I do not mind sacrificing to save the planet. My situation limits the things I can do, though. I am on a fixed income. I can’t afford a new car, much less an electric car. I drive a 2005 Toyota Highlander which I purchased new in April of 2005. I plan to drive it until I am no longer able to drive. I am only able to drive in my small rural town in Virginia due to a sleep disorder. If I need to see one of my doctors 30 minutes away, I have a family member or friend drive me in my car. I also can’t afford to get solar panels. I live paycheck to paycheck. I do recycle everything that I can. I keep the house cooler than most people in winter, but I do keep my house cooler in summer than most. My senior dog and I can’t tolerate the summer heat. I would like to do more to help combat climate change, though.
There are many like you, Virginia, who can't be expected to sacrifice much more. In fact, the nation should be making it easier for you to afford many things. We are, after all, the richest nation in the history of the world, and we can easily ensure that every American lives a minimally decent life. But there are many Americans who aren't sacrificing. They believe they have a right to use as much energy as they want. These are the people I'm talking about.
You have clearly disclosed the problem. Many people in the world not just Americans believe they have a God given right to use or do whatever they want. We have created several generations that are ruled by selfishness. Sharing, to them, is considered socialism. The majority have no idea what socialism really is. Although pollution and its ramification are serious, what is occurring in Ukraine is much more important. Why? Because people are dying NOW. What is happing in Ukraine will raise its head again somewhere else on this Earth. China may decide to invade Tiwan, or any other country it wants. The world thought that what happened in the second world war could not ever happen again. Now here we are again! Man is capable of evil. Fear should not stop us from reacting to evil and making sure that it does not continue happening again. Putin is not the only powerful evil man on Earth. There are others waiting on the side lines, while others are in the developing stage for the future. This is not being pessimistic but rather pragmatic. I hope our leadership will not allow Ukraine to be taken over by Russia. Can we imagine if President Kennedy had not stood up to the Russians in Cuba?
This ol' gal, who remembers the McCarthy era, suggests that our national enemies are most of the Republicans who have wormed their way to almost complete power by way of the organized takeover plan they have been working since the 1930s. Read Jeff Sharlett books on the topic. He has it down to a timeline beginning about 1930. (My copies with exact info are lost in the stacks of book boxes a house move engenders). If wingers have not collected and scrapped/burned all his books yet). Robert prolly know Jeff personally, is my bet....
IMO, the Rethuglican Party no doubt has behind the scenes direct links to worldwide dictators. IMO Timing of the Ukraine invasion is no accident. They expected our real President---Biden--would fold like the proverbial house of cards, seeing as he hardly has had time to get all his dept appointees confirmed and in place in the halls of power.
He looks pretty frail, too. They forget that he remembers back a long way, still has functioning brain and conscience, and knows to keep faithful-to-America experienced people on speed dial.
Without big-time, big power weaponry ,the Ukraine looked like an easy target to use to both weaken Biden and extend their kingdom.
By now, Putin is prolly sweating bullets. Photos indicate he feels threatened from within, so cannot depend on his first line advisors (who have not had good judgement in so many areas, so far). Nor--one would expect--does he trust them not to take hm out. He won't even sit near them in the photos of meetings that I see. I suspect he thinks of the revolt of Hitler's ppl and imagines hs own would do him, but with something other than a loaded briefcase . In these days, weapons are so tiny and electronic that the sweepers in the building might miss a little-bitty bomb.
Okay, that's my rant for today. Read Sharlett's books to get a good picture of the plan, the men, and the situations that could bring the country down to a dictatorship. Think Madison Cawthorn...what kind of people think he has any true value in govt? Think the guys who grilled Jackson....how much thicker could they have plastered on the disgusting propaganda.?
Robert, I think you and everyone else here should take a look at this. Indoctrination of 4 & 5yr old children. There is an old religious line that says “bring up a child in the way he should go and when his old he will not depart from it”. Lenin used the phrase “give me 4 years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted. “ This frighting video might be a good reason to be more involved in what you kids are learning in school. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXJhtC45Y7c
I wonder if he considered lack of conscience before making that statement. Im betting most, if not all, of those plotting to take over America have legislated themselves more money than the average American. Who knew those who write tax laws are those who aso have the mo$t and see everybody else as useless drones, ready to be plucked?
I see the issue there, drones are not useless if they enrich the "right" people.
Oops another rant coming on. Why do we keep calling the wrongers the "right." That drills down to the uneducated brain as actually being right--about everything. Betcha. Time to call them something else.
These days, safer in some places to register as Rethug, then vote democratic. I worked the polls a season and trusted those I worked with to be HONEST. After the past few elections, in my world, honesty is no longer a given, anywhere in America. With only a few exceptions.
The things most of us are able to do are helpful but at too small a scale. Subsidies for household fixes might help but COVID has been so expensive that the government has to take some time to recover. My County Exec wants to build an aquarium with pandemic funds, but it might be better spent on local subsidies. I like aquariums but its not high on my priority list right now. But he is so excited about his plans he will most likely get his way.
Thank you....we need to vote for people that want to govern, want to solve problems and can think more than 2 or 3 weeks into the future. The burden seems to have shifted on us and we aren't the ones having the greatest impact. The media keeps perpetuating this view.
Our Electrical utilities do not want us to install solar or wind power on our own property. Cities charge electrical permit fees on new solar panels each time you want to first install or add additional panels. The utilities limit how much you can install and connect to the grid and charge fees to make the connections each time you wish to add more. Many utilities want to charge monthly fees (tax on the Sun) of $5.00 to 8.00 per kilo watt hour of installed solar panels and only pay 3 cents for electricity that costs the homeowner 10 to 16 cents to produce.
All these fees stop if you install your solar panels off-grid. By not connecting to the grid and keeping the voltage below 50 volts, you can bypass permit fees, utility connection fees and monthly fees. But this does not allow you to share the electricity with your fellow human beings to fight fossil fuels collectively. When future prospective home rooftop solar prospective buyers were shown the fees and costs being proposed by the utilities, 95% said they would not install the solar on their homes.
I have solar because I saw the movie "An inconvenient Truth" and I wanted to do my part to take my home off fossil fuels. It is not easy and took me 15 years to build the system that replaces both utility electricity and natural gas with solar power. Today, many solar panel companies can build these systems for you, but the utilities do not want to allow you to connect, to the grid, a system that is large enough to do what I have done off-grid. With 15,000-watt maximums and no larger than 115% the Electrical usage you used the previous year, how can you replace the natural gas furnaces or hot water heater with electrical ones?
In a perfect world, where everyone is trying to curb fossil fuels, we could install solar on every roof, residential, commercial and industrial plus parking lot covers and keep the power production close to the customers. This is what Thomas Edison envisioned in DC electrical power. Utilities today, use fossil fuels to generate AC power hundreds of miles away at super high voltages for transmission then step the voltage down, through transformers, to the electrical voltage and power that consumers need. This system took 125 years to build out and now we want to change it all out in 25 to 30 years. A complete re-design of our distribution and transmission system that includes batteries for grid sized electrical storage is going to cost billions of dollars and that will be either done by the government through tax revenue or by utilities through higher electrical rates.
So as much as I want to see the transition, it will not happen over the next 3 month to compensate for the crisis in Ukraine. It will have to be done by individuals on their own homes and businesses to create the power they need and that could be done over the next 24 months if people are willing to put in their own solar panel systems with batteries now. If the demand is there, the solar industry can do the job, build the panels and battery systems and put Americans to work. This is our only choice, at this time, to make a difference to stop Wars for oil and natural Gas.
The law should require electric utilities to take as much energy from solar panels as individuals are willing and able to install, and pay individuals for that extra energy.
I am lucky to live in a state that allowed us to install solar panels and the energy that we do not use goes back to the grid and we are credited on our bill for it.
Yes, and we’re having a battle over that in California right now. The Public Utilities Commission wanted to do away with net metering and other incentives to install rooftop solar. We managed to win the skirmish for now but I’m absolutely sure they’re going to try again.
@Edward. This is the discussion that people need to hear - converting to renewable power is NOT the responsibility of individuals, not even homeowners. Putting responsibility on the homeowners is just a guilt trip. Damn Joe Manchin, we need congressional action on a renewable energy infrastructure!
NAILED IT! You are absolutely right...........sadly with the present leadership in Congress....good luck with that. After watching the reprehensible, unforgivable behavior of the GOP in yesterday's KBJ hearings, IN FRONT OF HER CHILDREN and her amazing parents and husband....I have no hope that we have anyone in Congress with the decency to do what we, you, me and others know should be done now.
