Environment
“Just because we can’t sell shares in nature doesn’t mean it has no value.” Thomas Friedman
“Big Oil and King Coal may have armies of lobbyists, lawyers, foreign diplomats and even military advisors, but Americans know that we can do better for ourselves, our country, and our fellow humans. As the writer Arundhati Roy says, ‘Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.’” Michael Brune
“Reversing global warming will require a World War II level of mobilization. It is the work of tens of millions, not hundreds of thousands. Such a shift will require massive support at the social, cultural, and political levels. And in an increasingly nonwhite nation, that means enlisting the passionate involvement of millions of so-called minorities—as consumers, inventors, entrepreneurs, investors, buzz marketers, voters, and workers.” Van Jones
“Big Oil and King Coal may have armies of lobbyists, lawyers, foreign diplomats and even military advisors, but Americans know that we can do better for ourselves, our country, and our fellow humans. As the writer Arundhati Roy says, ‘Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.’” Michael Brune
“Reversing global warming will require a World War II level of mobilization. It is the work of tens of millions, not hundreds of thousands. Such a shift will require massive support at the social, cultural, and political levels. And in an increasingly nonwhite nation, that means enlisting the passionate involvement of millions of so-called minorities—as consumers, inventors, entrepreneurs, investors, buzz marketers, voters, and workers.” Van Jones
Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne nailed the nuclear power industry on the Colbert Show. Browne is in New York touring for his new album "Time the Conqueror." He is also suing the John McCain campaign for the illegal use of his "Running on Empty." McCain placed the song as background in an attack ad against Barack Obama. (For a full transcript and video, see this page).
As you read this, nuclear power liabilities embraced by the federal government could be making small radioactive potatoes of the mere hundreds of billions George W. Bush wants to hand the pirates of Wall Street.
In fact, they could make all the money spent in Iraq, on the defense budget, on social security and on this bailout seem like nickels and dimes.
Why? Because as of this moment the taxpayers of the United States are on the hook for potential catastrophic melt-downs at 104 licensed atomic reactors. Every one of them can kill hundreds of thousands of American citizens. Every one of them can inflict more financial damage than can be reasonably calculated.
On September 11, 2001, we missed by just one minute learning what costs such a catastrophe can really incur.
And what’s truly astonishing is that the reactor industry wants to build even more of these radioactive machines of mass self-destruction.
So while the national mind is focused on the gargantuan cost of what the Bush Republicans have done to the American economy, let’s note what could be happening right now.
In fact, they could make all the money spent in Iraq, on the defense budget, on social security and on this bailout seem like nickels and dimes.
Why? Because as of this moment the taxpayers of the United States are on the hook for potential catastrophic melt-downs at 104 licensed atomic reactors. Every one of them can kill hundreds of thousands of American citizens. Every one of them can inflict more financial damage than can be reasonably calculated.
On September 11, 2001, we missed by just one minute learning what costs such a catastrophe can really incur.
And what’s truly astonishing is that the reactor industry wants to build even more of these radioactive machines of mass self-destruction.
So while the national mind is focused on the gargantuan cost of what the Bush Republicans have done to the American economy, let’s note what could be happening right now.
The grassroots green energy movement has won a huge---but temporary---victory over the nuke power industry.
The triumph comes at the federal level, while state-wide ratepayers are still being gouged to pay for new reactors in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and elsewhere.
But it means that no new major federal loan guarantees will be designated to build new reactors at least until after the November 4 presidential election.
Since last fall the new nuke builders have been badgering Congress to vote them gargantuan subsidies and guarantees. Because they cannot compete in the marketplace with Solartopian technologies such as wind, solar, geothermal and other clean, renewable sources, no Wall Street investors have been willing to back new reactor construction.
In the fall of 2007, the nuke pushers sponsored an Energy Bill with $50 billion in loan guarantees for new reactors. But a grass roots campaign, in concert with NukeFree.org and wide range of national green groups, defeated the proposal. Not a single major environmental organization supported the hand-outs.
