Climate Change Case

Temperature and CO2 have always correlated closely, for at least 400,000 years. Here’s a graph of that correlation:
Most climate scientists believe the reason is the “greenhouse effect,” that is, heat is retained more by air with higher levels of greenhouse gasses. CO2 can be absorbed both by land (plants, mostly) and oceans (direct air to water transfer). However, though the oceans have absorbed about a quarter of the carbon we put in the air, ”
There is no hope that this process will take place fast enough to help control the build-up of CO2.” says Michael McElroy, Harvard’s Butler professor of environmental science.

There is no doubt that we have increased the CO2 content of the atmosphere. The carbon in Oil and coal deep underground are permanently sequestered. They only enter the atmosphere if we bring them up and burn them. All combustion of carbon-based fuels releases carbon into the atmosphere. This is indisputable. Every carbon atom burned (oxidized) creates a molecule of CO2. (Burning wood also releases CO2, so clearing of forests also contributes.)

Here’s how atmospheric CO2 levels have increased. Note the rapid rise since the beginning of the industrial revolution.

“Today, CO₂ levels are higher than at any time in at least the past 650,000 years because of increased fossil fuel burning.” Thomas Marchitto, University of Colorado

. Here’s a view of the last 1,000 years:

Here’s a chart of the rising CO2 since 1958:

How do we know we’re responsible for that rise, other than the correlation with our use of fossil fuels? That’s explained HERE. 1) Historical records and calculation of carbon released by our burning of fuel.

The roughly 500 billion metric tons of carbon we have produced is enough to have raised the atmospheric concentration of CO₂ to nearly 500 ppm. The concentrations have not reached that level because the ocean and the terrestrial biosphere have the capacity to absorb some of the CO₂ we produce.* However, it is the fact that we produce CO₂ faster than the ocean and biosphere can absorb it that explains the observed increase.

Independent of that analysis, we can tell how much we have contributed by measuring isotopes. Since carbon isotopes decay very slowly(that’s how carbon dating works), we can determine how much CO2 in the atmosphere was from plants (last year’s CO2) and how much from dead dinosaurs (millions of years of decay). All the calculations are available at the LINK.

Here’s the rising methane level, an even more potent greenhouse gas:

Great Americans Speak Out on Corporatism

Presidents and Others Comment on Corporations
And their involvement in politics

fas-cism (fâsh’iz’em) n. A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism. [Ital. fascio, group.] -fas’cist n. -fas-cis’tic (fa-shis’tik) adj.
— The American Heritage Dictionary ©1983 Houghton Mifflin Company

“There is an evil which ought to be guarded against in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity by … corporations. The power of all corporations ought to be limited in this respect. The growing wealth acquired by them never fails to be a source of abuses.”
— James Madison

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
— Thomas Jefferson

“In this point of the case the question is distinctly presented whether the people of the United States are to govern through representatives chosen by their unbiased suffrages or whether the money and power of a great corporation are to be secretly exerted to influence their judgment and control their decisions.”

— Andrew Jackson

“I am more than ever convinced of the dangers to which the free and unbiased exercise of political opinion – the only sure foundation and safeguard of republican government – would be exposed by any further increase of the already overgrown influence of corporate authorities.”
— Martin Van Buren

“It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.

“As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.”
— Abraham Lincoln

“As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.”
— Grover Cleveland

“The first thing to understand is the difference between the natural person and the fictitious person called a corporation. They differ in the purpose for which they are created, in the strength which they possess, and in the restraints under which they act.

“Man is the handiwork of God and was placed upon earth to carry out a Divine purpose; the corporation is the handiwork of man and created to carry out a money-making policy.

