Comments wildleaf has made

Punish the unpunishable.

No one will be punished for this criminal negligent act. Some corporation or government agency will pay fines but it is doubtful anyone will even get fired much less go to jail. If I were someone who lost there home or developed cancer from this I would probably act directly against the people who are profiting the most from this dangerous practice of coal burning and sludge. I think that in the court of human dignity any individual who acts in outrage with the aim to end this from happening in the future or acts with the plain notion of justice should do so. It is far past time that people who cause harm to others by profiting from destruction face punishment, so please feel outraged and do act. Obviously if there was another way to hold people accountable do so but I just don't think justice of this kind exists by legal means.

The Black Car Project Killing cars before they kill us!

Forcing people out of their cars sucks

This decline is not a bunch of greenies deciding that for the sake of global warming I am going to drive less. These people were predominantly poor people. At least a million more people are unemployed now then last year. They are stuck in their homes in suburbia unable to leave because fuel costs, no mass transit and no bikes. The poor are being screwed and will continue to be screwed while the rich do alright.

So yes, It is cool that people are driving less by the numbers and I hope it continues, but it absolutely sucks that the people who are driving less are sliding into hopelessness. This is not something to celebrate. Hybrid plug ins are going to make rich Americans able to drive more cheapily, but the poor folk are still going to be screwed. I wonder how many poor people and communities who don't have infrastructure for mass transit or economies to buy fuel efficient vehicles will become ghettos full of crime?

The Black Car Project Killing cars before they kill us!

Taxes delete barriers to community values.

Faux pas or not the unsustainable alternative is not a choice most choose gleefully. On the contrary if it is thought of at all it often can come down to a decision on price, time, convenience, and social class understanding. The tax on plastic bags shows a condemnation of people who choose unsustainable alternatives when the choices affect time and convenience but not price barriers. It must seem anti-community, something people are desperate to create when possible in this capitalist free for all.

Who would think that taxing bad things would stop people from using them? Obviously this tactic works. That is precisely why it is off the table for the federal and state governments in the US. Business leaders start crying about how the profit rate for their bad products would halt if customers stopped buying them. The government passes them a tissue and then berates environmentalists for being too mean to the fat cats who need to continuously make more money.

I use cloth bags or my backpack. I notice that they give me a nickel off at the grocery store for doing this and smile at me. I smile back. I remember working as a cashier and rooting secretly for the people who would come in with the massive amounts of coupons. I'd tear off their receipt and look at it and tell them how much they saved!

No-one wants people to have to choose poor food products because of price issues, yet most poor people are forced to. No-one wants people to choose poor energy efficiency because of the lack of money to upgrade their heating equipment. But people don't look down on people when the problem is price. The minute that barrier to choice disappears community pressure begins to form.

Taxes on polluting and inefficient products almost always makes sense. It drives product innovation and competition in the right direction. It also can alter poor social patterns for better healthier ones. High taxes also expose rich people to social criticism, something that they routinely avoid.

The Black Car Project Killing cars before they kill us!

Why do the oil barons support Clinton?

Clinton seems to enjoy more oil support than McCain. Interesting. Whatever the reason is for that has got to be bad.

The Black Car Project Killing cars before they kill us!

doesn't need to.

I'm glad now. he is way more progressive.

The Black Car Project Killing cars before they kill us!

Edwards is the greenest.

Edwards is the greenest candidate. I really think he is the most progressive one also. He talks about actually fighting big business. I hope he can come back and win. Obama is obviously incredibly intelligent and a great diplomat but we don't need that as much as we need someone who has courage and strong leadership skills. I think Edwards is that person. Hillary talks like she thinks climate change is important but I think it isn't very deep. She doesn't just front centrist like maybe Obama does, she is centrist. She always has been. Edwards was a trial lawyer, made a fortune on sueing assholes. I love that about him. Plus honestly he is the only poor to rich candidate. Hilary has always been well off. Obama has always been pretty well off also, I'm not sure about that, but it seems like although he had a diverse upbringing, he had needs met. Edwards all the way.

