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… Gingrich told attendees — including Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a key figure in the state’s first-in-nation Republican presidential caucuses — that the EPA should be replaced with a new “Environmental Solutions Agency.” The replacement agency “would encourage innovation, incentivize success and emphasize sound science and new technology over bureaucracy, regulation, litigation and restrictions on American energy”…. Apparently the disgraced former Speaker is going to run for President. So he has been reaching out to the anti-science Tea Party extremists with wilder and wilder statements and flip flops (see Gingrich: “It’s an act of egotism for humans to think we’re a primary source of climate change” Gingrich has long been just another pro-pollution conservative eco-fraud pretending to care about the environment while adopting the anti-regulation, pro-technology rhetoric suggested by GOP strategist, Frank Luntz, and popularized by his protege, George Bush (see Bush climate speech follows Luntz playbook: “Technology, technology, blah, blah, blah” and “ Eco-fraud Gingrich has always opposed clean energy, climate action “). It’s laughable he called for creating an “Environmental Solutions Agency.” We already have an Environmental Solutions Agency that develops innovative new technology — it’s called the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which I helped run in the mid-1990s. Gingrich tried to kill it when he became speaker in 1995. But why let facts get in the way of a good speech? Back in June Gingrich said , “There’s no evidence in American history that regulations … work to create a better future.” But as NRDC’s Pete Altman explains : No one really believes that polluters will just clean up all by themselves. People understand that you have to set standards that will protect public health and make sure polluters stick to them. That’s why since its founding, the EPA’s approach of setting standards and holding polluters accountable has prevented : 205,000 premature deaths 672,000 cases of chronic bronchitis 21,000 cases of heart disease 843,000 asthma attacks 189,000 cardiovascular hospitalizations 18 million child respiratory illnesses.
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Newt Gingrich proposes abolishing EPA
So Joshua Green, senior editor of The Atlantic , writes a column that says of recent news that 2010 was the hottest year on record: The news highlighted one of Washington’s biggest failures over the last two years: its inability to advance climate legislation, It was also a grim reminder that things could get worse. Some crucial policy areas have always been neglected and some initiatives stalled. But rarely has a first-order concern like the nation’s climate and energy policy actually regressed — and so dramatically as we’ve seen since the last presidential election.
So Joshua Green, senior editor of The Atlantic , writes a column that says of recent news that 2010 was the hottest year on record: The news highlighted one of Washington’s biggest failures over the last two years: its inability to advance climate legislation, It was also a grim reminder that things could get worse. Some crucial policy areas have always been neglected and some initiatives stalled. But rarely has a first-order concern like the nation’s climate and energy policy actually regressed — and so dramatically as we’ve seen since the last presidential election. Economist Brad DeLong writes a piece in response, “ Why Oh Why Can’t We Have a Better Press Corps? ” pointing out the blame should not be spread around to all of “Washington”: Now let’s stop right now. The inability to advance climate legislation wasn’t “Washington’s” failure: it was a failure of Republican legislators, their tame hacks and propagandists, the carbon-energy lobby, and coal-state Democratic legislators. Joshua Green knows who the culprits are as well as I do.
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Brad DeLong 1, Joshua Green 0
There’s a lot of innovation in the wind technology sector and this bladeless concept could be a game changer in the next few years. In fact, “ Turbine-free wind power ” was placed on the NY Times Magazine ‘s annual Year in Ideas list with this video explaining the idea. Generally, there’s a panel with several foam pads and piezoelectric connectors — kind of like SMIT Grow — that harvest energy. The panels wouldn’t make much noise and could be installed on facades, roofs, and almost anywhere else. They could also generate energy at a low cost and lower wind speed (even in variable, urban conditions). Last May 2010, Cornell University’s Vibro-Wind Research Group, headed by Frank Moon, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, built a prototype to test the technology, according to a press release . It may be a while before something like this becomes viable and commercially available, but it’s definitely an innovation to keep an eye on for the future. Credits: Cornell University.
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Bladeless Vibro-Wind Panels of the Future
A dictionary definition of ‘bearing witness’ reads: to show by your existence that something is true. This seems to me to be only part of the story. Bearing witness is one of the founding principles of Greenpeace, up there with Direct Action. Unlike direct action however it doesn’t rely on directly stopping something bad from happening. Its power comes from the story it tells, and poignantly for me, the empowerment it brings to those who see the story and then feel compelled to act. So while it doesn’t offer the instant gratification for the activist chained to the bulldozer – its affect can be broader, quicker and more powerful – inspiring millions of people who simply look at a photo and are awakened to something that they didn’t necessarily know even existed. Once they know they usually act and often in numbers. “Once you have witnessed an injustice, you cannot claim ignorance as a defence for inaction
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Last chance to see? Bearing witness.