@Claire. Thank you for that support. But keep in mind Democrats, along with progressives, blue dogs, grudging ex-trump supporters and sensible independents are a majority population in this country, temporarily a majority in Congress, and in line with long term trends towards increasing justice in the world. If we can just get out the vote...
Absolutely. We are so upset by all the GOP gerrymandering and voter targeted voter restriction laws, but, how many millions of voters are disenfranchised every presidential election by living in a state where the mainstream political color (red or blue) is the opposite of their own?
Thank you for this Benjamin. Of course too, you are right about the majority of people in this country, it is not the extremist GOP base. Admittedly I am worried sick about our ability to vote our way out of this but I appreciate and take to heart your optimism and realism of the situation. Thank you.
We have voted strongly against tRump in the last 2 elections. We need to get rid of the filibuster and support recalls on Governors in red states like Fla and Texas! The intense weather disasters may get their attention too!
We signed a contract with a company that lasts 20 years. It was the only way to get solar for us. All we needed was a good roof and decent credit rating. That was in 2016. No regrets.
We have a twenty-year contract too. It’s funny. For a while when the electricity would go off we were the only ones in the neighborhood with light. Now a couple of other people have panels too but we’re the only ones with batteries. Considering how Southern California Edison keeps turning the power off every time the wind blows you’d think people would be racing to install the things but I guess they’d rather swelter.
Batteries were very expensive when we had our panels installed. We were on our own to buy the batteries, which, at the time were on backorder for a long time. Could not afford them anyway. $3000 to $5,000 depending on the size.
Yes, and we went through hassles with Edison for five months before they would let us activate the panels. We did, however, get a huge tax break. Obviously not everyone can do this but where I live a lot of people could. They just don’t for whatever reason.
@Edward & @Benjamin: Rooftop solar is plentiful throughout Israel as a matter of national security. And, Earth Day is approaching quickly.
(Regardless of Russia and its tsars..., and adding to Infrastructure Mayor Pete's team...) Perhaps we need the former Cleveland Mayor Kucinich (who took on its utilities!*) as an energy czar empowered by Biden to enable rooftop solar, despite the large utilities' greed
(*... and who was squeezed out of Congress by radical GOP gerrymandering along the beaches of Lake Erie)
This is my main reasoning for weening ourselves from fossil fuels - national economic security. Otherwise, we'll be continually vulnerable to economic blackmail by the cartels and other actors, like Russia - as well as political blackmail at the gas pump by domestic refiners! Less pollution is just a bonus, in my thinking.
(I can't take credit for these. I get emails from a group that pushed my & RR's alma mater to divest of fossil fuels. Yesterday, some folks circulated these links:)
RR recently wrote from his Inequality Media platform:
Trump-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is at it again.
Despite the recent victory passing the Postal Service Reform Act which repeals unnecessary expenses designed to bankrupt USPS and requires six-day-a-week delivery service, our work to save the USPS from the failed leadership of Louis DeJoy is not over.
Here’s the latest development: The Postal Service finalized plans in February to purchase up to 148,000 new mail delivery trucks from Oshkosh Defense. More than 90% of these trucks would be powered by gasoline fueled combustion engines expected to get 8 miles per gallon.
To make it worse, the Wisconsin company immediately moved production to South Carolina so they could build the trucks with non-union workers. And that’s not even the worst of it. It has been widely documented that frontline Black and brown communities bear the brunt of pollution from heavy trucks with combustion engines.
The good news is we can stop Louis DeJoy from implementing this plan. Rep. Gerry Connolly’s new bill, the Green Postal Service Fleet Act of 2022, blocks DeJoy’s bad deal. The contract can’t go forward unless the fleet is made up of at least 75 percent electric vehicles. The bill already has 68 co-sponsors.
It’s time to get every member of Congress in the House and Senate on board and pass the bill before a single vehicle rolls off the assembly line. Send a direct message to your members of Congress and demand they Block DeJoy’s Bad Deal! The USPS contract must require at least 75% electric trucks.
Well, as USPS workers, vote-by-mail voters and all (non-vote-by-mail sabateur) folks who use the USPS would say "De"-Dejoying USPS actually INCREASES the joy. So, should the campaign cheer be something like: Rejoice & Enjoy USPS by De-Dejoying USPS?
Benjamin ; I have noticed that and it fits him! We should drum up action to have the postal service offer banking, too! Maybe people can get a co-operative type bank and earn interest on savings for a change!
How about the obvious for a postal service: a secure, insured, encrypted email delivery system featuring guaranteed delivery, while coming under the jurisdiction of the Postal Inspection Service, at a monthly subscription price of - say - $5-$10? It could include all kinds of delivery features that could be designed for the enterprise market. For example, how about providing a feature for sending encrypted billing and invoicing that avoids the kind of paper billing, that potentially ends up in the hands of trash-divers, thus making the recipient increasingly vulnerable to identity fraud and theft.
The flip side is that hacking is so common. things can be changed. There are some things, like votes that we should be able to have a hard copy of, like in some other countries.
Mitch ; I just gave a second time and sent messages to my representatives and senators to vote yes on this bill to require that a minimum of 75% of vehicles used by the postal service be electric. If they can be produced by union workers that would be a plus! Thanks for the link! Down with Dejoy and his bad deal too!
Environmental NGOs like Waterkeeper Alliance and Earthjustice fight utilities over pollution from their toxic waste. (Obviously they have quite a battle due to partisan QOP court appointees!)
Also, TX had such a large energy grid fiasco that "patriots" like Sen Cruz had to flee to Mexico, despite all its "narco-terrorists" and "rapists"
The Biden administration needs to offer utilities settlement options that heavily depend on QUICKLY facilitating decentralized rooftop solar, battery storage and other support for renewable energy
btw - another RR connection is that Biden's Energy Sec'y Granholm is a former recent faculty colleague at Cal. Sure, I know some substack readers might point out that her skill set is different than former Energy Sec'y Perry. However, she might be able to do something beneficial
I sold my 14-year-old car last summer because I needed to pay off emergency dental surgery. I did it without a pause for I, too, live on a fixed income. Medicare, as all seniors know, does not cover dental. My supplemental insurance is linked to whatever Medicare does. My carbon footprint became smaller. I can't just jump in the car every day now to pick up extra items I forgot about, or just go for a drive, et cetera. I've saved money and I plan my need for rides carefully. I don't suggest this as a solution, but I walk more, spend less, and am healthier. There is much more we can do, though, then sell our cars or convert to electric if we cannot afford it. How much hot water do we use? How fully and freely does water run from our faucets? How many items in our home are left plugged in and/or charging all the time? And, how do we eat? How frequently do we consume beef and other meats? An awareness of our consumption patterns, where we can be mindful of overuse and waste in these simple matters can help our climate. Yes, we have to reduce consumption overall. However, we keep selling and eating those burgers for which rain forests that help sustain this planet have been leveled for cattle. Rachel Carson wrote about this in her 1950s book, "The Silent Spring." John Robbins (the Baskin Robbins heir who forfeited his inheritance) presented a few decades after Carson in his book, "Diet for a New America" startling facts about the negative effects on our planet, our climate, our bodies, that factory farming and animal consumption cause. More books followed. I believe there are many things each of us can "sacrifice" every day that will contribute to a better climate and less dependence on toxic things, destroying our climate, our Mother Earth.
Lee Ann. I am so glad you wrote what "REAL Americans" are facing every single day. Since "The Silent Spring" book of 1950s' Americans have not made much progress. There are fast food places opening up every single day not only in America but across the world. More people are dying due to poor diet, pesticides and chemicals in our food and water in the USA. As far as selling your car to pay for dental because Medicare does not cover we also recently paid $25,000 for dental surgery for my husband. When your teeth need maintenance as you age remind people Medicare does not cover. Insane. But true. Thanks for being real. Sending you hugs from Arizona.
