lets companies in the United States continue to pollute--as long as they pay someone else in another country to reduce their emissions. It's called carbon offsetting, and it means U.S. families living in the toxic shadow of big polluters will have to suffer the health impacts of dirty energy, while companies get to claim credit for cleaning up their act.
Instead of getting motivated to stop climate change now, the world's countries will wait another year before trying again to secure a climate agreement with teeth. The next UN Framework Convention on Climate Change--to be held in Durban, South Africa--won't take place until December 2011.
That doesn't mean we have to sit back and watch as more environmental disasters unfold. We can take action this year.
We can start investing now in the transition to a green energy workforce. We can create jobs that bring workers the dignity of contributing to a better world and give families the security of a steady paycheck in a growing sector.
We can demand now that every dollar sent overseas to help people get out of energy poverty goes to renewable energy and low-carbon development.
And we can raise billions of dollars to make this happen by taxing the financial speculation of the Wall Street fat cats who brought us the economic crisis. European countries are already considering a regional financial transaction tax. If they can do it, we can, too.
Regardless of what happens at these annual global climate talks, we must all think and act fast now to avoid having to clean up a big mess later. Real success means changing course toward a strong green economy at home and a global climate deal that protects people and the planet.
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26 Comments so far
Show AllAct fast and do what? What is the step-by-step methodology for "changing course towards a strong green economy at home"? What would be the terms of a "climate deal that protects people and the planet"? Who would make such a "deal"? Who would monitor it to make sure no one was juking the stats to get more than a fair share?
The first thing and the quickest thing to go Green is to increase gas taxes on
both the Federal and State levels and use the money to actually operate public transit. This will mean hiring more conductors, engineers, shuttle drivers and
could cut our oil usage by 20% in a year.
Instead, like every other public service, public transit has been cut in 150
cities across the US.
Since Transportation accounts for 70% of US oil usage and 38% of greenhouse
emissions, mostly for cars and trucks, the quickest way to save oil which
crossed $92 per barrel already to open 2011, is to actually run transit systems
already built and provide the last mile shuttles and connections.
Halt ANY more road expansion which costs billions upon billions in Federal,
State and local funding.
Next begin running trains on the 233,000 miles of rail we still have left in the USA from what was once the greatest rail network on Earth.
In the 1940's trains and trolleys served every major town and city in the US with
trains regularly operating at 100 miles per hour.
We need to get them back and stop suburban sprawl, the greatest Environmental
scourge outside of our insane Wars.
Studies show that investments in Green public transit instead of highways
led to twice the number of jobs, many of those with operating subsidies, permanent
jobs for skilled well-paid transit operators. (conductors, engineers, drivers)
Good comments, orbit, I agree. An immediate increase in gasoline taxes -- perhaps phased-in over a series of years -- seems like a no-brainer.
Especially if it includes a corresponding reduction in other taxes to ensure that there is no net negative tax impact (or a net positive) on most our country's lowest-income citizens.
But with the current makeup of Congress, we'll see no such thing. A new consumption tax of any kind will be DOA in this Republican-controlled and Corporate-controlled Congress. No matter how much sense it makes. The masses will be whipped into an anti-tax hysteria by Fox 'News' [sic] even as they shell out more of the money they don't have at their local gas station to contribute to a growing U.S. trade imbalance with Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Russia, and other countries the Fox crowd just adores.
The best we can hope for the next two years is for individual states to begin raising taxes on carbon fuel consumption, and correspondingly increasing their subsidies for CO2-reduction activities (home insulation, public transit, higher-density development).
Then, when the serious you-know-what hits the fan, as it inevitably will with the arrival of various Peak Oil crises over the next 5-10 years, at least those states will be able to show the rest of country how it might begin extricating itself from the hole it has dug itself.
It will be too little, too late, I know, but better than no progress at all.
Before messing with the gas tax there should be some considerations such as the rural poor. A possibility is to subsidize vehicles that can get over 40 mpg and give tax credits for those instead of the tax credits that were put in place a few years back that gave rich people that had enough money to buy new gas guzzlers a break.
In fact, why isn't there immanent domain that helps out the workers? Say an automobile plant shuts down in Michigan and moves the jobs overseas. What happens to the factory? Couldn't the government buy it for pennies on the dollar and set up a worker owned coop that makes fuel efficient vehicles?
The catch phrase out there for the solution is C & C (contraction and convergence).
It's all here:
http://citizenactionmonitor.wordpress.com/2010/06/13/is-humanity-inherently-unsustainable-pt-1-summary/
I can't watch the video as this computer streams too slow, but read the summary.