The Black Car Project Killing cars before they kill us!

Is this the white person casualty count?

94 million killed 1900-1946
82 million killed 1946-present
This is hardly an order of magnitude difference. Perhaps you were only counting white people.
And this will escalate substantially this century for sure. This next fifty years will probably bring about 500-750 million deaths.

The Black Car Project Killing cars before they kill us!

The only requirement is community.

Actually John, as you know from living in Kent, Washington has the highest minimum wage in the nation. A one bedrooom/ studio aprtment can be found in the $500-700 range in the city. No car for driving around saves money. Therefore a barista on minimum wage with tips can actually make it by in the city and have access to the culture and community that make art projects like these feasible.

One other thing just because you run around doing art projects and protests doesn't negate the possibility that you have a high paying job that you work very hard at.

Sign me: Resourceful and Frugal Seattlite

The Black Car Project Killing cars before they kill us!

Carfree and vegan activists aren't the same

I think you are the voice of reason on this issue on grist. I do have one small contention:

"Some car free advocates I know are having similar problems and are thinking of toning down their messages."

I'm a car free advocate and I think that it is not comparable to advocating vegan diets. I am pro-transportation in almost every other way, I just view (correctly) that a personal car can never be sustainable unless we made perhaps, solar powered go-carts. That being said I am pro-public transport I am even pro limited use vehicles for hauling things related to building and work. A vegan comparison would be someone who was pro walking only and morally argued that only people who walk everywhere are good people. I can safely say that my carfree message is not extreme and is what I believe to be the only real way we can be a sustainable society. I am also only interested in getting our transportation down to a sustainable level and have no invested interests on how that could occur. I think that reducing personal vehicles larger than a bike is critically needed on the discussion table and is only not there because of the auto industry muscle. It will never be available equitably to everyone on the planet and be sustainable. Tell me how and I'll listen.

The Black Car Project Killing cars before they kill us!

Nice graphs!

I noticed the not to subtle language shift by PETA as well. When will they learn that they lose credibility when they over-exaggerate. I'm vegetarian but I learned a couple of years ago to not get bent out of shape about my personal diet and to stay out of others diets. When I cook for people it is vegetarian or vegan when they cook for me it's whatever they want and I'll eat what they serve thankfully. I get a little better each year at buying local, natural food which is way more important then not eating meat.

I have many friends who have tiny carbon footprints who raise chickens, care for them, eat their eggs, and eat the chickens usually as well. Those chickens get fed compost and peck around the yard all day. A PETA person finds even this to be gross which is their right but this is not comparable to factory farms and does nothing worth measuring to global warming.

PETA's attacks on Al Gore are disgraceful. It shows that their true motives have nothing to do with any broad view on environmentalism and instead lie in a very narrow ideological focus. People who are their friends are their enemies. PETA doesn't gain finances or members from attacking factory farms and corporations. Instead of leading a charge against the right people they'ld rather lie to expand their recruitment by one or to gullibles on the left.

I'm not going to stop supporting people on making good choices and eating less meat but I've had enough of PETA. I'll show my support of vegetarianism the way I show my support of everything else through civil discussion and personnal choices. That involves honesty and action based on honesty within the scope of the big picture, something PETA knows nothing about.

The Black Car Project Killing cars before they kill us!

Good point

Edward Mazria is leading the way for our current bandaid. The 2030 initiative barely scratches the surface of the kind of building culture overhaul we desperately need around the world. The real changes that we need can be found in the work of Christopher Alexander. I think that energy conservation is something we need to consider more when we consider buildings, maybe we should think about building homes with less easy access to energy and more easy access to natural lighting, inspiring nooks, and built in comodities. We have a long way to go past 2030 to get there though, like 200 years.

