July 22nd, 2009 · Comments Off on John Stewart and The Congressional Process: the Cap & Trade example
Referred to as ‘sausage making’, the legislative process isn’t pretty (despite those beautiful Rose Garden signing sessions). And, too often, the result from the legislative process isn’t pretty. And, where the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act has gone isn’t pretty and the potential paths forward make it far too likely to end up as a something truly ugly — with some great elements but too many add-on and weakening elements distorting it nearly beyond recognition compared to sensible policy moving forward. As Jon Stewart put it last night,
Kids, you want to see how a bill becomes a horribly compromised law? Let me introduce you to a friend of mine, Capt & Trade.
As noted just a few days ago, discussing a historic NAACP climate change resolution, the “environmental” movement has had a reputation as some form of lily-white activity for those with enough resources to have the luxury of caring about the planet’s future. While there were (and, sadly, are) some truths to this, the Environmental Justice movement has long been a counter example. And, increasingly, activism to change directions on humanity’s interaction with and influence on the planetary system is becoming more like the mix of races, religions, ethnicity, etc that is America.
Earlier today, the Navajo Nation Council chose to take the Navajo Nation on a new, green path, with a decision to support a green jobs development path.
40 years ago, today, Neil Armstrong took “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
It had been just over eight years earlier when a young President John F Kennedy walked into the House of Representatives and made the call to go to the moon.
We choose not to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.
In just eight years, from science fiction to reality. In just eight years, the creation of massive new industries, new government organizations, an entire new career aspiration for millions of Americans (Astronaut). A government program (a highly successful program from before the drive to drown the bathtub) sparked by the vision of a brilliant, eloquent, and forceful young President. A government program that, in a myriad of ways, changed the very nature of our society, changed humanity’s conception of Earth, changed our economy, and sparked innovations both directly to support the program and indirectly from inspiring millions to look beyond themselves and to think beyond their previous constraints toward something new, something greater.
When it comes to the challenges before us (the US and the globe), the Apollo analogy is a powerful one — the idea of a President setting an objective and a massive endeavor being put together to achieve something many thought impossible on an, well, impossible timeline. To take the United States from what seemed to be a position of disadvantage to one of advantage, to ‘win’ the space race. Many concerned about America’s economic challenges, our energy problems, and the looming catastrophes of global warming look to the Apollo Program for inspiration. From the eloquent power of Apollo’s Fire to the strong organizational power of The Apollo Alliance, there is an intense power to the appeal to the greatness of The Apollo Program’s quite tangible achievements as a model for tackling the very serious challenges before us (both the U.S. and all of us).
We must, however, apply some of the critical lessons of Thinking in Time, most critically understanding the parallels and disconnects between the analogy and the situation that we face today. The analogy of a Presidential call, of putting together a massive technological undertaking that created entire new technologies in achieving a vision, and so on … all of these do have powerful appeal.
But, there are quite serious disconnects that we cannot fail to examine and understand:
Despite the size and national appeal of The Apollo Program, it was not something that changed the daily lives of the average American nor did it require massive international agreements and cooperation to be achieved. Like the Manhattan Project (another common analogy, appeal), this was achieved by scientists and engineers (mainly) who worked, to a huge extent, in isolation from the greater society.
Tackling the challenges of climate change and taking advantage of the opportunities of a new energy (green) economy will involve every American.
RE the scientists and engineers, The Apollo Program was principally a scientific and engineering challenge. There were other obstacles (that $200 billion in funding, for example) and clearly other impacts (sparking a wave of new engineers in American universities and sparking new businesses with an impact that continues to this day), but this was a scientific/engineering problem, not a social organization and economic structure challenge.
Dealing with Global Warming will require rethinking and engagement across essentially every aspect of modern human civilization. It is not simply a technological but also a social, economic, and cultural challenge before us.
While there were many who questioned The Apollo Program and whether this was the best use of limited resources, there was not a powerful mafia seeking to derail the US government’s vision. The space program had ‘bipartisan’ support and was seen in the context of a bipartisan agreement as to threat.