Thank you, Cecelia! And thanks for adding the issue of chemicals and pesticides. I am unable to grow my own food and cannot afford the grass-fed meat et al. I wish I could because food no longer tastes real to me. I think of ALL the digestive issues people suffer from, too. I am sorry to hear about the $25K for your husband's dental surgery. This must change. Locally, I am attempting to form a "consumer" advocacy group for seniors. Too many have no computers, are very poor, so they cannot research where they can get help for various needs hitting them quite hard with both heating and food costs off the radar yet essential but unaffordable. A different subject for another time. I will take your hugs from Arizona and am working on a targeted letter campaign in Arizona through VoteFwd.org to be sent in October before the midterm elections. Here are my hugs to you 🤗💜 ~
Republicans don’t serve, or care, about the Common Good. Republicans care about Money and Power. Their leadership aspires to be a White Christian Nationalist authoritarian regime, with a few token people of color to suggest a veneer of diversity. Their donor base, including Big Dirty Hydrocarbons, demands fealty, not thoughtful planet-saving leadership. The Market, meaning our individual choice of green tech, such as electric vehicles, is the only thing that influences them……follow the money. Our votes, and our thoughtful choices, even if it means a form of personal sacrifice, are the only things that will advance the Common Good.
I agree with you, as I almost always do. I enjoy reading your viewpoint on things and hope that this Administration listens to you because you really understand the issues, including this one. I do understand that it's all about retaining the vote, but people need to understand that we are sinking fast and need to bite the bullet and make some sacrifices.
Remember after 9/11 when Americans were eager to know what they could do for their country? George W. Bush said "consume." I think he missed a huge opportunity. He could have asked for all kinds of things that would have reenforced our sense of being in it together -- not just conserving energy but paying taxes in full, volunteering at local shelters and soup kitchens, contributing to your local schools or run for school board, and so on. Americans responded to JFK's "ask not" call because they want to be part of a nation that asks for mutual sacrifice and continues to believe in a common good.
If the goal is to foster some sense of solidarity, then ok. However, to actually address the issue, I feel like the call for sacrifice should be on the handful of corporations who consume the most energy and produce the most emissions. Calling on individuals to sacrifice shields corporations from their responsibility, which a more cynical person might guess is part of corporations' marketing strategy.
I'd advocate for a carbon tax, but that's tough given that corporations own Congress and the courts. Perhaps more realistic is an incentive-based law that provides money to companies to transition. Outside of that, there's shaming of some sort, either from the outside (consumers or the Bully Pulpit) or employees inside the corporation.
It seems obvious that one solution is to lessen our depends on fossil fuels. Concentrating on clean energy solutions -- just like we did to find a vaccine for covid -- could make a significant difference both in the cost to the consumer and the health of our planet.
If only we could all pull together on the energy solutions. As long as some are profiting 'obscenely', it's an uphill battle. Yes, climate destruction is obscene! and lethal!
A couple of comments about why the sense of urgency regarding our continuing rise in greenhouse gases and political inability to take the very urgent steps which are necessary to avoid planetary catastrophe:
The CO2 we spew into our atmosphere today will largely be present for beyond 2000 years. It must be dissolved in our oceans and then incorporated into shells of tiny marine life...to eventually fall to the bottom of the ocean and over thousands of years turn to rock. It is "baked in". So if we turned off every source of greenhouse gas in the world TODAY the greenhouse gases worldwide would keep rising inexorably for the next 50 years. We have no effective way to stop that process, so Greta Thunberg and so many others are waving their hands and shouting for urgent action. A dire situation.
Now add the habitat destruction ongoing, and the sixth mass extinction (Bolsonaro in Brazil encouraging deforestation within the Amazon, sometimes described as the "Lungs of the Earth" and each year the situation gets far worse. The fossil fuel industry has known all of this for 4 decades but continued to spread disinformation and denying the truth. And our politicians continue to subsidize that industry with billions of dollars annually. Sad. The Common Good is ignored.
Hi, Ray. As per my comment to Robert Reich above, I have found a way of life and a mission which brings carbon out of the atmosphere and prevents it and other greenhouse gasses from going into it- growing native plants and healthy food with more natural methods and helping others to do so. Please check out Wild Ones Native Plants, Natural Landscapes (wildones.org). Start a seedling chapter if there are none in your area. It's easy and so fulfilling! Ed Wrenn, Western PA Area chapter co-founder. Feel free to email us at wildoneswpa@gmail.com.
I am in the fourth year of forming our yard into a place for nature. Very rewarding and gives me a focus and respite from a disappointing time in our country and the world.
So glad to hear! Where roughly do you live if you don't mind saying? To me, effective overall change comes largely from individuals starting with themselves then gong big with it.
North Carolina. Just left behind a very successful transformation of hosta and daylilly yard to native plants .....and areas of grass left to grow. Transformed to many more insects and birds it was hard to leave and move on to NC from Virginia. Starting over I am ripping out all of the mostly non native plants and replacing with pollinator favorites. I impatiently await blooms and the slow growth of first year plants. Check out https://homegrownnationalpark.org. Also Doug Tallamy's books on bringing nature back. Also Margaret Roach. At age seventy five I wish for another decade of gardening as there is so much I want to finish. Same with politics although I feel far less in control with game. In regard to politics it is an activity that destroys my soul. I donate and vote dem although without satisfaction. As many have said we need DOJ action and now. The clock is running out.
We have very much in common, Frank. Please email wildoneswpa@gmailcom which will get to me and a very few of our other chapter leaders. I have deep connections in NC. My mother is from Clinton and now lives in Greensboro as does my brother. I went to Chapel Hill for med school, etc. I am very inspired by Doug Tallamy and have recently had an email exchange with Margaret Roach. I am engaged in politics but find it very frustrating. Native plants are much more joyful! The only Wild Ones chapter in NC is in the West. You would be great as a member if in this area or in founding a seedling if not. It is easy to do this and relatively easy to grow it. We have over 150 paid members in less than 8 months. "Healing the earth one yard at a time" is our motto.
Wonderful ideas, Ed. I would be especially interested in gardening in drought areas. We redid our yard a few years ago with that in mind but we could still do more. California is so low on water that you have to think carefully how to grow anything these days.
Thanks. Big steel will not return to most of the US. I am a New Castle native. Virtually no manufacturing, mining and no middle class remain in most of Pennsyltucky, which has virtually unlimited agricultural potential. Much of Appalachia was devastated by chestnut blight. May a Charlie Chestnut in the vein of Johnny Appleseed bring back the flora and fauna to restore a weak economy.
Ed. Thanks for your update. I like your organization mission: Healing the Earth one yard at a time. Unfortunately if people don't have a lot of money they can't afford to by seeds or pay for water. I live in Arizona and our water bill is charged by usage. The more we use the more we are charged. We are trying to grow vegetation that does not use a lot of water.
There is a new (seedling) chapter based in Kingman Arizona. Most resources and participation are free. Low income/student annual memberships are $25. They could use your participation. There is also the opportunity to start a seedling if you don't live near there. More info at wildones.org. There is also the AZ Native Plant Society. I belong to both Wild Ones and the PA Native Plant Society. Seed and plant sharing can make native plants free. Ones in Arizona would tend to require little or no water once established. Good on you for growing food.
You know, I’ve been thinking about this kind if thing for some time, Ed. In the seventies everyone grew plants. Even I with my brown thumb did it. Surely that could help and it’s pretty too.
An elderly couple in Mankato, MN began transforming their yard toward what you described. Neighbors were outraged. Ordinances were invoked and enforced. Lawyers were hired. Newspaper articles were written. Court cases were filed. A compromise was eventually reached that allowed the couple a little naturalism, but not too much.
I live in a nearby city where ordinances require grass lawns, and the city will come and mow it if you let it get too long, and they will bill you for it.
That’s ridiculous. How is it their business? Our hoa has to approve landscaping but I suspect they would be reasonable considering the state of things. Surely those ordinances are passé and can be changed. BTW, there are always house plants, which no ordinances can touch.
Hi, all. I think that there are a lot of fighters for reasonable policy in this group. Wild Ones was inspired by Lorrie Otto (as per the link below), "the Godmother of Natural Landscaping", who died in 2010. She began to get this title after her municipality mowed down native plants in her yard without her permission. Wild ones (wildones.org) has "wild lawyers" to help people with legal pushback. Wild ones are so beneficial that they are worth fighting for. For one thing, almost all birds feed their young with insects which depend on native plants. That's why I say "Native plants are for the birds!"
Yes! We have an opportunity now to unite for our world and for freedom and democracy in Ukraine and in many other nations. By reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and using new and emerging clean energy technologies, we will be sacrificing but also providing a better more sustainable way forward for all. The facts of the matter are that the world will eventually run short of oil and gas and there will be no way of sustaining energy based on such fuels. Do we want to keep going and keep destroying our planet or do we want to use the new technologies and systems to provide the power we all need? The disastrous turn-of-events in Ukraine has been both catastrophic and heartening: catastrophic in terms of the unnecessary loss of life, the plight of people forced to flee their homes, and the destruction of entire cities and towns; heartening because of the willingness of the Ukrainians to mount such a valiant and courageous defense of their nation and the unity such an example has created in Europe and the United States. This is a golden opportunity to create a better world for many people in Ukraine and throughout Europe, maybe even in Russia, and we would do well to fill our plates to heaping and partner together for a better future.
