People often ask: I want to get greener, what should I do? New light bulbs? A hybrid? A solar roof? Well, all of those things are helpful. But actually, the greenest thing you can do is this: Choose the right leaders. It is so much more important to change your leaders than change your light bulbs.
Why? Because leaders write the rules, set the standards and offer the tax incentives that drive market behavior across a whole city, state or country. Whatever any of us does individually matters a tiny bit. But when leaders change the rules, you get scale change across the whole marketplace. And the energy-climate challenge we face today is a huge scale problem. Without scale, all you have is a green hobby.
A useful tale of what can be done, locally. Politics works – sometimes.
So if you want to be a green college kid or a green adult, don’t fool yourself: You can change lights. You can change cars. But if you don’t change leaders, your actions are nothing more than an expression of, as Dick Cheney would say, “personal virtue.”
Eideard, you are 100% WRONG.
Today’s politics are based on the CONTROL of oil. No politician can change that. ONLY WE CAN. Not by limiting the consumption of oil but BY ABUSING IT.
Let me repeat that.
To change the politics of oil (killed human beings), the world should ABUSE the use of oil.
WASTE IT.
Do not prolong the politics of oil. WASTE IT. Create cars that run 7 miles to the gallon. Bring the price of SUVs down so that drivers CAN WASTE OIL. The faster the better.
You are being lied to. Conservation of oil and all this GREEN BULLSHIT keeps the oil men in business. It keeps their wealth and maintains it for the next generations because they’ve got everybody FOOLED.
NOT ME.
WASTE OIL. DRY IT UP.
Then, and ONLY THEN, will there be a search for a new energy source.
Now, you’ve got oil on your hands and 3,000 American soldiers as proof of your ignorance.
#1 – Way to start off what could have been a decent thread.
#2 – decency has no place in a time of war. Eideard, you know I love you man, don’t take it personally 🙂
(DU ratings are going up)
liberals are too quick to believe that they can legislate and regulate their way to a cleaner environment
conservatives are too quick to believe that industry would ever pay extra money to clean up after themselves unless forced to.
a reasonable path would be to show how conserving resources actually reduces costs by reducing demand and also allows the available resources to last much longer.
forget about the fact that our cities choke in nasty smog that poisons our children — continuing wasteful habits not only erodes personal assets but also retards economic growth by keeping energy costs high and by bleeding money out of the american economy.
in short, common sense will tell you that being wasteful reduces your chances of becoming rich.
fines imposed by leaders are paid by consumers
start running those commercials about turrning off lights, carpooling, etc. show the people that forgoing a little convenience can give you a nice bump in your checking account balance — a cleaner earth should be considered an extra benefit.
Plutarchs are funded by the people that want to keep us OFF green.
We will never go green until we get rid of the plutarchs in power.
We have to change the government.
Cursor_
Don’t you know… The rupture.. I mean rapture is coming. They are waiting for the ‘end times,’ and then they will all be raptured up there. Then, and only then, will the evangelicals of every religion, leave the rest of us alone.
Bushco, Inc. is convinced of this rapture, and wants to hasten its occurrence. They are concerned about getting every red cent, blue cent, and any other cent that anyone who is not a part of their base (the haves, and the have mores). This is a class war, not just a war against our Mother Earth. The only way for the people to win, is to overthrow all of the power mongers on this planet, and live a little more simply.
0. Eid. Mubarak
(Mubarak can be translated from Arabic roughly ‘may it become good for you’)
George, you change with Mitt. Mitt, you change with Rudy. Rudy, you change with…
Ok, a stupid change of underwear joke. But like Meow above, I expect my DU residual check to show up in the mail any day now.
7 Rabble. You saw the movie “Road Warrior” too?
RBG
#1 – Meow,
You’re not even wrong. You’re so far out in left field that you can’t even see right and wrong. Continue to jack up the price of oil by burning it??!!? The oil rich nations will love that. And, they’ll continue to fund terrorism.
To the reasonable people on the thread:
Corporations tend not to take actions unless they are forced to. They will continue to externalize costs and leave them for the tax payers at every opportunity. Legislation is actually required if we are to change corporate America’s behavior.
As for changing the behavior of individuals, I agree that public service announcements may help.
The best thing all around though would be to change accounting principals so that costs cannot be externalized. If burning oil causes health problems, then those health costs should be included in the price of oil. If burning oil requires that we spend a half trillion dollars to conquer and create the U.S. Petroleum National Park of Iraq, then that should be paid at the pump. If we require funding to clean up oil spills, ditto. Etc.
When all the costs are properly accounted for, people will naturally make appropriate decisions in their lives.
And then I woke up in the real world … screaming!
#11 unfortunately, the fact is that the majority of americans don’t want to be bothered, we are nation of fat lazy bastards being lulled to sleep by those who seek to put us into a gilded cage
the coercion people speak of is unnecessary when the hypnosis that clever neo-con sound bites is working so magically
repeat after me “people who want clean air only want to take your money, now please turn it over to my buddies at chevron”
12 posts and no one has pointed out that Meow is not ADVOCATING a position but merely summarizing our CURRENT situation?
Scott wakes up screaming, think I’ll go back to sleep, to dream of a world in peace and harmony with itself.
Actually, and I’m surprised that Scott didn’t mention it, the greenest thing you can do, long term, is to not reproduce. One doesn’t even have to hate the human race to do that, but hating dogs and children helps.
Like that is ever going to happen, people will vote for the leader with the same ethnic background, the same sexual orientation and in the worse case for the one who will promise them they will never have to treat people belonging to other ethnic groups, religion and/or sexual orientations as equals.
#14 Dave,
It’s natural to reproduce. It’s not natural to foul one’s own nest.
#11 Scott has it right. Internalize all the costs and let the market do it’s job. This is like the earlier story about selling off the nation’s highways. I never understand why it costs me $20 to travel to and from downtown, but it’s “free” if I drive on most of our roads.
$20 by commuter rail
i just now figured out why neo-cons are so excited about global warming — they want the rapture to come and the famines predicted as crops fail sound exactly like what they read in Revelation.
only, i think it’s god’s job to bring about the rapture, not a pack of half wits worshiping golden calves.
here’s more fun for ya’s
white house censors cdc document about climate change and health
VOTE RON PAUL!!!!!
VOTE RON PAUL!!!!
I thought it was the neo-cons who try to take power for themselves by appealing to fear?
#14 – DaveW,
If you don’t love children, perhaps you’re not cooking them properly.
Seriously though, you are right. And, of course, as I’ve mentioned many times, I am a proud Darwinian failure. And, it’s actually a gift to my children for them not to have to grow up in the world in its present and deteriorating state.
#16 – Canucklehead,
I hate it when I have that choice ahead of me. 3 dollars in gasoline or 20 dollars on the railroad. It makes no sense at all.
#20 – Eaze,
Vote Kucinich!! No one beats him on the environment. And, he’s great on a lot of other issues as well. He’s also not bought by corporate America, as far as I can tell.
The hysteria over global warming may very well have caused all those fires in California. There’re enviro-whackos out there convinced that burning down houses is good for the planet.
#8 – Yes, they are.
#23 Actually they caught one of the fire starters. It ends up he was an in the closet fundy neocon-republican.
#26, how many of them had flowers painted on their hoods?
#24 – Who do you think my guys are?
#28 – Those who support things like gov’t run health care, raising taxes etc.
Earth to Greens . . . Earth to Greens . . this isn’t the Sixties. Industries have cleaned up their pollution. Even coal-fired plants don’t spew the smoke that everyone still blames them for. (And making water vapor look like pollution by positioning the sun behind the plume . . well, what’s another lie to a movement that owes its existence to lies.)
Since 1970, when the Feds started imposing environmental regulations under Richard Nixon (that’s right, a Republican!), pollution levels in every city have dropped dramatically. States were forced to come up with measures that would bring them into compliance with national air quality standards. Nearly all pollution control strategies were targeted at industry. And when nearly every city complied with the standards, EPA tightened them up even more. The standards have tightened to the point, and the air has cleaned up to point, where industry is no longer the primary cause of pollution.
It’s you.
Now at this point, Greens could sit back and be content with the good they have done. But that isn’t possible. Between the money-hungry lawyers, an entire bureaucratic environmental machine, and those fanatics that demand a cause, good is never good enough.
Of course, Greens can’t get traction by passing laws that target you; so they use a bit of misdirection. They create a pollution that doesn’t exist — CO2 — give it a diabolical attribute sure to cause great angst — global warming, drought, pestilence, floods — then assign its source to entities most can rally against: the EVIL Big Oil, the FILTHY coal-fired utilities, and let us not forget the most sinister of all, the SUV (a bit of guilt never hurts the cause).
Yet what evils to these companies actually perform: They provide goods for YOU, the consumer.
Do you think the oil companies care if oil reaches $200 a barrel? Hell no, it means more profit.
Do you think utilities care if demand exceeds capacity? Nope, better return on investment.
The only ones hurt by the Greens’ current crusade are PEOPLE. So what is their motive? The Greens are waging a war against fire, and we need fire to live. Control fire, and they control us.
So yeah, let’s vote for Green politicians.
#31 – what’s wrong with government run health care? I’ve lived my 50+ years here in Canada, and have seen my father successfully treated for cancer, my sister successfully treated for cancer, my brother-in-law successfully treated for heart attack, my wife deliver 3 children via caesarian section, my sons broken arms set, my ….. (you get the idea).
Never once have we given it the slightest thought, how am I going to pay for this?
It’s not perfect, but I don’t understand how a modern country can still impose this unnecessary worry on it’s citizens.
Americans like the idea of government run health care, especially doctors living near the Canadian border. They like all the business that Canada sends their way.
1. – I agree with you, Meow! Voting for “greener” politicians, is just keeping a “middleman” in the loop, who could care less. If you’re all going to vote effectively, vote with your wallets. It may cost a bit (or a lot) more to get the greener product (and probably will). But it will tell the maker that they’re heading in the right direction. And their competition, that they’re not. The only thing that politicians will tell them, is how much protection money they expect (oops, I mean “campaign contributions”. Same thing.). And if you want lead-free toys, buy American made (or UK) ones, not from China. You can vote for politicians all you want, they aren’t going to effect what China does. If all of this is too complicated for ya, think this. “Vote green, with yer green.” (or whatever color your nation currency is)
#33 — some of my friends are doctors, and they are quite happy with the situation here in Canada. They never have to worry about whether the patient can pay for the treatment or not, they never have to worry about debt collection.
The number of times some Canadian goes to the States for treatment is so infrequent, that it makes headline news here.
It’s not perfect but the proof is in the pudding, Canadians pay much less per capita for health insurance, and yet they live longer than Americans. And they live without the worry of losing their insurance because they lost their job, losing all their savings, their house, etc.