Finally an article that makes some sense about our limited view of how to solve climate change. Here are some paragraphs I think are particularly interesting. Please take a couple minutes to read the whole article
"Environmentalism' Can Never Address Climate Change
by David Roberts in Grist
"Environmentalism has a well-defined socioeconomic niche in American life. There are distinct cultural markers; familiar tropes and debates; particular groups designated to lobby for change and economic interests accustomed to fighting it; conventional methods of litigation, regulation, and legislation. Environmental issues take a very specific shape.
The thing is, that shape doesn't fit climate change. Climate change -- or rather, the larger problem of which climate change is a symptom -- isn't like the issues that American environmentalism evolved to address. The solutions that American environmental politics are capable of producing are not commensurate with the scale and scope of the challenge climate change represents. A clear understanding of that challenge renders comically absurd the notion that it can or should be the province of a niche progressive interest group. It's just too big for that."
""Environmentalism" is simply not equipped to transform the basis of human culture. It grew up to address a specific, bounded set of issues. For 50 years, American environmental politics has been about restraining the amount of damage industries can do. Environmental campaigners have developed a set of strategies for that purpose, designed to overcome the resistance of industries and politicians to such restraints. And they've been successful in a number of areas. So when climate change entered American politics via environmentalism, that is the model into which it was slotted. Environmental campaigners set about restraining the amount of greenhouse gases industry can emit, and industry set about resisting. Greens and industry fought ferociously, but in the wake of the victories of the'70s, the public largely watched with indifference, barring a few episodes where support swung one way or another (usually as much due to economic circumstances as anything)."
"There is no siloed progressive interest group that can engineer the wholesale reindustrialization of the United States. Period. No amount of clever framing or thoughtful policy proposals can overcome the basic limitations of interest group politics."
"What needs to happen is for concern over earth's biophysical limitations to transcend the environmental movement -- and movement politics, as handed down from the '60s, generally. It needs to take its place alongside the economy and national security as a priority concern of American elites across ideological and organizational lines. It needs to become a shared concern of every American citizen regardless of ideological orientation or level of political engagement. That is the only way we can ever hope to bring about the urgent necessary changes."
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Preventing Toxic Contamination by Getting Local
Check out my latest post on the Momsrising blog.
CNN’s Dr. Gupta is hosting a series on toxic chemical contamination around the country called Toxic America. This past Saturday, Dr. Gupta’s story focused on pregnancy and toxic chemicals by following a couple who had difficulty getting pregnant only to realize some troubling information. Women are carrying a body burden of toxic chemicals being released from things found in our homes and places of work.
Dr. Gupta stated: “Scientists at the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health in New York City have been following hundreds of pregnant women over the past 12 years to measure chemicals entering the womb during pregnancy.
The women trudge through the city for 48 hours wearing special backpacks, each with a long tube that is slung over the shoulder. The tube, resting inches below the pregnant mom’s mouth, sucks air into a special filter, giving an approximate measurement of the air that she is breathing. The backpack is designed to measure ambient toxics spewed by vehicles, pesticides, and chemicals from common household products.”
Dr. Landrigan from the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine states, “”For 80 percent of the common chemicals in everyday use in this country we know almost nothing about whether or not they can damage the brains of children, the immune system, the reproductive system, and the other developing organs. . . It’s really a terrible mess we’ve gotten ourselves into.”
The failure of corporations and our government’s action to set up safeguards that protect our most vulnerable populations against harmful impacts of the chemicals in everyday use is astounding at best. To continue to do so even after the release of hundreds of studies on chemicals found in flame retardants to tin can linings to pvc plastic school supplies is . . . well its just disgusting. And it’s one of the many reasons why people are losing trust in large corporations and are frustrated with our nation’s government agencies.
Organizations around the world are fighting to pass state, national and international laws to prevent this from continuing and we should support them when and where we can. But what I find particularly inspiring are the local community organizations that are working to stop pollution while mobilizing those that live in their own neighborhoods to take a leadership role in preventing harm in the first place.
This Saturday, August 14, in Oakland, CA there is a celebration called Fresh Fest 2010. It’s a celebration of East Bay area youth getting active to protect our environment and our health through education and community engagement. It is being hosted by a large Oakland collaborative, including the Toxic Triangle Coalition. West Oakland is often called the Toxic Triangle because of its long list of toxic contamination. Fresh Fest is one way to get educated, have fun, and get involved. And it is something that can be replicated all over the country.
As Dr. Gupta has stated in his Toxic America series, chemical contamination isn’t just about what toxic chemicals are turning up in our bodies and in the environment, it is also about the lasting impacts this contamination has on our children’s ability to learn and our economy.
Communities hit by chronic chemical pollution suffer higher financial losses due to higher rates of health problems such as development and neurological disorders and reductions in future generation’s IQ points and thus earning potential. Eliminating the use of toxic chemicals from our homes, schools, and places of work isn’t just good policy, it’s a way to protect our individual communities from greater societal harm.
It is only through our individual action will we move closer to preventing toxic pollution from happening. As we begin to better understand the true impacts of the thousands of chemicals being used everyday, we are increasingly in need to stand up and participate.
One way to stand up is by participating in events like Fresh Fest 2010 and volunteering for organization’s like the Community Rejuvenation Project. Here are a few other groups that can help you find a way to raise your own voice:
Get Fresh
Women’s Voices for the Earth
Louisiana Bucket Brigade
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
For a toxic free future,
Renee Claire
CNN’s Dr. Gupta is hosting a series on toxic chemical contamination around the country called Toxic America. This past Saturday, Dr. Gupta’s story focused on pregnancy and toxic chemicals by following a couple who had difficulty getting pregnant only to realize some troubling information. Women are carrying a body burden of toxic chemicals being released from things found in our homes and places of work.
