That's the message of Audrey Schulman, writing in Orion Magazine. Her article is entitled, "How to be a Climate Hero." Schulman describes psychology experiments where the subject is surrounded by stooges, everyone in the room doing a mundane task. Eventually, something untoward happens. For instance, smoke starts pouring out of…
The best way to get people to neglect a cause is to dedicate a Special Day to that cause each year. On that one special Day, we will hold thousands festivals where we treat the cause in a trite way and we will ignore that cause the other 364 days. We’re just too busy with our amusements and distractions to give a damn about important things here in America. Earth Day fits the mold perfectly. You would think that at Earth Day festivals, people would take the purpose of Earth Day seriously. You’d think that people would feel the need to make substantial immediate changes in their lives in order to live and procreate in healthy and sustainable ways, leaving the planet in good shape for the following generations of humans and the other animals. 
What could be done on Earth Day? We could talk big. We could make real plans to take the actions suggested by visionaries like Lester Brown, who proposes that we cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2020. It could really be done. Here’s how Brown describes his plan in his book, Plan B 3.0:
First, dramatically and systematically raise the efficiency of the world energy economy; second, massive investment in renewable sources of energy; and third, increase the earth’s tree cover by planting billions of trees.
Really doing something on a big scale could “inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earth’s environment.” But most people aren’t doing anything at all. They …
Tell them what Architecture 2030 says about coal:
Because coal is the only fossil fuel plentiful and supposedly cheap enough to push the planet to 450 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Because reaching 450 ppm (or possibly less) triggers potentially irreversible glacial melt and sea level rise.
Because 53% of Americans live in and around coastal cities and towns and, beginning with just one meter of sea level rise, many of these cities and towns will be inundated.
Scientists are forewarning that at approx. 450 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere, we will trigger potentially irreversible glacial melt and sea level rise “out of humanity’s control.” We are currently at 385 ppm, and are increasing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 at approx. 2 ppm annually. At this growth rate, we will reach 450 ppm in 2035 . . .
In the US, there are over 600 existing coal plants and 151 new coal plants in various stages of development.
Tell them that there is a smarter and better way. And a cleaner way. Tell them that mining coal is not only ugly, it’s dangerous for miners and everyone else.
Tell them to take a close look into a train car full of coal (as I did yesterday) and to ask themselves if coal looks like the fuel of the future.
I thought about coal as I noticed a train loaded with coal go by (I took these photos). I thought about how little most people know …
I read quite a few textbook quotes from this report and I must agree: they are shockingly inaccurate. This book repeatedly pushes the conservative line, even when the facts don't support it--just like the Bush Administration. The existence of this high school textbook is yet more evidence that we are…
“The free market–the invisible hand–will take care of everything.”
I’ve addressed this topic of the free market as alleged panacea several times before. I’ve referred to this blind faith in the market as unsubstantiated. I’ve mockingly referred to the common belief in the wisdom of the invisible hand as a belief in the Fouth Person in the Holy Quartet. Why mock? Because stark shortages of critically important natural resources loom in every direction. And yet we’re in denial. You deny the denial? Then how is it that we tolerate, this year, big U.S. metropolitan areas like Raleigh-Durham and Atlanta had only a few weeks left of their municipal water supplies? We tolerate that we are drawing down unreplenishable water sources throughout the desert southwest. Intelligent civilizations don’t deny such dangers. They consciously deal with their problems.
I’ve just read a well-phrased description of why the modern version of the free market can’t save us from our problems regarding impending shortages of essential natural resources. The following quote is from a new book available free on-line from Population Connection: PLAN B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, by environmental analyist, Lester R. Brown (2008).
…Now with the economy as large as it is, the indirect costs of burning coal—the costs of air pollution, acid rain, devastated ecosystems, and climate change—can exceed the direct costs, those of mining the coal and transporting it to the power plant. As a result of neglecting to account for these indirect costs, the market is undervaluing