The Black Car Project Killing cars before they kill us!

GE continues to suck.

It should be ripped apart into little tiny businesses! I don't believe in the miracle reformation of big business and no-one should. If they truly were capable of going green and socially conscious on their own without hard hitting regulation they've certainly had more than their chance to prove it. Time to teach them a lesson about what happens when you try to blow smoke up a billion peoples' asses!

The Black Car Project Killing cars before they kill us!

Heat is brewing a hell of a stew!

My folks are in Kentucky. Kentuckians are generally rural townspeople used to rolling hills, corn and tobacco fields, horses and weather that lets every season bloom. It's not like the northwest where it's either drizzly or grey, in Kentucky you get baking hot sun, bright fall colors, white winters, and green springs!
Now they pay attention to the seasons. They have to because the shifts in weather mean a big difference in what is going on! How can you plan a pig roast when the fields are smoking hot? What about betting on the horses, your front runner might die from heat stroke!
While they might have voted for Bush, they certaintly aren't a bunch of neocons! They just like the government to mind their own business. One thing that you can count on though is that they will not ignore the weather. They feel the heat and they understand that this is serious for the future of their families. They have never hardly had to deal with any true threat to their lifestyles in Kentucky. Things been pretty much the simple way it has always been there. I mean they are just as modern as the next American but it doesn't seem to matter as much to them about material things. They are happy with what they've got!
Now is a new time, and expect those states that are being affected to rise together. All they need is a little prompting and they'll be angry as hell about who is causing all this. Shove them a little bit in the right direction point out the end of their way of life and see what happens!

The Black Car Project Killing cars before they kill us!

Agreed!

Yay for both! But zealotry is not an appealing way of bringing people to your diet! It seems at times they work almost against themselves.

The Black Car Project

Knocking down good people is not progressive

I've educated myself on his past, have you? You bring up some good points though, I cannot support censuring art! Gore's stance is very clear though, he is for parental control of a child's content viewing. The rating system hasn't seemed to have hurt sales or produced censuring. Main stream music might have toned down but that is hardly art anyway! He is against censuring though! He has proven this in several ways. First he is one of the biggest advocates for net neutrality, which prevents corporations from controlling most of the content on the internet by keeping the entry costs low for new media and individuals like us on grist! As far as Christian, yes, he is one, but rabid? Hardly. Though he is devout he has repeatedly defended the separation of church and state. He has openly expressed contempt of the current administration's mixing of religion and government!

As to the "jump camp" theory. I agree that it is despicable when politicians hollowly jump on popular issues for financial gain, but with Gore this is not the case! In 1992 Al Gore wrote "Earth in the Balance" which featured global warming at a time when it wasn't talked about! His House and Senate record also backs up the case that says Gore was deeply into this well before the media and mainstream was.

As to his eating habits, I appreciate the reminder that eating meat is a major cause of global warming and other atrocities against nature. I only wish that consideration is given towards whether bashing an ally on global warming and environmental issues because of his eating habits is acceptable from a progressive point of view. Might it be better to criticize his eating of meat while praising the things he does well?

I am not a strict vegetarian or vegan although I applaud those that are because I believe it is very conscientious and earth friendly. But is there something that I do better than someone who doesn't eat meat? Possibly. I don't drive a car anymore and I work consistently in the environmental field helping to restore landscapes, build trails, or study fish and amphibian populations. Does that make up for me eating meat occasionally? The answer depends on whether eating meat is viewed religiously or not. If it is viewed religiously I would ask those people for tolerance of the people who simply don't see it that strongly. I would then ask them to measure that person's other attributes according to their values and set the intolerable variant aside to be mentioned and condemned but while keeping the rest of their value judgments intact for a multifaceted view.

