Why We're Doomed - Part 3

This morning I stopped at a local cafe for breakfast. Having an aversion to chain restaurants I am always on the lookout for unique local places. Traveling a route that I don't normally take I spied a red barn styled place that had a full parking lot, the greatest endorsement any restaurant can have. When I entered the place appeared full of promise. It was just the way I like local places; cramped, chaotic and confusing. Coffee was only ninety-nine cents.

Then the food came. First of all, let me say that the food was first rate. Tasty and filling, all at a reasonable price. I will never eat there again. The food came served on a plastic plate with plastic utensils. The coffee was in a Styrofoam cup.

Clearly this packed restaurant could afford to upgrade to real plates and silverware. I cannot imagine that in the long term it is not cheaper to buy reusable plates, cups, and utensils than to constantly buy them and throw them away. I inquired as to why they used the approach they did. The answer was that it cost too much in the short run to make the change. In effect, short term costs were more relevant to the owners than long term profitability. Environmental costs aside, this is simply a bad business decision.

I grow more pessimistic every day when it comes to reversing the tide building towards an impending ecological disaster. When businesses won't do the environmentally responsible thing even when it is in their economic interests there is little hope that society as a whole will address these issues.

Forget cap and trade legislation. The economic world is governed by short term concerns and appears unable to consider what is in its best interests in the long term. My local restaurant is only a symbol of this mindset. They will get no more of my business, no matter how good the food.

One Small Sliver of Light

As the cloud of knee-jerk conservatism descends upon the nation, there emerges on sliver of light on the otherwise dark horizon. That small sliver is the election of Jerry Brown as Governor of California. Brown, who now holds the distinction of being both the youngest and oldest person elected to lead the most populous state, is in a position to actually push an agenda that affects the whole country.

California, with its overwhelming size and economy (8th largest in the world according to EconPost), can and does alter what goes on in the country as a whole. When California passes environmental regulations or manufacturing standards the nation as a whole is generally forced to adopt them in order to do business in the state. With corporate shill Meg Whitman as the alternative, Brown's election is important. Coupled with the defeat of Proposition 23, which would have rolled back environmental protections, California is now likely to be the backstop that prevents the country from abandoning efforts to produce green technology.

Jerry Brown has long advocated alternative energy and green power. Long before it was popular or fashionable to do so, Brown was a major supported of environmental initiatives. Embracing the label of liberal when others ran from it he was declared dead in the political arena. But Brown did something few politicians have ever done - he put his career on the line and held to his values. Becoming mayor after being a presidential candidate is almost unheard of in American politics, yet that is what Brown did. He became mayor of Oakland and quickly proved himself a capable leader who could get things done. Now he is in a position to effect the entire nation.

Jerry Brown - good to have you back.

Send in the Clowns

In a fit of collective amnesia the American electorate has decided to return to power the very people who created the mess in which we now find ourselves. After spending 30 years busting the bank while pleading fiscal conservatism, Republicans have returned to power after only two short years. How? The clown approach.

Clowns are loud and obnoxious and create a big distraction for the audience while one act leaves the circus and the next gets ready. The clowns serve to keep the crowd from getting bored and noticing what else is going on. Their true selves are hidden by costumes, make-up and general garishness. Now they have taken over the political arena.

Claiming that they will cut the deficit while pushing a tax cut for the wealthy that will increase the national debt by 4 TRILLION dollars, promising smaller government while pushing a social agenda that will have government in everyone's private lives, championing the rights of seniors while attempting to privatize Social Security, the Republican Party and their incoherent allies in the Tea Party have seized the government. This election is a triumph of propaganda and manipulation. Now the clowns will leave the stage and the elephants will stomp all over us all.

Get ready for efforts to roll back every piece of progressive legislation passed in the last 50 years. The government will now belong to corporate interests and the poor will now fund a tax break for the wealthy.

A study conducted at the University of Sheffield in 2008 found that children almost universally fear clowns. It is time to listen to the children.

Criminal Negligence & Reckless Endangerment

Investigators into the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico have uncovered evidence that BP and Halliburton, the company that poured the cement for the well, had knowledge that the cement mixture was unstable. In three of four tests performed by Halliburton on the mixture, it failed. Neither company appeared to have any concerns at the time that these failures might cause problems. Of course, both are now pointing the finger at each other.

Three failures out of four tests. A 75 percent failure rate and both of these corporations decided to risk it. No reasonable individual would dare think of using a product that failed three-quarters of the time. In a situation such as underwater drilling one would think that there would be a need for certainty rather than an expectation of failure.

Gambling that something that has failed 75 percent of the time will work flawlessly defies logic. The legal terms for what happened here are criminal negligence and reckless endangerment. Negligence may be too mild a term for completely ignoring evidence that a system is likely to fail. The workers were more than endangered, eleven of them died.