The triumph comes at the federal level, while state-wide ratepayers are still being gouged to pay for new reactors in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and elsewhere.
But it means that no new major federal loan guarantees will be designated to build new reactors at least until after the November 4 presidential election.
Since last fall the new nuke builders have been badgering Congress to vote them gargantuan subsidies and guarantees. Because they cannot compete in the marketplace with Solartopian technologies such as wind, solar, geothermal and other clean, renewable sources, no Wall Street investors have been willing to back new reactor construction.
In the fall of 2007, the nuke pushers sponsored an Energy Bill with $50 billion in loan guarantees for new reactors. But a grass roots campaign, in concert with NukeFree.org and wide range of national green groups, defeated the proposal. Not a single major environmental organization supported the hand-outs.
The McCain/Palin push for endless oil drilling is being used as a smokescreen to gouge a half-trillion or more taxpayer dollars in subsidies and loan guarantees to build new atomic reactors. The mega-theft could be approved by the US Senate this week. Green activists throughout the nation are calling their Senators, as should you.
The atomic power industry can’t get private financing to build new reactors. So while Wall Street plummets into catastrophe, it is using the “drill drill drill” mantra to hide this latest raid on the depleted federal treasury.
The new Senate bill authorizes the oil industry to drill for oil virtually anywhere it wants, without meaningful environmental restraint. The enormous profits would stay in the hands of the petro-barons.
The atomic power industry can’t get private financing to build new reactors. So while Wall Street plummets into catastrophe, it is using the “drill drill drill” mantra to hide this latest raid on the depleted federal treasury.
The new Senate bill authorizes the oil industry to drill for oil virtually anywhere it wants, without meaningful environmental restraint. The enormous profits would stay in the hands of the petro-barons.
In 2002, arch-conservative Matthew Scully wrote a book called, Dominion: The Power of Man, The Suffering of Animals, and The Call to Mercy, that was universally and uncritically acclaimed by the animal advocacy movement. Because this movement is overwhelmingly single-issue in its focus, and in most cases doesn’t care about a person’s views or politics except how they relate to animals, no one had a problem with the fact that Scully was a senior speechwriter for President George W. Bush. He wrote some of the key fear-peddling diatribes that got Bush elected and he was recently re-enlisted to help Bush sell the Iraq war “surge” to the American people.
Ted Stevens has been the primary driver in the futile effort to destroy the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska. Now, he is under indictment.
This should come as no surprise to those familiar with the issue, and how brazenly Stevens has spewed lies to destroy the last 5 percent of the North Slope of Alaska, when oil companies already have access to 95 percent of it, as well as most of the Arctic Ocean. More than the fact that just a tiny amount of oil is under the refuge must have been motivating his lust for destruction, and now we have proof: he was bought off by Big Oil.
In my first personal encounter with Stevens, I had just flown out of the Arctic Refuge in a small bush plane, having stayed with the Gwich'in people, boated down the Porcupine River and then backpacked with a group from North Carolina in the refuge. Stevens had called a public meeting in Kaktovik where he expected the support of the Inupiat people. They presented him with a petition of 60 signatures from the village with a population of 212 requesting the protection of the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge as wilderness.
This should come as no surprise to those familiar with the issue, and how brazenly Stevens has spewed lies to destroy the last 5 percent of the North Slope of Alaska, when oil companies already have access to 95 percent of it, as well as most of the Arctic Ocean. More than the fact that just a tiny amount of oil is under the refuge must have been motivating his lust for destruction, and now we have proof: he was bought off by Big Oil.
In my first personal encounter with Stevens, I had just flown out of the Arctic Refuge in a small bush plane, having stayed with the Gwich'in people, boated down the Porcupine River and then backpacked with a group from North Carolina in the refuge. Stevens had called a public meeting in Kaktovik where he expected the support of the Inupiat people. They presented him with a petition of 60 signatures from the village with a population of 212 requesting the protection of the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge as wilderness.