I don't see Gore as a saint, but I look up to him especially after reading his books and many articles written about him. His current book is actually very progressive and made me optimistic that a new future is possible. He is an excellent writer no doubt because of his years working as a journalist and his books are a great read. I would help him if he fell on the ground, but that might be because I believe in helping anyone who falls on the ground even though it might be difficult for me if Cheney did. I'd probably look around for other people to do it then I'd help him up rather gruffly and tell him he's a fucking idiot in the process.On Al Gore will pen a solutions-focused sequel posted 2 years, 2 months ago 9 Responses

Backwards as usual

Here is an excerpt of what Gore says about hurricanes:

"Yes, it is true that the science does not definitively tell us that global warming increases the frequency of hurricanes--because, yes, it is true there is a multidecadal cycle, a cycle of twenty to forty years, that profoundly affects the number of hurricanes that come in any single hurricane season. But it is also true that the science is extremely clear now, that warmer oceans make the average hurricane stronger: not only make the winds stronger, but dramatically increase the moisture evaporating from the oceans into the storm--thus magnifying its destructive power--and make the intensity of the hurricane stronger." p.211 Al Gore, "The Assault on Reason"

Here is what Chris Mooney says in the above article:

Just because we can't reach scientific conclusions beyond a reasonable doubt about hurricanes and climate doesn't mean that, as citizens or as policymakers, we can't say anything at all. When you see data that are not just anomalous (which is to say record-breaking) but anomalous in such a way that they fit scientists' predictions, it would be foolish not to take note.

Bloomberg's article above notes that storms were severe and made landfall:

Two hurricanes have formed in the Atlantic this year. Dean, a Category 5 storm, the strongest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, struck Mexico's Yucatan peninsula Aug. 21 after plowing across the Caribbean. Felix pounded the coast of Nicaragua this week with winds of 160 miles per hour.

It was the first time that two Category 5 storms made landfall in a single season.

While the Swiss made money this year because they increased premiums 100% after Katrina which made them lose $58 billion, the worst hurricane season on record for them. They don't argue against climate change induced severe storms in the article. In fact they write explicitly that this year was the first that two category five storms made landfall in a single season. I think if I was in the re-insurance market I would be pulling my money out after a season like this. Grist and Gore did nothing to hurt poor people on the gulf, that was Bush. In fact this is what Gore did:

Al Gore helped airlift some 270 Katrina evacuees on two private charters from New Orleans, acting at the urging of a doctor who saved the life of the former vice president's son.

This was Grist's beginning to Katrina's response. It followed with a long series of articles that would have benefited the poor if acted on by our government.

When Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, it stirred up not just gale-force winds and untold misery, but a host of difficult environmental questions. How did heedless coastal development exacerbate the hurricane's toll? What's behind the socio-economic disparity in environmental planning -- and emergency response to environmental disasters? Did global warming make the storm more intense? What new ecological problems does the Gulf Coast face in the wake of Katrina? Is there a smart way to build a city below sea level in hurricane country?

It seems that the swiss reinsurance of the gulf coast poor has done more to hurt them. It is also Bush's fault for not rebuilding the levies properly and not investing in infrastructure that would stop insurance from going through the roof.

The Black Car Project

Gore is more than environmental guru

I'm on the last chapter of his book that came out last May called "The Assault On Reason." This book is a condemnation of the Bush administration covering 911, the Iraq War, torture, and Katrina. He doesn't mince words and with the utmost care he points out over and over the deceptions, carelessness and criminality of our current administration. I am happy to hear that Al Gore is writing another new book but I would be much more excited to hear that he has won the Nobel Peace Prize and is running for President. Gore has shown true vision now that he is out of politics I want more than ever for him to get back in. He is being boxed into the environmentalist position when in reality, while he obviously has great concern and love for nature, he is instead a leader in confronting the great crisis of our times and finds global warming accurately to be the biggest. While writing the book for recovery is ok, I wish instead he were the one responsible for implementing the book. I don't think that any current democrat or republican running has the courage and knowledge to change the direction of this country as well as Gore. I hope that I am proved wrong. On Al Gore will pen a solutions-focused sequel posted 2 years, 2 months ago 9 Responses

We have a good GDP why are they crying?