Dr. Gupta stated: “Scientists at the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health in New York City have been following hundreds of pregnant women over the past 12 years to measure chemicals entering the womb during pregnancy.
The women trudge through the city for 48 hours wearing special backpacks, each with a long tube that is slung over the shoulder. The tube, resting inches below the pregnant mom’s mouth, sucks air into a special filter, giving an approximate measurement of the air that she is breathing. The backpack is designed to measure ambient toxics spewed by vehicles, pesticides, and chemicals from common household products.”
Dr. Landrigan from the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine states, “”For 80 percent of the common chemicals in everyday use in this country we know almost nothing about whether or not they can damage the brains of children, the immune system, the reproductive system, and the other developing organs. . . It’s really a terrible mess we’ve gotten ourselves into.”
The failure of corporations and our government’s action to set up safeguards that protect our most vulnerable populations against harmful impacts of the chemicals in everyday use is astounding at best. To continue to do so even after the release of hundreds of studies on chemicals found in flame retardants to tin can linings to pvc plastic school supplies is . . . well its just disgusting. And it’s one of the many reasons why people are losing trust in large corporations and are frustrated with our nation’s government agencies.
Organizations around the world are fighting to pass state, national and international laws to prevent this from continuing and we should support them when and where we can. But what I find particularly inspiring are the local community organizations that are working to stop pollution while mobilizing those that live in their own neighborhoods to take a leadership role in preventing harm in the first place.
This Saturday, August 14, in Oakland, CA there is a celebration called Fresh Fest 2010. It’s a celebration of East Bay area youth getting active to protect our environment and our health through education and community engagement. It is being hosted by a large Oakland collaborative, including the Toxic Triangle Coalition. West Oakland is often called the Toxic Triangle because of its long list of toxic contamination. Fresh Fest is one way to get educated, have fun, and get involved. And it is something that can be replicated all over the country.
As Dr. Gupta has stated in his Toxic America series, chemical contamination isn’t just about what toxic chemicals are turning up in our bodies and in the environment, it is also about the lasting impacts this contamination has on our children’s ability to learn and our economy.
Communities hit by chronic chemical pollution suffer higher financial losses due to higher rates of health problems such as development and neurological disorders and reductions in future generation’s IQ points and thus earning potential. Eliminating the use of toxic chemicals from our homes, schools, and places of work isn’t just good policy, it’s a way to protect our individual communities from greater societal harm.
It is only through our individual action will we move closer to preventing toxic pollution from happening. As we begin to better understand the true impacts of the thousands of chemicals being used everyday, we are increasingly in need to stand up and participate.
One way to stand up is by participating in events like Fresh Fest 2010 and volunteering for organization’s like the Community Rejuvenation Project. Here are a few other groups that can help you find a way to raise your own voice:
Get Fresh
Women’s Voices for the Earth
Louisiana Bucket Brigade
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
For a toxic free future,
Renee Claire
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Wednesday Quicky
The sun is gone. The swamp-like weather has moved in. And I still can't get a good avacodo in this fucking town. I'm ready to go home, but I won't step foot in the dream house for another three weeks! So I will listen to some jazz on WWOZ and hide out in this little nook I found in the office until it's time to leave. Or maybe it's just the post Lake Como holiday blues I'm feeling today.
Read this article about Detroit's art scene and a particular art collective Soup.
"Soup, as it’s known, is a monthly gathering, held above the MexicanTown Bakery in southwestern Detroit, where guests pay $5 for a homemade bowlful, salad (locally grown, to be sure) and dessert, and sit at tables made of doors laid over milk crates, listening as compatriots propose projects. Creating a pocket park, organizing an artists directory and devising a surveillance-camera video montage were all on this month’s agenda. The guests vote, and the idea deemed most deserving gets the Soup dollars — a neat little way to wiki-finance creativity. Soup, which started seven months ago, has been growing steadily. The last one, on Sunday, was the largest yet."
I'm in search of partner art collectives in South America. If you know of anyone that might know of anyone, please shoot me an email/text/tweet/facebook/call (though I never actually answer my phone) or post-it.
And if you have a couple bucks this month, please consider passing it along to CRP. We are raising funds to receive a matching grant of $3,500. This will help fund the painting of 2 walls in East Oakland, an area full of young artists looking for something positive to do.
Read this article about Detroit's art scene and a particular art collective Soup.
"Soup, as it’s known, is a monthly gathering, held above the MexicanTown Bakery in southwestern Detroit, where guests pay $5 for a homemade bowlful, salad (locally grown, to be sure) and dessert, and sit at tables made of doors laid over milk crates, listening as compatriots propose projects. Creating a pocket park, organizing an artists directory and devising a surveillance-camera video montage were all on this month’s agenda. The guests vote, and the idea deemed most deserving gets the Soup dollars — a neat little way to wiki-finance creativity. Soup, which started seven months ago, has been growing steadily. The last one, on Sunday, was the largest yet."
I'm in search of partner art collectives in South America. If you know of anyone that might know of anyone, please shoot me an email/text/tweet/facebook/call (though I never actually answer my phone) or post-it.
And if you have a couple bucks this month, please consider passing it along to CRP. We are raising funds to receive a matching grant of $3,500. This will help fund the painting of 2 walls in East Oakland, an area full of young artists looking for something positive to do.
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