It is easy to see why Halliburton and BP are pointing their fingers at each other - when reckless endangerment leads to death the charges are manslaughter or murder. Too strong? What do you think would be the result of an individual putting workers on a scaffolding working at their house that collapsed? What do you think would happen in this case if it were shown the homeowner knew the scaffolding was substandard and likely to collapse? The answer is clear. That individual would be prosecuted.

When will corporations be held to the same standards as individuals? Do they only get to claim personhood when they are dumping unlimited cash into elections?

** Halliburton's history of cutting costs at the expense of safety is well documented. Recall that it was Halliburton that managed to electrocute soldiers by cross wiring electrical services into plumbing at bases in Iraq.

Nagoya: Important & Unnoticed

One hundred ninety three (193) nations began meeting today in Nagoya, Japan to address the issue of biodiversity. Following up on the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) negotiated in Rio de Janeiro at the Earth Summit, the task before the attendees is enormous. The goals outlined in the 1992 Convention have remained largely unmet with continued deforestation and an accelerated loss of species. Biodiversity as an issue is largely ignored by the public and political figures. The United States remains one of the few countries that has failed to ratify the 1992 agreement.

Little attention has been given to this meeting. Hopes that the world had begun to recognize the necessity of action to address major environmental concerns appear to have been premature. Last years climate conference in Copenhagen ended without any agreement and momentum seems lost.

As I satirized in my novel, The Dirt People (2007, Blue Throat Press), governmental inaction is largely the by-product of a lack of political will and corporate manipulation (through both lobbying and propaganda). This "fiddling as Rome burns," lack of effort to deal with our environmental problems is often couched in economic terms. The costs of green energy are amplified, the effects of clean ups are exaggerated and the benefits of sustainability are minimized. Meanwhile, phthalates (see yesterday's post) and other toxic chemicals are ubiquitous in our environment, mining disasters continue to occur, oil platforms continue to explode and that giant mass of plastic goo continues to grow in the Pacific.

The lack of effort on a worldwide level to address our expanding environmental destruction is alarming. As China and other nations continue to develop and consume, attempting to emulate the Western world in its consumption and attendant destruction, the future is imperiled. Concern for the wealth of transnational corporations seems to be more important to politicians than the health of the planet and its citizens.

Why is this not the lead story in the news? Why is the environment not the major issue of every election? Why is it that I expect it to get worse?

Only when the last tree has died, when the last river has been poisoned, and the last fish has been caught, only then will you realize that you can't eat money. -Cree saying

Phthalates: The Problem With Plastic

It is becoming increasingly clear that modern life is a health risk. All around, we are surrounded by untested chemicals that have the potential to alter our lives. Reuters News, in a special report by Pete Harrison, has noted that phthalates, the chemicals that make plastic pliable, are particularly suspect as regards health concerns, especially in the case of impaired fertility and reproductive development.

Phthalates are used in a wide variety of products. Just about anything synthetic that needs to be flexible contain the chemicals. Many of these materials are used to make containers for food and likely have entered the bloodstreams of most people alive today. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)has listed four phthalates among its list of 38 chemicals classified as "substances of very high concern," (Harrison, 2010 at http://reuters.com/assets. The four listed phthalates,of course, seem to be those most commonly used.

Phthalates are not our only problem. In addition to the chemicals identified by the ECHA, Greenpeace has assembled a list of 356 suspect chemicals while the European Trade Union Confederation has 334 substances it believes should also be banned. Most of these suspect chemicals serve as building blocks for the materials of modern life.

Are the conveniences of modern life worth our lives?

Freedom of the Press Apparently NOT a Tea Party Value

Joe Miller, the Tea Party candidate for Senate in Alaska, apparently is no fan of the freedom of the press. After refusing to answer questions about his private life on numerous occasions, Miller has seemed surprised that reporters continue to ask him questions. He appears has found a solution to those pesky reporters - he has them "arrested."

According to various news sources, Miller's private security forces detained a reporter for the Alaska Dispatch named Tony Hopfinger. Miller was speaking at a public school in Alaska when Hopfinger repeatedly questioned him. Miller's security guards informed Hopfinger that he was trespassing (an interesting concept at a public place)and then proceeded to "arrest" him by putting handcuffs on him. You will note that I have put arrest in quotes because I am not aware of any authority for private individuals to detain a reporter. Illegal detention of a person is called kidnapping, not arrest. The validity, or lack thereof, of this detainment is best illustrated by the fact that the Anchorage Police let Hopfinger go when they arrived.

It is interesting that a number of the Tea Party candidates have refused to speak to the press. Sharron Angle famously ran from reporters at her own press conference and Rand Paul and Christine O'Donnell seem to speak only to Fox News.

Pay attention - those trumpeting their dedication to freedom and liberty appear to have little respect for these values in practice. I still don't know what the Tea Party is for, but I'm starting to figure out what they are against.