For Sylvia
We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.
–William Ralph Inge, Outspoken Essays, 1922
Enlightened as he was, even Inge’s thinking was tainted by the toxin of ego. Who are we human animals (whose collective knowledge of our own capacity to think, learn, and know is still significantly limited), to presume to know that non-human animals do not conceptualize a Devil of sorts? And whether they are able to conjure such a mental abstraction or not is ultimately irrelevant. Objectively speaking, we human animals ARE Devils toward our non-human counterparts, whether they perceive us to be or not.
That’s right. We’re all wearing Prada. Whether we’ve winnowed our wardrobe down to a couple of items or are still amongst those who don the apparel of speciesism with the pride of a redneck whose just beaten “his woman” back into submission, we’re all complicit in the systemic infliction of cruelty, oppression, torture, and murder upon our non-human animal brethren.
We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.
–William Ralph Inge, Outspoken Essays, 1922
Enlightened as he was, even Inge’s thinking was tainted by the toxin of ego. Who are we human animals (whose collective knowledge of our own capacity to think, learn, and know is still significantly limited), to presume to know that non-human animals do not conceptualize a Devil of sorts? And whether they are able to conjure such a mental abstraction or not is ultimately irrelevant. Objectively speaking, we human animals ARE Devils toward our non-human counterparts, whether they perceive us to be or not.
That’s right. We’re all wearing Prada. Whether we’ve winnowed our wardrobe down to a couple of items or are still amongst those who don the apparel of speciesism with the pride of a redneck whose just beaten “his woman” back into submission, we’re all complicit in the systemic infliction of cruelty, oppression, torture, and murder upon our non-human animal brethren.
A devastating blow to the much-hyped revival of atomic power has been delivered by an unlikely source---the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC says the "standardized" designs on which the entire premise of returning nuclear power to center stage is based have massive holes in them, and may not be ready for approval for years to come.
Delivered by one of America's most notoriously docile agencies, the NRC's warning essentially says: that all cost estimates for new nuclear reactors---and all licensing and construction schedules---are completely up for grabs, and have no reliable basis in fact. Thus any comparisons between future atomic reactors and renewable technologies are moot at best. And any "hard number" basis for independent financing for future nukes may not be available for years to come, if ever.
Delivered by one of America's most notoriously docile agencies, the NRC's warning essentially says: that all cost estimates for new nuclear reactors---and all licensing and construction schedules---are completely up for grabs, and have no reliable basis in fact. Thus any comparisons between future atomic reactors and renewable technologies are moot at best. And any "hard number" basis for independent financing for future nukes may not be available for years to come, if ever.
Bit by bit, Al Gore seems to be inching toward a Solartopian view of a future that must be completely sustainable in green energy. This week he advocated getting to an electric power system that is "carbon free" within ten years.
This is an important step toward the mainstream for the decades-long social movement for a totally green-powered Earth. It comes alongside the equally telling move by oil baron T. Boone Pickens to invest $2 billion in wind power.
Gore has reportedly raised some $300 million (that's not a typo) to spend on moving pubic opinion to support the transition to a totally "carbon-free" electric supply system.
That idea has been around at least thirty years, and is a sub-set of the Solartopian demand that our entire energy economy become free of all fossil and nuclear fuels.
This is an important step toward the mainstream for the decades-long social movement for a totally green-powered Earth. It comes alongside the equally telling move by oil baron T. Boone Pickens to invest $2 billion in wind power.
Gore has reportedly raised some $300 million (that's not a typo) to spend on moving pubic opinion to support the transition to a totally "carbon-free" electric supply system.
That idea has been around at least thirty years, and is a sub-set of the Solartopian demand that our entire energy economy become free of all fossil and nuclear fuels.