We were listening to Greta Thunberg a couple of years ago say that the best thing any individual can do for the climate is to give up meat. So we did. We were vegan for about a year, and we reintroduced chicken and fish. But I think for the planet, that's gotta go again. We also set up our lives so that we could walk everywhere. work is a short walk from home. It's a little thing, took some planning, but it's been worthwhile and served us well in the pandemic. We can do more and we will.
I agree with you Robert, it's time the President asked the American people to grow up, stop listening to idiots and do what we can to save our environment. We should be showing the world how to do it right, not how to be poor stewards of our environment for our creature comforts. That means investment in non polluting energies, that means less buying of cheap goods made by slave labor in China and less reliance on resources of other countries that come at a cost to our planet and our souls.
Couldn't agree more, Robert. These times are not going to be easy, but Spirit and Dedication are more important. My work with young people convinces me that they are growing up with a sense of shared purpose that almost shames us of older generations.
Let's hope that your message is listened to by those in power and that a sense of love and energy dominates the hate and the narcissism.
We are repeating FDR's moment. Joe Biden has stepped up. We might get lucky if we all do our part. During World War II, we Americans saved string because it was a patriotic duty. Also bones and rags, paper bags, tin cans, pots and pans, silk stockings, nylon hose, used rubber, old clothes. The U.S. Government rationed war-effort necessities and urged people to grow Victory Gardens to supplement our diets. Posters urged the people to “Grow Vitamins at Your Kitchen Door.” Americans planted 20 million gardens and cultivated nearly half the nation’s vegetables in our backyards. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden at the White House.
In the 1942 scrap metal drive, people donated pots and pans, farm equipment, bumpers and fenders, Civil War cannons, iron fences, keys and metal toys. Communities held competitions to produce the most scrap, and threw town parties with oratory, bands, and Hitler metal tosses — you got to cast your kettle at a bust of Hitler set up in the town square. We need some damn' PR around this issue, eh?
@Martha. You are right. Also, we need gasless Friday. I am a recidivist because I drove my car downtown the other day when I said I would use the shuttle. But the shuttle app said 17 minutes to get a ride. Next time I will wait the 17 minutes. But I'm also going to contact city hall and lobby for more shuttles, shorter wait times!
Gasless Friday, Meatless Monday. . .you're onto something. Let's see how big our megaphones are. By the way, did you know my old man was a right wing economist?
I suspect the culture and the mindset were different then, Martha. But maybe if the US were directly threatened with war on our soil people would step up. One thing that boggles my mind is that my English husband tells me the UK kept rationing after the war until 1954! People did what they had to. Imagine that.
Paula B., if you have a look at Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography of FDR, No Ordinary Time, https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/doris-kearns-goodwin, you'll see how nearly identical our time was to then. Racists and isolationists ran Congress. It's a fascinating study. As for the UK and rationing, yes, if you read the autobiographical remarks of any of the British rock bands, you'd see that.
Yes, I totally agree. And to supplant your argument, let me say that quickly switching to alternative power is extensional because stopping Putin is extensional. It may take a while to drain his #1 $ source feeding him, but it will eventually work. His blood thirst is expansive - if he wins here, he will continue to expand, i.e. Hitler.
Thank you for daily insights that help me maintain my sanity. Discussions of freedom along with “the common good” are critical. I wish your bully pulpit were large enough to make a dent in the psyches of those who have been so brainwashed that they cannot see beyond their own noses. At age 78, perhaps I will not be around to see the total destruction of this country. Living with a government fully controlled by the right is so horrifying, I feel a fate worst than death. Even with the threats to impeach Biden if the Republicans control the Legislature, I don’t think I could stand to watch this from anywhere on Earth.
I wish there is some way those of us appalled by these prospects could wage a publicity campaign to display Rick Scott’s points for government under Republicans or post billboards and commercials asking “did Representative ………… support the Constitution on January 6”. I feel many frustrated Democrats would happily support such a PR campaign. Another statement with impact would be using Rick Scott’s words and asking, “is this what you want for your country”.
good morning. thank you for this and everything else you do for part of my chosen family. before I respond to the substance, let me share with you a pet peeve. Calling people who live in the USA "Americans" seems to disregard the other Americans people who live in Canada, or Mexico or in "South America." The people, like myself, and yourself, who live in the USA are not more important then the other Americans. Of course, asking people to sacrifice is appropriate. If the people who are living now, do not consume less, The world, as we know it, will not exist in the future. One way to consume less, is to not have the option of consuming the same or more. I cannot, because of a physical disability. I also, do not drive because, I am poor, and cannot afford a car. Over the last two years, I have very rarely been more than walking distance from where I live. and never more than a few miles. Asking me to sacrifice by traveling less, seems silly. Joe Biden traveling to Europe to tell me to sacrifice by traveling less, seems hypocritical. Not telling me, and other people to travel less, and other wise consume less energy, because, it does not poll well seems cowardly. I do not know,what Joe Biden should do. I do know, what he has done so far, has not worked.
good point, I am trying to write a book, I use "people who live in the USA." I sometimes attend Virtual meetings where people are talking about homeless people, I remind them that there are homeless people in the Chicago-land area, where I live, but also homeless people five thousand miles away in Ukraine. Every person has value. Thanks again for replying
The state of poverty in the world, and the advantages of living in the West are so extreme that a homeless person in the United States, meaning a street person, scrounging our leavings and grifting, makes more material income than about 1 billion other people in the world!
That sounds like a good plan, thanks. Words do matter although it can be counter productive to get excessively hung up on them in some cases. An American by any other name can . . .
@Fred. It's just a word, a handle, a nickname. Others don't call themselves Americans. They are Mexicans, Canadians, Navaho, etc. according to their preference. Hawaiians are both Hawaiians and Americans. Brazilians, Costa Ricans, Argentinians, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians. Unless some group arises who claims cultural appropriation there is no other claim to the handle that I am aware of?
Obviously you’re not an energy hog, Fred, and that advice doesn’t apply to you. But I agree that Biden needs to use his bully pulpit. And I agree with you about the term “Americans.”
Consider the old adage: "From he who has much, much is expected." You make the sacrifice required as a way of life. You are excused from sacrificing more.
I do not mind sacrificing to save the planet. My situation limits the things I can do, though. I am on a fixed income. I can’t afford a new car, much less an electric car. I drive a 2005 Toyota Highlander which I purchased new in April of 2005. I plan to drive it until I am no longer able to drive. I am only able to drive in my small rural town in Virginia due to a sleep disorder. If I need to see one of my doctors 30 minutes away, I have a family member or friend drive me in my car. I also can’t afford to get solar panels. I live paycheck to paycheck. I do recycle everything that I can. I keep the house cooler than most people in winter, but I do keep my house cooler in summer than most. My senior dog and I can’t tolerate the summer heat. I would like to do more to help combat climate change, though.
There are many like you, Virginia, who can't be expected to sacrifice much more. In fact, the nation should be making it easier for you to afford many things. We are, after all, the richest nation in the history of the world, and we can easily ensure that every American lives a minimally decent life. But there are many Americans who aren't sacrificing. They believe they have a right to use as much energy as they want. These are the people I'm talking about.
You have clearly disclosed the problem. Many people in the world not just Americans believe they have a God given right to use or do whatever they want. We have created several generations that are ruled by selfishness. Sharing, to them, is considered socialism. The majority have no idea what socialism really is. Although pollution and its ramification are serious, what is occurring in Ukraine is much more important. Why? Because people are dying NOW. What is happing in Ukraine will raise its head again somewhere else on this Earth. China may decide to invade Tiwan, or any other country it wants. The world thought that what happened in the second world war could not ever happen again. Now here we are again! Man is capable of evil. Fear should not stop us from reacting to evil and making sure that it does not continue happening again. Putin is not the only powerful evil man on Earth. There are others waiting on the side lines, while others are in the developing stage for the future. This is not being pessimistic but rather pragmatic. I hope our leadership will not allow Ukraine to be taken over by Russia. Can we imagine if President Kennedy had not stood up to the Russians in Cuba?
