Musings of a Malcontent: Burn Baby Burn
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“Musings of a Malcontent” is a weekly op-ed by GlobalWarmingisReal contributor Carlyle Coash
Over the last couple of weeks I have come across a series of articles that compels me to ask the question:
Who’s Minding the Store?
There are so many environmental hazards out there and I wonder who really keeps track of them. In the articles I read it seems almost dumb luck that someone took notice and said something or took a photo. I realize that there are a multitude of agencies that try to pay attention to these things. I am also fairly sure that the funds to support them are always at a minimum. We just never want to spend money on things that actually might be good for us in the long run – like enough investigators for the FDA, or Social Workers supporting abused children.
It just makes me scratch my head.
For example – have you heard that a Chevron Drill rig has been on fire off the coast of Nigeria for over a week?
Yeah. On fire.
You can see it burning from space.
Awesome. That stirs some confidence in me right there.
The 2012 Sustainable Transport Award was presented to the cities of San Francisco California and Medellin, Colombia on Tuesday at a ceremony in Washington DC.
Sponsored by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy based in New York City, the international honor is awarded based on five criteria, including improved mobility for citizens, transportation access for cyclists and pedestrians, improved safety, emissions reduction, and an enduring commitment to sustainable transportation.
President Obama showed courageous leadership by supporting clean energy in his state of the union address. Prior to the President’s state of the union address, a Think Progress Green article encouraged the President to stir ”this country to action on the existential threat of climate change.” Mr. Obama may have only mentioned climate change once, but his unqualified support for clean energy was consistent with the kind of mobilization required to protect “our homeland from a poisoned climate.”
The President’s desire to expand exploitation of offshore oil reserves and natural gas from shale may be disappointing but it is entirely understandable in the current political climate.
While it is easy to blame Obama for not being strong enough on efforts to combat climate change, the blame actually lies with Republicans. The fossil fuel powered Republican denial machine has done a great job of misinforming the American electorate, making it impossible to address the topic, let alone fight for legislation. The President acknowledged the impossibility of passing climate legislation when he said,
“The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change. But there’s no reason why Congress shouldn’t at least set a clean energy standard that creates a market for innovation.”
With clean energy expected to be one of four themes of President Obama’s State of the Union address this evening, the Obama Administration has launched its National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy, “an unprecedented collaborative effort” that marshals the resources of federal, state and tribal governments, as well as a diverse host of other organizations, to reduce the “negative impacts of climate change on fish, wildlife, plants, and the natural systems upon which they depend.”
The initiative is the clearest, most coherent attempt to date on the part of the federal government to streamline and better organize government bureaucracy as it relates to wildlife and natural ecosystems. And it does so in order to address the critical issue and challenge posed by climate change, fundamental problems and challenges that encompass and cut across traditional departmental and agency boundaries.
Set in motion and coordinated by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and its Office of the Federal Environmental Executive, the initiative is led by co-chairs the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the New York Division of Fish, Wildlife, & Marine Resources and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
GlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week:
- Another oil spill in the ocean threatens endangered species in Australia.
- The anti-fracking movement is gaining momentum as the White House pushes for more natural gas extraction. The natural gas industry is dropping money on politicians to make sure they get their way, $1.34 million in the last four years in New York state is silencing the electorate and suppressing democracy.
- A mild winter in the US has decreased the demand for natural gas, increasing supply and pushing prices down.
- Scientists reveal that natural gas is not “clean” when compared to oil or coal, emitting just as much greenhouse gases as other fossil fuels. This article published in the Wall St. Journal highlight many of the myths promoted by the natural gas industry.
- The Brookings Institute provides commentary on US energy policy. The analysis asserts that the price of renewable energy and dirty energy are what will drive positive change by means of a carbon tax – but what an unpopular word: “tax”.
- Here is an article pushing the environmentalism kills jobs argument (or better characterized as a “myth”. Read More→
