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RFK JR SAYS WHAT NO MAJOR DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DARES TO SAY
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR, LIVE EARTH - Now we've all heard the oil industry
and the coal industry and their indentured servants in the political
process telling us that global climate stability is a luxury that we
can't afford. That we have to choose now between economic prosperity on
the one hand and environmental protection on the other. And that is a
false choice.
In 100% of the situations, good environmental policy is identical to
good economic policy --- if we want to measure our economy, and this is
how we ought to be measuring it, based upon how it produces jobs and the
dignity of jobs over the generations, how it preserves the values of the
assets of our community and how it averts the catastrophe of global
warming.
If, on the other hand, we want to do what they've been urging us to do
on Capitol Hill which is to treat the planet as if it were a business in
liquidation, convert our natural resources to cash as quickly as
possible, have a few years of pollution based prosperity, we can
generate an instantaneous cash flow and the illusion of a prosperous
economy. But our children are going to pay for our joyride with denuded
landscapes, with poor health, with huge cleanup costs and with climate
chaos which is going to amplify over time and that they will never be
able to pay.
Environmental injury is deficit spending. It is a way of loading the
costs of our generation's prosperity on to the backs of our children.
Climate change is upon us. Its impacts are going to be catastrophic and
we are causing it. The good news is, we have the scientific and
technological capacity to avert its most catastrophic impacts. We only
need the political will.
If we raise fuel economy standards in our automobiles by one mile -- we
generate twice the amount of oil that is in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refugee. If we raise fuel economy standards by 7.6 miles per gallon we
yield more oil than we now import from the Persian Gulf. We can
eliminate 100% of Persian Gulf oil. . .
Now you've heard today a lot of people say that there are many little
things that you all can do today to avert climate change on your own.
But I will tell you this, it is more important than buying compact
fluorescent light bulbs or than buying a fuel efficient automobile. The
most important thing you can do is to get involved in the political
process and get rid of all of these rotten politicians that we have in
Washington D.C. -- who are nothing more than corporate toadies for
companies like Exxon and Southern Company, these villainous companies
that consistently put their private financial interest ahead of American
interest and ahead of the interest of all of humanity. This is treason
and we need to start treating them now as traitors.
And they have their slick public relations firms and their phony think
tanks in Washington D.C. and their crooked scientists who are lying to
the American people day after day after day. And we have a press that
has completely let down American democracy. That's giving us Ana Nicole
Smith and Paris Hilton instead of the issues that we need to understand
to make rational decisions in a democracy - like global warming. . .
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4786#more-4786
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
HIDDEN ISSUES: THE ECOLOGICAL COSTS OF TRAVEL
While the Daily Mail shares with other conservative voices the view that
global warming is just the liberal equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster,
the paper makes a worthy point in covering the Live Earth concerts:
|||| A Daily Mail investigation has revealed that far from saving the
planet, the extravaganza will generate a huge fuel bill, acres of
garbage, thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions, and a mileage total
equal to the movement of an army.
The most conservative assessment of the flights being taken by its
superstars is that they are flying an extraordinary 222,623.63 miles
between them to get to the various concerts - nearly nine times the
circumference of the world. The true environmental cost, as they
transport their technicians, dancers and support staff, is likely to be
far higher.
The total carbon footprint of the event, taking into account the
artists' and spectators' travel to the concert, and the energy
consumption on the day, is likely to be at least 31,500 tons of carbon
emissions, according to John Buckley of Carbonfootprint.com, who
specializes in such calculations. Throw in the television audience and
it comes to a staggering 74,500 tons. In comparison, the average Briton
produces ten tons in a year. ||||
The British media is ahead of its American colleagues in covering an
eco-topic that's a bit troublesome for a modern society: the
environmental costs of travel.
Here, airplane travel doesn't get much attention and as long as you get
out of your car and use some form of mass transit earthbound travel also
gets a pass.
Years ago, your editor asked a transportation expert what the best form
of mass transit was. Without hesitation, he replied, "stop moving around
so much."
Certainly mass transit programs like Washington's Metro can increase
transportation intrusion in the environment by serving as an enticement
for development spaced far apart.
Toronto planner Terry Fowler has urged that we worry more about access
and less about mobility, but that's not a terrible popular view.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id
=466775&in_page_id=1879
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN GORE VIDAL TRIED TO INSTALL SOLAR IN HOLLYWOOD
TRUTH DIG - A week after representatives from the Los Angeles Department
of Water and Power came to his Hollywood Hills home to inspect (and then
shut down) his newly installed solar power system, Vidal is still on the
grid, unable to use solar until the system is fully re-inspected. As
his fans would expect, the puissant author and tough customer has let
fly with some strong words about the utility company, the state of
California and the state of the country at large.