"... if we convince enough people that it is in their selfish interests to serve the collective interest."
Capitalism is entirely about selfish self interest and will never work long term.
Live small.
This was not an accident.
This was planned with the cold eyed deliberation of that tragic November day in Dallas when JFk had his head blown off.
The Elite have their life boats stocked and ready to go. You are not invited.
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
We must FIRST make changes in our own lives before we can seek changes in the lives of others. Do you have a plan to do more than talk? We all know what to do personally, just do it.
Yes - vegitarian diet, bicycle commuting, energy conscious, buy local, local vacations, evangelize, lots of discussions with kids about responsible citizenship, 'war is terrorism' bumper sticker.
Yet I still feel like I'm pissing into the wind.
Why can't our leaders stand up and lead on this - its the only way to achieve the scale we need.
I'm afraid only the market can solve the problem of greenhouse warming, not the good intentions of Ms. Redman or anyone else for that matter. Only when the price of fossil fuel goes through the roof will people begin to use less of it. The current political climate will not permit carbon taxes--forget it, it won't happen. When demand exceeds supply, consumption will fall drastically. That may be a few years.
"I'm afraid only the market can solve the problem of greenhouse warming"
If not, nature will be glad to resolve matters. Hope we like the answer.
"God is great, God is good he guards your neighborhood though it's generally understood not quite the way you would..." Jackson Browne
Rational Market Decisions requires educated consumers.
No economy in a failed ecology.
Until people like Inhofe et al start to choke on carbon dioxide and methane the U.S. will be a laggard, far behind the rest of the world in dealing with global warming destruction.
The Earth will eventually reach a new equilibrium. Whether that equilibrium will include humans and most mammals etc. is very much in doubt.
Money and power will become null and forfeit.
Yes, indeed. Wouldn't it be great if people were satisfied with just being people? All my friends, all my family, in fact, everyone I know have houses full of useless stuff. The irony is that they spend countless hours looking for or taking care of the stuff. Sometimes I wonder if they own the stuff or the stuff owns them.
Live small.
Back in the 50s, a fellow in the USA looked at all those 'under utilized' factories that weren't making tanks and other war machines and also at the fact that Americans, after going through the depression and WWII, had become accustomed to frugality, budgeting, saving, making do and repairing their own machinery to cut costs. The average Joe AND Jane (remember Rosie the riveter?) were quite mechanically versatile and adept at making things last.
This was a sad state of affairs for Wall Street. So this fellow got funding from Wall Street for Madison Avenue to mold those pesky skinflints who were happy about consuming as little as possible into rabid consumers. Of course planned obsolescence in machinery went hand in hand along with the idiotic concept of an annual 'latest model' car, washing machine or whatever to make you feel awful because you didn't have the 'latest and greatest' gadget.
It was a deliberate psychological attack which now is circling the globe to pressure everyone to consume so economies would grow and everyone would be better off and happier.
Result:
1) Economies grew
2) UNhappiness grew (yes, even among the rich)
3) World ecosystem got trashed.
This is all documented. So why won't all the morons who initiated this mindf_ck go back to Madison avenue and correct the system by molding us back to frugality since it has been proven scientifically that people who have simpler lives are happier, have a smaller carbon footprint and could possibly save humanity's ass on earth?
Max Planck, famous physicist, said that revolutionary scientific knowledge did not become accepted because the scientific community 'went back to the drawing board', so to speak, reassessed their positions, realized their flaws and admitted they were wrong. NO. The new knowledge became accepted as the old prominent scientists DIED OFF and new scientists trained under the new knowledge replaced them.
Now consider this human ossification of thought among the power brokers who are destroying the planet with their bankrupt economical growth meme. It doesn't look good for us.
http://citizenactionmonitor.wordpress.com/2010/06/13/is-humanity-inherently-unsustainable-pt-1-summary/
agelbert, you bring up a couple of very good points.
Planned obsolescence created a climate of disposable everything. In the well-to-do suburbs older houses are referred to as tear downs. Perfectly good houses are dozed and trucked to the dump. Sometimes two adjoining perfectly livable homes are scrapped to build an over sized house with all the new bells and whistles, walls of glass. Worse still are the hot water pipes installed below driveways that eliminate snow shoveling. There is a light bulb made by T. Edison at his workshop in Florida that has been turned on and off everyday right up to the present.
And whatever happened to Emmit's Fix It Shops? Coffee maker quit working? No problem, toss it and go to WalMart. Lawn mower won't start? No problem, drag it to the curb and go to WalMart.
I have no sympathy for the auto makers. Due to the changes every year that you mentioned, every part becomes a specialty item; $50 taillight lenses. The pragmatic "People's Car" from Germany always made sense to me. Engines could be swapped on cars made decades apart.
