Comments juddfranklin has made

Great argument!

This argument has yielded a wonderful amount of information and an interesting clash of idealism and realism.  When it comes down to it, I see no arguments above that actually say that corn ethanol is good.  Instead, it is portrayed by rbcoleman as the lesser of existing evils.  Still, that contention remains in debate.

There also remains to be discussed the claims made by Brazil that should be taken into consideration.  If corn is a gateway to cellulose, then it seems that subsidizing domestic corn would  make it harder to transition to a cost-effective  market for cane sugar fuel in America, since Brazil's cheap and vast fuel supply would hurt the domestic value.

It seems eminently reasonable to invest in up-to-date trains, stronger communications infrastructure, limited-tillage farming systems, high-milage cars and renewable energy sources.  All of these things would reduce our reliance upon carbon and polution-intensive fuels.

The key is to demand that the government be eminently reasonable, and to combat car industry and corn industry noise by showing that the economy can grow under such conditions and that American workers can build windmills instead of tilting at them.

A group like us can do that, right?

--Judd FranklinOn The corn industry hopes Congress will pull its fat out of the fire posted 2 years ago 44 Responses

A thought towards a solution

I think that the tenor of the above postings is laudable.  Each and every poster has shown genuine consideration for the plight of those people who currently consider environmental problems a moderate to significant priority.

Indeed, The key to moving this up the list of priorities is rightly to cut away at the sense of hopelessness felt by these consumer-culture worriers, while at the same time highlighting the long-term necessity of behavior change.

To do this, we need only take a page from the marketers' books: control the message.  We must remain vigilant in demanding that companies, government bodies, and yes, even celebrities be public about the impacts of their activities.

We can do this by working with corporate oversight groups like Co-op America, Boston College's Center for Corporate Citizenship and CERES.  The key will be to use sources like Grist and other social information sources to share and interpret the information companies present and then share it with our less keyed-in friends.

We can ensure that people have a way to make sense of what's going down in those big smokestacks on the edge of town, and what of that smoke winds up in that cheeseburger they're spreading ketchup and tabasco sauce on.On All the PR is starting to sound the same posted 2 years, 2 months ago 6 Responses

practicalities of local food

Read the book "comin Home to Eat" by Gary Paul Nabhan.  This book is about identifying and accomodating fresh, local foods.  This book is a personal exploration of food in the writer's area.

Also the book "Eat Here" by brian Halweill, which details the issue in a more pragmatic way (with plenty of charts and graphics).  This book is put out by the world watch institute.

A major practical issue of organic farming is the benefits of retained topsoil.

So here is my take on the practicality of this: Right now, the majority of our farmed goods are produced with a similar mentality to the way that energy is produced and used: unsustainably.  We are cutting through tons of topsoil every year, meaning that farmland will become decreasingly productive and more energy intensive.  Part of the organic model is to produce more sustainable farming practices.

for more on this check out This page from The Organic Trade Association

Also supporting organic's claim to superior soil health is a 1987 paper from the scientific journal Nature by John P. Reganold, Lloyd F. Elliott† & Yvonne L. Unger.

Finally, some promotion ideas:

What if we got doctor Weill to write a wellness book about organic food?

What about organic's equivalent of Atkins?

Hope this helps.

--JuddOn Wal-mart's organic bomb posted 3 years, 6 months ago 40 Responses

Tierney Sucks!

"It's fine to exhort rich Westerners to live frugally, but people in poor countries will not be swayed by appeals to asceticism. When you live without a car or electricity or running water, every day is Earth Day."

Is it just me or is this one of the least measured lines of text ever printed under the banner of the New York Times? Did Earth Day suddenly become survival day? The way Tierney writes about Earth Day and about us Environmental advocates, you would think that we were out there on the streets, stopping people from getting into their cars and stopping businessmen from getting into their office buildings.

I mean, c'mon. Earth Day is a bummer?

Did Tierney have to look a homeless person in the eye?

Tierney is upset because Earth Day represents us who call for Americans to make sacrifices.

I can hardly believe that the silent, non-existent protesters on the streets haven't barged into Mr. Tierney's office and forced the columnist to sign the Kyoto Protocol himself!

But Tierney would not be a good neocon if he needs to rant about a day when people he is supposed to not care about talk about something he is supposed to not care about.  No, sir.  He should go out there and just go on writing a post-Earth Day article celebrating the progress we are making on... let's see... what is it that conservatives care about?  Money... well hmmm, Wal Mart is talking about the slimming for the environment... damn.... well what else do conservatives care about... religion... the evangelical churches are talking about the environment... shoot... ummmm...Iraq?.............................aww heck...those darned bleeding heart liberals are bleeding all over the boohoo party!

But you know what's a real bummer?
Tierney could be working to make advocates of the environment do better work, but he is busy chasing his tail by saying that Earth Day is a bummer, and he's glad its over, because for the poor, every day is Earth Day.  boy, he should read about Poverty and the Environment.On Every day is Earth Day ... or at least yesterday was posted 3 years, 7 months ago 4 Responses

Moving on

This posting and its responses have reflected an amazing lack of concern for the people feeling the brunt of these price increases.  It's not even three weeks since the Poverty and the Environment series ended.

All this talk about market economics and comparative prices is aside the point.

People are starting to respond to the fear that gas prices are only going to continue going up in price.

People in this country hate feeling helpless, but they need some support in making difficult transitions.  This is an ideal situation for well-educated people like us to offer these people alternatives: local and community support, mass transit, energy alternatives, incentives to use less, etc.

Exxon-Mobil has had a great run, headlined by its top management and primary shareholders. It's raked in many a $60/barrel profit.  Now let's help people control their fears and fates by giving them better, clearer and more manageable options.

Let the market bear that.

--JuddOn Gas prices posted 3 years, 7 months ago 28 Responses

I agree with bookerly

I didn't want to write a big thing about it, but I agree with the previous comment, that we need to develop a group to fight the big corporate interests on this. If you've ever known someone with an expense account, you know how corporate spending can go crazy.  Their whole world is money.  The best leaders are the ones who can zero in on money and control it, perhaps by treating people well or perhaps not.

For us individuals, our whole world happens to be the world.  So we need to make it clear that if we play by their rules in their world (the economy) but they have to play by our rules in our world.

--JuddOn Poverty and sustainability posted 3 years, 8 months ago 8 Responses