This ol' gal, who remembers the McCarthy era, suggests that our national enemies are most of the Republicans who have wormed their way to almost complete power by way of the organized takeover plan they have been working since the 1930s. Read Jeff Sharlett books on the topic. He has it down to a timeline beginning about 1930. (My copies with exact info are lost in the stacks of book boxes a house move engenders). If wingers have not collected and scrapped/burned all his books yet). Robert prolly know Jeff personally, is my bet....
IMO, the Rethuglican Party no doubt has behind the scenes direct links to worldwide dictators. IMO Timing of the Ukraine invasion is no accident. They expected our real President---Biden--would fold like the proverbial house of cards, seeing as he hardly has had time to get all his dept appointees confirmed and in place in the halls of power.
He looks pretty frail, too. They forget that he remembers back a long way, still has functioning brain and conscience, and knows to keep faithful-to-America experienced people on speed dial.
Without big-time, big power weaponry ,the Ukraine looked like an easy target to use to both weaken Biden and extend their kingdom.
By now, Putin is prolly sweating bullets. Photos indicate he feels threatened from within, so cannot depend on his first line advisors (who have not had good judgement in so many areas, so far). Nor--one would expect--does he trust them not to take hm out. He won't even sit near them in the photos of meetings that I see. I suspect he thinks of the revolt of Hitler's ppl and imagines hs own would do him, but with something other than a loaded briefcase . In these days, weapons are so tiny and electronic that the sweepers in the building might miss a little-bitty bomb.
Okay, that's my rant for today. Read Sharlett's books to get a good picture of the plan, the men, and the situations that could bring the country down to a dictatorship. Think Madison Cawthorn...what kind of people think he has any true value in govt? Think the guys who grilled Jackson....how much thicker could they have plastered on the disgusting propaganda.?
Robert, I think you and everyone else here should take a look at this. Indoctrination of 4 & 5yr old children. There is an old religious line that says “bring up a child in the way he should go and when his old he will not depart from it”. Lenin used the phrase “give me 4 years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted. “ This frighting video might be a good reason to be more involved in what you kids are learning in school. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXJhtC45Y7c
Mark Twain was quoted "The lack of money is the root of all evil."
I wonder if he considered lack of conscience before making that statement. Im betting most, if not all, of those plotting to take over America have legislated themselves more money than the average American. Who knew those who write tax laws are those who aso have the mo$t and see everybody else as useless drones, ready to be plucked?
I see the issue there, drones are not useless if they enrich the "right" people.
Oops another rant coming on. Why do we keep calling the wrongers the "right." That drills down to the uneducated brain as actually being right--about everything. Betcha. Time to call them something else.
Do what you can where you are. And it sounds like you’re doing that. Good for you.
If you have time, register Democrats. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
I got 4,000 of your beautiful stickers - 2,000 say "future voter" and are headed for Rochester's City Schools. Bring back Civics!!!!!
These days, safer in some places to register as Rethug, then vote democratic. I worked the polls a season and trusted those I worked with to be HONEST. After the past few elections, in my world, honesty is no longer a given, anywhere in America. With only a few exceptions.
The things most of us are able to do are helpful but at too small a scale. Subsidies for household fixes might help but COVID has been so expensive that the government has to take some time to recover. My County Exec wants to build an aquarium with pandemic funds, but it might be better spent on local subsidies. I like aquariums but its not high on my priority list right now. But he is so excited about his plans he will most likely get his way.
I think aquariums fit into the category of want, not need. We confuse our wants with our needs.
Thank you....we need to vote for people that want to govern, want to solve problems and can think more than 2 or 3 weeks into the future. The burden seems to have shifted on us and we aren't the ones having the greatest impact. The media keeps perpetuating this view.
Our Electrical utilities do not want us to install solar or wind power on our own property. Cities charge electrical permit fees on new solar panels each time you want to first install or add additional panels. The utilities limit how much you can install and connect to the grid and charge fees to make the connections each time you wish to add more. Many utilities want to charge monthly fees (tax on the Sun) of $5.00 to 8.00 per kilo watt hour of installed solar panels and only pay 3 cents for electricity that costs the homeowner 10 to 16 cents to produce.
All these fees stop if you install your solar panels off-grid. By not connecting to the grid and keeping the voltage below 50 volts, you can bypass permit fees, utility connection fees and monthly fees. But this does not allow you to share the electricity with your fellow human beings to fight fossil fuels collectively. When future prospective home rooftop solar prospective buyers were shown the fees and costs being proposed by the utilities, 95% said they would not install the solar on their homes.
I have solar because I saw the movie "An inconvenient Truth" and I wanted to do my part to take my home off fossil fuels. It is not easy and took me 15 years to build the system that replaces both utility electricity and natural gas with solar power. Today, many solar panel companies can build these systems for you, but the utilities do not want to allow you to connect, to the grid, a system that is large enough to do what I have done off-grid. With 15,000-watt maximums and no larger than 115% the Electrical usage you used the previous year, how can you replace the natural gas furnaces or hot water heater with electrical ones?
In a perfect world, where everyone is trying to curb fossil fuels, we could install solar on every roof, residential, commercial and industrial plus parking lot covers and keep the power production close to the customers. This is what Thomas Edison envisioned in DC electrical power. Utilities today, use fossil fuels to generate AC power hundreds of miles away at super high voltages for transmission then step the voltage down, through transformers, to the electrical voltage and power that consumers need. This system took 125 years to build out and now we want to change it all out in 25 to 30 years. A complete re-design of our distribution and transmission system that includes batteries for grid sized electrical storage is going to cost billions of dollars and that will be either done by the government through tax revenue or by utilities through higher electrical rates.
So as much as I want to see the transition, it will not happen over the next 3 month to compensate for the crisis in Ukraine. It will have to be done by individuals on their own homes and businesses to create the power they need and that could be done over the next 24 months if people are willing to put in their own solar panel systems with batteries now. If the demand is there, the solar industry can do the job, build the panels and battery systems and put Americans to work. This is our only choice, at this time, to make a difference to stop Wars for oil and natural Gas.
The law should require electric utilities to take as much energy from solar panels as individuals are willing and able to install, and pay individuals for that extra energy.
I am lucky to live in a state that allowed us to install solar panels and the energy that we do not use goes back to the grid and we are credited on our bill for it.
Yes, and we’re having a battle over that in California right now. The Public Utilities Commission wanted to do away with net metering and other incentives to install rooftop solar. We managed to win the skirmish for now but I’m absolutely sure they’re going to try again.
Paula B. ; Sadly, they are part of the problem.
I know! Unbelievable.
@Edward. This is the discussion that people need to hear - converting to renewable power is NOT the responsibility of individuals, not even homeowners. Putting responsibility on the homeowners is just a guilt trip. Damn Joe Manchin, we need congressional action on a renewable energy infrastructure!
NAILED IT! You are absolutely right...........sadly with the present leadership in Congress....good luck with that. After watching the reprehensible, unforgivable behavior of the GOP in yesterday's KBJ hearings, IN FRONT OF HER CHILDREN and her amazing parents and husband....I have no hope that we have anyone in Congress with the decency to do what we, you, me and others know should be done now.
@Claire. Thank you for that support. But keep in mind Democrats, along with progressives, blue dogs, grudging ex-trump supporters and sensible independents are a majority population in this country, temporarily a majority in Congress, and in line with long term trends towards increasing justice in the world. If we can just get out the vote...
Get rid of the electoral college!
Absolutely. We are so upset by all the GOP gerrymandering and voter targeted voter restriction laws, but, how many millions of voters are disenfranchised every presidential election by living in a state where the mainstream political color (red or blue) is the opposite of their own?
Thank you for this Benjamin. Of course too, you are right about the majority of people in this country, it is not the extremist GOP base. Admittedly I am worried sick about our ability to vote our way out of this but I appreciate and take to heart your optimism and realism of the situation. Thank you.
We have voted strongly against tRump in the last 2 elections. We need to get rid of the filibuster and support recalls on Governors in red states like Fla and Texas! The intense weather disasters may get their attention too!
You know what the filibuster is, Laurie? It’s a way of shouting the other person down. It’s rude, uncouth, and unsportsmanlike.
The filibuster is sabotage, pure and simple.
Cancel culture at its worst and most real!
Like the way they did the judicial hearings and everything else in recent years?! Their time will end!
Write letters with Vote Forward! 😀
So true and so sad. It is hard to keep depression at bay.
People like Manchin went into government for themselves, not the common good.
TOTALLY. GREAT POINT!