GORE VIDAL - For eight days we are without any power of any kind in the
house, and some genius somewhere in the municipal divisions had managed
to turn my telephone off. So, I had no telephone, no light, no nothing.
. .
A lot of people fled. I was one of them. For one thing, I was not
about to have a stroke; there was no air conditioning or anything else.
So, I went to a hotel and stayed there at a huge expense for 10 days,
maybe longer. . .
So in due course, my godson, the Green Party man, had worked out how
simple it would be, and he got hold of some very nice solar people out
here, so we did everything by the book to install, just to transfer over
from the grid. . .
We were told, after the initial installation had been made, that we must
apply for inspection from the [DWP], which has invented a lot of rules
which don't exist anywhere in the Constitution, in the state of
California's laws, in any rulings by the state Assembly. The whole
government has been thrown out by this one little bureau, sitting -
cowering - over there in this great big building, and legislating our
water, our power. "We have our rulings," they say. Well, I'm sure you
have; I'm sure you make 20 a day! . . .
Actually, nobody cares about anything except keeping total control and
making sure that people, outsiders (even though I've been an insider in
this state since 1929), are not going to get away with anything.
They're not going to be independent of the grid. The grid is holy. It
drinks water desperately, like somebody starving in Death Valley. . .
IT GETS WORSE
http://www.truthdig.com/interview/item/20070706_gore_vidal_
sounds_off_on_solar_power/
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
EUROPEAN COMMISSION PREPARES TO APPROVE GM CROPS
TIMES, UK - The European commission is about to give the go-ahead to the
first commercially grown genetically modified crops since a public
outcry nine years ago halted their cultivation. . . The commission has
begun the final approval stages for at least four applications by
biotech companies to let farmers grow GM potatoes and maize in British
and European fields. . . Such a move could reignite the pan-European
backlash against GM crops of the late 1990s, which forced the European
Union to impose an effective moratorium on the crops in 1998. Since then
no crops have been approved for cultivation, although permission has
been given to import some varieties for animal feed.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2011074.ece
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
RFK JR SAYS WHAT NO MAJOR DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DARES TO SAY
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR, LIVE EARTH - Now we've all heard the oil industry
and the coal industry and their indentured servants in the political
process telling us that global climate stability is a luxury that we
can't afford. That we have to choose now between economic prosperity on
the one hand and environmental protection on the other. And that is a
false choice.
In 100% of the situations, good environmental policy is identical to
good economic policy --- if we want to measure our economy, and this is
how we ought to be measuring it, based upon how it produces jobs and the
dignity of jobs over the generations, how it preserves the values of the
assets of our community and how it averts the catastrophe of global
warming.
If, on the other hand, we want to do what they've been urging us to do
on Capitol Hill which is to treat the planet as if it were a business in
liquidation, convert our natural resources to cash as quickly as
possible, have a few years of pollution based prosperity, we can
generate an instantaneous cash flow and the illusion of a prosperous
economy. But our children are going to pay for our joyride with denuded
landscapes, with poor health, with huge cleanup costs and with climate
chaos which is going to amplify over time and that they will never be
able to pay.
Environmental injury is deficit spending. It is a way of loading the
costs of our generation's prosperity on to the backs of our children.
Climate change is upon us. Its impacts are going to be catastrophic and
we are causing it. The good news is, we have the scientific and
technological capacity to avert its most catastrophic impacts. We only
need the political will.
If we raise fuel economy standards in our automobiles by one mile -- we
generate twice the amount of oil that is in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refugee. If we raise fuel economy standards by 7.6 miles per gallon we
yield more oil than we now import from the Persian Gulf. We can
eliminate 100% of Persian Gulf oil. . .
Now you've heard today a lot of people say that there are many little
things that you all can do today to avert climate change on your own.
But I will tell you this, it is more important than buying compact
fluorescent light bulbs or than buying a fuel efficient automobile. The
most important thing you can do is to get involved in the political
process and get rid of all of these rotten politicians that we have in
Washington D.C. -- who are nothing more than corporate toadies for
companies like Exxon and Southern Company, these villainous companies
that consistently put their private financial interest ahead of American
interest and ahead of the interest of all of humanity. This is treason
and we need to start treating them now as traitors.