You're right I should be more sensitive the nut part was insensitive. From the above comment I am guessing you work for Wal-mart or shop there frequently and therefore see nothing wrong with its environmental or social effects, or effects on local businesses. You're right, Wal-Mart is the perfect example of free market economics. It is the most successful business according to the market of any other retail business in the world. You probably eat at McDonalds or similar fast food places, because they are the most successful model of restaurant in the world by market standards. You must therefore agree that McDonalds sprouting up next door to your house would be a great thing, as well as Wal-Mart. The free market system creates all these wonderful places in towns across the world where I can shop and eat and be happy at! Thank you free market! I worship you! Maybe I could get a part time job at both and then pay for my own health insurance because they don't provide for it. Then if I work hard one day I will own these businesses like the CEOs did it! Oh and there is nothing wrong with a CEO being paid more than a king. In fact I think there is no limit to an ethical salary difference, 10,000 times more money than me is perfectly reasonable. They do 10,000 times the work, are 10,000 times more intelligent, and they all brought themselves up from rags to riches and I can be just like them if I just toughen up and work 10,000 times harder like they do! God Bless America!

The Black Car Project

Market nuts can't think outside a very small box

"Setting wages by whim, rather than by market"

Is that the choices we have, market or whim? I've never given much time to studying compensation programs, it just never came up before, but I can by shear intelligence alone deduce that you haven't either! Furthermore by using a little common sense I can figure out that when a CEO gets paid 400 times the wages of their workers then that is a broken compensation system. Their used to be such a thing as employee/employer loyalty. As a matter of fact some good companies have even gone so far as reducing everyone's wages a little rather than laying off employees during periods of recession. They benefit by retaining experienced individuals who think it is much nicer to work for a company that is fair with compensation rather than move around looking for the highest wage job. How about comparing a company like CostCo to Wal-Mart? CostCo allows unions, pays high wages and in return has a lower turnover rate which equates to better customer service, safer work environment, more knowledgeable staff and savings in training.

Next time one of you blind "market is GOD" people criticize my writing for being bad for business think about whether your precious "free market" is good for business, because it ain't always!

The Black Car Project

Replace their old crappy plant

I am concerned about this offset stated in the article with little explanation, "shutting down a comparable source of emissions." This doesn't seem like a carbon offset to me. It seems like a small carbon offset at best, but I think it is meant to be a big one. They probably calculated the carbon that the "comparable source of emmissions" would produce for the length of it's potential life span which is arguably forever, pending maintenance. It seems like maybe they shut down an old more polluting coal power plant that was probably outdated and causing problems and are opening a new bigger one and offsetting the difference. This seems like a minor concession or even business as usual. Coal is trying to make a major comeback now, one that has been stifled for the past 35 years by environmental regulations from the clean air act back when it was enforced. Now the cost of the technology to meet those clean air standards of the past are down and new air pollution laws are reduced as well. The old plants which according to an intentional loophole put into place to give industry time to implement costly upgrades allowed old plants to stay dirty until they needed a major fix. So now many need a major fix and this is a great way to swap them out and the non-profits will do it for the money.

The Black Car Project

Why respond? I'm a sucker really.

"Don't be evil" is Google's Corporate Motto. That says a lot about what type of company it is. And there is the distinction. I've never said I am against all corporations, that is simply not true. I am against the corporations who do bad things. The auto, oil, and energy industries vary from corporation to corporation how bad they are, but none of them are sustainable, and they all usually have some skeletons. It's like picking BP over Exxon. It makes sense because Exxon is far worse than BP, but both suck by the nature of their business. Auto industry, GM is known to suppress innovation because why innovate when they can wrap the old crap in cheaper duds and a new paint job and still make money? They also therefore must stop all the competition before it catches on because they would lose market share. They cause wars, pollution and arguably the bigggest source of tyranny on the planet. These are businesses that cheat on the market, they don't pay for their environmental damage, they pay the lowest wages they can and produce all kinds of atrocities in the developing world. You're a market nut, until their is a green GDP you can flush your world is flat one dimensional thinking down the toilet.

