2008 may well be the year that we finally realise what damage we have done to our oceans and seas through overfishing.

The increased price of tinned tuna, starving marine animals like birds and seals, jellyfish blooms, and the near eradication of some of the most iconic fish of the seas such as bluefin tuna and swordfish will show that overfishing is at least as great a challenge to us as climate change.

No plugin hybrid from a major auto manufacturer again this year.

No major wind, solar, or renewable smart grid initiatives.  

No action on offshore or great plains wind.  

No major electric mass transit plans.  

More complaining about all this not getting started on this and other blogs.  No notice in the mass delusional main stream media, captivated as they will cointinue to be with tabloid campaign news and lurid murder and sex stories.

Media will continue to become even more "fair and balanced" highlighting GHG climate change deniers wherever they can be found.

Gas prices will continue to rise, reaching 4 bucks+ next fall.  Actual standard of living will continue to fall as jobs are outsourced and inflation in food and energy run rampant.

The fed will ignore inflation and keep lowering rates to quell the mortgage crisis turned into a full blown global financial crisis.  Mass media will continue to ignore the crisis.

The war on terror will expand with attacks inside Iran by US forces.  Efforts to get Bin Laden will continue to fail.  No US troop withdrawals from Iraq.

A pretty gloomy year, but bush will finally be un-appointed.  That will be the only bright spot, and won't really be sure and final until jan 2009.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

I take it the "Clinton" win that you predict will be Hillary Clinton?  I mean, there is still time for Chelsea to get into the race.  (Carpooling to sign up with Bloomberg, perhaps?)

To chicken to predict a Gore-Edwards ticket?  ;-)

I predict that European countries, and other financially savvy nations, will begin/continue to buy up America in record purchases -- taking advantage of the worthless U.S. dollar.  (And just as I was trying to move there, with my sad U.S. dollar.)

Soon, we will be the world's bitch...and deservedly so.

www.NoPunProductions.com ~ AmericaTheGreen.org

The UK adopted the submissive role decades ago, once empire was no more.  The patriarcial british male embodied by bonnie prince charlie (longing to be Camilla's tampon) taking on an ineffectual perverted personna.

The bitch boy bush, to cheney daddy role is a forerunner of this change.  It's metrosexual toe tapping for the future US male image.  It was inevitable with loss of empire.

Minority men are taking the field as far as real male image.  The traditional ruling male class is only valued for it's money and power.  Society prefers others for actual sex symbols.

US boy to manhood, life's going to be a bitch for the class that used to rule for quite awhile.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

Hillary and Barack will realize that they were meant for each other and get a " room " leaving the Campaign open for others who might really do something.

The American people will finally get fed up and bring back the guillotine - drag that Georgia roadside amphibian Newt Gingridge onto the National Plaza and start to clean house in Washington.

The Middle class suburban professional who have been selling their over priced legal, accounting, finical, medical, services etc. to the working stiffs of America will realize that the Lobotomy they had in 2000 when they voted for Bush is going to cost them their McMansion and their Lexus.

The Bankers will get theirs. They have it coming. We the People are out of money!

The Republicans will be unable to field a Presidential candidate due to ramped cannibalism. They eat their young.

The one bright spot in 2008 will be Dennis Kucinich. He will quit politics and join the Justice League and with his new wife Wonder Woman they will fight evil, corruption, pollution, global warming, inequality, deforestation and religious fanaticism. Together they will restore the American way of life and bring peace to the World. This I believe.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi

I'll be curious to see how many of your predictions come true. Too many probably.

I would change your arctic sea ice prediction though. August is too early in the melt season. I would predict that a record will be reached by mid-September although strong projections of a record may be obvious by August.

I predict that if Obama wins in 2008, he will sell out...on environmental issues, for sure.  Environmental issues can be a very tough sell. He will just try to appease everybody and we will continue with watered down legislation, if any at all.  

(If elected, Clinton will compromise too much [for my taste], but likely get more than others because of her political clout.)

www.NoPunProductions.com ~ AmericaTheGreen.org

...If Edwards wins, we will see aggresive leadership on environmental issues.  He will do what Bush is doing now with a (positive) twist -- threaten to veto watered-down enviro legislation.

The public will rally behind Pres. Edwards, and we will see a new, expanded movement of citizen activism.  This force majeure will represent a new source of power.  

:-)

www.NoPunProductions.com ~ AmericaTheGreen.org

Greta -  John Edwards an environmentalist? Come on, what about his new 6 million, 28,000 sq. ft.  McMansion? How can we have environmental leadership from a guy who apparently doesn't understand the basic environmental terms sustainability, reduce, reuse and recycle? Environmental statements mean nothing. How you live your life is the measure of ones environmental commitment. Mahatma Gandhi  said it best "You must be the change you wish to see in the world".

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi

The Edwards campaign has itself not wanted to say much in defense of John Edwards about this.  But my understanding is that an impressive amount of energy-saving technology has gone into the house.  Plus, we should remember that Elizabeth Edwards is very sick -- and who are we to tell them how they should spend this next period of their lives together, which may not be very long?  A big house would not matter at all to you or me, but perhaps it is something that Elizabeth always wanted.

Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.

