Tag: climate change

THE ENVIRONMENTALIST has had an influx of new writers, including the executive director of PCAP (Presidential Climate Action Project charged with the environmental agenda for the new administration’s first 100 days), the International Climate Policy Director from the NRDC and others.  Excerpts and links:

Struggling for Obama’s Soul

by William S. Becker, Executive Director, PCAP

Now that we know Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States, we can turn to the next critical question of national leadership: In this historic moment, how bold will President Obama be?

http://op-ed.the-environmental…

Restoring America’s Leadership in International Global Warming Negotiations

by Jake Schmidt, International Climate Policy Director, NRDC

We now have a new leader in the US that understands global warming and recognizes that it requires leadership both at home and abroad. Addressing this challenge (and opportunity) will be a key task of both President-elect Barack Obama (and his Administration) and Congress.

http://climate.the-environment…

The 100 Day Action Plan to Save the Planet

On January 1st, 2007, the Presidential Climate Action Plan (PCAP), a project of the University of Colorado, Wirth Chair in Environmental and Community Development Policy, was launched to produce a 100 day action plan on climate change for the next President of the United States.

http://politics.the-environmen…

THE ENVIRONMENTALIST has more new posts.

Ta.

I’ve been feeling mournful of late.  Can’t say why.  Well I could but you don’t have all day.  Let’s just say things are catching up with me:  torture, war, theft, lies, fraud, corruption, joblessness, homelessness and doing nothing in the face of ecological disaster.

What a shame that we remain at war without reason.  Shame on us.

And what a shame that we continue to blunder down the path to biospheric disaster defying all logic and denying all science.

What is wrong with us?

There are at least two wars ongoing that our government could stop, and would, if they had an ounce of moral fiber…or a lick of sense.

Or: Why I am a Liberal, Part 4

We as Progressives/Liberals have an unspoken, almost unspeakable vision within us. We look around at the current world and want to change it. Some of us would be content with relatively minor changes. Others see the existing world, see what is wrong with it, and want to take the changes needed all the way to their logical end. To create a new and different world based on Progressive principles, to get ‘there.’

We have The Idea, even though we are not really able to articulate it cleanly and clearly right now. The Idea of a world far different from this one.  A world based on equality and justice, on freedom and on the worth and dignity of the individual. A planetary society based on and adhering to real, universally human, moral principles, but without the moral dogmatism and hypocrisy of our current, failed model. A world, to put in the current frame, where the economy (and everything else) is based on benefit of ALL the people, not for the very few. A world where “the greatest good of all concerned” is the driving paradigm. Where people are as, if not more, important than profit. A world where political, economic, and moral decisions are NOT arrived at solely because they benefit those making the decision. A world based on cooperating for the greater good, not competing against every other human for personal or ‘tribal’ advantage.

And above all, by necessity, a world that has ‘solved’ the Climate Crisis, with a healthy atmosphere fit for humans to breath and oceans that are not vast pits of acidic brew incapable of supporting life. A world we can leave to our grandchildren and the next Seven Generations with a clear conscious.  

That sort of thing. Something closer, at least, to a utopia not a dystopia. Creating this better world, or as much of it as we can get, is what is at the heart of Progressivism.

Or to put it strictly in terms of contrast, a world without the ideologies of Republicanism and its outdated worldviews and policies of separation and hate and conquering….everything and everybody. Again in the current context, a world without Class War, where the well being of the privileged Ruling Class is based on ensuring and continuing the suffering of the poor and middle class. A world, if it is possible, without a Ruling Class. An egalitarian world where hard work and intelligence is still rewarded, but not at the expense of the ‘average guy.’ And especially not at the expense of the poor and the weakest members of society, since society, ideally, exists to protect the weak and less fortunate from the strong and powerful.

Civilization and the Rule of Law, not the Rule of the Jungle…..which somehow the privileged and strong always seem to try to create.

As one Progressive put it: “Some people look at the world as it is and say why, I look at the world as it could be and say …why not?

Now that the “bailout bill” has been labeled a fait accompli, it should be time for us (at least those of us who live in “safe states,” where  none of our screaming and shouting will affect the electoral count) to consider the possible invention of the practical art of the future: post-capitalist environmental design.  

The point of such a concept of design will be, among other things, to overcome the “merely reactive” nature of environmental/ Left alternatives to the status quo by suggesting that our efforts contribute to more than just efforts to mitigate the damage done by right-wing rule under capitalist conditions.  We do, indeed, have an alternative vision of the world: and this is a beginning discussion of its technics.

(crossposted to Big Orange)

This Saturday, there is a nation-wide showdown between, quite literally, forces for light and forces for darkness.