Kit Stolz

Debunking Two, Two, Two Lies At Once

Environmentalists are often said to be obsessed with "gloom and doom." Nice euphony, but no, environmentalists simply want to save what they can of what’s left of the planet. They’re delighted when they are able to forever preserve some part of the world (as for example, the founder of Esprit recently worked with Chile and Argentina to set aside as an international park an enormous preserve in Patagonia). For another successful effort in this country, check out the chart below.

Besides "gloom and doom," it’s often claimed that environmentalists are monomaniacally fixated on imposing a one-size-fits-all regulation on industry.

In fact, in the last two decades, a potent market-based alternative to simplistic regulation has emerged, championed by open-minded experts eager to make progress in reduction of acid rain, air pollution, and carbon emissions. These experts (from such radical outposts as "The Economist") argue that industry will be better able to reduce emissions of harmful substances, such as oxides of nitrogen and ozone, the chief components of acid rain, with what the EPA calls a "Budget Training Program." Such a program is working in Los Angeles to reduce air pollution, and could work around the world to reduce carbon and methane emissions, under the Kyoto Protocol. Here’s how it’s reducing ozone emissions on the East Coast today, according to the EPA:

Note too that this reduction in acid rain became possible only after Ronald Reagan, who, as Chris Mooney expertly shows in his new book "The Republican War on Science," left the scene. Reagan simply refused to face the issue of acid rain, much as his idolizer George Bush Jr. refuses to face the issue of global warming. But when Reagan’s successor reluctantly allowed the Democratic Congress to modify the Clean Air Act to mandate reductions in nitrogen oxides and in ozone, using a market-based cap-and-trade program, emissions almost immediately began to fall, and have continued to fall ever since, despite growth in population and industrial output.

So, to recap, environmentalists are happy to champion successes, as the EPA did on its site regarding acid rain-causing emissions, and are more than willing to look for flexible alternatives to flat regulations that will work.

If only those on the other side were so willing to talk…

At the Last Minute, 750 Amendments from Mr. Bolton

Just weeks before a long-scheduled United Nations conference on world poverty, the U.S. and Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton have demanded hundreds of fundamental changes to an international agreement years in the making. Here’s the lede from the Washington Post:

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 24 — Less than a month before world leaders arrive in New York for a world summit on poverty and U.N. reform, the Bush administration has thrown the proceedings in turmoil with a call for drastic renegotiation of a draft agreement to be signed by presidents and prime ministers attending the event.

To appeciate the enormity of the monkey-wrenching, you really have to look at the document (available here thanks to Talking Points Memo). Bolton and the U.S. bluntly refuse to co-operate with the United Nations regarding AIDS, debt relief, migration, disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation, the PeaceBuilding Fund, and the universality of human rights, among other issues.

But this blog barely has time to keep with enviro issues, far less international relations. So we’ll confine ourselves to a brief recapitulation of what Bolton did to the language regarding climate change.To better appreciate the vastness of the changes, we’ve translated the deletions into affirmative statements, and put them in capital letters.

"We DO NOT recognize that climate change is a serious and long-term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the world. We DO NOT call for further technological and financial co-operation for the sustainable use and management of natural resources in order to promote sustainable production and consumption pattersn as a means of keeping the balance between the conservation of natural resources and the furtherance of social and economic objectives."

"We therefore WILL NOT resolve to undertake concerted global action to address climate change, including meeting all commitments and obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, the UNPCCC and other relevation international agreements, increase energy efficiency, technological innovation, and to initiate negotiations to develop a more inclusive international framework for climate change beyond 2012, with broader participation by both developing and developed countries, taking into account the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities."

We WILL NOT continue to assist developing countries…in addressing their adaptation needs relating to the adverse affects of climate change…

If there were any doubt whatsoever that the Bush Administration intends to do absolutely nothing about climate change, this has erased it.

A Vicious Rumor…Refuted

A famous barrister (and wonderful writer) named John Mortimer, was recently quoted saying:

"You know, with some people who utter dire threats about global warming, for instance, that they are going to be hostile to smokers, motor cars, jokes about mothers-in-law, school nativity plays, strip shows and the swallowing of live oysters. Equally tedious are those who complain about high taxes and are bound to be in favor of the death penalty, take a tough line on asylum seekers and are hostile to gay weddings…."

Let it be known to all that this writer is quite concerned about global warming, as are many of Mr. Mortimer’s friends and thoughtful neighbors in England, and with good reason…but I also like many smokers, naked women, and oysters. Even a nice "motor car" can be a pleasure, in truth.