The Black Car Project

West Virginians' aren't to blame.

Don't knock West Virginians. I was born in Kentucky then lived in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia most of my life. West Virginia is a fine and beautiful state that isn't inbred at all. In fact jokes like that allow large coal companies to take advantage of the rural folks by dehumanizing them.

I don't support coal production but editorials aren't written by the people but by the business interests. If you want to make fun of the poorest people of the US and degrade them you will also make it impossible to bring change to the region because they will reject you. Blame the industry representatives, these are carpet baggers from the North East. Blame crooked politicians, they stay in power because the poor people of Appalachia can't stand up to the influence of business on them.

WV has a lot to offer our country. Their crafts are beautiful and show a level of sophistication that can't be found anywhere else in the US. Those mountains are beautiful and kept that way by the proud people who live there. There is wonderful tourism opportunities to see the best aspects of one of the oldest mountain chains in the world. There is history, a history that includes rebelliousness. A state that serves as a home for people who want to get away from the rest of the US.

Be kind to West Virginia they are our friends. They deserve our respect and help. If you don't like coal there then do something good about stopping it, look up the artisans and buy their goods online. Contact the many coal opposition groups and send them a donation. Just don't ridicule good people.

The Black Car Project

Fly smart.

Interestingly enough I recall an innovative architectural green design that never got built but made a lot of sense. The concept was marvelously simple. Most airplanes burn gas the most during take off and landings. This model allowed for the landing strip to be ramped up a certain number of degrees to cut down on engine and brake use while landing and on the other side it was ramped down to make for easier lift offs. The terminal was underground in the middle to conserve heat and maintain a decent temperature without the energy. Now if all airplanes were packed when they went on trips it wouldn't be anymore gas flying across country rather than driving the distance. But I have faith that while cars may prove themselves unsustainable forever (see my website) planes could come around the corner and be designed for greenness. Maybe perhaps slower trips? What about enjoying our flights? It really astounds me that our planet use flying solely as a tool and don't marvel in the experience. Maybe we should use dirigibles.

The Black Car Project

Shit storm!

There was a tornado in Brooklyn. We are in for it. We also deserve it big time. It was nice knowing the plain states and Texas.

The Black Car Project

Rove shits out of his mouth again.

Did Karl Rove just pull his head out of the President's ass? He's a round headed little pudgy guy isn't he? Probably greases his head with some Astroglide and inserts it right into Bush's anal g-spot. I suppose next he'll be saying Bush is giving all the poor children ponies.

The Black Car Project

The photos made me sad of course.

Most of the photos aren't very interesting by themselves. After flipping through them I did start to feel a sort of subconcious expressiveness to them all. They seemed to be alive, like bunnies and fish or dogs and little kids. They were wild and free and then often constrained and sad. It made me think that part of what I was noticing was their context much more and how the location affects the subject matter. I have begun to wonder if the children you see crying in a war zone in Somalia might be a representation of their environment more than just the child. What if you saw a hundred pictures of plastic bags in war zones and dirty areas. Obviously the emotion you feel isn't toward the bag or even caused by the bag but instead by the total context that the bag rests. Like the dirty alley pictures of bags made me think of drunks and homeless people. Well why do those areas look like they look is it caused by the homeless person? No it seems to be caused by the place.

Another sad thought came to mind. All of these photos I have seen before in my actual life. I see plastic bags everywhere and don't pay much attention to it. How did we get so lost?

The Black Car Project http://autovoid.blogspot.com

Wiscidea is thrashing out like an alley cat!

