The Oil Sands Controversy

Oil Sands: good for jobs, good for our economy, and good for Exxon but what about the environmental impacts (here). The ad claims that tar sands oil extraction is "equivalent" to other forms of extraction (drilling) but that might not be the case (here). The ad does encourage us to "Think Progress"!

Demonstrations are going on right now in Washington DC (here), the State Department is about to approve a pipeline from Alberta to Texas (here), the New York Times has editorialized against the project (here) and the controversy was discussed on tonight's PBS News Hour. All the attention is probably too little, too late. In any event, this Exxon commercial is probably a good candidate for the Green Tweener award.

Western Industrial Throwaway Economy No Longer Viable

The notorious environmentalist, Lester Brown (discussed in a prior post here) thinks that we need an urgent and immediate response, on the scale of World War II, to revamp the Western Economic system (here).

We need an economy for the twenty-first century, one that is in sync with the earth and its natural support systems, not one that is destroying them.The fossil fuel-based, automobile-centered, throwaway economy that evolved in western industrial societies is no longer a viable model—not for the countries that shaped it or for those that are emulating them. In short, we need to build a new economy, one powered with carbon-free sources of energy—wind, solar, and geothermal—one that has a diversified transport system and that reuses and recycles everything. We can change course and move onto a path of sustainable progress, but it will take a massive mobilization—at wartime speed.

It is not likely to happen without a major catastrophe on the order of a world war, but he is offering a Plan B, should it be needed.

The Dangers of Environmentalism

In the aftermath of the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, concern for the environment has been pretty much swept off the table. When was the last time you saw a headline about climate change? The problem hasn't gone away, it's only our attention that has shifted.

A subtle subtext of Prof. William Cronon's run-in with the Wisconsin Republican Party (here) is that (1) Professor Cronon teaches environmental history and (2) the radical right wing sees environmentalism as something inspired by the Devil (see the video above). Professor Cronon's interest in conservative, right-wing groups is certainly motivated by his environmental concerns.

In his blog (here), Professor Cronon suggests that we all need to be more concerned about what's happening in the conservative movement. For example, if you are a public employee or an environmentalist or both, as is Professor Cronon, the activities of conservative think tanks may actually have an effect your job, your income and the world you live in. He suggests studying the following groups:

• The American Legislative Exchange Council http://www.alec.org/
• The State Policy Network (SPN) http://ww.spn.org/
• The MacIver Institute http://maciverinstitute.com/
• The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI) http://www.wpri.com/

To this I would also add some of the old-line conservative organizations:

• The American Enterprise Institute http://www.aei.org/
• The Cato Institute http://www.cato.org/
• The Club For Growth http://www.clubforgrowth.org/
• The Heritage Foundation http://www.heritage.org/
• The Hoover Institution http://www.hoover.org/
• The Hudson Institute http://www.hudson.org/

For a more complete list see Right Wing Watch (here) and Source Watch (here). To be completely fair, balanced and even handed (or if you can only take so much from the right wing in one day), here's a list of dangerous environmental organizations to monitor:

• The Global Footprint Network (GFN) http://www.footprintnetwork.org/ investigates how much "nature" we have, how much we use (the ecological footprint) and who uses the most.
• The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) http://www.worldwildlife.org/ They publish the Living Planet Report, the Living Planet Index and GFN's Ecological Footprint index (here).
• The Earth Policy Institute (EPI) http://www.earth-policy.org/ founded by the notorious environmentalist Lester Brown, publishes alarmist works such as World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse as well as megabytes of depressing data (here)