Today, we face the reality that there are those willing to lie and deceive (who are, actually, actually lying and decieving) to retard any movement forward, to inhibit any opportunity for the United States to move forward to a stronger, safer, sustainable future. In the 1960s, there was not a powerful portion of the American political system gleefully seeking to drain the government of resources and drown it in the bathtub The Fifth Column fighting The Apollo Program didn’t exist, those fighting action to deal with climate change’s real threats are brazenly open in their deception efforts.
The Apollo Program had an inspirational goal and the space program ended up with massive impacts on human society (Tang for breakfast, anyone?), but let’s us face facts: if The Apollo Program had failed, if it had not sent someone to the moon, how many millions of people would have died, how many species would have gone extinct.
The stakes are high with Global Warming. We aren’t talking about the lives of a few (brave) astronauts at the top of a rocket, in space alone with no hope of succur, but about billions hurtling through space on ‘Spaceship Earth’ which is having some serious contamination going on in its life-support systems.
The Apollo program had a finite, tangible, measurable target: putting Neil Armstrong on the moon to utter his famous words. Anything short of that was failure. Anything after that was icing on the cake.
There will be no clear-cut “done” for the challenge of turning the tide on Global Warming’s rising seas (at least not in the lifetime of anyone alive today or their children or grandchildren). We will have serious problems in the years ahead, with the lingering impacts of the CO2 already emitted — even if we magically stopped all human CO2 emissions tomorrow. Sadly, there are many paths to failure — it is hard to see the icing on the cake (even if there is the potential for many victories, such as bringing a clean energy boom to the U.S. economy.)
To think thoughtfully in time means to be able to weave together multiple analogies, understanding the weaknesses and strengths of each, understanding how the different perspectives and messages of the different analogies can help us understand where we are, where we might go, and how we might get there.
The Apollo Analogy tells us that we (the United States and, well, perhaps humanity) can organize to achieve something greater than ourselves.
The Apollo Analogy tells us that we can surprise ourselves by the rapidity and extent of change, if we set ourselves to it.
The Apollo Analogy tells us that stretch targets, objectives that seem next-to-impossible can lead us to do better than imagined.
As for the last, the power of serious targets, this tells me that it is time to be taking seriously Al Gore’s target of 100% clean electricity within a decade. This is a “stretch target”. It is time to be taking seriously 350.org and the need to chart a path not to simply slow emissions, but to chart and navigate a path toward actually reducing atmospheric Co2 concentrations. It is time for a brilliant, eloquent, and forceful young President to take a vision of something better to the American people rather than to accept inadequate compromises that are the best the political system can deliver.
The Apollo Analogy tells of the power of vision … and calls to meet it.
There’s no Christmas in July for Andrew Spadafora.
Spadafora has, over the years, built up what might be Long Island’s largest Christmas light display. And, associated with that, has been raising money for the Schneider Children’s Hospital: some $180,000 in fundraising. But, the still unpaid portions of the $41,000 that the 2008 means that Spadafora “can’t afford to put up his nearly 1 million lights this year.”
Do you love those displays of Christmas (or Hannukah or Kwanza or …) lights? Are you awed by those so impassioned that they string up 1000s of lights in awesome displays worthy of a city center? I once did, pausing on cold winter nights, white clouds issuing from my mouth, enjoying being in the glow of beautiful displays. And, in a way, I was inspired that they would spend $1000s (or $10,000s) on displays and the electricity to power them so that others could enjoy the sight on those cold winter nights.
But … no longer … not for awhile. Far too often nowadays, my winter evenings I can wear short sleeve shirts rather than bulky coats and gloves. And, energy is no longer a question simply of money. I’ve reached the point of feeling like a Scrooge; feeling outrage over the tons of C02 going into the atmosphere via neighbors’ 10,000 light displays rather than feeling ‘joyous’.
Without question, Spadafora’s displays brought joy to many (and dismay to many in the neighborhood, almost certainly). Yet, without question, between the 100,000s of kilowatt hours of burned electricity and the gallons of gasoline burned by people caught in traffic as they sought to drive by the display, this is a form of excess that contributes to endangering the future of the very children Spadafora seeks to help via fundraising.
The Earth is ancient far beyond the understanding of most people. There have been giant continents, populated repeatedly with immense herds of large animals, innumerable deadly carnivores, forests stretching thousands upon thousands of miles, and deserts that today would encompass whole, and large, continents.