Yes but it helps to install your own panels if you can. We got a system with backup batteries a few years ago and it’s great.
We signed a contract with a company that lasts 20 years. It was the only way to get solar for us. All we needed was a good roof and decent credit rating. That was in 2016. No regrets.
We have a twenty-year contract too. It’s funny. For a while when the electricity would go off we were the only ones in the neighborhood with light. Now a couple of other people have panels too but we’re the only ones with batteries. Considering how Southern California Edison keeps turning the power off every time the wind blows you’d think people would be racing to install the things but I guess they’d rather swelter.
Batteries were very expensive when we had our panels installed. We were on our own to buy the batteries, which, at the time were on backorder for a long time. Could not afford them anyway. $3000 to $5,000 depending on the size.
They are expensive! That’s why the government needs to subsidize them.
It can be expensive, and anyone needing a stronger roof must deal with that first, and any credit issues.
Yes, and we went through hassles with Edison for five months before they would let us activate the panels. We did, however, get a huge tax break. Obviously not everyone can do this but where I live a lot of people could. They just don’t for whatever reason.
Benjamin R. Stockton ; Very true! We could all use some help with these carbon saving remedies! Tax breaks and/or subsidies for electric cars, too.
@Edward & @Benjamin: Rooftop solar is plentiful throughout Israel as a matter of national security. And, Earth Day is approaching quickly.
(Regardless of Russia and its tsars..., and adding to Infrastructure Mayor Pete's team...) Perhaps we need the former Cleveland Mayor Kucinich (who took on its utilities!*) as an energy czar empowered by Biden to enable rooftop solar, despite the large utilities' greed
(*... and who was squeezed out of Congress by radical GOP gerrymandering along the beaches of Lake Erie)
This is my main reasoning for weening ourselves from fossil fuels - national economic security. Otherwise, we'll be continually vulnerable to economic blackmail by the cartels and other actors, like Russia - as well as political blackmail at the gas pump by domestic refiners! Less pollution is just a bonus, in my thinking.
@Mitch. You got it buddy. A system response to a system problem!
(I can't take credit for these. I get emails from a group that pushed my & RR's alma mater to divest of fossil fuels. Yesterday, some folks circulated these links:)
https://www.rewiringamerica.org/policy/electrify-for-peace-policy-plan
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/opinion/ukraine-democrats-fossil-fuel-climate-change.html : Opinion | We’re in a Fossil Fuel War. Biden Should Say So. - The New York Times
RR recently wrote from his Inequality Media platform:
Trump-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is at it again.
Despite the recent victory passing the Postal Service Reform Act which repeals unnecessary expenses designed to bankrupt USPS and requires six-day-a-week delivery service, our work to save the USPS from the failed leadership of Louis DeJoy is not over.
Here’s the latest development: The Postal Service finalized plans in February to purchase up to 148,000 new mail delivery trucks from Oshkosh Defense. More than 90% of these trucks would be powered by gasoline fueled combustion engines expected to get 8 miles per gallon.
To make it worse, the Wisconsin company immediately moved production to South Carolina so they could build the trucks with non-union workers. And that’s not even the worst of it. It has been widely documented that frontline Black and brown communities bear the brunt of pollution from heavy trucks with combustion engines.
The good news is we can stop Louis DeJoy from implementing this plan. Rep. Gerry Connolly’s new bill, the Green Postal Service Fleet Act of 2022, blocks DeJoy’s bad deal. The contract can’t go forward unless the fleet is made up of at least 75 percent electric vehicles. The bill already has 68 co-sponsors.
It’s time to get every member of Congress in the House and Senate on board and pass the bill before a single vehicle rolls off the assembly line. Send a direct message to your members of Congress and demand they Block DeJoy’s Bad Deal! The USPS contract must require at least 75% electric trucks.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-block-dejoys-bad-deal-the-usps-contract-must-require-at-least-75-electric-trucks/?source=group-inequality-media-civic-action&referrer=group-inequality-media-civic-action&redirect=https://secure.actblue.com/donate/imca_stop_dejoys_bad_deal&link_id=2&can_id=eba703e4b0d912f98bbc3311a33fc2f8&email_referrer=email_1483381&email_subject=louis-dejoy-is-at-it-again&refcodeEmailReferrer=email_1483381
@Mitch. The prefix "de" in English means to remove something, ergo de-joy the post office!
Well, as USPS workers, vote-by-mail voters and all (non-vote-by-mail sabateur) folks who use the USPS would say "De"-Dejoying USPS actually INCREASES the joy. So, should the campaign cheer be something like: Rejoice & Enjoy USPS by De-Dejoying USPS?
you're funny! ;-D
Enjoy the firing of Dejoy!
Benjamin ; I have noticed that and it fits him! We should drum up action to have the postal service offer banking, too! Maybe people can get a co-operative type bank and earn interest on savings for a change!
How about the obvious for a postal service: a secure, insured, encrypted email delivery system featuring guaranteed delivery, while coming under the jurisdiction of the Postal Inspection Service, at a monthly subscription price of - say - $5-$10? It could include all kinds of delivery features that could be designed for the enterprise market. For example, how about providing a feature for sending encrypted billing and invoicing that avoids the kind of paper billing, that potentially ends up in the hands of trash-divers, thus making the recipient increasingly vulnerable to identity fraud and theft.
The flip side is that hacking is so common. things can be changed. There are some things, like votes that we should be able to have a hard copy of, like in some other countries.
I always think of him as Louis De Joyless.
Mitch ; I just gave a second time and sent messages to my representatives and senators to vote yes on this bill to require that a minimum of 75% of vehicles used by the postal service be electric. If they can be produced by union workers that would be a plus! Thanks for the link! Down with Dejoy and his bad deal too!
Get rid of criminal Dejoy. I can no longer count on my erratic mail service!
Thank you Mitch for the info, waiting for the day they send DeJoy packing.
Environmental NGOs like Waterkeeper Alliance and Earthjustice fight utilities over pollution from their toxic waste. (Obviously they have quite a battle due to partisan QOP court appointees!)
Also, TX had such a large energy grid fiasco that "patriots" like Sen Cruz had to flee to Mexico, despite all its "narco-terrorists" and "rapists"
The Biden administration needs to offer utilities settlement options that heavily depend on QUICKLY facilitating decentralized rooftop solar, battery storage and other support for renewable energy
https://waterkeeper.org/news/act-now-our-toxic-coal-ash-legacy/
btw - another RR connection is that Biden's Energy Sec'y Granholm is a former recent faculty colleague at Cal. Sure, I know some substack readers might point out that her skill set is different than former Energy Sec'y Perry. However, she might be able to do something beneficial
Enlightening.
I sold my 14-year-old car last summer because I needed to pay off emergency dental surgery. I did it without a pause for I, too, live on a fixed income. Medicare, as all seniors know, does not cover dental. My supplemental insurance is linked to whatever Medicare does. My carbon footprint became smaller. I can't just jump in the car every day now to pick up extra items I forgot about, or just go for a drive, et cetera. I've saved money and I plan my need for rides carefully. I don't suggest this as a solution, but I walk more, spend less, and am healthier. There is much more we can do, though, then sell our cars or convert to electric if we cannot afford it. How much hot water do we use? How fully and freely does water run from our faucets? How many items in our home are left plugged in and/or charging all the time? And, how do we eat? How frequently do we consume beef and other meats? An awareness of our consumption patterns, where we can be mindful of overuse and waste in these simple matters can help our climate. Yes, we have to reduce consumption overall. However, we keep selling and eating those burgers for which rain forests that help sustain this planet have been leveled for cattle. Rachel Carson wrote about this in her 1950s book, "The Silent Spring." John Robbins (the Baskin Robbins heir who forfeited his inheritance) presented a few decades after Carson in his book, "Diet for a New America" startling facts about the negative effects on our planet, our climate, our bodies, that factory farming and animal consumption cause. More books followed. I believe there are many things each of us can "sacrifice" every day that will contribute to a better climate and less dependence on toxic things, destroying our climate, our Mother Earth.
Lee Ann. I am so glad you wrote what "REAL Americans" are facing every single day. Since "The Silent Spring" book of 1950s' Americans have not made much progress. There are fast food places opening up every single day not only in America but across the world. More people are dying due to poor diet, pesticides and chemicals in our food and water in the USA. As far as selling your car to pay for dental because Medicare does not cover we also recently paid $25,000 for dental surgery for my husband. When your teeth need maintenance as you age remind people Medicare does not cover. Insane. But true. Thanks for being real. Sending you hugs from Arizona.
Thank you, Cecelia! And thanks for adding the issue of chemicals and pesticides. I am unable to grow my own food and cannot afford the grass-fed meat et al. I wish I could because food no longer tastes real to me. I think of ALL the digestive issues people suffer from, too. I am sorry to hear about the $25K for your husband's dental surgery. This must change. Locally, I am attempting to form a "consumer" advocacy group for seniors. Too many have no computers, are very poor, so they cannot research where they can get help for various needs hitting them quite hard with both heating and food costs off the radar yet essential but unaffordable. A different subject for another time. I will take your hugs from Arizona and am working on a targeted letter campaign in Arizona through VoteFwd.org to be sent in October before the midterm elections. Here are my hugs to you 🤗💜 ~
Thank you Lee Ann. 1 by 1 we CAN make a difference. :)
Republicans don’t serve, or care, about the Common Good. Republicans care about Money and Power. Their leadership aspires to be a White Christian Nationalist authoritarian regime, with a few token people of color to suggest a veneer of diversity. Their donor base, including Big Dirty Hydrocarbons, demands fealty, not thoughtful planet-saving leadership. The Market, meaning our individual choice of green tech, such as electric vehicles, is the only thing that influences them……follow the money. Our votes, and our thoughtful choices, even if it means a form of personal sacrifice, are the only things that will advance the Common Good.
Register Democrats. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
I agree with you, as I almost always do. I enjoy reading your viewpoint on things and hope that this Administration listens to you because you really understand the issues, including this one. I do understand that it's all about retaining the vote, but people need to understand that we are sinking fast and need to bite the bullet and make some sacrifices.
Remember after 9/11 when Americans were eager to know what they could do for their country? George W. Bush said "consume." I think he missed a huge opportunity. He could have asked for all kinds of things that would have reenforced our sense of being in it together -- not just conserving energy but paying taxes in full, volunteering at local shelters and soup kitchens, contributing to your local schools or run for school board, and so on. Americans responded to JFK's "ask not" call because they want to be part of a nation that asks for mutual sacrifice and continues to believe in a common good.
Americans had a different mindset in those days.
If the goal is to foster some sense of solidarity, then ok. However, to actually address the issue, I feel like the call for sacrifice should be on the handful of corporations who consume the most energy and produce the most emissions. Calling on individuals to sacrifice shields corporations from their responsibility, which a more cynical person might guess is part of corporations' marketing strategy.
Good point. How do we accomplish that?
By registering Democrats. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
I'd advocate for a carbon tax, but that's tough given that corporations own Congress and the courts. Perhaps more realistic is an incentive-based law that provides money to companies to transition. Outside of that, there's shaming of some sort, either from the outside (consumers or the Bully Pulpit) or employees inside the corporation.
And boycotting if possible.
It seems obvious that one solution is to lessen our depends on fossil fuels. Concentrating on clean energy solutions -- just like we did to find a vaccine for covid -- could make a significant difference both in the cost to the consumer and the health of our planet.
If only we could all pull together on the energy solutions. As long as some are profiting 'obscenely', it's an uphill battle. Yes, climate destruction is obscene! and lethal!
A couple of comments about why the sense of urgency regarding our continuing rise in greenhouse gases and political inability to take the very urgent steps which are necessary to avoid planetary catastrophe:
The CO2 we spew into our atmosphere today will largely be present for beyond 2000 years. It must be dissolved in our oceans and then incorporated into shells of tiny marine life...to eventually fall to the bottom of the ocean and over thousands of years turn to rock. It is "baked in". So if we turned off every source of greenhouse gas in the world TODAY the greenhouse gases worldwide would keep rising inexorably for the next 50 years. We have no effective way to stop that process, so Greta Thunberg and so many others are waving their hands and shouting for urgent action. A dire situation.
Now add the habitat destruction ongoing, and the sixth mass extinction (Bolsonaro in Brazil encouraging deforestation within the Amazon, sometimes described as the "Lungs of the Earth" and each year the situation gets far worse. The fossil fuel industry has known all of this for 4 decades but continued to spread disinformation and denying the truth. And our politicians continue to subsidize that industry with billions of dollars annually. Sad. The Common Good is ignored.
Ray Bellamy
Hi, Ray. As per my comment to Robert Reich above, I have found a way of life and a mission which brings carbon out of the atmosphere and prevents it and other greenhouse gasses from going into it- growing native plants and healthy food with more natural methods and helping others to do so. Please check out Wild Ones Native Plants, Natural Landscapes (wildones.org). Start a seedling chapter if there are none in your area. It's easy and so fulfilling! Ed Wrenn, Western PA Area chapter co-founder. Feel free to email us at wildoneswpa@gmail.com.
I am in the fourth year of forming our yard into a place for nature. Very rewarding and gives me a focus and respite from a disappointing time in our country and the world.
So glad to hear! Where roughly do you live if you don't mind saying? To me, effective overall change comes largely from individuals starting with themselves then gong big with it.
North Carolina. Just left behind a very successful transformation of hosta and daylilly yard to native plants .....and areas of grass left to grow. Transformed to many more insects and birds it was hard to leave and move on to NC from Virginia. Starting over I am ripping out all of the mostly non native plants and replacing with pollinator favorites. I impatiently await blooms and the slow growth of first year plants. Check out https://homegrownnationalpark.org. Also Doug Tallamy's books on bringing nature back. Also Margaret Roach. At age seventy five I wish for another decade of gardening as there is so much I want to finish. Same with politics although I feel far less in control with game. In regard to politics it is an activity that destroys my soul. I donate and vote dem although without satisfaction. As many have said we need DOJ action and now. The clock is running out.
We have very much in common, Frank. Please email wildoneswpa@gmailcom which will get to me and a very few of our other chapter leaders. I have deep connections in NC. My mother is from Clinton and now lives in Greensboro as does my brother. I went to Chapel Hill for med school, etc. I am very inspired by Doug Tallamy and have recently had an email exchange with Margaret Roach. I am engaged in politics but find it very frustrating. Native plants are much more joyful! The only Wild Ones chapter in NC is in the West. You would be great as a member if in this area or in founding a seedling if not. It is easy to do this and relatively easy to grow it. We have over 150 paid members in less than 8 months. "Healing the earth one yard at a time" is our motto.
Wonderful ideas, Ed. I would be especially interested in gardening in drought areas. We redid our yard a few years ago with that in mind but we could still do more. California is so low on water that you have to think carefully how to grow anything these days.
Thanks. Big steel will not return to most of the US. I am a New Castle native. Virtually no manufacturing, mining and no middle class remain in most of Pennsyltucky, which has virtually unlimited agricultural potential. Much of Appalachia was devastated by chestnut blight. May a Charlie Chestnut in the vein of Johnny Appleseed bring back the flora and fauna to restore a weak economy.
Ed. Thanks for your update. I like your organization mission: Healing the Earth one yard at a time. Unfortunately if people don't have a lot of money they can't afford to by seeds or pay for water. I live in Arizona and our water bill is charged by usage. The more we use the more we are charged. We are trying to grow vegetation that does not use a lot of water.
Just grow a few succulents and cactus—indoors if you have to, Cecelia. They’re easy to grow and don’t require much water.
There is a new (seedling) chapter based in Kingman Arizona. Most resources and participation are free. Low income/student annual memberships are $25. They could use your participation. There is also the opportunity to start a seedling if you don't live near there. More info at wildones.org. There is also the AZ Native Plant Society. I belong to both Wild Ones and the PA Native Plant Society. Seed and plant sharing can make native plants free. Ones in Arizona would tend to require little or no water once established. Good on you for growing food.
You know, I’ve been thinking about this kind if thing for some time, Ed. In the seventies everyone grew plants. Even I with my brown thumb did it. Surely that could help and it’s pretty too.
An elderly couple in Mankato, MN began transforming their yard toward what you described. Neighbors were outraged. Ordinances were invoked and enforced. Lawyers were hired. Newspaper articles were written. Court cases were filed. A compromise was eventually reached that allowed the couple a little naturalism, but not too much.
I live in a nearby city where ordinances require grass lawns, and the city will come and mow it if you let it get too long, and they will bill you for it.
That’s ridiculous. How is it their business? Our hoa has to approve landscaping but I suspect they would be reasonable considering the state of things. Surely those ordinances are passé and can be changed. BTW, there are always house plants, which no ordinances can touch.
