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Kunstler endorses Obama
James Howard Kunstler, blog
Original headline: “What Now?”
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… I think we will get: an interval of deflationary depression followed by a destructive wave of inflation that will wipe out both constructed debt and constructed savings, scraping the financial landscape clean. There’s no question that stage one is underway. But we can be sure the giant wave of money recklessly loaned into existence in just a few weeks time will wash back through the global economy leaving a swath of destruction.
And then what? The societies of the world will be faced with the task of rebuilding systems of fruitful activity, i.e., real economies based on productive behavior rather than the smoke-and-mirrors of Frankenstein-finance con games.
… But returning to the short term, or “the present,” shall we say, there is the matter of how the US gets through the election and then the first months of a new government, even while the larger fiasco continues. I’m voting for Mr. Obama. While I believe he will make a much better president than the addled old mad dog Mr. McCain has become, I feel sorry for anyone who is placed nominally “in charge” of things this coming year. The best a President Obama can do is offer some reassurance to a public that is totally unprepared for the convulsion now upon us. Mr. Obama will certainly not have “money” to “spend” on any of the promised social support programs that have been endlessly debated. But he could clearly articulate the reality we’re facing, and ask not necessarily for “sacrifice,” as the common plea goes, but for something more and better: for bravery and resolute spirit, for intelligence and resilience, for kindness and generosity — among a people long unused to consorting with the better angels of their nature. He’s already begun to set the example by appearing in public with his sleeves rolled up. The change that has been in the air all year — that Mr. Obama has talked so much about — is coming in a bigger dose than anyone expected. I hope we’re ready to get with the program.
(20 October 2008)
James Kunstler comes out for Obama. Not a surprise, since he has been pushing the slogan about Republicans: “The party that wrecked America.”
In a related column, Rod Dreher (the peak oil aware “Crunchy Con”) reveals The mood among Dallas Republicans. Seems they are doing some re-thinking. -BA
Environmental Failure: A Case for a New Green Politics
James Gustave Speth, environment360
The U.S. environmental movement is failing – by any measure, the state of the earth has never been more dire. What’s needed, a leading environmentalist writes, is a new, inclusive green politics that challenges basic assumptions about consumerism and unlimited growth.
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A specter is haunting American environmentalism – the specter of failure.
All of us who have been part of the environmental movement in the United States must now face up to a deeply troubling paradox: Our environmental organizations have grown in strength and sophistication, but the environment has continued to go downhill, to the point that the prospect of a ruined planet is now very real. How could this have happened?
Before addressing this question and what can be done to correct it, two points must be made. First, one shudders to think what the world would look like today without the efforts of environmental groups and their hard-won victories in recent decades.
Listen: James Gustave Speth talks with Yale e360 about building a new environmentalism. (27 min.)
However serious our environmental challenges, they would be much more so had not these people taken a stand in countless ways. And second, despite their limitations, the approaches of modern-day environmentalism remain essential: Right now, they are the tools readily at hand with which to address many pressing problems, including global warming and climate disruption. Despite the critique of American environmentalism that follows, these points remain valid.
Lost Ground
The need for appraisal would not be so urgent if environmental conditions were not so dire. The mounting threats point to an emerging environmental tragedy of unprecedented proportions.
James Gustave Speth is author of The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability and dean of the Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. He co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council in 1970, served as chair of the Council on Environmental Quality in the Carter Administration, and in 1982 founded the World Resources Institute, where he served as president until 1992.
(20 October 2008)
Also posted at The Guardian.
California: Vote NO On Prop 7
Julian Darley, Post Carbon Institute
A Charter For Renewable Confusion And Delay
Almost everyone agrees that the world needs much more renewable electricity, but because it is still more expensive than fossil-fuel fired electricity, it is invariably necessary for governments to have policies which help install more renewable energy capacity. So surely we should applaud renewable energy Proposition 7, which Californians will vote on come November 4th? It purports to encourage 50% renewable electricity by 2025 – much bolder than any current targets mandated elsewhere in America.
The trouble is it will almost certainly slow California down on its journey to a renewable future. The reasons are manifold: the actual wording of the proposition is confusing, misleading, and full of flaws and loopholes. In some places Prop 7 could lead to lawsuits between the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission over who has jurisdiction for siting transmission lines. At the most general level, energy policy is complex and requires a lot more careful consideration than the rather blunt instrument of voter initiatives.
These flaws, along with loopholes that could allow a utility to avoid constructing renewable plants and a host of complex and unnecessary rule changes, has created an extraordinary coalition of opposition including solar installers, both main political parties, all the utilities (private and public), most newspapers, a host of citizen activist groups, and seemingly every green organization in the Golden State.
(21 October 2008)
Infrastructure: Nation’s physical plant another crisis for next president
David Goldstein, McClatchy Newspapers
As if the next president won’t have enough on his plate — with the collapse of the financial markets, two foreign wars, persistent security threats and a host of other concerns — America’s infrastructure is collapsing.
Whether major highways or inland waterways or the electrical grid or a quarter of all bridges, the nation’s physical plant needs billions of dollars in repairs.
“We’ve been relying on a patch-and-pray approach, not a strategic, more thoughtful approach,” said Casey Dinges, senior managing director of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
John McCain and Barack Obama occasionally talk about infrastructure. But whatever the next president does on a range of issues, such as the economy, the environment or homeland security, he’ll have to take it into account.
… John Horsley, the executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said that the U.S. is lagging behind, investing less than 1 percent of its gross domestic product into infrastructure. In China it’s 9 percent.
“What they’re doing is using infrastructure investment to position themselves to be the world leader in finance and commerce,” Horsley said. “That’s their ambition. Every one of our international competitors is making substantial investments in its infrastructure — airports, highways, transit, rails — for the next century. We’re not.”
(15 October 2008)
Environment will wither whoever win US election
Tom Baldwin and Lucy Bannerman, The Times
Eager anticipation of the next American president offering a dramatically different policy on climate change is being tempered by the chill winds of the financial crisis.
Barack Obama or John McCain will inherit a blighted economy, a ballooning deficit set to reach $1 trillion and a political landscape in upheaval from the market turmoil of recent weeks.
Environmental groups are already bracing themselves for delays or disappointment on action to tackle global warming which, they say, will inevitably be seen as having an impact on American jobs.
Steve Clemons, a director at the liberal think-tank The New America Foundation, said that whoever succeeds President Bush is “going to have a horrible time”. He added: “They are not going to be able to do everything they said they were going to do. The economic constraints were always going to be huge, even before the current crisis. Now, with the drama over the financial markets, when the next president is sitting behind the desk of the Oval Office he will have to weigh up different programmes, cut back and pare down.”
Already there is talk of plans for universal healthcare or expensive tax cuts being reconsidered, while Britain is among the international governments alarmed over what the crisis may mean for hopes of getting a breakthrough deal on climate change…
(20 October 2008)