Perhaps some environmentalists are sanctimonious prigs, but most of us treasure the life and joy to be found on this planet. That’s why we want to see it continue…

The Sad Guardian of the Carrizo Plain

One of the many lies spread about environmentalists is that they want to save wild lands, endangered species, and natural beauty because they want it exclusively for themselves. In truth, environmentalists care about these irreplaceable gifts because they care about the world around them, perhaps more than themselves. A powerful example of this can be seen in the recent suicide of Marlene Braun, the Bureau of Land Management official in charge of the Carizzo Plain, as eloquently reported by Julie Cart and Maria La Ganga in today’s L.A. Times.

"I can’t face what appears to be required to continue to live in my world," the meticulous 46-year-old wrote in May in a suicide note. "Most of all, I cannot leave Carrizo, a place where I finally found a home and a place I love dearly."

The Carrizo Plain is one of the very few native grasslands of any size remaining in the state of California, described best by John Muir in his astonishingly beautiful "Bee Pastures." (Here’s just one sentence from that classic essay: "The Great Central Plain of California, during the months of March, April, and May, was one smooth continuous bed of honey bloom, so marvelously rich that, in walking from one end of it to another, a distance of more than four hundred miles, your foot would press about a hundred flowers at every step.")

In l996, the BLM legally promised to preserve the native grasses, Native American rock art, and other easily-lost treasures of the Carrizo. But the relentlessly mercenary Bush administration wants more grazing, regardless of the havoc it causes, and regardless of anything agreed-upon by a previous administration. Even though some cattlemen supported Braun’s efforts to protect delicate lands in the Carrizo, such as the river bottom, others insisted that her annual rulings allowing or disallowing grazing–based on surveys of the land at the beginning of the year–made it impossible to profitably raise cattle in the area. Her new boss in Bakersfield supported the ranchers, making it impossible to do the job she was obligated to do. So she killed herself.

If you’ve ever suffered from depression, and ever studied the condition, you know it is not a rational act, but an outburst, an act of anger, which can be seen in the fact that she killed her dogs before she killed herself. A crueler person might have targeted her boss instead of herself. But as Vaclav Havel once said, regarding people he knew who killed themselves rather than live under the stultifying grip of Communist USSR, it’s also an expression of the value of life. In "Disturbing the Peace," he wrote:

I have never been able to condemn suicides; instead, I tend to respect them, not only for the undoubted courage needed to commit suicide, but also because suicides place the value of life very high: they think that life is too precious a thing to permit its devaluation by living pointlessly, emptily, without meaning, without love, without hope. Sometimes I wonder if suicides aren’t in fact sad guardians of the meaning of life.

Let’s give Marlene Braun’s life meaning by acting to save the Carrizo Plain. Tell the Bureau of Land Management what you think: (202) 452-5125.

Our Newfound Connection with Nature

"With its endless supply of photographs and video clips, the media has become an intermediary with nearly unlimited control over our relationship with the environment. After the Valdez spill, images of suffocating otters broadcast on 60 Minutes moved millions of consumers to boycott Exxon. The tale of global warming is told through meditative shots of belching smokestacks against a menacing red sunset. In magazine after magazine, apocalyptic photos of fire, famine and flood transformed El Nino from a natural weather phenomenon to a preview of the apocalypse. The currency of our newfound connection with nature is not the hunter’s trophy but the camera’s image."

Dan Keane, from an essay on modern-day butterfly collecting, called "Butterflies, Beer Cans, and the "Peril Inherent," published in the Winter 2005 edition of ISLE (Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment).

Arnold Defies Repubs, Stands with Farmworkers

California governor Arnold Schwarzenneger on Tuesday issued emergency orders to protect farmworkers from heatstroke. The rules, to take effect in two weeks, will give farmworkers the right to time in the shade if they report symptoms of heatstroke.

Three things about this are striking. First, that Schwarzenneger appeared with farmworkers, including the family of heatstroke victim, and said these simple protections are overdue. Second, that these orders parallel a Democratic effort in the Legislature that was opposed by every single Republican. But most striking of all is what the Governor said about heatstroke:

"I’ve gone through all this when I was in Mexico doing a movie, ‘Predator." I had no idea. I experienced headaches. I was throwing up, diarrhea, cramps, all of those things. I thought I had maybe caught a bug. The reality was I had to stay in bed for six days … all because I did not know the symptoms."

Let’s give Schwarzenneger some credit for doing what he can to save farmworkers from dying of the heat.

How to Lead and How to Mislead

According to the Financial Times, the US and Australia will on Thursday announce a plan they say will reduce the escalating emissions of greenhouse gases.

