environment Politics: idiots Lisa Murkowski Scott Brown
by Warren
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Month 6, Day 10: Our Descendants Will Be Too Busy Ducking Catastrophic Storms To Spit On Our Graves…But They Would If They Could, You Betcha!
Lisa Murkowski’s appalling amendment is coming up for a vote on the Senate floor tomorrow. John Kerry is leading the charge against this breathtakingly stupid piece of legislation. Scott Brown?
Dear Senator Brown,
I write to urge you to vote against the “petition of disapproval” introduced by Senator Lisa Murkowski. Despite what the voices of Fox News say, the climate crisis is very real and very dangerous. At this point in our nation’s history, do we really need head-in-the-sand denial of something that’s been overwhelmingly affirmed by scientific research, over and over again?
The proposal to reverse the EPA’s Endangerment Finding with
respect to greenhouse gases would essentially bar further EPA
regulation on climate change. What we need is stronger climate legislation; what we need is to transform our economy so that we’re no longer burning fossil fuels and pumping carbon into the atmosphere. Senator Murkowski’s amendment is a cynical piece of short-term political self-gratification that serves the needs of no one save the energy industry.Senator Brown, I am not a corporation. I am a human being. Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United, there is a difference. I am a human being and one of your constituents; although I know that many Republican politicians feel responsible only to those who agree with their positions, the fact remains that you are my Senator.
Let’s say you’re buying a house, and ninety-seven home inspectors tell you it’s a dangerous property, while three tell you that they’re not quite sure. Would you buy? Let’s say you’re choosing a restaurant, and ninety-seven food inspectors tell you it’s unsafe, while three tell you they’re not quite sure. Would you eat there? Let’s say you find a lump, and ninety-seven oncologists advise you to start chemotherapy immediately, while three think you should wait and do some more tests. Would you wait?
Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that global warming is real, it’s dangerous, and it’s caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases. Three percent of climate scientists aren’t quite sure yet. Somehow it doesn’t strike me as a coincidence that the smaller group includes scientists who are on the payroll of the American Petroleum Institute.
The last thing we need is to eliminate one of our last remaining regulatory authorities in the face of a planetary crisis. Vote against the Murkowski amendment — for all our sakes.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Harry Reid idiots Kerry-Lieberman
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Month 6, Day 9: Rightly Is They Called Idiots.
When Harry Reid became Minority leader back when Democrats were in the minority, I knew he was trouble. It’s unbelievable how regularly he manages to snatch policy defeat from the jaws of legislative victory.
And now he’s getting ready to do it again. I sent a copy of this letter to Chuck Schumer, as he appears to be involved in this scam, too.
(facepalm)
Dear Senator Reid,
It’s true that the Gulf of Mexico disaster strengthens the case for a new and better energy policy. But replacing the already weakened Kerry-Lieberman bill with the completely powerless American Clean Energy Leadership Act (ACELA) is a terrible mistake.
ACELA is filled with giveaways to polluters. Some analysts believe it will actually increase carbon emissions. This may be a tiny stepping stone towards a new energy policy — but the real lesson of the Gulf catastrophe is that climate change is coming, and it’s coming faster than anyone thought (the climate for sea creatures in the waters off Louisiana has changed pretty drastically in just a few days, hasn’t it?). America needs to take this seriously.
The type of legislative sausage-making that was a source of entertainment in less critical times is no longer an option. To think that further weakening legislation that has already had all its teeth pulled will entice Republican votes is the height of naivete.
If any climate legislation (such as “cap-and-trade”) is offered as an amendment to ACELA, it will be defeated, and the narrow window of opportunity opened by the crisis in the Gulf will have been wasted — just like every other window of opportunity that has opened for Democrats in the past few years.
A climate bill must be offered as part of a linked package: climate-and-energy. There can be no compromise on this; I am asking you to look beyond political exigencies and consider the fact that the scientific evidence is overwhelming: the planet is warming, humans cause it, and everyone who is paying attention knows this to be true. What we really need is a carbon tax. If what we can get in a climate bill is cap-and-trade, we’ll start there.
But cap-and-trade is not analogous to a “public option” — something that we good progressives will eventually abandon in order to get a bill passed. We must have robust climate legislation.
If we fail, our descendants will curse us. We owe it to them to get this right. Any bill that has incentives for dirty energy and puts no price on carbon is a failure.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Barack Obama Civilian Conservation Corps Robert Reich
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Month 6, Day 8: Oh, Say Can You C.C.C.?
Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, has an excellent idea.
Dear President Obama,
This is just a short note to express my enthusiastic approval for Robert Reich’s recent proposal that you create a new version of the Civilian Conservation Corps focused on cleanup of the Gulf of Mexico. Reich points out that there aren’t enough summer jobs for young people, and suggests that you “send them to the Gulf to clean up beaches and wetlands, and send the bill to BP.”
It’s a great idea. The original Civilian Conservation Corps did tremendously important service to the country, revitalizing parts of our nation that had been devastated by drought and erosion. A new CCC could begin work on the affected coastal areas of Louisiana and Florida, doing the physically and emotionally grueling work of cleaning up after what seems likely to be the world’s worst oil spill.
Needless to say, there are plenty of other places where such an organization could accomplish wonders. Our ecological infrastructure is seriously frayed, and there are countless areas where the hard work of conservation needs to be carried out. This would have the added benefit of educating the participants about the importance of the natural systems that sustain all of us, thereby increasing the number of people who take environmental issues seriously.
Secretary Reich’s proposal is a good one and merits your consideration. Recognize, though, that it cannot be the sole solution to our nation’s combined climate and energy crises. We will never escape these devastating catastrophes until we shut down the last oil well and the last coal mine. Ultimately, we must end our use of fossil fuels, or it will certainly end us.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment: Bill McKibben fossil fuels LA Times Oil
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Month 6, Day 7: Adapt or Die — Choice We Can Believe In
The LA Times has a nice op-ed from Bill McKibben, who is, as usual, uncomfortably correct.
Bill McKibben has it right. The President has the opportunity to turn the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico into a sea-change for America and the world. The millions of gallons of oil now washing ashore on the coasts of Louisiana and Florida illuminate a stark choice: adapt or die. With smaller spills every day of the week around the world, the true costs of fossil fuels can’t be ignored. Are we going to continue basing our way of life on an incredibly dirty commodity, a substance that has profoundly negative effects on our atmosphere, and one which is going to become ever scarcer and costlier in the years to come? Or will America rise to the challenge? Now is the time for an energy economy that does not devastate ecosystems, shatter communities and pour millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We can no longer afford oil.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: economics GDP Genuine Progress Index Gross National Happiness measurement Redefining Progress
by Warren
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The Tyranny of False Measurement
First, watch this.
Bobby Kennedy on “Gross Domestic Product”
“Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product … if we should judge America by that – counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
“Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”
Yeah. What Bobby said.
The irrefutable fact of our environmental crisis is linked with the irrefutable fact of our economic crisis.
Our economy sucks for the same reason our environment is being destroyed: we’re measuring success with the wrong set of tools.
environment: Conservatives idiots Time Magazine
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Month 6, Day 6: Grandpa, What Did You Do In The War On The Environment?
Time Magazine ran a column by Strobe Talbott and William Antholis basically pointing out that there are many wonderful and intellectually consistent reasons for conservatives to agree that climate change is a threat and we should do something about it. Of course, conservatives never will.
Talbott and Antholis are entirely correct that climate change upends the notion of bequeathing prosperity to our posterity. Our money and possessions will be useless on an uninhabitable planet. Alas, there are two reasons why conservatives cannot follow their advice. First is the fact that conservative politicians have allied with fundamentalist religious leaders who uniformly embrace both Young Earth Creationism and the notion of an Apocalypse, a relationship exemplified by Reagan’s Interior Secretary James Watt, who memorably said, “We don’t have to protect the environment, the Second Coming is at hand.” The second is simply that it is essentially impossible for a conservative politician to admit error in matters of policy (personal behavior is a different story). This inability to recognize the need for a change in position may well prevent passage of climate legislation, thereby leaving a heritage of ignorance and environmental devastation to our grandchildren.
Warren Senders
environment: Barack Obama Chicago Tribune
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Month 6, Day 5: We Cannot Afford This Kind Of Cheap.
The Chicago Tribune ran the same AP story, but they handled it a little differently. Since they’re not a Murdoch paper I felt more comfortable using words of more than one syllable.
The destruction of the Gulf of Mexico makes it clear: fossil fuels are far more expensive than we think. Years of extensive government subsidies to the oil industry kept prices artificially low, and “externalities” like environmental destruction, health effects, expensive wars and catastrophic climate change are never figured into the price we pay at the pump. That must change if we are to survive and prosper. President Obama is absolutely correct: we can procrastinate no longer when it comes to building a clean energy future. When nay-sayers claim that getting off fossil fuels entirely is “unrealistic,” they forget two important facts: first, America has a long history of solving difficult problems with creativity and gusto — and we’ll create a renewable energy system with the same spirit. Second, the devastated Gulf of Mexico makes an irrefutable case that continuing to depend on oil is more than “unrealistic.” It’s suicidal.