“There is comparatively little difference in the strength of men; a corporation may be one hundred, one thousand, or even one million times stronger than the average man. Man acts under the restraints of conscience, and is influenced also by a belief in a future life. A corporation has no soul and cares nothing about the hereafter. …

“A corporation has no rights except those given it by law. It can exercise no power except that conferred upon it by the people through legislation, and the people should be as free to withhold as to give, public interest and not private advantage being the end in view.”
— Secretary of State and 3-time Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan

“I again recommend a law prohibiting all corporations from contributing to the campaign expenses of any party.… Let individuals contribute as they desire; but let us prohibit in effective fashion all corporations from making contributions for any political purpose, directly or indirectly.”
— Theodore Roosevelt

“The fortunes amassed through corporate organization are now so large, and vest such power in those that wield them, as to make it a matter of necessity to give to the sovereign – that is, to the Government, which represents the people as a whole – some effective power of supervision over their corporate use. In order to insure a healthy social and industrial life, every big corporation should be held responsible by, and be accountable to, some sovereign strong enough to control its conduct.”
— Theodore Roosevelt

“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.”
–Theodore Roosevelt, 19-Apr-06

“We are a business people. The tillers of the soil, the wage workers, the business men – these are the three big and vitally important divisions of our population. The welfare of each. division is vitally necessary to the welfare of the people as a whole.

“The great mass of business is of course done by men whose business is either small or of moderate size. The middle sized business men form an element of strength which is of literally incalculable value to the nation. Taken as a class, they are among our best citizens. They have not been seekers after enormous fortunes; they have been moderately and justly prosperous, by reason of dealing fairly with their customers, competitors, and employees. They are satisfied with a legitimate profit that will pay their expenses of living and lay by something for those who come after, and the additional amount necessary for the betterment and improvement of their plant. The average business man of this type is, as a rule, a leading citizen of his community, foremost in everything that tells for its betterment, a man whom his neighbors look up to and respect; he is in no sense dangerous to his community, just because he is an integral part of his community, bone of its bone and flesh of its flesh. His life fibers are intertwined with the life fibers of his fellow citizens…

“So much for the small business man and the middle-sized business man. Now for big business. …

“It is imperative to exercise over big business a control and supervision which is unnecessary as regards small business. All business must be conducted under the law, and all business men, big or little, must act justly. But a wicked big interest is necessarily more dangerous to the community than a wicked little interest. ‘Big business’ in the past has been responsible for much of the special privilege which must be unsparingly cut out of our national life.

“I do not believe in making mere size of and by itself criminal. The mere fact of size, however, does unquestionably carry the potentiality of such grave wrongdoing that there should be by law provision made for the strict supervision and regulation of these great industrial concerns doing an interstate business, much as we now regulate the transportation agencies which are engaged in interstate business. The antitrust law does good in so far as it can be invoked against combinations which really are monopolies or which restrict production or which artificially raise prices. …

“The important thing is this: that, under such government recognition as we may give to that which is beneficent and wholesome in large business organizations, we shall be most vigilant never to allow them to crystallize into a condition which shall make private initiative difficult. It is of the utmost importance that in the future we shall keep the broad path of opportunity just as open and easy for our children as it was for our fathers during the period which has been the glory of America’s industrial history — that it shall be not only possible but easy for an ambitious men, whose character has so impressed itself upon his neighbors that they are willing to give him capital and credit, to start in business for himself, and, if his superior efficiency deserves it, to triumph over the biggest organization that may happen to exist in his particular field. Whatever practices upon the part of large combinations may threaten to discourage such a man, or deny to him that which in the judgment of the community is a square deal, should be specifically defined by the statutes as crimes. And in every case the individual corporation officer responsible for such unfair dealing should be punished. …

“We grudge no man a fortune which represents his own power and sagacity exercised with entire regard to the welfare of his fellows. We have only praise for the business man whose business success comes as an incident to doing good work for his fellows. But we should so shape conditions that a fortune shall be obtained only in honorable fashion, in such fashion that its gaining represents benefit to the community. …

“We stand for the rights of property, but we stand even more for the rights of man. … We will protect the rights of the wealthy man, but we maintain that he holds his wealth subject to the general right of the community to regulate its business use as the public welfare requires.”
— Theodore Roosevelt

“That very word freedom, in itself and of necessity, suggests freedom from some restraining power. In 1776 we sought freedom from the tyranny of a political autocracy – from the eighteenth-century royalists who held special privileges from the crown. It was to perpetuate their privilege that they governed without the consent of the governed; that they denied the right of free assembly and free speech; that they restricted the worship of God; that they put the average man’s property and the average man’s life in pawn to the mercenaries of dynastic power; that they regimented the people.