Wiscidea, you are beating a dead horse. Your problem seems to be in trust. You can only trust independent experts on everything. Well I'm here to tell you there is no such thing. How about trust what makes sense instead?

Terra Pass is a business based on trust for the company and that the money you give it goes to where it says it goes and that giving them money is beneficial to the offsetting of carbon. The company risks complete loss of its entire customer base if it was found to be fraudulent. So why would it be fraudulent about a side survey not central to its core success?

Now the ins and outs of their offsetting of carbon is not what we were originally arguing and I think needn't be looked into here. The original statement was about their customers and their survey which found out that their customers were above average in offsetting carbon personally and not just buying themselves a green shine. I am someone who has spent time as a fundraiser for environmental issues and I can tell you from personal observation and experience, that the people who gave me money where usually the one's driving the Prius, growing a garden or supporting many other environmental groups. Terra Pass will not appeal to non-environmentalists, only the ones who care, that doesn't need a survey to be true.

Do they do more than environmentalists who don't offset carbon? Maybe not, but probably a little. Do they do more than the general public at being green? Oh hell yes! We could throw this customer survey out because the answer is obvious to everyone but you!

The Black Car Project http://autovoid.blogspot.com

Don't be a doubter, be encouraged.

I think that it is perfectly reasonable to assume that someone who cares enough to buy offsets also does things to reduce their impact. The reason is this: no-one knows about your carbon offsets unless you tell them. Meanwhile if you are someone who acts like you care about the environment but drive an H2 then you are instantly viewed as a hypocrite.

This study backs up that theory. I think that obviously the people who can't afford it will do other things and may be more committed to reducing their consumption but we should probably compare between people of the same economic class. Upper middle class people who buy a hybrid ford SUV probably offset their carbon compared to the ones who have the same money but drive a regular SUV. The ones who drive the regular SUV probably don't care about anything.

Now with all that said it is arguably the duty of the upper class to buy carbon offsets because the lower class probably in general have a smaller carbon footprint. So should we feel bad if our rich uncle who cares about the environment buys offsets along with new bulbs and a hybrid and we keep on using mass transit biking and replace those bulbs one at a time as the old ones die out? The answer is no, but we shouldn't hate them and call them posers for not dropping out of their income bracket all together for the cause. It's a voluntary rich person tax and those who pay it are obviously trying.

The Black Car Project http://autovoid.blogspot.com

More philosophers, poets, and artists.

The expert class that came out of the sixties has been unfortunately co-opted by the corporations and media. It helped to delineate a class system. It has made it so that ordinary opions don't count for anything. Our schools have seperated students early on in their development to narrowly specify their education. People are no longer taught ethics, philosophy or ecology. Those are subjects that create good citizens and Americans are never taught how to be citizens in a democracy.

In a democracy you have taxes but hopefully you would know where the taxes are going. You would throw a huge stink if you found out that your taxes went 50% towards defense. But you wouldn't pull your taxes away from the programs that actually help people. Our current society is taught instead to think of government as useless and the poor are tricked into thinking they would benefit from lower taxes when they invariably are hurt. The rich are of course greedy and see no need to help with social welfare but are unwilling to pay for the healthcare or schools of their workers.

We are not wanted to participate and are not a democracy of any depth anymore. What I would be interested in more than experts is people who were intelligent but taught to learn across boundaries and make connections. I think that is what we need right now.

If we had those type of people working with the new scientists who are struggling to create hydrogen, and fusion technologies, we might convince them not to create them. Especialy if those people have some imaginary "Best Principles" in their mind. A well rounded intellect could point out to those scientists that the best principles are subjective and they usually stink!

The Black Car Project http://autovoid.blogspot.com

Can't teach old dogs new tricks.

Being green for some people is a trend that they want to jump on. They don't understand the significance of the lifestyle change. What is happening is they aren't accepting the deeper philosophical arguments or morals associated with the change in lifestyle. Being green means more than recycling, buying organic, and energy saving appliances. It means rejecting the very foundations of our consumeristic system and capitalism for the most part. It means changing everything.