Hi, all. I think that there are a lot of fighters for reasonable policy in this group. Wild Ones was inspired by Lorrie Otto (as per the link below), "the Godmother of Natural Landscaping", who died in 2010. She began to get this title after her municipality mowed down native plants in her yard without her permission. Wild ones (wildones.org) has "wild lawyers" to help people with legal pushback. Wild ones are so beneficial that they are worth fighting for. For one thing, almost all birds feed their young with insects which depend on native plants. That's why I say "Native plants are for the birds!"
https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/1996/American-Heroes-Lorrie-Otto
Well stated. Thanks for explaining in easy way to understand.
Yes! We have an opportunity now to unite for our world and for freedom and democracy in Ukraine and in many other nations. By reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and using new and emerging clean energy technologies, we will be sacrificing but also providing a better more sustainable way forward for all. The facts of the matter are that the world will eventually run short of oil and gas and there will be no way of sustaining energy based on such fuels. Do we want to keep going and keep destroying our planet or do we want to use the new technologies and systems to provide the power we all need? The disastrous turn-of-events in Ukraine has been both catastrophic and heartening: catastrophic in terms of the unnecessary loss of life, the plight of people forced to flee their homes, and the destruction of entire cities and towns; heartening because of the willingness of the Ukrainians to mount such a valiant and courageous defense of their nation and the unity such an example has created in Europe and the United States. This is a golden opportunity to create a better world for many people in Ukraine and throughout Europe, maybe even in Russia, and we would do well to fill our plates to heaping and partner together for a better future.
We were listening to Greta Thunberg a couple of years ago say that the best thing any individual can do for the climate is to give up meat. So we did. We were vegan for about a year, and we reintroduced chicken and fish. But I think for the planet, that's gotta go again. We also set up our lives so that we could walk everywhere. work is a short walk from home. It's a little thing, took some planning, but it's been worthwhile and served us well in the pandemic. We can do more and we will.
I agree with you Robert, it's time the President asked the American people to grow up, stop listening to idiots and do what we can to save our environment. We should be showing the world how to do it right, not how to be poor stewards of our environment for our creature comforts. That means investment in non polluting energies, that means less buying of cheap goods made by slave labor in China and less reliance on resources of other countries that come at a cost to our planet and our souls.
Couldn't agree more, Robert. These times are not going to be easy, but Spirit and Dedication are more important. My work with young people convinces me that they are growing up with a sense of shared purpose that almost shames us of older generations.
Let's hope that your message is listened to by those in power and that a sense of love and energy dominates the hate and the narcissism.
We are repeating FDR's moment. Joe Biden has stepped up. We might get lucky if we all do our part. During World War II, we Americans saved string because it was a patriotic duty. Also bones and rags, paper bags, tin cans, pots and pans, silk stockings, nylon hose, used rubber, old clothes. The U.S. Government rationed war-effort necessities and urged people to grow Victory Gardens to supplement our diets. Posters urged the people to “Grow Vitamins at Your Kitchen Door.” Americans planted 20 million gardens and cultivated nearly half the nation’s vegetables in our backyards. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden at the White House.
In the 1942 scrap metal drive, people donated pots and pans, farm equipment, bumpers and fenders, Civil War cannons, iron fences, keys and metal toys. Communities held competitions to produce the most scrap, and threw town parties with oratory, bands, and Hitler metal tosses — you got to cast your kettle at a bust of Hitler set up in the town square. We need some damn' PR around this issue, eh?
@Martha. You are right. Also, we need gasless Friday. I am a recidivist because I drove my car downtown the other day when I said I would use the shuttle. But the shuttle app said 17 minutes to get a ride. Next time I will wait the 17 minutes. But I'm also going to contact city hall and lobby for more shuttles, shorter wait times!
Gasless Friday, Meatless Monday. . .you're onto something. Let's see how big our megaphones are. By the way, did you know my old man was a right wing economist?
@Martha. I love that! "my old man" is a phrase right out of the '60s. We need some good ole 1968 style anti-establishment vibe around here!
Damn' straight. Let's rock `em. FYI https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/13/us/norman-b-ture-architect-of-the-1981-tax-cut-dies-at-74.html
@Martha. I know people are not defined entirely by their politics. I'm sorry for your loss.
Thanks, but I'm delighted the evil muthafugga is dead.
I suspect the culture and the mindset were different then, Martha. But maybe if the US were directly threatened with war on our soil people would step up. One thing that boggles my mind is that my English husband tells me the UK kept rationing after the war until 1954! People did what they had to. Imagine that.
Paula B., if you have a look at Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography of FDR, No Ordinary Time, https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/doris-kearns-goodwin, you'll see how nearly identical our time was to then. Racists and isolationists ran Congress. It's a fascinating study. As for the UK and rationing, yes, if you read the autobiographical remarks of any of the British rock bands, you'd see that.
That’s amazing, Martha, because they lost! I wonder if that could possibly happen again. Interesting about the rockers too.
Dan Morgan
Yes, I totally agree. And to supplant your argument, let me say that quickly switching to alternative power is extensional because stopping Putin is extensional. It may take a while to drain his #1 $ source feeding him, but it will eventually work. His blood thirst is expansive - if he wins here, he will continue to expand, i.e. Hitler.
I agree, both "extensional", I hope, and "existential". I also support Robert Reich's argument.
Thank you for daily insights that help me maintain my sanity. Discussions of freedom along with “the common good” are critical. I wish your bully pulpit were large enough to make a dent in the psyches of those who have been so brainwashed that they cannot see beyond their own noses. At age 78, perhaps I will not be around to see the total destruction of this country. Living with a government fully controlled by the right is so horrifying, I feel a fate worst than death. Even with the threats to impeach Biden if the Republicans control the Legislature, I don’t think I could stand to watch this from anywhere on Earth.
I wish there is some way those of us appalled by these prospects could wage a publicity campaign to display Rick Scott’s points for government under Republicans or post billboards and commercials asking “did Representative ………… support the Constitution on January 6”. I feel many frustrated Democrats would happily support such a PR campaign. Another statement with impact would be using Rick Scott’s words and asking, “is this what you want for your country”.
good morning. thank you for this and everything else you do for part of my chosen family. before I respond to the substance, let me share with you a pet peeve. Calling people who live in the USA "Americans" seems to disregard the other Americans people who live in Canada, or Mexico or in "South America." The people, like myself, and yourself, who live in the USA are not more important then the other Americans. Of course, asking people to sacrifice is appropriate. If the people who are living now, do not consume less, The world, as we know it, will not exist in the future. One way to consume less, is to not have the option of consuming the same or more. I cannot, because of a physical disability. I also, do not drive because, I am poor, and cannot afford a car. Over the last two years, I have very rarely been more than walking distance from where I live. and never more than a few miles. Asking me to sacrifice by traveling less, seems silly. Joe Biden traveling to Europe to tell me to sacrifice by traveling less, seems hypocritical. Not telling me, and other people to travel less, and other wise consume less energy, because, it does not poll well seems cowardly. I do not know,what Joe Biden should do. I do know, what he has done so far, has not worked.
Point taken about "Americans". Please propose an alternative. "United Statians " will not likely come into wide usage.
good point, I am trying to write a book, I use "people who live in the USA." I sometimes attend Virtual meetings where people are talking about homeless people, I remind them that there are homeless people in the Chicago-land area, where I live, but also homeless people five thousand miles away in Ukraine. Every person has value. Thanks again for replying
The state of poverty in the world, and the advantages of living in the West are so extreme that a homeless person in the United States, meaning a street person, scrounging our leavings and grifting, makes more material income than about 1 billion other people in the world!
I use 'U.S. citizens', but I will admit, it is unwieldy.
That sounds like a good plan, thanks. Words do matter although it can be counter productive to get excessively hung up on them in some cases. An American by any other name can . . .
@Fred. It's just a word, a handle, a nickname. Others don't call themselves Americans. They are Mexicans, Canadians, Navaho, etc. according to their preference. Hawaiians are both Hawaiians and Americans. Brazilians, Costa Ricans, Argentinians, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians. Unless some group arises who claims cultural appropriation there is no other claim to the handle that I am aware of?
Obviously you’re not an energy hog, Fred, and that advice doesn’t apply to you. But I agree that Biden needs to use his bully pulpit. And I agree with you about the term “Americans.”
Consider the old adage: "From he who has much, much is expected." You make the sacrifice required as a way of life. You are excused from sacrificing more.
Fred. God Bless you for your honest comment and how many legal citizens in the USA feel.
Ask not what you can do for you, but what you can do for your grand children.