“And so it was to win freedom from the tyranny of political autocracy that the American Revolution was fought. That victory gave the business of governing into the hands of the average man, who won the right with his neighbors to make and order his own destiny through his own government. Political tyranny was wiped out at Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.

“Since that struggle, however, man’s inventive genius released new forces in our land which reordered the lives of our people. The age of machinery, of railroads; of steam and electricity; the telegraph and the radio; mass production, mass distribution – all of these combined to bring forward a new civilization and with it a new problem for those who sought to remain free.

“For out of this modern civilization economic royalists carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things. Through new uses of corporations, banks and securities, new machinery of industry and agriculture, of labor and capital – all undreamed of by the Fathers – the whole structure of modern life was impressed into this royal service.

“There was no place among this royalty for our many thousands of small-businessmen and merchants who sought to make a worthy use of the American system of initiative and profit. They were no more free than the worker or the farmer. Even honest and progressive-minded men of wealth, aware of their obligation to their generation, could never know just where they fitted into this dynastic scheme of things.

“It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property. And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man.

“The hours men and women worked, the wages they received, the conditions of their labor – these had passed beyond the control of the people, and were imposed by this new industrial dictatorship. The savings of the average family, the capital of the small-businessmen, the investments set aside for old age – other people’s money – these were tools which the new economic royalty used to dig itself in.

“Those who tilled the soil no longer reaped the rewards which were their right. The small measure of their gains was decreed by men in distant cities.

“Throughout the nation, opportunity was limited by monopoly. Individual initiative was crushed in the cogs of a great machine. The field open for free business was more and more restricted. Private enterprise, indeed, became too private. It became privileged enterprise, not free enterprise.

“An old English judge once said: ‘Necessitous men are not free men.’ Liberty requires opportunity to make a living – a living decent according to the standard of the time, a living which gives man not only enough to live by, but something to live for.

“For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people’s property, other people’s money, other people’s labor – other people’s lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness.

“Against economic tyranny such as this, the American citizen could appeal only to the organized power of government. The collapse of 1929 showed up the despotism for what it was. The election of 1932 was the people’s mandate to end it. Under that mandate it is being ended.

“The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody’s business. They granted that the government could protect the citizen in his right to vote, but they denied that the government could do anything to protect the citizen in his right to work and his right to live.

“Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.

“These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.

“The brave and clear platform adopted by this convention, to which I heartily subscribe, sets forth that government in a modern civilization has certain inescapable obligations to its citizens, among which are protection of the family and the home, the establishment of a democracy of opportunity, and aid to those overtaken by disaster.

“But the resolute enemy within our gates is ever ready to beat down our words unless in greater courage we will fight for them.

“For more than three years we have fought for them. This convention, in every word and deed, has pledged that the fight will go on.

“The defeats and victories of these years have given to us as a people a new understanding of our government and of ourselves. Never since the early days of the New England town meeting have the affairs of government been so widely discussed and so clearly appreciated. It has been brought home to us that the only effective guide for the safety of this most worldly of worlds, the greatest guide of all, is moral principle.

“We do not see faith, hope, and charity as unattainable ideals, but we use them as stout supports of a nation fighting the fight for freedom in a modern civilization.

“Faith – in the soundness of democracy in the midst of dictatorships.

“Hope – renewed because we know so well the progress we have made.

“Charity – in the true spirit of that grand old word. For charity literally translated from the original means love, the love that understands, that does not merely share the wealth of the giver, but in true sympathy and wisdom helps men to help themselves.