Warren Senders
environment: addiction Boston Herald Oil
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Month 6, Day 4: Time For An Intervention?
The Boston Herald ran an AP story on Obama’s recent words about our national addiction to oil. My response:
President Obama is correct. America’s behavior when faced with the fact of our national dependence on oil is that of an addict confronting unpleasant truths. Fact: burning oil adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Fact: BP (and other oil companies as well) are demonstrably incompetent when it comes to disaster response. Fact: sooner or later, we will have burned all the oil there is to burn. Fact: thousands of smaller spills all over the world have devastated local communities and ecosystems. Fact: much of our oil comes from countries that (to put it mildly) don’t have America’s best interests at heart. Each of these truths is a good reason for a huge national initiative to shift us off oil within the decade. Taken together, they are irrefutable, yet it seems that the country that gave us “a giant leap for mankind” has become the country of “we can’t do it — it’s too hard.”
Warren Senders
Tired.
I was at a conference all day today. Rode my bike into Cambridge from my house, did the conference from 8:15 to about 5:15, then rode home…and got caught in a torrential rainstorm on the way. Monsoon-type rain; by the time I got home I was soaked to the skin. At least it was warm.
Enough time for dinner, then two hours of teaching.
Normally I’d be writing tomorrow’s letter now…but I’m gonna hang it up in about 30 seconds and go to bed. I’ll write tomorrow’s letter tomorrow. That’s what tomorrow is for.
environment Politics: Barack Obama Bill McKibben Bonn Conference Deepwater Horizon
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Month 6, Day 3: Disaster Spells O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y ?
This DK diary contains two fantastic essays by Bill McKibben and Adam Siegel. Go read it. And while you’re at it, read this. These two posts are what brought this letter bubbling up.
More personal than usual, but I’m starting to really take this stuff personally, y’know?
Dear President Obama —
I just read that in its opening addresses at the UN climate negotiations in Bonn, the United States never once mentioned a readiness to accept a binding agreement on carbon emission reductions.
Mr. President, I love my country.
Like you, I have lived abroad. When I first went to India to live, in the mid-1980’s, people asked me over and over again, “the Americans we meet are such wonderful people. Why is it that your government does such terrible things?”
That was during the Reagan years, and those of us with conscience were outraged by the behavior of our government. And all I could do was shake my head sadly, and say, “I know. It’s a terrible thing.”
When the U.S.negotiator states that the negotiation text which had been approved by every country in the world at Copenhagen ‘had no standing,’ I can only shake my head sadly and say, “I know. It’s a terrible thing.”
When my government’s negotiator promotes the Copenhagen Accord, a political agreement which takes seven degrees Farenheit of global warming as a given, I can only shake my head sadly and say, “I know. It’s a terrible thing.”
When I look at the consequences of that level of warming and realize that it will mean millions and millions of deaths due to food and water shortages, I can only shake my head sadly and say, “I know. It’s a terrible thing.”.
I know that it takes a long time to turn things around. I am not so naive as to think that wishing will make it so — but I still wish.
Bill McKibben said recently that the Deepwater Horizon disaster has offered you the perfect platform for a genuinely transformative approach. While the oil chokes the water and poisons all the life in the Gulf of Mexico, you must remind us all that fossil fuel is dirty. It’s dirty when you take it out of the ground, it’s dirty when you process it, it’s dirty when you burn it…and, of course, as it burns it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Dirty. With the ruined ecosystems of the Louisiana coast as a backdrop, you need to ask the American people, “Is this what you really want?” And you need to offer some alternatives. McKibben notes that his organization, 350.org, is planning a “Global Work Party” for energy conservation and efficiency on the 10th of October of this year. He concludes with this wish: “Let’s hope the president is up on the roof of the White House, hammering in the solar panels that Ronald Reagan took down.”
Mr. President, that’s my wish for you, too.
I wish for an America that embraces the idea of energy independence, that acknowledges its global responsibilities, that recognizes that the global engine of predatory capitalism is causing irreversible damage to the planet we share. I wish for an America where I don’t have to keep shaking my head sadly and saying, “I know. It’s a terrible thing.”
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders