The caption and credit will disappear from Truthout.org soon, so here they are:
Climate activists Lesley Butler and Rob Bell sunbathe on the edge of a fjord in the Norwegian Arctic town of Longyearbyen, in a demonstration to draw attention to global warming.
Awfully good mainstream piece by Thomas Friedman in last Sunday's NYT about leadership through greening. I stole a quote (attributed) to torment my 3rd district CM at the upcoming Q & A.
To me it is. For some, of the charlatan persuasion, patriotism is the enabling mechanism of war against a chosen foe. Rather than consigning young people to their deaths in a fight for control of oil, why not enlist capitalism in a fight to control our use of oil?
If we will curb our rush toward sprawl, we use less oil. If we will reorder our priorities, we use less oil. If we choose to reconnect with nature, we use less oil. If we look for alternatives in lifestyle, in housing, in transportation, in construction, we can use less oil and less of other valuable resources. We can reverse, or at least slow the onslaught of global warming. To the Michael Crighton skeptics I would ask the questions "why do you think we could stand in a room full of increasing amounts of smoke and soot without causing damage to our health? And if we can not stand in the confined space of a room and tolerate such pollution why can we tolerate such pollution in the closed system of our atmosphere?"
Solving environmental problems, far from ushering in economic privation , would bring economic revival as infrastructure is updated to serve the needs of environmental stewardship. Local economies would experience rebirth as people begin again to live in a more circumscribed horizon. This can lead, not to limitations but to deepened personal connections along with beneficial effects on the environment.
Today marked the death of Wally Schirra, one of the original seven astronauts. His rarified experience gave him a wise perspective on our home. He said, "I left Earth three times. I found no place else to go. Please take care of Spaceship Earth." May his journies not have been in vain.
4 comments:
The caption and credit will disappear from Truthout.org soon, so here they are:
Climate activists Lesley Butler and Rob Bell sunbathe on the edge of a fjord in the Norwegian Arctic town of Longyearbyen, in a demonstration to draw attention to global warming.
Photo: Francois Lenoir/Reuters
Awfully good mainstream piece by Thomas Friedman in last Sunday's NYT about leadership through greening. I stole a quote (attributed) to torment my 3rd district CM at the upcoming Q & A.
Green...the red, white, and blue of the 21st Century!?
all4word:
To me it is. For some, of the charlatan persuasion, patriotism is the enabling mechanism of war against a chosen foe. Rather than consigning young people to their deaths in a fight for control of oil, why not enlist capitalism in a fight to control our use of oil?
If we will curb our rush toward sprawl, we use less oil. If we will reorder our priorities, we use less oil. If we choose to reconnect with nature, we use less oil. If we look for alternatives in lifestyle, in housing, in transportation, in construction, we can use less oil and less of other valuable resources. We can reverse, or at least slow the onslaught of global warming. To the Michael Crighton skeptics I would ask the questions "why do you think we could stand in a room full of increasing amounts of smoke and soot without causing damage to our health? And if we can not stand in the confined space of a room and tolerate such pollution why can we tolerate such pollution in the closed system of our atmosphere?"
Solving environmental problems, far from ushering in economic privation , would bring economic revival as infrastructure is updated to serve the needs of environmental stewardship. Local economies would experience rebirth as people begin again to live in a more circumscribed horizon. This can lead, not to limitations but to deepened personal connections along with beneficial effects on the environment.
Today marked the death of Wally Schirra, one of the original seven astronauts. His rarified experience gave him a wise perspective on our home. He said, "I left Earth three times. I found no place else to go. Please take care of Spaceship Earth." May his journies not have been in vain.
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