It’s getting out there 4

Newsweek:

But there are also powerful voices being raised amid the din of despair, saying that now is precisely the time to seize the initiative and launch the "global revolution" the IEA is calling for. And not just because it will stave off disasters two or three decades away, but also because it can provide the impetus to pull the global economy out of the slump it's in now and put it on a more solid foundation than it's had in at least a generation. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have already taken up the cause. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last month called for a "Green New Deal" that would rebuild and reshape the economy of planet Earth in ways reminiscent of the programs that President Franklin Roosevelt used to revitalize the economy of the United States during the Great Depression. Indeed, even as the slowing economy and falling oil prices make it harder to justify huge new investments in a green economy, there's a strong counterargument that now is precisely the time to make them.

...

The world, simply put, needs a new economic driver. Proponents of a Green New Deal argue that massive public investments can lay the groundwork for the private sector to develop whole new industries and create millions of jobs in the near term -- and oh, by the way, save the planet in the medium term. "You are not just putting money into hot paper or into a financial-services sector that destroys itself," says Oliver Schäfer, policy director of the European Renewable Energy Council. "You are investing in clean technology, which is real business."

David Roberts is staff writer for Grist. You can follow his Twitter feed at twitter.com/drgrist.

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  1. amazingdrx's avatar

    amazingdrx Posted 3:01 pm
    10 Nov 2008

    Huh?Are these guys or maybe their advisors actually reading the blog?  Hehey.
    Nahh, couldn't be.

    http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

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  2. stevenearlsalmony Posted 9:32 pm
    10 Nov 2008

    Dear David Roberts............This thread is a wonderfully timely and perspicacious idea.  Thanks for all you are doing to protect biodiversity from mass extinction, to preserve Earth's body from wanton dissipation, to halt relentless degradation of the environment and, with a bit of luck and a great deal of work, to save the family of humanity from reckless endangerment as well as to spare the human species from an even worse threat.
    Make no mistake, the blogging world is making a positive difference. Even though the 'talking heads' in the mainstream media, the ones who are owned by economic powerbrokers and their bought-and-paid-for politicians, wish all of us would go away, we need to keep going.
    Sincerely yours,
    Steve
    Steven Earl Salmony

    AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,

    established 2001

    http://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1 ...

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  3. Biodiversivist's avatar

    Biodiversivist Posted 1:30 am
    11 Nov 2008

    Just finished listening to a bookabout the politics of the great depression. Government policy often made things worse. Essentially, it took World War II (a giant public works program) to end it. It would be nice to fight global warming and the extinction event instead of other human beings this time.

    In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

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  4. GreenMom Posted 3:03 pm
    11 Nov 2008

    It really is finally getting out there......let's do everything we can to keep this conversation going in the public sphere, and to keep the incoming Obama administration's feet to the fire to push the new green economy ahead.
    I know he gets it - let's make it happen.  Did you guys see Tom Friedman pushing the meme on the Daily Show tonight?
    Here's the memes:  Green jobs.  Energy independence.  Clean energy.  Go to it, all...

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