People lie because they are taught to lie their whole lives. It would be great to feel outrage about lying because it happens so little instead of constantly. I don't think that environmentalists don't lie. I think that ultimately being an environmentalist you are accepting yourself as a human an animal a part of everything and that everything is a part of you and it is all magnificent. That means shedding the awful ingrained dimorphism of good verses evil as if their is such a thing.

The problem is that we can teach people new words to say but retraining a whole society won't happen but over generations. We need to train the kids and do our best to keep the old folks from burning down the school before we're done.

The Black Car Project http://autovoid.blogspot.com

Coal Sucks

We are a society addicted to a lot of things but the worst is warmth. It has been studied and verified that sweaters make you warmer, but despite this fact we instead burn coal. I am currently reading Paul Hawken's brilliant new book Blessed Unrest and in it he talks about how the Yamana of Patagonia were naked except for smearing seal blubber all over their bodies to keep warm. I mean don't go out and kill a seal, but demand sweaters!

What if the power companies gave you energy credits for wearing insulative clothing indoors rather than heating? Sweaters could be a tax right off as well. We could dress our hot models in sweaters during the winter time to build suspense for the new spring line of naked girls covered in tiny clothing shards.

If coal ash could be transformed into sweaters by some company I'ld bet the coal company would opt to start paying to clean it up because they know the sweater trend means their eventual defeat!On Move Your Bloomin' Ash posted 2 years, 3 months ago 3 Responses

China isn't to Blame, America is!

Not until 20 paragraphs into the New York Times story do you get what the real cause of the pollution in China is.

"Chinese leaders argue that the outside world is a partner in degrading the country's environment. Chinese manufacturers that dump waste into rivers or pump smoke into the sky make the cheap products that fill stores in the United States and Europe. Often, these manufacturers subcontract for foreign companies -- or are owned by them. In fact, foreign investment continues to rise as multinational corporations build more factories in China. Beijing also insists that it will accept no mandatory limits on its carbon dioxide emissions, which would almost certainly reduce its industrial growth."

The next paragraph of the article skirts the issue of our companies taking advantage of cheap labor and lax environmental rules. Both of which are in-part caused by the corporations demands for such rules. The article then goes on to say that the problem is that they aren't using market-oriented incentives.

The article finally gets to the truth of why their environment is so extremely polluted, in the last paragraph.

"At least two leading environmental organizers have been prosecuted in recent weeks, and several others have received sharp warnings to tone down their criticism of local officials. One reason the authorities have cited: the need for social stability before the 2008 Olympics, once viewed as an opportunity for China to improve the environment."

In summation I feel this article was crafted first as propaganda to make it even harder for a post Kyoto treaty to pass because the biggest arguments these days is we can't act if China doesn't at the same time which is total lunacy. The second important part of this is the idea that they aren't implementing market solutions implying that that is what works. Both of these ideas are worthless and stand as a block to the articles two good paragraphs that really get to the heart of the matter.

The first is that China's pollution problems could be more adequately stated as US corporation pollution problems and US consumerism problems. If it weren't for our shoddy global tyranny pollution would not be a problem because China wouldn't be propelled by our ridiculous market growth.

Secondly, China does a really bad job at human rights. That means that the people standing up against the destruction of their lands get punished. We find that out in the last paragraph of course not the first one.

If I were to rewrite this article I would lead with a paragraph like this one.

"US corporations and consumers fuel the ongoing rapid total destruction of the Chinese environment. Chinese citizens who try to stand up against our corporate authority are knocked down by the authoritarian government we encourage. Things look bleak unless Americans start demanding corporate governance and stop buying useless Chinese trinkets."

I need to teach these journalists how to write.On And Now for Something Completely Familiar posted 2 years, 3 months ago 2 Responses