The Democrats Abandon the Environment
OPS_admin | Jul 16, 2009 | Comments 0
The Democrats Abandon the Environment
by Shamus Cooke
“As a banker, I also welcome the fact that the ‘cap-and-trade’ system is becoming the dominant methodology for [carbon dioxide] control.”Simon Linnett, Executive Vice Chairman of Rothschild Bank.
Can the looming environmental catastrophe be solved by environmentalists working side by side with Wall Street Bankers? Such a question doesn’t deserve a serious answer. The Democrats, however, are attempting to address the issue of global warming by developing a “partnership” between those who love the earth, and those who love only profits.
Such a marriage must surely end in divorce. But the Obama administration is enjoying maximum political gain from the blissful honeymoon period, while in reality the honest environmentalists have already left in disgust, even those previously committed to supporting the Democrats: Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Public Citizen, etc. They rightfully feel betrayed and point to the Democrats’ “Cap-and-Trade” environmental bill as proof the same bill that Obama and the media claim to be a “historic” step forward.
Cap-and-Trade is itself an absurdity of logic, for it assumes that the economic mechanisms responsible for the destruction of the environment, capitalism, should be the centerpiece of any potential solution. Any solution to global warming that isn’t market-based (capitalistic) has been explicitly rejected by the two-party system.
But this immediately presents a new problem: how to create a “profitable market” out of pollution reduction? Such a question can only expect blank stares in return, but the titans of Wall Street are well known for sleight of hand tricks that conjure up billions.
via The Democrats Abandon the Environment.
Filed Under: Environment
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If we don't change our ways soon...
A new report by the Royal Society, chaired by Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston warns that world population must be stabilized and consumption in wealthy nations must be reduced or the entire planet is in big trouble. As the report reads: "The number of people living on the planet has never been higher, their levels of consumption are unprecedented and vast changes are taking place in the environment. We can choose to rebalance the use of resources to a more egalitarian pattern of consumption... or we can choose to do nothing and to drift into a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future."This is the same warning that President Jimmy Carter gave Americans back in the 1970's - but it was ignored when Ronald Reagan came to power with a "more positive" message basically telling Americans we can do whatever we want. And then after 9/11 - Bush told us all we should go shopping and consume ever more.And now with corporations calling the shots in Washington - long-term sustainability of the planet takes a back seat to short-term profits. If we don't change our ways soon - and embrace clean, alternative energy and educate women around the plant - then we all could be headed for a rough century.-Thom(Is there any chance we will learn in time? Tell us here.) -
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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. 
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