And they have their slick public relations firms and their phony think
tanks in Washington D.C. and their crooked scientists who are lying to
the American people day after day after day. And we have a press that
has completely let down American democracy. That's giving us Ana Nicole
Smith and Paris Hilton instead of the issues that we need to understand
to make rational decisions in a democracy - like global warming. . .
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4786#more-4786
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
HIDDEN ISSUES: THE ECOLOGICAL COSTS OF TRAVEL
While the Daily Mail shares with other conservative voices the view that
global warming is just the liberal equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster,
the paper makes a worthy point in covering the Live Earth concerts:
|||| A Daily Mail investigation has revealed that far from saving the
planet, the extravaganza will generate a huge fuel bill, acres of
garbage, thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions, and a mileage total
equal to the movement of an army.
The most conservative assessment of the flights being taken by its
superstars is that they are flying an extraordinary 222,623.63 miles
between them to get to the various concerts - nearly nine times the
circumference of the world. The true environmental cost, as they
transport their technicians, dancers and support staff, is likely to be
far higher.
The total carbon footprint of the event, taking into account the
artists' and spectators' travel to the concert, and the energy
consumption on the day, is likely to be at least 31,500 tons of carbon
emissions, according to John Buckley of Carbonfootprint.com, who
specializes in such calculations. Throw in the television audience and
it comes to a staggering 74,500 tons. In comparison, the average Briton
produces ten tons in a year. ||||
The British media is ahead of its American colleagues in covering an
eco-topic that's a bit troublesome for a modern society: the
environmental costs of travel.
Here, airplane travel doesn't get much attention and as long as you get
out of your car and use some form of mass transit earthbound travel also
gets a pass.
Years ago, your editor asked a transportation expert what the best form
of mass transit was. Without hesitation, he replied, "stop moving around
so much."
Certainly mass transit programs like Washington's Metro can increase
transportation intrusion in the environment by serving as an enticement
for development spaced far apart.
Toronto planner Terry Fowler has urged that we worry more about access
and less about mobility, but that's not a terrible popular view.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id
=466775&in_page_id=1879
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN GORE VIDAL TRIED TO INSTALL SOLAR IN HOLLYWOOD
TRUTH DIG - A week after representatives from the Los Angeles Department
of Water and Power came to his Hollywood Hills home to inspect (and then
shut down) his newly installed solar power system, Vidal is still on the
grid, unable to use solar until the system is fully re-inspected. As
his fans would expect, the puissant author and tough customer has let
fly with some strong words about the utility company, the state of
California and the state of the country at large.
GORE VIDAL - For eight days we are without any power of any kind in the
house, and some genius somewhere in the municipal divisions had managed
to turn my telephone off. So, I had no telephone, no light, no nothing.
. .
A lot of people fled. I was one of them. For one thing, I was not
about to have a stroke; there was no air conditioning or anything else.
So, I went to a hotel and stayed there at a huge expense for 10 days,
maybe longer. . .
So in due course, my godson, the Green Party man, had worked out how
simple it would be, and he got hold of some very nice solar people out
here, so we did everything by the book to install, just to transfer over
from the grid. . .
We were told, after the initial installation had been made, that we must
apply for inspection from the [DWP], which has invented a lot of rules
which don't exist anywhere in the Constitution, in the state of
California's laws, in any rulings by the state Assembly. The whole
government has been thrown out by this one little bureau, sitting -
cowering - over there in this great big building, and legislating our
water, our power. "We have our rulings," they say. Well, I'm sure you
have; I'm sure you make 20 a day! . . .
Actually, nobody cares about anything except keeping total control and
making sure that people, outsiders (even though I've been an insider in
this state since 1929), are not going to get away with anything.
They're not going to be independent of the grid. The grid is holy. It
drinks water desperately, like somebody starving in Death Valley. . .
IT GETS WORSE
http://www.truthdig.com/interview/item/20070706_gore_vidal_
sounds_off_on_solar_power/
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
EUROPEAN COMMISSION PREPARES TO APPROVE GM CROPS
TIMES, UK - The European commission is about to give the go-ahead to the
first commercially grown genetically modified crops since a public
outcry nine years ago halted their cultivation. . . The commission has
begun the final approval stages for at least four applications by
biotech companies to let farmers grow GM potatoes and maize in British
and European fields. . . Such a move could reignite the pan-European
backlash against GM crops of the late 1990s, which forced the European
Union to impose an effective moratorium on the crops in 1998. Since then
no crops have been approved for cultivation, although permission has
been given to import some varieties for animal feed.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2011074.ece
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