“We seek not merely to make government a mechanical implement, but to give it the vibrant personal character that is the very embodiment of human charity.

“We are poor indeed if this nation cannot afford to lift from every recess of American life the dread fear of the unemployed that they are not needed in the world. We cannot afford to accumulate a deficit in the books of human fortitude.

“In the place of the palace of privilege we seek to build a temple out of faith and hope and charity.

“It is a sobering thing, my friends, to be a servant of this great cause. We try in our daily work to remember that the cause belongs not to us, but to the people. The standard is not in the hands of you and me alone. It is carried by America. We seek daily to profit from experience, to learn to do better as our task proceeds.

“Governments can err, presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that Divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted on different scales.

“Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.

“There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

“In this world of ours in other lands, there are some people, who, in times past, have lived and fought for freedom, and seem to have grown too weary to carry on the fight. They have sold their heritage of freedom for the illusion of a living. They have yielded their democracy.

“I believe in my heart that only our success can stir their ancient hope. They begin to know that here in America we are waging a great and successful war. It is not alone a war against want and destitution and economic demoralization. It is more than that; it is a war for the survival of democracy. We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world.

“I accept the commission you have tendered me. I join with you. I am enlisted for the duration of the war.”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Democracy maintains that government is established for the benefit of the individual, and is charged with the responsibility of protecting the rights of the individual and his freedom in the exercise of his abilities. Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to govern himself with reason and justice.”
–Harry Truman

“Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea. Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

“This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

“We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
— Dwight D. Eisenhower

Green Jobs for a Healthier America

President Obama has made a green economy a priority. His green building czar talks about “green collar jobs”.

The administration has made money available to the states, which offer rebates on energy upgrades. He has implemented tax credits for further help with these upgrades. That, my friend, is effective stimulus. I needed a new roof. By going to energy star shingles and increasing attic insulation, caulking windows and installing solar, I get help meeting five national objectives.

Employment: local installers all over the country retain employees and add new ones. There are 120 million homes that need to be retrofitted. Green building is booming, while other building has tanked. Effective green collar jobs creation. Check.

Manufacturing: National manufacturers make the green products that local installers put in my house. Retained manufacturing jobs, and new ones. Check.

Environment: Fewer new coal plants will be needed, so cleaner air. Reduces emissions, which the courts say must be regulated as harmful to the public health. Those are greenhouse gasses as well as toxins, so a doubly good thing.

Energy: We need to move toward energy independence, and clean sustainable energy for the future. Conservation is now the runaway cheapest form of “new” energy.

Security: Ultimately, we will be more secure when we are not tied to the fortunes of the Middle East. We’re funding hostile regimes and elements.

Economy: We want to stop “the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world; from the West to the Middle East.” (TB Pickens).

This is a small step, but it’s fast, sensible and effective action toward major priorities. I think we’ll see lots more of this kind of systems thinking, and yes, we can move this country in the right direction. Those who claim Obama and the Democrats (sounds like a band) have not made any progress, I say not so. And I’ve got the more energy efficient home to prove it.

REFLECTING LIGHT FOR ENERGY

Here’s another amazing new technology story from green energy news

The world’s largest solar power purchase to date has been announced by Southern California Edison and BrightSource Energy. Within the next few years BrightSource will be building solar power plants that employ mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight on a single receiver. Temperatures at the receiver end will get rather high, as you can imagine, enough so that water will be boiled to make steam that will drive turbines to generate electricity.

The power plants that BrightSource plans to build in the California desert, will rely on hundreds of heliostats to keep light focused on the receiver throughout the day as the sun arcs across the sky. With the wonders of tracking devices made of computer controls and electric gear motors, the mirrored heliostats can be kept in perfect alignment with the receiver from dawn to dusk.