The Earth has also had many climates. It has been a hot, blasted wasteland, and it has been a frozen ball where once nearly the entire planet was covered in thousands of feet of blue ice.
It has been a garden with forests and seas stretching around the globe, a place where unknown millions of forms of life have arisen, lived for eon after eon after eon, and then perished. Many left no trace. Over that gulf of time, the Earth has been many things, and it has been each of those many things for millions and millions of years at a time.
We humans will become extinct. It is an absolute certainty, and there is not even the least shred of doubt about it. In the long run, we’re all extinct.
The only question is whether it will happen sooner because we let the corporations push us into extinction through greed, or later because we regain control of our lives.
Comments Off on Earth has been many, many planets over the eonsTags:environmental
July 18th, 2009 · Comments Off on Energy Bookshelf: Dummied Energy Efficiency
When writing a review, the desired state is to write positive; hopefully having had an excellent experience with, then, the pleasure of sharing that with others. Sadly, not all life’s experiences are joyful.
Rik DeGunther has an empire of Energy for Dummies books. He writes well. And, it is clear that he has real knowledge. These are the sort of books that one would like to write: go out, buy, it will answer all your questions and help (us all) solve some real problems. Sadly, there are issues — small and large — that force a real questioning as to whether these are books that we should have on our Energy Bookshelves.
Let’s take a look at one, Energy Efficient Homes for Dummies, for examples of these problems. Written clearly (often even enjoyable to read) with much advice between the covers that would be worth following. Interspersed, however, is misleading, confusing, and even out-of-place material. Follow me after the fold for some examples.
has today dealt a body blow to global warming skeptics by releasing findings exposing the lack of credibility of dissenting scientists challenging man-made global warming
July 15th, 2009 · Comments Off on Thirty years later: “A Crisis of Confidence”
Thirty years ago, on 15 July 1979, President Jimmy Carter gave the “Crisis of Confidence” speech which, sadly, remains all too relevant today. This speech was amid the second oil crisis, well before our knowledge of Global Warming being so strongly supported by science. Even so, with the exception of a few items (such as the emphasis on coal and shale to be exploited), Carter’s recommendations would make sense to execute today. 30 years later, read the speech and/or listen to it.
This past weekend, Australian youth gathered for PowerShift Australia. And, they ‘flashed’ Sydney’s Opera House.
This is the latest (could we say greatest?) videos from the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC), a coalition of 22 member and partner youth organisations from across Australia.
Around the globe, youth are seizing the mantle to bring attention to the urgency for serious action to turn the tide on Global Warming’s rising seas.
Let’s face facts, to far too many, for far too long, “environmentalism” has seemed a lilly-white activity, something for people with enough resources to engage in caring about the environment. And, in some ways, there is some truth to this perspective. As Jerome Ringo put it in
I joined the Louisian WIldlife Federation in 1991. At that time, the Louisiana Wildlife Federation was the largest environmental organization in the state; it had about 24,000 members. When I joined, I was the only black member. Today, the membership has fallen to about 19,000. And, today, I am the only black member. What I found in Louisiana, as well as in the rest of this country, is that the conservation movement lacked diversity, and there was a lack of involvement of women, people of color, or of the poor …
Poor people are more concerned about next month’s rent. The melting of the glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro is not an issue for low-income Americans.
Jerome Ringo, “Accelerating the Shift to Green Energy”, Greenfestival Reader, pp. 83-84
While it is hard to call activism on climate change and efforts for green jobs lilly-white when people like Van Jones (and Barack Obama and Hilda Solis) are among the strongest voices for change, the African American community, as a community, has not been heavily engaged in the efforts to drive America toward a clean energy future despite the very serious issues of environmental justice and impacts on African American communities across the nation.
“This is a breakthrough moment on the path to our clean energy future,” said John Grant, National Wildlife Federation Board of Directors and CEO of 100 Black Men of Atlanta. “Clean energy is the key that will unlock millions of jobs, and the NAACP’s support is vital to ensuring that those jobs help to rebuild urban areas.”
(or Hannukah or Kwanza or …) lights? Are you awed by those so impassioned that they string up