[Sosfbay-discuss] California Greening on 350.org

[Andrea Dorey]

Some of us Greens are joining the actions of others to celebrate 350  
Day on the 24Th.
Congratulations on getting picked up by 350.org!!  I hope they know  
you're a Green.  This is and should be our BIG issue.
Andrea

On Oct 15, 2009, at 9:53 PM, Wes Rolley wrote:

> This was my blog day post and it got picked up by 350.org.
> __
> I have really begun to think that Obama has made a colossal blunder  
> in the way that he has chosen to handle climate change. It would  
> seem to me that his presidency will be evaluated by history on the  
> manner in which he has reacted to this crisis. It won't be Iraq,  
> Bush's war, nor even Afghanistan… now known as Obama's War. It  
> won't be health care. But those are the issues on which he has  
> chosen to spend his time and his political capital.
>
> It could be argued that he did not choose Iraq and Afghanistan.  
> True about Iraq but he certainly has, from the days of the  
> campaign, chosen to play in Afghanistan.
>
> It is the focus on health care that concerns me and makes me  
> question his judgment. It has the ring of a young man trying to  
> prove that he could get done what Clinton could not, taking Obama  
> forever out of Clinton's shadow.
>
> But this is not issue number one. It won't determine the fact of  
> our economy, or of our comfortable lifestyle. Climate Change will.  
> Failure to address the biggest elephant in the room is a way to be  
> trampled and I don't want my children to suffer for Obama's failure  
> to take his biggest challenge head on.
>
> In the mean time, opposition to Obama has had the opportunity to  
> hone their economic arguments about big government and the costs to  
> the tax payers. If the opposition to the economic bailouts has this  
> ring, and the opposition to health insurance reform has this ring,  
> what do you think will be the key element of the Republican  
> opposition to doing anything about climate change? I can just hear  
> Boehner and McConnel droning on now while Glen Beck stirs up the  
> troops by labeling them "Commies".
>
> There is only a very short time between now and the next meeting of  
> the United Nations Climate Change Conference - Copenhagen. The best  
> Obama can bring to the meeting is a flawed bill from the House of  
> Representatives, a draft of a bill from the US Senate and a history  
> of having climate change treaties not being ratified in the Senate.  
> The prospects are bleak.
>
> At this point, Obama has yet to expend any political capital to try  
> and get a climate change bill passed in the Senate. Most of the  
> heavy lifting about the economics of this issue has been carried by  
> Joseph Romm at the Climate Progress blog. Even today, Romm cited  
> Entergy CEO J. Wayne Leonard on Climate Change.
> We are virtually certain that climate change is occurring, and  
> occurring because of man’s activities. We’re virtually certain the  
> probability distribution curve is all bad. There’s no good things  
> that’s going to come of this. But what’s uncertain is exactly which  
> one of those things are going to occur and in what time frame. In  
> the probability distribution curve is about a 50% probability that  
> about half of all species will become extinct or be subject to  
> extinction over this period of time. What we will never know on an  
> ex ante basis is whether or not man be one of those casualties or not.
>
> We condemn Wall Street for taking risks with our economy — risks  
> that all of you are trying very hard to reverse — but at the same  
> time we’re taking exactly the same kind of risks, with no upside  
> whatsoever, with regard to our climate, failing to practice even  
> the basic risk management techniques in terms of climate change  
> reduction.
> In the same post, he quotes Carol Browner as saying it would be a  
> “big mistake” if Congress passed a clean energy bill without a cap  
> on emissions.
>
> I agree with her assessment. I just don't think that this Congress  
> has the courage to do that. There are too many who are too willing  
> to compromise too much for the sake of another vote. So, we will  
> invest in oxymoronic clean coal technologies until we figure out  
> that it is too late. We will shift to burning wood at our power  
> plants because it will be called a "renewable" and the CO2 will  
> fill the skies as before.
>
> This the the issue where science and politics are on a collision  
> course. We must not let the politicians win. How I wish that there  
> were Green willing to stand up and challenge Barbara Boxer in the  
> Senatorial Race this year. Her Republican Opposition seems to be  
> demonstrating their ineptitude at every turn, though Fiorina could  
> bankroll whatever she wants for as long as she wants. DeVore might  
> have the so many manic Republican votes locked up that she will  
> drop out rather than throw good money after bad and we know that  
> DeVore's solution to everything is to go nuclear.
>
> The challenge from a Green would be all about doing the right  
> thing, about standing for ones values and not the value of a  
> contribution. If done right, it would be about correcting Obama's  
> big blunder and saving humanity
>
> -- 
> "Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you  
> don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente
>
> Wes Rolley
> 17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
> http://www.refpub.com/ -- Tel: 408.778.3024
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