Biofuels Technology Update

Here are some recent advances in biofuel technology. I’ve long held that if we apply ourselves to innovating in the area of alternative energy, we can and will succeed. Jazz, over at TMV highlighted a new technology involving bioengineered bacteria that produce petroleum oil. It is yet another example of how American ingenuity can free us from dependence on foreign oil if we really set our minds to it. More importantly, if we really allocate our resources to innovation rather than continuing to pour them down the same big oil rat hole that we are currently feeding.

While this new bioengineered bacteria is interesting, we are much closer to application with biodiesel from microalgae. This does not have to be done in big fermentation tanks, and uses current technology such as that used to grow spirulina. It will yield more than 30 times the oil per acre than corn or soy and does not require clean freshwater (in fact, salt water will do, something we have plenty of). Take a look at the first facility, which will produce 4.4 million gallons of oil and 110 million lbs of biomass a year. Better still, such algae production facilities could be placed at the mouths of big polluted rivers like the Mississippi, and could convert nutrients from agricultural runoff into fuel. Currently these nutrients create an enormous “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. Furthermore, the algae can be used to consume CO2 from power plants. Cleans up the river, sequesters carbon from polluting industries and turns it all into fuel. Oh, and the exhausted algae can be used as fertilizer after extracting the oil.

Another exciting technology in this area is a starch to hydrogen technology developed by Virginia Tech, that can convert a safe, non-toxic and nonflammable starch and water slurry into hydrogen to drive a vehicle. These are only the tip of the iceberg. We can lead in green energy and clean tech if we commit to doing so instead of bowing down to petroleum and coal interests.

We limit ourselves when we think that every problem has to be solved with current technology. This is a great failing of our current energy policies. We have shortchanged research budgets into alternatives and still, our tenacious scientists come up with new leads all the time. Meanwhile, the GOP and some of their supporters wail that the sky will fall if we don’t start drilling in Alaska today. That’s not the solution. Let’s turn the page on that old thinking.

More on Biofuels Technology

For those concerned about the land needed to create biofuels feedstock, check out THIS analysis of how it can be done. We could replace all vehicle fuel at current levels on 9.5 million acres of desert land ! For comparison, we use 450 million acres of prime agricultural land to produce food (most of it food for livestock) and another 500 million acres for grazing livestock. Since the algae can grow anywhere, we’re not talking about diverting a single plot of prime farmland to fuel production.

(BTW, the stock in Petrosun is about $0.15 a share, but I’m not buying any of it yet). Here’s a good rundown on alternative energy stocks.

Here’s an aerial view of the Texas facility on Google maps. Another technology, using fresh water but enclosing the ponds to avoid evaporation, would reduce water usage to the equivalent of 3 inches of rain a year. Farmers know how little will grow with that low water usage. Most of the country has more than that, so all the needed water could be from rain catchment.

Using Ice to Chill Buildings

NEW YORK (AP) – July 14, 2007

As the summer swelters on, skyscrapers and apartments around the city will be cranking up the air conditioning and pushing the city’s power grid to the limit.

An ice-cooling system in the Credit Suisse offices at the historic Metropolitan Life tower in Manhattan is as good for the environment as taking 223 cars off the streets or planting 1.9 million acres of trees to absorb the carbon dioxide caused by electrical usage for one year.

Such a reduction in pollution is valuable in a city where the majority of emissions come from the operation of buildings. State officials say there are at least 3,000 ice-cooling systems worldwide.

Once we get serious about saving energy, we’ll find all kinds of ways to be more efficient. In this case, cheaper electricity is used at night to make ice to cool the building during the day. Here’s another

According to Nature, a European-funded project has be launched to store gigawatts of electricity created from wind into the refrigerated warehouses normally used to store food. As the production of wind energy is variable every day, it cannot be easily accommodated on the electricity grid. So the “Night Wind” project wants to store wind energy produced at night in refrigerated warehouses and to release this energy during daytime peak hours. The first tests will be done in the Netherlands this year. And as the cold stores exist already, practically no extra cost should be needed to store as much as 50,000 megawatt-hours of energy.