Admittedly, it would be great if there was a perfect environmentalist presidential candidate.  And, wouldn't it be great it there was a perfect environmentalist.

I get "nailed" on those carbon calculators for being a single-person household -- even though I live in an energy-efficient (avg. $35/mo. electric) 1300 sq.ft. townhouse, which also is my office.

Perhaps the Edwards and the Gores, and the like, are efficiently using all 28,000 sq. ft. As the arguments been made before, all that space might be used to house multiple families (staff, caretakers) or extended family, and/or multiple offices.  Perhaps not.

Yeah, I suppose that a John Edwards or an Al Gore could go to the YMCA to work out each day instead of having their own gym.

Even environmentalists have guilty pleasures (meat eating, procreating, trips to grandma's house, etc.), which hopefully they try to keep to a minimum.

The Edwards home is on 102 acres.  Do we give him credit for land conservation?  Carbon credits for the carbon sink of the "heavily wooded" site?  Personally, I think the 28,000 sq. ft. of buildings is a worthwhile trade off for the conservation of 100 acres of land -- especially in well-developed Orange County, NC.

It is all very complex and I would not want to judge without knowing the details.  Lifestyle choice most certainly is a fair question to ask of any and all presidential candidates.

Hey, I would love nothing more than to help elect an environmentalist/vegan/animal rights activist/conscientious consumer/carbon neutral/non-smoking president.  But, I don't think that the rest of the country is ready for Dennis Kucinich.

www.NoPunProductions.com ~ AmericaTheGreen.org

caniscandida
I am not being unkind when I point out the disparages between a candidates voiced positions and their actions. I have a lot of compassion for Mrs. Edwards battle with cancer and the great stress that it puts on the whole family. My wife is a cancer survivor and I know from personal experience of the horror of cancer. John Edwards has my respect in many areas. Anyone who sues corporate America is my best buddy. I don't care if he got rich doing it, power to him. Taking on big Pharm, Big Oil and old man Coal is what all the Democrat candidates should be doing. I am not an Edwards detractor but a voter who thinks if you talk the environmental talk you must walk on the path of conservation of resources and not the path of conspicuous consumption. As for the need for a big house, the second richest man in America lives in a modest ranch house in Oklahoma that the and his wife purchased a few years after they were married. He flies commercial airlines and catches rides with his friends. Now that is environmentalism.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi

Greta
Well maybe that is the problem. Environmentalists should be making the country ready for a Dennis Kucinich. There is no need for a trade off. Edwards could have done both, built a modest, energy efficient and sustainable home for his family and still conserved 100 acre of land. How one chooses to live in their environment is one of the most important questions that we should be asking our Presidential candidates. If we think we are going to lead the world the people we elect should be the example. This along with other social questions like how we allocate the resources of this planet should be at the top of the debate. To Edwards credit he is trying to do some this with his campaign he just falls short as an environmental candidate.
However, he is heads above Hillary and Barack as a candidate of the" people". So hey, you don't have to compromise on that dream candidate. He is out there right now and you just named him Dennis Kucinich. People need to vote their convictions not try to pick a candidate they think could win! Hey I did that in 2004 and I am still kicking myself.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi

...they have geothermal heating and cooling, as opposed to the electric (forced air) heat and AC that everyone else in this area has.  

It was in the local paper down here a while back -- I mentioned this on another thread, but there's a lot of overlapping campaign discussion going on in the last week or so on Grist, so sorry for repeating myself.

I vaguely remember reading that the Edwards' have other green design measures as well, but I don't know what they are.  

FWIW, I had the good fortune of meeting Elizabeth once in a non-political context, and getting to chat (about kids, not politics).  She seemed to me to be very genuine, likeable and down to earth.
 

Dennis Kucinich's campaign just sent out an interesting protest message from him, i.e. protesting his exclusion from last night's ABC News debate (when Ron Paul got included on the GOP side!).  I like Dennis a great deal, for just about everything that he stands for, and love him especially for his open support of animal rights and his veganism: so it is a terrific shame that he is not a viable candidate.

Anyway, he apparently has got a lot of grief from supporters who were disappointed that he asked his caucusers in Iowa to choose Barack Obama, not John Edwards, as their second choice.  In his protest message, he does not defend his choice of Obama, but explains that he disapproves of Edwards because of that hedge fund connexion of his, which, Dennis claims, is still controlling him.

Well, I do not know, but I am satisfied with Edwards's defense, that his involvement with the hedge fund was not long, and the purpose of it was not so much to make money as to learn.

But this is perhaps all academic, at this point.

It is interesting, though, that Edwards seemed to be trying hard to get in good with the Obama crowd last night.  Would he actually be willing to accept Obama's VP slot?  After his bad experience with John Kerry?

Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.

I have a hard time imagining Edwards agreeing to be second banana again (or Obama asking, for that matter).  Edwards is an incredibly intense person, by all accounts -- seems like he needs to be in charge of something.

I heard some commentary suggesting that Edwards is trying to knock Clinton off and then go up mano a mano against Obama, in order to let the voters decide who's the real the candidate of change.  

Anyway, I know it's really too early to speculate, but rather than Veep it'd make sense to see Edwards as Secretary of Labor, or Sec. of Health and Human Services. Then he could be in charge, and really do something.