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92 comments on My Ideal Presidential Candidate on the Environment
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92 comments on My Ideal Presidential Candidate on the Environment
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Ed Begley for President.
Yes, I picked up on Obama's response as well. He actually said he was "working on" installing CFLs. How do you "work on" something so simple. It's not like you are trying to get out of Iraq. His response showed he has no clue and really doesn't intend to do much of anything about the problem. Just another "feel good" politician. He also clearly thinks that ethanol is a key component of any energy policy. And he is supposed to be such a brilliant man. Yes, he is brilliant but clueless.
As for Hillary, I heard an interview where she made it clear she has no intention of reducing the speed limit to save energy. She also has given rather weak responses on increasing CAFE standards. I think if you look at her campaign contributions, she is in the pocket of the auto companies.
As you allude to, it is frustrating that Edwards seems to have a real handle on peak oil and global warming. Ironically, he was criticized on one of the news shows for not understanding that refinery shortages were a major causes of high gas prices. It is frustrating because his personal lifestyle is so out of sync with his policy prescriptions.
Sadly, there is not much to choose from amongst the top tier candidates. I think you have to get down to Kucinich to find someone who is closest to walking the talk. He still lives in the same modest house he bought in the 1970s and is a vegan.
None of the candidates have had their "aha!" moment. Many of us, and I include myself, went through a period where we were aware of the energy and environmental problems, but had not not yet connected the dots back to our personal lifestyle.
Having said all that, these candidates, sadly, pretty much reflect the majority of their constituencies. The merit the cluelessness that is rampant throughout America.
Perhaps it is time for TOD readership to begin a campaign to constantly bombard their e-mail addresses with some information.
Do you actually believe that would work? I suspect that Edwards, Obama, and others are lots more clued in on the state of affairs than you imagine. I also suspect they are playing the political game to be elected, not to solve problems. Real statesmen are rare beasts.
They understand what's going on and don't care because these topics - peak oil, resource depletion, climate change - are not what will get them elected. They need to pander to gays on some non-issue, to multiple ethnic minorities on non-issues, and to other special interest groups on non-issues as well. Those are what get them elected, not dealing with real problems.
So by all means start a letter writing campaign. It will have zero impact because these politicians don't care.
Ghawar Is Dying
The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function. - Dr. Albert Bartlett
In Australia this federal election year, all the major parties are very strongly playing the Climate Change card, in fact it's arguably the single biggest card that is getting played. It's hard to guess exactly what has caused this - as it certainly wasn't the case at the last election 3 years ago (and remember Kyoto was 1999 - the issue has been in the public eye for a long time, and the science known for much longer before that), although some have speculated that the current drought conditions have made us all personally much more aware of how dependent we are on a stable climate.
Sadly, resource depletion, and specificially increasing oil dependence, hasn't made it on to the radar screens at all.
Hi Grey,
Always good to have a counter-argument. Just as an aside, honestly, I would really like to have your take on a "best case" path/scenario - (note I'm not using the word "solution").
re: "I suspect that Edwards, Obama, and others are lots more clued in on the state of affairs than you imagine."
This gets into psychology. My completely anecdotal experience says that it's about impossible to get a handle on the degree of consciousness of most people, including oneself. In fact, there may be some kind of logical impossibility there. (How do you know if you're unaware/insensitive in a particular situation or wrt to certain events? Only in hindsight.)* "Peak" has got to be one of the biggest challenges.
re: "...politicians don't care...". Well, they might. It's hard to tell.
Here's the thing. Define the "real problem."
(*Sometimes people develop practices to help, (periodic reflection) and that might help. I don't know.)
Second "request". Figure out what it is they do care about. And then address that.
Or, exercise another option. Politicians can be circumvented.
I'd say the combination of peak (oil, coal, gas) plus anthropogenic global warming is bigger yet. I don't see many people, let alone pols, getting their minds around that.
The Oil Drum should collect memberships (5$ lets say), elect a board. You have to be US citizens and eligible to vote in federal election.
The responsibility of the board is to determine a slate of presidential candidates which it will endorse. Shortly before the primaries, the general membership can vote (single transferable vote ballot) on who TOD will endorse.