Hydrogen from Starch

Now this is interesting! The shift to biofuels, based not on diesel but hydrogen fuel cells just became a whole lot easier.

May 23, 2007
Researchers at Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the University of Georgia propose using polysaccharides, or sugary carbohydrates, from biomass to directly produce low-cost hydrogen for the new hydrogen economy.

Scientists Warn of Gulf Stream Slowing

Maybe not many scientists are pressing the panic button yet, but there is some distressing news about ocean currents.

Research at UK’s National Oceanography Centre found significant slowing of the gulf stream in the last 35 years.

From the amount of water in the subtropical gyre and the flow southwards at depth, they calculate that the quantity of warm water flowing north had fallen by around 30%. “We don’t want to say the circulation will shut down,” he told New Scientist. “But we are nervous about our findings. They have come as quite a surprise.”

And research at Woods Hole (pay-per-view article) found that a 10% slowing was the possible cause of the mini ice age in Europe

“The Gulf Stream carrying warm water to the North Atlantic slowed about 10 per cent in the Little Ice Age from 1200 to 1850, said a US study published on Wednesday that may give clues to the effects of modern global warming.”

Carbon Trading / Climate Change – Updated

Alternet, one of my top political news commentary sources, set off a bonfire of controversy on the Alternet site with an article panning carbon trading.  I think Author David Morris (co-founder and vice president of the Institute for Local Self Reliance and director of its New Rules project) is misguided. Carbon emissions trading can be a valuable incentive to drive us in the right direction of reducing emissions by rewarding good environmental behavior. Morris notes the excitement over the “green” Oscars, then the controversy about Al Gore’s Nashville house that “consumed 20 times more energy than a typical house.” (A Gore spokesman responded that they buy offsets to render it neutral in carbon emissions.)

GOP: The Global Opinion Pounders

Yes, the devastating fiasco that is the GOP neocon agenda is destroying world opinion of the US:

The Bush policies of war, occupation, torture and rendition are having a cumulative effect on global opinion. A recent BBC poll of more than 26,000 people found that 75 percent oppose the U.S. role in Iraq, two-thirds oppose the handling of prisoners at Guantanamo, and 52 percent feel that the U.S. has an overall negative effect on the planet.

Robert Sheer puts it poignantly:

President Bush has accomplished what Osama bin Laden only dreamed of by disgracing the model of American democracy in the eyes of the world.

According to an exhaustive BBC poll, nearly three-quarters of those polled in 25 countries oppose the Bush policy on Iraq, and more than two-thirds believe the U.S. presence in the Middle East destabilizes the region. In other words, the almost universal support the United States enjoyed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks has been completely squandered, as a majority of the world’s people now believe that our role in the entire world is negative.

The Disaster of the GWOT

It started out so well, considering the tragic loss of 9/11. The whole world was on our side and largely supported our going after Al Qaeda and its Taliban supporters. Great article by Richard Parry at Alternet, who details how the so-called war on terror is more like a war on our Republic.

From the beginning of the “war on terror,” George W. Bush has lied to the American people about the goals, motivation and even the identity of the enemy — a propaganda exercise that continued through his 2007 State of the Union Address and that is sounding the death knell for the Republic. Since 2001, rather than focusing on the al Qaeda Sunni fundamentalist terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks, Bush has expanded the conflict exponentially — tossing in unrelated enemies such as Iraq’s secular dictator Saddam Hussein, Shiite-led Iran, Syria and Islamic militants opposed to Israel, like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

Blog Break

No posts for the last few days. I have been very busy and neglecting my blog, but alas. Some things just won’t wait…

Sums It Up Nicely

Click cartoon to view full size

Why Should We Negotiate?

Reader Mikef at TMV addressed this so well that I will just quote him:

asked the question the other day: for those who believe that we should “go to Tehran”, what gains do you think could be made?

