Yesterday I wrote about one certainty…it is easier to destroy than to create. Today I have another certainty, Only a Green Revolution will save the planet.
There is no way around it, if we want to have an atmosphere and some semblance of our existing coasts, we need a revolution. People talk about an Apollo Program. That won’t be enough. We also need an NRA and a WPA.
Iraq is about oil, about energy. We are spending 3 TRILLION dollars in a war for energy. A war for energy that has ruined our economy and raised gas prices and put millions out of work. That is the Republican solution. Kill for oil AND ruin the economy to pay for it. And who ultimately profits? NOT the American people, whose tax dollars are paying for killing Iraqis and whose reward is $4 a gallon gas.
Green Revolution. Spend three trillion dollars on energy research and development, putting people to work retrofitting ALL government buildings with solar and wind. Give HUGE tax credits…up to three trillion dollars (!) for private retrofitting. Give HUGE rewards for folks who come up with new solutions and inventions and methods of greening. Put people to work building solar and wind generation facilities. Write a new Universal Building Code based on Greening. Government grants for urban farms, Etc etc etc. The list is endless, and everything on it CAN benefit everyone. Instead of killing many for the profit of a few while the middle and lower classes lose their jobs and get kicked out of their homes.
But there is one thing that needs to be at the very center of the Green Revolution. Teaching and convincing the business community from the smallest Mom and Pop store to the largest corporations that green means PROFIT. In our short sighted, greed centered society, THAT is the only thing that will work. The only way to keep people from what amounts to slow suicide.
Does Green mean profit? If the government spent a fraction of that 3 Trillion dollars of your and your grandchildren’s taxes that are currently being used to kill for oil on it….it will.
AND leave a world where those grandchildren can breathe… and not have to put on scuba gear to go to Disneyland.
For the America Firsters who don’t care about saving the planet, sell it this way. (and OH will it need to be sold…hey, more jobs there!) The current PTB have pissed away everything good about America, they have destroyed our standing in the world, our moral authority and our economy. Leading the world into a Green economy, putting Americans to work, and incidentally, saving the freaking planet, puts us back on top of the world!
Where by the way….there is no ice, anymore.
So…two certainties in two days, yeehaw I’m on a roll!
Oh and here is another one….the Republican puppets and the PTB in the Oil and auto and existing energy production structures will pull out every nasty, dirty scummy, underhanded,dirty trick they can think of to kill a Green Revolution.
Hold onto your (big, floppy) hats!
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But it’s past time to move on
One thing that will pay off right away is the green roof. It lowers heating and ac costs immediately upon installation, at least from what I’ve read.
Gotta get ready for work now; glad I caught your essay first!
that oil and other energy oligiopolies be kept out of the revolution. All future development should be in the commonwealth and in the form of a regulated utility, or governmental, collective or individual control.
Otherwise, we are just going to get an energy development market bubble and ultimately monopoly control again.
Does this mean I can never have my 35 foot long caddie living room on wheels with the F16 tail fins and the 10,000 c.u. V24 engine with it’s own KC-135 Stratotanker cruising above it that I always dreamed of since I was a greedy snot nosed little bastard whose first word was “MINE!!!”?
Never? How am I going to get chicks, man???
But, I think it’s relevant here, as well.
I received this link in an email this morning to an article at Salon, Why we never need to build another polluting power plant.
It makes some interesting points, that tie together what we’re all saying here, I think. Here’s one:
“Significantly, California adopted regulations so that utility company profits are not tied to how much electricity they sell. This is called “decoupling.” It also allowed utilities to take a share of any energy savings they help consumers and businesses achieve. The bottom line is that California utilities can make money when their customers save money. That puts energy-efficiency investments on the same competitive playing field as generation from new power plants.”
[emphasis mine]
I’ve been doing a little research this morning, and while I’m still woefully behind on understanding much of this topic, I’ve discovered what some here probably already know: Although Congress legislates standards, Regulatory Agencies and administrative lawyers (that are controlled by the Executive branch, and heavily influenced by corporate interest) decide how those laws are to actually be implemented. It’s the responsibility of Congress to conduct oversight, to make sure that these regulatory agencies are carrying out the legislated standards. And, unfortunately, Congresses and Administrations have sent us on an economic/environmental nosedive from Nixon, through Reagan, and since with deregulation frenzies.
As pointed out in the Salon article, California has implemented its own local regulation, and with success. I don’t know if this helps us formulate a course of action, but it helped me understand a little better some of our challenges and options.
God damn it I can’t believe it, someone else fucking gets it!
I did a dairy in Orange with a similar twist but I included the Nuke power part because of the urgency of the issue….. 17 months ago.
PTB energy nipple and becoming energy autonomous will thereby reduce their Oil>money>profit>power cycle. Thus rendering them obsolete.