All of this goes hand in hand with a society based on specialized workers. People are taught to do one thing and one thing only. It goes against my Nature and makes no sense.
The good citizens have been sold a bill of rotten goods.
We can discuss the mountains of trash from the packaging another day.
Nanoo
Coffee maker quit working for me one too many times. So I found from Vermont Country Store a stainless steel coffee pot. The basket that holds the grounds is designed so that you don't need filters. I've saved money and not added to the trash heap for several years. It's also a good conversation piece when people visit and frees up more counter space.
"we must all think and act fast now to avoid having to clean up a big mess later"
This has to be the most sublime understatement of the decade.
And was delivered by a group of concerned scientists way back in 1992!
http://citizenactionmonitor.wordpress.com/2010/06/13/is-humanity-inherently-unsustainable-pt-1-summary...
In my heart of hearts (and brain of brains, I guess), I think humanity is hardwired to self-extinction. I see no evidence that the we have learned a thing that will effectually alter our behavior, really, since the naive and hopeful days of the late '60's and early '70's when I (and many others) foolishly believed that a polar change in human consciousness was happening. The strange, almost uncanny thing, worthy of great wonder, is that most of the dire predictions of loss of habitat, biological extinction, atmospheric degradation have come to pass and still we are carrying on virtually the same conversations we had 40 years ago. We seem to be in some sort of endless loop the nature of which is determined by adamant behavioral mandates and which exists as a brakeless vehicle on our trajectory toward extinction.
Nevertheless, I may be wrong because people *don't* always act against their survival and health and happiness. Maybe what is adamant are the cultural mandates as shaped by environment and traditions in all their aspects. I do know that our environment is secondhand and artificial, so our thought and experience is usually false in regard to the web of nature that we break to dire consequences.
I usually don't go on about this, particularly on CD. What's the point? Besides, I have a happy disposition which is also a wonder to me under the circumstances. (Must be hardwired, too. It seems to be the only explanation.) I wake up feeling good and generally am happy throughout the day. I go to bed happy and comfortable and sleep a nice healthy slumber. What the hell's wrong with me??
Contraction and conversion sounds interesting.
Arry...couldn'a said it better myself. It's a strange tightrope we walk. Some just call it a fine line, some a fence. Stretched rubber band with one end in hell.
Don't expect meaningful action from the leaders of the status quo.
"Act fast and do what? What is the step-by-step methodology for "changing course towards a strong green economy at home"? What would be the terms of a "climate deal that protects people and the planet"? Who would make such a "deal"? Who would monitor it to make sure no one was juking the stats to get more than a fair share?"--paranoid pessimist
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Don't expect meaningful action from the leaders of the status quo."--snydly
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
yes, pp, "act fast and do what?" when i was a kid "leaders" were called "representatives." a recent cd article pointed out that the u.s senate has become a millionaires club. also, i remember reading that tricky dicky was the first president to become a millionaire while in office. the prime directive for each candidate is to win the election. of greater importance than a candidate's knowledge or particular area of expertise, is the appearance, the packaging or public image. a worthy candidate needs the support of deep-pocket sponsors in the insurance, big pharma, energy and finance sectors who can donate millions in return for policies which can return billions in profits to these "too big to fail" industries.
we, the peoples of earth live in the midst of a huge meltdown both economic and ecologic. that's no coincidence, as one above said we cannot enjoy a stable economy within an unstable ecology, but as carter found out truth and reason equal political suicide. as earth's human population continues to grow exponentially Nature's bounty of raw resources dwindles. deforestation creates desertification so that the term "renewable" resources becomes obsolete. our too big to fail monopolies have failed as has our too big to fail central government. states, counties and muninicipalties can no longer afford basic programs. mayor bloomberg caught a lot of heat because budget cuts meant not enough snow plows to answer the storm. had the colossal storm not hit new york city, he and his city counsel would have been heroes for trimming fat from the budget.
back when the crashed stock market could no longer be hidden, i heard a financial "expert" assure the public, "we're looking ahead of the curve." really? x-ray vision? the hummingbird teaches me that smaller has more advantage can change direction and maneuver more quickly when threatened. we are in the throes of such irratic change no one can predict exactly what's around the curve. politicians and wealthy industrialists have no super human powers no matter what they claim to win the election.
stay alert and expect the unexpected.
Nothing will have changed in Cancun except that all the participants had a great time and vacation basking in the sun wasting tax payers' money drinking and eating lavishly while accomplishing absolutely nothing while planning another exotic area to have their next do nothing convention.