1. We have a mutual interest in a stable Iraq. Iran and it’s neighbors are reasonably concerned that a complete collapse of the Iraqi government would lead to regional war.

Cheney Rejected Negotiating with Iran

AP reports

An Iranian offer to help the United States stabilize Iraq and end its military support for Hezbollah and Hamas was rejected by Vice President Dick Cheney in 2003, a former top State Department official told the British Broadcasting Corp.

The U.S. State Department was open to the offer, which came in an unsigned letter sent shortly after the American invasion of Iraq, Lawrence Wilkerson, former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff, told BBC’s Newsnight in a program broadcast Wednesday night. But, Wilkerson said, Cheney vetoed the deal.

The Moderate Voice delves into the debate about negotiating with Iran, with several commenters taking the view that it is hopeless.

HR 508 would bring the troops home in six months

posted by Anita Fieldman

Washington, DC – Joined by Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA), and Maxine Waters (CA), Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (Petaluma) today introduced the Bring Our Troops Home and Sovereignty of Iraq Restoration Act of 2007, sweeping legislation, which would establish a 6-month timeframe for withdrawal for all US military forces from Iraq, provide a framework for bringing stability back to Iraq, and fully fund the VA health care system. The proposal is a direct response to President Bush’s challenge over the weekend for those who oppose his planed escalation to put forth a plan of their own. Woolsey introduced the bill during a press conference held this afternoon in the Capitol. Below are her remarks, as prepared for delivery:

Letter From a Military Mom

these are toy soldiers, Mr. Bush. play with them

My friend Claudine asked me to post this letter from a military mom:

Four years ago, I was watching TV, buying stuff and getting ready for Andy’s high school graduation. Then he joined the Marines and turned our world up side down. He’s now dealing with hearing loss, anger issues and PTSD, and even though he has less than seven months to go, he said he’s not leaving base for fear of doing something that might extend his contract. During these past years, there have been days I could barely speak, nights I couldn’t sleep and times I was paralyzed with fear for his safety. And now his Commander in Chief wants to subject 21,000 more troops to a war that began with a lie.

The Texas Strategy

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: January 15, 2007
The New York Times

Hundreds of news articles and opinion pieces have described President Bush’s decision to escalate the Iraq war as a “Hail Mary pass.”

But that’s the wrong metaphor.

Mr. Bush isn’t Roger Staubach, trying to pull out a win for the Dallas Cowboys. He’s Charles Keating, using other people’s money to keep Lincoln Savings going long after it should have been shut down — and squandering the life savings of thousands of investors, not to mention billions in taxpayer dollars, along the way.

The parallel is actually quite exact. During the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s, people like Mr. Keating kept failed banks going by faking financial success. Mr. Bush has kept a failed war going by faking military success.

Full article –>

Same Old Cheney

Cheney is at it again with the “you’re with us or with the terrorists” line

Appearing on Fox News this morning, VicePresident Dick Cheney said that attempts to stem President Bush’s new Iraq plan, announced this week, were undercutting U.S. troops in Iraq. Cheney brought Osama bin Laden in to the argument, saying that attempts to reverse U.S. policy on Iraq was exactly “what he wants.” Cheney also defended the domestic spying program, involving the CIA and the Pentagon, revealed this weekend by The New York Times.

I think Americans are sick of this divisive hate speech from the Bush administration. He’s undercutting the electorate. And how stupid are these guys anyway? They’re now insulting 70% of the voters, accusing them of “undercutting the troops.”

Global Climate Change

by GreenDreams

The correlation between atmospheric carbon and average global temperature is solid and based on data covering millions of years, recorded in ice and elucidated by drilling and studying core samples. There is no conflicting data; that is, there is no time at which carbon level and temperature failed to confirm this correlation.

Why is it so important for some to deny the very strong evidence and common logic of this theory? It’s not a complicated theory.

• Burning carbon increases atmospheric carbon.
• Atmospheric carbon levels are, without fail, associated with higher global average temperatures.
• The current carbon level in the atmosphere is higher than it has ever been.
• Putting less carbon in the atmosphere and taking steps to re-sequester existing atmospheric carbon will reduce that level.
• Returning to a normal carbon level is better for the planet and temperatures will decline along with carbon level.
• These two always track and it does not make sense to posit that increasing carbon is the result of increased temperature (which would extend the growing season and increase the uptake of carbon by plants.)

Green is the New Red White and Blue

by GreenDreams
This is a powerful video in which Thomas Friedman explains to Tim Russert, why “green is the most geopolitical, geoeconomic, capitalistic, patriotic thing you can be today.” Please watch it. send it to your friends.

Global Warming Warnings

Click here to view full image

We know that no readers of Green Dreams are dismissive of global warming, but the risks are rising, they’re real and “Most scientists agree that global warming presents the greatest threat to the environment.”

The melting of the Antarctic ice sheet is a big concern, is is the melting of glaciers worldwide.

No one knows better about the rising sea levels than those living in low-lying areas and islands. The tiny country of Tuvalu in the South Pacific has given up. They’re abandoning their homeland.

Targeting Agricultural Subsidies

We all like to talk as if we are dedicated free marketeers. The reality is that we dispense billions in subsidies, tax breaks and other forms of corporate welfare in schemes that are not only “protectionist” but in many cases destructive and nonsensical. Here are two examples of the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into, from the world of agriculture.

1. The American cotton industry is worth $5.9 billion. The federal government subsidizes it to the tune of $4.5 billion. That’s not a business. It’s a federal corporate welfare scheme. The cotton we grow is shipped to China (and other cheap labor countries) to the manufactured into clothing, since we no longer have a viable manufacturing sector in garments. And the tax dollars? They go mostly to Texas agribusiness, not family farmers.

2. Americans pay twice the world market price for sugar, in order to protect sugar cane producers in Florida, Hawaii (which finally gave up on sugar), and sugar beets in the Midwest (which also didn’t fly economically, even with the supports). Because of this, our soft drinks are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, now the leading suspect in our epidemic of diabetes. In the process of supporting an unviable sugar industry, we helped to destroy the economies of Cuba, Haiti, the Philippines and many other countries that produce sugar by the labor-intensive, and environmentally sound, methods appropriate to “emerging economies”.

I appreciate how complex these issues are, and cannot offer any pat answers for addressing them. My first suggestion, though, is that we take a serious look at all of these subsidy programs, all government price supports, and all forms of government corporate welfare, and assess exactly how the composite of all of these federal state and local dollars could best be applied to meet our goals: how much money, how many jobs, what contribution to the economy, what strategic goals are supported, etc. For example, what if we give up on homegrown cotton and shift that subsidy to homegrown energy crops to replace fossil fuels purchased from hostile regimes? Or what if we target specifically family farms for support and select those crops that provide more jobs per federal subsidy dollar?

Dragging this back to the beginning topic, why not apply this same scrutiny to all federal assistance, whether through subsidies, tax breaks or whatever. Let’s target them to specific strategic goals, and not just to a general pumping up of the economy with tax dollars.

Hostile Petropower or Homegrown Green Fuels ?

I have long thought the Dems need to articulate a compelling plan that ties together our biggest issues, the war, terrorism, energy, environment and economy in an easy, iconic way. That’s what I tried to do in the poster. I’m including a reduced size picture file in jpg format. I’m happy to send the full resolution file as jpg, pdf or psd file if you have any use for it. I just want people to start connecting the dots and see where regime change at home could take us.

Oceanic Dead Zones

 

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As the Mississippi River ejects spring rains into the Gulf of Mexico, a
dead zone develops, in which fish and other marine life flee or die.
The zone will be 6,000 square miles. Researchers say fertilizer is to
blame.

 

The causes of the dead zone, and similar dead zones around the world, are not completely understood. But in two separate studies last year, agricultural runoff was blamed.

Great summary HERE