 October 29, 2008
Dear Friend, As you read this week's WeGetIt.org Wednesday Bulletin, please be thinking of friends who would benefit from it, and then forward it to them. Thanks for your support! A green New Deal?
From the BBC, to Newsweek, to the New Statesman, environmental advocates are calling for a “Green New Deal” that would, in the words of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, “rebuild and reshape the economy of planet Earth." Hidden away in Newsweek's article is a fascinating statement linking worldwide financial system bailouts with global warming policy, inadvertently acknowledging that what they both point toward is shrinking the free market and, with it, individual freedoms.Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, admits that transforming the energy economy is "only in our minds." Economic realities make it impossible so long as people are free to choose. But as the Newsweek authors put it, If there is good news, in Birol's view, it's that after the epic interventions in the financial markets over the past few weeks, the notion that the state might intervene massively to redirect the energy market no longer seems extreme, even to the normally laissez-faire British and Americans. Once you open the floodgates of government funding for the banks, why not for green industry, too? In other words, government takeovers of financial institutions pave the way for government expansion in other sectors, too. Socialism wins. Freedom loses. Better deal: Improve resiliency If climate control is a non-starter because its costs outweigh its benefits, what should be done about global warming? Environmental scientist and former cap-and-trade supporter Kenneth P. Green used to support cap-and-trade climate change regulations. Now, he’s changed his mind. Policymakers who really want to implement rational climate policy should be focused, here and elsewhere, on building resilience to climate variability…. And they should put economic repairs first: only the surplus wealth of productive economies allows us to protect our environment, set aside natural resources, and tread more lightly on the Earth. In his brief article, Green explains why cap-and-trade (which helped reduce sulfur-dioxide emissions) will be mostly useless in addressing carbon-dioxide emissions. "To the extent that it actually does work," he concludes, "carbon cap and trade will
Minorities prove a hard sell on climate change Environmental activists are trying to portray global warming as a threat to the poor, who supposedly will suffer more of the negative effects of higher temperatures. According to some, climate change is the new civil rights issue, and a new lobbying group, the Commission to Engage African-Americans on Climate Change, has been formed to "educate" and "refocus" the African-American social justice movement on the supposed hazards of climate change. Yet, despite the Commission's best efforts, most African-American leaders are focused on different environmental issues, like industrial air and water pollution, that directly affect their communities. According to the Congress of Racial Equality's Niger Innis, "Higher energy prices keep the poor from rising to the middle class" by forcing workers and families to spend more on energy, keeping them in a day-to-day struggle for survival and preventing them from working toward a better future for their children and their communities. Far from addressing the unemployment problem, carbon reduction schemes will drive America's struggling poor further into hardship. Innis recognizes that they will "cause widespread layoffs, leaving unemployed workers and families struggling to survive, as the cost of everything they eat, drive, wear and do spirals out of control." Suddenly everyone, from the European Union to the world's largest developing nations, is cautious about global warming policies. No surprise that our poorest neighbors, who stand to lose the most, are not buying. Now, please forward this message to your pastor, other Christian leaders, and friends and urge them to sign the WeGetIt.org Declaration, too! The more people sign, the stronger the message our leaders will hear that Biblical principles and factual evidence, not media hype about speculative fears like global warming, should guide our care for the environment and the poor.Gratefully,
Edit your name | Bulletin Archives | Unsubscribe | Inquiries |
