I only managed to get to half of McKibben's speech, but I don't
recall any "gauzy talk" about Priuses. The only mention I heard was
relatively dismissive: if you really need a car, there's no excuse
for buying one that gets less than 55 mpg., but in a place like
Madison you don't really need a car. I suppose he could have said
that all cars are evil, and ordered the expulsion of anyone in the
audience who drove to the speech, but that's not really his style.
I have to say that I liked what I heard. His core message was that
we would be happier and more satisfied with our lives if we reduced
our carbon footprint: a sustainable economy doesn't have to be a
"darker and more straitened version of our present lives;" our lives
can be more pleasurable, more sociable, and less bloated with stuff
we don't have room to store. If we can change the discourse so that
people think of sustainability as a move to a better life, and not as
sacrifice and suffering, politicians will have no choice but to
follow the voters' lead.
What alternative does Mike propose? How do we get basic change
without a real movement that supports and demands it? Bloomberg's
experiences in New York may be a case in point. His proposal to
collect a fee from every car that drives into the downtown half of
Manhattan is an excellent idea, which would benefit the great
majority of his constituents; but it's stalled because the
Legislature won't approve it, and because a lot of residents of the
outer boroughs -- most of whom never drive into Manhattan -- somehow
resent the congestion fee proposal as an attack on them. We have to
change the discourse before a proposal like this will be discussed
rationally. I suspect the carbon tax -- which is another excellent
idea -- would meet the same fate.
McKibben said he was asked for three things people could do to save
the planet, and he answered: organize, organize and organize. If you
have a better idea, I'd like to hear it.
(P.S. Bloomberg was a Democrat until he ran for Mayor, and he has not
party affiliation now. So it's misleading to call him a Republican.)
On Nov 3, 2007, at 1:41 PM, Michael D. Barrett wrote:
So we went to see Bill McKibben last night, and as expected, much
gauzy talk about the virtues of Toyota Prions & other 1/10 measures
wrt to the CO2 problem.
But it felt like a revival, I tell ya!
McKibben's main theme was to develop a movement that, in addition
to screwing in a new light bulb, "screws in a new Senator." All
well & good, but I fear it will be just new pols who talk a good
talk about Global Warming, but won't have the first clue as to how
to actually get us there. Local examples abound such as Madison's
state delegation being all hot to trot on Global Warming
legislation while cutting funds for actual solutions. Transit,
bikes & ped funds all got cut (when accounting for inflation) in
the last budget cycle. There is not one Madison pol who went to bat
for these green transportation options. While cutting transit for
tens of thousands of bus riding Madisonians, my state senator
worked his ass off to get a $40,000,000 expressway project for the
Village of DeForest, population 7,000 (sa-alute!).
Then there is the example of our green mayor strangling transit
throughout his tenure while ramping up highway expansions out every
cowpath. (Oh, but he got a warm welcome by the assembled enviros!)
NYC Mayor Bloomberg--that's *Republican* Mayor Bloomberg--is light
years ahead of McKibben and every liberal pol on this one:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/bloomberg-calls-for-
tax-on-carbon-emissions/
It really is simple. Just tax the carbon high enough that people
respond by burning less. No response? Charge more. Keep ratcheting
it up til people get the message, or, run out of money to burn
more. That'll learn 'em!
There is one niggling problem though; he sees the CO2 tax as
forcing a shift over to natural gas. Maybe. But that will last all
of about, oh, five years (or less) before that becomes cost
prohibitive (a good thing, btw). Again, that is niggling because
the price factor will just force the 3 E's anyway: Efficiency,
efficiency, efficiency. The big bonus: Efficiency. An added bonus:
We'll be forced to consume less. And be more efficient. Ahem.
Yes, yes, I hear the cries of the concerned: 'What about the
poor?!' Bloomberg addresses this by proposing that the carbon tax
be revenue-neutral: "'green taxes'...would be offset by reductions
in other taxes," specifically, "to use the revenue from pollution
pricing to cut the payroll tax." That is, create jobs!
I think it is disgusting that a Republican money man is so far out
ahead of the "good" liberal politicians & public intellectuals like
McKibben. Ugh.
Of course, I'll never forgive Bloomberg for stomping on the 1st
Amendment and *the* killer app/solution to the Global Warming
problem--bicycling--back in Aught 4 during the Republican Nat'l
Convention....So yeah, once we've been priced out of our cars and
wisely start riding our bikes we'll be caught in the maw of his
anti-bike brown-shirts. Hmmm.
Caught between a Toyota Prion-driving liberal and a baton-wielding,
ahem, authoritarian,
Mike
_______________________________________________
Bikies mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
_______________________________________________
Bikies mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
