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May 15, 2008
Melting pot?
by Sylvia S Tognetti
Stephen Colbert weighs in on the McCain's "better way" of addressing human induced climate change, which may literally turn the entire world into a melting pot. It is indeed, a national, or what I would call human security issue, but, as Stephen so eloquently points out, if calling it that would bring it into McCain's domain of expertise, lets call some more things national security issues (e.g., the economy - which he admitted to not knowing much about, and the sociology of Iraq - where he does not know the difference between Sunni and Shia).
For a more detailed analysis of McCain's speech, see Romm's 4 part series, in which he reminds us also that it is because of McCain and his fellow conservatives that the United States is now a bit player in the wind industry that the United States invested in heavily in the 1970s, which is presumably why McCain made his climate speech in front of Danish wind turbines:
President Reagan cut the renewable energy R&D budget 85% after he took office and eliminated the wind investment tax credit in 1986. This was pretty much the death of most of the US wind industry. While President Clinton worked to increase funding for wind, the Gingrich Congress blocked that effort beginning in 1995. President Bush is another conservative who fail to see the importance of wind power in the need for consistent support of the tax credit.
(Note to the youth climate movement: please stop blaming boomers and environmental groups. Howz about "we" work together on this...)
And that McCain's pledge to support an adaptation strategy is at odds with his small government rhetoric. Romm also argues that his proposed offsets approach would not accomplish very much. I personally think it depends on how it is done, and think carbon credits can be an important way to generate the kind of revenue that will be needed to support a transition, and development strategies that incorporate adaptation and help to reduce poverty. Lastly, (part 4) McCain doesn't seem to be able to bring conservatives along with him, so it is unlikely he would actually be able to do anything if elected.
Posted by Sylvia S Tognetti at 10:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 12, 2008
Asking the right questions
by Sylvia S Tognetti
So, are cyclones that strike densely populated coastal areas that are losing their wetlands sent by God as punishment for sin? Or are they the consequences of human induced global warming? And did Al Gore really say that? (no) Can the media, get anyone to pay attention to them, or to anything important, without a smoking gun? and will they always find one even if it has to be fabricated? Which, of course, provides a smoking gun for the blogs, this one included.
Or perhaps this all just nonsense, intentionally generated to distract the public from the incapacity and even in some cases unwillingness of some governments to respond to extreme events? Which is the very definition of a disaster and, supposedly, the reason we form governments. And I'm not just talking about Nargis. (For more on Nargis see this NYT article- thankfully, aid does slowly seem to be trickling in, and there are organizations that have somehow managed to have a presence. And this one by Andrew Revkin about the dangers of living in a Delta and why people do it anyway, and lack of preparation.)
The real stories about the so called "climate skeptics, or Katrina or Nargis, are much more complex than a "who dunnit" tale, with many shades, not necessarily all grey. Ben Wisner has written some reflections on attention to disasters, in context of the response to Nargis and other kinds of calamities that are all around us, in which he makes a case for the need to better understand such nuances, if we are to respond more effectively. We can talk about restoring mangroves later.
Posted by Sylvia S Tognetti at 9:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 6, 2008
Just don't inhale
by Sylvia S Tognetti
I'm only posting this video because I haven't been able to get this song out of my head since Revere gave it new meaning... Way back when, the Tom Lehrer album on which this song appears was among the few my parents had other than classical music, and before I was old enough to start my own collection, so it got overplayed. But this is the first time I have actually seen what he looked like in performance. It is even funnier now. In retrospect, it also does a better job than we seem to be doing now, of linking pollution to human health.
Posted by Sylvia S Tognetti at 1:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Taking a holiday from reality
by Sylvia S Tognetti
Why not a total gas tax holiday? As I said previously, good luck trying to reinstate it in the fall. And as Stephen Colbert explains, it is always summer somewhere, and soon, it will be summer everywhere! If this thing flys, it will just prove his point, that willingness to go against the experts proves one is ready to be president in this country. And mine, that experts still have a thing or two to learn about communicating with people, and informing policy. But with a little help from the blogosphere and more than one late night comedian, they seem to be doing better this time than when Bill Clinton raised the gas tax by a nickel in 1993, and then lost the Democratic majority in Congress, so we shall see... If nothing else, this lunacy will, perhaps, get a few more voters to consider the trade-offs we are all making, or are forced to make, since we all get stuck with the policies of whoever is elected, not to mention the consequences.
