Comments tbelford has made

Well said!

What a terrifically lucid and balanced point of view.

There are corporations that deserve to be villified ... like TXU in Texas. There are corporations whose behavior should be applauded ... like the ten majors that just coalesced with WRI and Environmental Defense in USCAP on global warming. And there are corporations we should be busting our chops to steer in more socially responsible directions ... like Wal-Mart.

Corporate power is real; it ain't going away. Some of us can choose lifestyles that minimize contact with it. But others need to engage and harness it. Room for many strategies!On With big biz jumping on the green bandwagon, should activists cheer or jeer? posted 2 years, 9 months ago 13 Responses

More "evidence" from Time mag

What do you make of this passage in 9/4 Time magazine?

Previewing the final quarter of Bush's presidency, officials disclosed to Time that the Administration is formulating a huge energy initiative designed to "change the whole nature of the discussion" and challenge the Republican Party, Democrats, the oil and electricity industries, and environmentalists. An  adviser said Bush's views about global warming had evolved. "Only Nixon could go to China, and only Bush and Cheney -- two oilmen -- can bring all these parties kicking and screaming to the table," the adviser said.

Tom Belford TheAgitator.net

The Spectrum

We need us all. Backyard organic gardeners, skeptics on the streets, and Wal-Marts.

On the corporate motives issue, the fact is, companies are absorbing the reality that "green" can be good biz in three ways:

1. they can actually make PROFITABLE products that service environmental needs;
   
2. they can make their employees proud, avoiding costly employee churn and ill-morale, both of which sap productivity;
   
3. they can build goodwill with customers, in the face of tons of proprietary research carried out by consumer-facing companies showing that "purchase decisions" more and more include a weighing of corporate reputation on the environment (and other social responsibility factors).

So sure, insist on seeing the proof in the pudding. But recognize that "the times are a-changin." On Why won't America's environmentalists accept positive developments? posted 3 years, 3 months ago 22 Responses

If we win

on global warming, it will be because of the leadership of Republicans like McCain, Snowe, Lugar, Schwarzenegger, Pataki -- all bucking their parties -- as opposed to Baucus, Byrd, Landrieu and many other energy state Dems who screw the environment most of the time.

Parties -- "progressive" or otherwise -- are becoming irrelevant. Why? Because voters are sick of stalemated, fringe group, spiteful (the venom in so much of the anti-Lieberman blogging is appalling), ideologically driven politics. They want pragmatic solutions, which are generally fashioned in the middle of the spectrum. And they recognize that problem-solvers are individual leaders, not parties.

Tom Belford The Agitator.net

Go Obama!

On the one hand, a bunch of young folks with a website can really rock Wal-Mart, a company with billions in profits/year and employees (i.e. voters) in virtually every congressional district, pressing it successfully in a number of policy areas including the environment.

On the other hand, after all these years, with even national security arguments on their sides, mainstream national enviro groups can't seem to exert any political leverage on three auto companies that are virtually bankrupt financially and whose leadership is devoid of imagination.

Hats off to Obama and company for pushing the fuel economy issue. Thumbs down to the "we can't win" attitude of Becker, so typical of Beltway enviros. This posture is why this week's Nation article on grassroots environmentalism strikes a cord.On Obama leads bipartisan effort to raise fuel-economy standards posted 3 years, 4 months ago 5 Responses