As part of the as-yet-unnamed scheme, they will offer Asian nations China, India, and South Korea new technologies to reduce their emissions as well, early reports say.

The White House suggests the deal "goes beyond" the infamous Kyoto Protocol, even though the Kyoto Protocol called for substantial reduction in the emission of six gases, and, according to the Financial Times: "The partnership does not set any new targets for greenhouse gas emissions, or involve specific commitments on the transfer of technology from the US to developing countries."

It’s "largely symbolic," according to The Australia. The Financial Times and Reuters quote enviros who say this deal is an end run around Kyoto-style caps designed to reduce total emissions.

Jennifer Morgan, head of the World Wildlife Fund’s climate change program, said that "A deal on climate change that doesn’t limit pollution is the same as a peace plan that allows guns to be fired."

This post will not attempt to debate the merits of the plan, but will point out how differently the allied governments of Australia and the United States came to their publics with this plan.

In Australia today , the government released to the public an alarming report on the likely effects of global warming in that country.

A Federal Government study says Australia should expect higher temperatures, more droughts and severe storms. Temperatures could rise by up to 6C by 2070, affecting native plants and animals, damaging urban areas and threatening agriculture.

By contrast, the White House-neutered Environmental Protection Agency "made an 11th-hour decision Tuesday to delay the planned release of an annual report on fuel economy," according to a story in Thursday’s New York Times. Why? Maybe because:

The contents of the report show that loopholes in American fuel economy regulations have allowed automakers to produce cars and trucks that are significantly less fuel-efficient, on average, than they were in the late 1980’s.

Releasing the report this week would have been inopportune for the Bush administration, its critics said, because it would have come on the eve of a final vote in Congress on energy legislation six years in the making. The bill, as it stands, largely ignores auto mileage regulations.

Even if we don’t agree with Canberra’s involvement in this plan, we can respect them for leveling with their people. Under the Bush administration, by contrast, Washington does everything possible to mislead its public on this issue. More business as usual?

George W. Bush’s Top Ten Solutions for Global Warming

10) NASA MISSION TO TURN DOWN THE SUN’S THERMOSTAT
9) FEDERAL SUBSIDIES TO BOOST PRODUCTION OF COOL RANCH DORITOS
8) FAST TRACK RUMSFELD’S "COLONIZE NEPTUNE" PROPOSAL
7) CONVENE BLUE-RIBBON COMMITTEE TO EXPLORE INNOVATIVE WAYS OF IGNORING THE PROBLEM
6)    LET HILLARY WORRY ABOUT IT WHEN SHE TAKES OVER
5)    I DUNNO–TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH?
4)    GIVE THE BOYS AT HALLIBURTON $90-BILLION CONTRACT TO PATCH HOLE IN OZONE
3)    SWITCH TO CELSIUS SO SCORCHING 98 DEGREES BECOMES FROSTY 37
2)    KEEP PLENTY OF BUD ON ICE
1)    INVADE ANTARCTICA

from David Letterman and his writers–7/25/05

The Energy Appliance

National Geographic is not the magazine it used to be–it’s better. At least when it comes to reporting on natural resource issues, no other magazine can blend the personal, the photographic, and the graphic as well. In this month’s issue, in a warmly-written and highly informative story called "Powering the Future," can be found this exciting new idea:

"…in Flagstaff, Arizona, Southwest Windpower makes turbines with blades you can pick up in one hand. The company has sold about 60,000 of the little turbines, most of them for off-grid homes, sailboats, and remote sites like lighthouses and weather stations. At 400 watts apiece they can’t power more than a few lights.

But David Calley, Southwest’s president, whose father built his first wind turbine out of washing machine parts, is testing a new product he calls an energy appliance. It will stand on a tower as tall as a telephone pole, produce up to two kilowatts in a moderate wind, and come with all the electronics needed to plug it into the house.

Many U.S. utilities are required to pay for power that individuals put back into the grid, so anyone in a relatively breezy place could pop up the energy appliance in the yard, use the power when it’s needed, and feed it back into the grid when it’s not. Except for the heavy loads of heating and air-conditioning, this setup could reduce a home’s annual power bill to near zero. If, as Calley hopes, he can ultimately sell the energy appliance for under $3,000, it would pay for itself with energy savings within a few years.

Line of the Week

Speaking of the escalating chaos in Iraq, James Wolcott wonders when the spinmeisters will awake to the obvious, and pointedly asks:

…will it be like global warming, which Russert, Stephanopolous, Chris Wallace, and the rest ignore altogether, as if waiting for heatstroke deaths to dot the capital lawns before acknowledging something momentous is happening. They’re still waiting for the memo that’ll verify what any fool can see.