Posted by Sylvia S Tognetti at 9:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 4, 2008
More on the gas tax
by Sylvia S Tognetti
Given the talent that mainstream journalists always seem to have for finding "experts" on both sides of an issue even when there is a solid of a consensus as one can ever expect to get from science, and from anyone who has done an honest review of the evidence (e.g., on human induced climate change), I was shocked to learn that, at least on the NewsHour, they weren't able find a single expert to argue for a gas tax holiday. Gregory Mankiw cites an e-mail from Len Burman:
Yesterday I was on the NewsHour to talk about the gas tax holiday. I asked if there was another guest and the producer said, "We tried, but we couldn't find anyone to argue the other side (that the gas tax holiday made sense)."
Mankiw is the economist who founded the Pigou Club, which advocates raising the gas tax. In light of the current uproar, the manifesto is worth revisiting.
McCain's proposal is as predictable as Republican proposals to solve the crisis by opening ANWR to drilling, but, has Hillary Clinton really joined the assault on reason? Did she really ask members of Congress whether they are "with her or against her" on her gas tax proposal? Pressed on this by George Stephanopoulos this morning, did she really just dismiss the arguments against her proposal as "elite opinion" as she sidestepped the question? TPM Election Central has the direct quotes:
"I think we've been for the last seven years seeing a tremendous amount of government power and elite opinion behind policies that haven't worked well for hard working Americans," she said.
A bit later she added: "It's really odd to me that arguing to give relief to a vast majority of Americans creates this incredible pushback...Elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that don't benefit" the vast majority of the American people.
An ordinary voter begged to differ, however. Stephanopoulos turned the mike over to a woman who said she supported Obama and said she makes less than $25,000 a year.
"I do feel pandered to when you talk about suspending the gas tax," the woman said, adding: "Call me crazy but I actually listen to economists because I think they know what they've studied."
I don't always listen to economists either - I grew up arguing environment vs economics with my economist father, at the family dinner table, Italian style. But that was a long time ago, and sometimes, on some things, they are actually right. Since then, I even studied a bit of it myself....
Meanwhile, Obama on Meet the Press, speaking from experience, confirmed that suspending the gas tax won't actually lower prices. Which is what happened in Illinois after he supported doing this at the state level. Hopefully, some enterprising journalist will ask both McCain and Clinton to explain how their gas tax proposals are consistent with their positions on addressing climate change, or whether they will shelve those at the first sign of a deepening energy crisis. I have generally refrained from taking sides since we need both of them not just to win in November, but to get anything done. But Hillary is really starting to sound desperate and is digging herself into a big hole with this one. Its sad.
Posted by Sylvia S Tognetti at 2:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 1, 2008
One way to kill the ICC
by Sylvia S Tognetti
On second thought, suspending eliminating the gas tax is one way to stop the construction of the InterCounty Connector (ICC)! But it still won't reduce gas prices. One way to do both of those things would be to get more of the Transportation Trust Fund dedicated to funding mass transit so that more people would have options other than driving. So far, we haven't heard much on this from the leading contenders for the Democratic nomination. But, buried in a pool report from an Obama press event, David Roberts just found this:
The irony is with the gas prices what they are, we should be expanding rail service. One of the things I have been talking bout for awhile is high speed rail connecting all of these Midwest cities -- Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, St. Louis. They are not that far away from each other. Because of how big of a hassle airlines are now. There are a lot of people if they had the choice, it takes you just about as much time if you had high speed rail to go the airport, park, take your shoes off.
This is something that we should be talking about a lot more. We are going to be having a lot of conversations this summer about gas prices. And it is a perfect time to start talk about why we don't have better rail service. We are the only advanced country in the world that doesn't have high speed rail. We just don't have it. And it works on the Northeast corridor. They would rather go from New York to Washington by train than they would by plane. It is a lot more reliable and it is a good way for us to start reducing how much gas we are using. It is a good story to tell.
More kudos for Obama if he can seize the opportunity inherent in the uproar over gas prices to put forth a bold proposal that would actually accomplish something useful.
Posted by Sylvia S Tognetti at 4:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack