http://www.grist.org/article/the-public-supports-better-policy-on-climate-change-than-corporate-environm Tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/InfNotPric
The public supports better policy on climate change than corporate environmentalists Gar W. Lipow 9 Mar 2010 1:53 PM Last week I documented that the public supports trains and auto efficiency standards and renewable requirements, along with other policies sometimes slandered as "command & control" over emissions pricing. (http://tinyurl.com/CCpopular) This week: some historical perspective on why the public is right, and mainstream environmental groups are wrong. Historically U.S. infrastructure, the basis on which this nation developed, was never some magical response to supply and demand. The Erie Canal would not have been built without rights of way given away to the builders. Land given to homesteaders and farmers made us one of the world's great farming nations. Railroads were built because the great railway companies were granted land a mile out from their tracks to compensate for construction costs. Or think of the telegraph, one of the first types of public infrastructure to receive not only grants of rights of way, but massive direct public cash subsidies. And it is worth remembering that none of this was built on empty land; American Indians were slaughtered or driven away for every one of these things. Much of the work on that stolen land was done by slaves. I can't imagine a "green tax" that could have compensated for that. And that is not something that ended in the 19th century. Airports and water ports are mostly built with public funds and mostly built on public land and water. Utilities use public rights of way. Water pipes and sewer pipes, electricity lines, gas lines, old school phone lines, broad band fiber optic lines, television, radio, cell phone, and other wireless spectra all use public resources and are often built with public money. Any transport more advanced than a deer path also depends on right of way grants. Not just trains, but automobiles, bikes. Even walking paths need some construction and maintenance. Any society that needs infrastructure more complicated than that built by hunter-gatherers will need public involvement, whatever "public" means in that particular society. Read the rest here: http://www.grist.org/article/the-public-supports-better-policy-on-climate-change-than-corporate-environm Tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/InfNotPric _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
