Patriotism that loves our country, our land, and our planet
This week’s environmental protests are all focused around a key theme that leads to public protest: political failure. Discover the deeply rooted political antipathy that’s putting the ocean at risk, the place whree local people want to preserve an ancient resource against potential, rather than actual, harm while political powers want jobs and income for the immediate future and what happens when competing interests can’t solve their problems in discussion.
Just when you thought no more ink could be spilled about the merits or political viability of a carbon tax versus a cap and trade, it has.
As Congress debates how to pay for national health care reform, here in California we are showing there are ways to make coverage both universal and affordable. In San Francisco, we are finding that one of the most effective reforms, and the most affordable by far, is simply using the purchasing and persuasive power of our city to promote the kind of healthy habits that keep residents away from costly medical interventions and prevent chronic diseases.
The same state budget crisis that could shutter 220 of California’s state parks and beaches, may also open the door for the first new offshore oil leases in state waters in forty years.
An independent report, commissioned by the Nigerian Conservation Foundation in 2006, says that the Niger delta region is one of the five most polluted places on the planet and claims that in the past decade more than a million tones of oil have been spilled in the delta, damaging the mangrove eco-system that is the fragile margin between saline and freshwater environments in this part of the world.
A combination of energy efficiency and targeted growth in renewable energy generation, Scotland would be able to to generate 143% of its annual electricity demand.
During his first trip to the plateau continent, Obama has been greeted with much fanfare and love, but some are calling into question his motivation for visiting Ghana. Perhaps it is from eight years of the Bush Administration that have made us suspicious of our president’s oil motivations, but Ghana’s new offshore oil boom may give good cause for doubt.
While it may seem that countries should just ‘take the hit’ on internationally effective ‘green’ taxes, the real risk is that the loss of tourism, with its relatively green profile means that other income sources become more appealing. These could include extractive industries like mining or oil exploration, intensive industries like swift-rotation monoculture farming, or exploitative industries like logging.
A coalition of environmental groups have sued the federal government over the creation of transmission corridors that will perpetuate the use of coal-fired power throughout the West.
The $3 billion in grants are designed to temporarily replace the production tax credit that has been a critical factor in the growth of renewable energy capacity in U.S.
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