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Vote as if your future depended on it. It actually does.
October 29, 2010
Raise your hand if you're sick to death of this election season. Keep them up if you're scared to death of the results.
Many of the politicians currently running for office are just not my cup of Tea--ok, I lifted that from Maureen Dowd. So here I am going all partisan on you, but the depth of the problems facing our country is daunting and we need some smart people in government acting wisely and thoughtfully, putting the country ahead of their political posturing.
Unemployment is our single largest issue. Raise your hand if you or someone close to you is looking in vain for a job. I see ya and I'm sorry, but we as a nation also have other things to contend with. I'm going to focus --no surprise--on climate change.
From all accounts, meaningful climate change legislation is all but dead this legislative term, and if Republicans capture one of both houses of Congress, there will likely be no energy bill anytime soon despite the fact that it is overwhelmingly in our interest to do so.
As Tom Friedman said in a recent New York Times column:
"I still find it amazing that with all the climate, security, health and financial interests America has in reducing its dependence on oil, our Congress could not work out an energy bill over the past two years--especially when China, Japan and the European Union are all hurdling ahead on clean-tech. The fact that we failed to pass an energy bill--cap-and-trade, a carbon tax, efficiency standards, I don't care which--is actually a reflection of a broader U.S. power failure. It is the failure of our political system to unite, even in a crisis, to produce the policy responses America needs to thrive in the 21st century."
All but one (Mark Steven Kirk from Illinois) of the Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate and a majority of the Republicans running for governor deny climate change or its connections to human behavior. Earlier this year Senators Kerry (D-MA), Lieberman (I-CN) and Graham (R-SC) penned a bill to address climate, energy, security, jobs and environmental goals. Graham pulled out after being told by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that no other Republican would support him.
The American Power Act would have reduced greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 through a nation-wide cap-and-trade program. It also contains investments in clean energy technology and provisions to encourage the creation of new "green" jobs.
The probable consequences of climate change include rising seas, global fresh water and food supply shortages, species extinction, and economic chaos.
And that's just the short list.
Posted by Penny Bonda on October 29, 2010 |
Comments (5)
Industries:
Green
November 4, 2010
In response to:
Vote as if your future depended on it. It actually does.Peter commented:
A trivial remark on Meme Mine's cogent comment above -- climate change deniers promote, inter alia, destruction of rainforests to be replaced by corn to be fed to animals to be fed to rich humans. Whatever else we may say about such people, we shouldn't acquiesce in their chosen self-description -- "conservatives." Looters? Robber barons? Armageddonists?
Not conservatives.
November 1, 2010
In response to:
Vote as if your future depended on it. It actually does.Greg G. commented:
If climate change is a problem we actually do care about, then we don't actually need men with guns to point them at us to force us to fix it.
If climate change is a problem we actually don't care about, then hiring men with guns to point them at us to force us to do something about it is unjust and evil.
Either way: we don't need politicians, we don't need government, and we don't need voting.
That only makes whatever our problem is, much worse.
November 1, 2010
In response to:
Vote as if your future depended on it. It actually does.James P commented:
I don't know what the answer to any of the issues you've raised are, but I can absolutely guarantee you that the answer does not involve government, or voting, or politicians, or any of that insane rabble.
Nearly all these issues are caused or are greatly exacerbated because people accept that violence is a good way to solve social problems.
Voting is nothing more than begging the most powerful, violent criminal gang in town to throw a few scraps down from their table.
Have some pride. Don't beg. Don't vote.
October 29, 2010
In response to:
Vote as if your future depended on it. It actually does.Tanya Shively, ASID, LEED AP commented:
I have to agree with you - I hate how our political campaigns and process are now operating.
And as for whether climate change is human caused or not, doesn't it make sense to be on the safe side, and make a change in our behavior? If you don't believe climate change is our fault (or at least made worse by us
), wouldn't you rather take a chance on 'them' being wrong but wind up with cleaner air, than wrong and wind up dead??? I know I would!
October 29, 2010
In response to:
Vote as if your future depended on it. It actually does.Meme MIne commented:
For the last 24 years of crisis warnings, the IPCC climate scientists have continued their unified consensus that the consequence of Climate Change are still estimated to be anything from “catastrophic” and “unstoppable” warming, to negligible consequences if any, and may or may not include more extreme weather events. Meanwhile, the UN had allowed carbon trading to trump 3rd world fresh water relief, starvation rescue and 3rd world education for just over 24 years of climate control instead of population control.
When dealing with deniers, you deal with conservative evil. That's the whole point of climate change, to bring liberals together and defeat conservatism. Fighting evil means no rules and therefore justifies issuing CO2 death threats to billions of children all over the world. We must continue to demonize the non believing conservative deniers and fight for peace.
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