Morning Widdershins: Jimmy Carter Was Right.
Posted on: November 20, 2012
Morning, all. As you may have seen yesterday, our Fredster is taking some time to rest and heal his leg. So, we’ll be taking his shifts for a little while. Please keep him in your thoughts.
After the devastation of Superstorm Sandy, the issue of climate change is being raised anew. Now, I’m not a huge fan of many of the things the German government does (Austerity being one of them). But ya know, they sure seem to have the political will to deal with the undeniable reality of climate change.
Since 2000, Germany has converted 25 percent of its power grid to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass. The architects of the clean energy movement Energiewende, which translates to “energy transformation,” estimate that from 80 percent to 100 percent of Germany’s electricity will come from renewable sources by 2050.
Germans are baffled that the United States has not taken the same path. Not only is the U.S. the wealthiest nation in the world, but it’s also credited with jump-starting Germany’s green movement 40 years ago.
“This is a very American idea,” Arne Jungjohann, a director at the Heinrich Boll Stiftung Foundation (HBSF), said at a press conference Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C. “We got this from Jimmy Carter.”
Poor, naive Germans! They don’t understand that Ronald Raygun was saving America when he ripped Jimmeh’s Commie pinko solar panels off the White House. Anyway, Lee Atwater told me that the Soviets were using those things to spy on the President! ZOMG!!!111!!!!
Somehow, they also must have avoided the floods of dark money that have propagandized the American people into doubting the very real, and obviously man-made, price of our addiction to petrochemicals. Must be nice to live in a place where corporations aren’t people. In fact, people end up producing their own energy – and getting paid for it.
In the end, ratepayers control the program, not the government. This adds consistency, Davidson says. If the government itself paid, it would be easy for a new finance minister to cut the program upon taking office. Funding is not at the whim of politicians as it is in the U.S.
“Everyone has skin in the game,” says writer Osha Gray Davidson. “The movement is decentralized and democratized, and that’s why it works. Anybody in Germany can be a utility.”
The urgency of dealing with global warming was recently recognized by that ultra-liberal (snort) organization, the World Bank. The nations of the world are not doing enough to slow or stop the warming of the earth, concluded its white paper entitled “Turn Down the Heat.” The World Bank’s scientific study found that the consequences of even a 4-degree Centigrade rise in the temperature of the earth’s core would be catastrophic.
The 4°C scenarios are devastating: the inundation of coastal cities; increasing risks for food production potentially leading to higher malnutrition rates; many dry regions becoming dryer, wet regions wetter; unprecedented heat waves in many regions, especially in the tropics; substantially exacerbated water scarcity in many regions; increased frequency of high-intensity tropical cyclones; and irreversible loss of biodiversity, including coral reef systems.
And most importantly, a 4°C world is so different from the current one that it comes with high uncertainty and new risks that threaten our ability to anticipate and plan for future adaptation needs.
The lack of action on climate change not only risks putting prosperity out of reach of millions of people in the developing world, it threatens to roll back decades of sustainable development.
Sadly, thanks to our DINO of a President, who is still playing footsie with XL about the Keystone Pipeline, thinks that it’s just fine and dandy that we’re slated to be the biggest oil and gas producer in the world by 2020. We’re going backwards instead of forwards. I wonder why?
The largest difference, panelists said, between Germany and the U.S. is how reactive the government is to its citizens. Democracy in Germany has meant keeping and strengthening regulatory agencies while forming policies that put public ownership ahead of private ownership.
Or perhaps, the largest difference is that today’s German government recognizes a good and necessary idea when they hear it…even if it came from a buck-toothed guy wearing a sweater vest 46 years ago, or even a man who “wears earth tones” and “sighs.”
Let’s hope that someday soon, Americans will show the same discernment.
This is an open thread.
33 Responses to "Morning Widdershins: Jimmy Carter Was Right."
November 20, 2012 at 9:08 am
@1 – As far as I can tell, Raygun “saved” us from the following:
- A forward-thinking energy strategy
- Independence from foreign oil (and the terrible foreign policy that goes along with it)
- A healthier planetary ecosystem
But at least he gave a great speech!
Speaking of foreign oil…look who’s going to Gaza. Be safe, Hillary.
Clinton flew to Jerusalem to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leaving abruptly from Cambodia, where she had accompanied Obama to a regional summit. From Israel, she is slated to travel to the West Bank city of Ramallah to meet with Palestinian officials before heading to Cairo to talk with Egyptian leaders.
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said Clinton’s task was the “de-escalation of violence” in the Gaza Strip and that her hastily arranged trip was deemed by the president to be the best way to push toward that goal.
After days of working the phones while traveling in Southeast Asia, Obama determined it was time for “face-to-face discussions,” Rhodes said.
“The center of gravity is in the region,” he said.
I was wondering when Obama would start to take a more active role. At least he sent the right woman.
November 20, 2012 at 9:22 am
Who cares about the environment when there is profit to be made?
Come on, these are the “job creators” promised during the campaign pushing for deregulation that would loosen the bonds of safety for the chance to turn a buck!
In watching Ken Burns documentary about the “Dust Bowl” I was surprised to learn that most of that tragedy was man made with a warning at the end that we are headed along the same path less than 100 years later.
We never learn as we are now more than likely living with the consequences of ignoring the scientists who warned us of the perils of carbon footprints that have led to these drastic atmospheric changes.
It will be impossible to live without clean air and water but as long as the bottom line is the first pursuit nothing will change.
November 20, 2012 at 9:23 am
Getting ordinary people invested in changing the way energy is used is critical. I’ve been trying to tell people Germany’s got it right, and inevitably run up against “But in America, we’re FREEE”. I knew that wasn’t a valid counter-argument but your post spelled out precisely why.
Getting enough people to change their major purchasing habits and small daily expenditures in favor of renewable energy is the missing piece I was trying to conceptualize recently. I was staring at our local college’s windmill and trying to figure out why the Clean Air passed, when they just can’t get what that windmill symbolizes going for the average person today. It seemed there has to be a critical mass of citizens who support the idea on their own before things like fleets of smaller more efficient cars become commonplace reality.
Most of the environmental push seems to come in the U.S. from sources like this college or its larger sister institution, which didn’t even have demo projects like the windmill to capture the public imagination. They’ve settled instead for a steady stream of preaching to an audience for whom the status of driving an expensive SUV three miles to work and back is non-negotiable, and concocting studies and projects designed for individual very large national and multinational sites and institutions. Even the latter did not adopt the changes in any significant way, but seemed more to do so, when they did, as limited P.R. gestures.
November 20, 2012 at 9:51 am
Hey, the new “boy wonder” of the Republian Party, none other than Marco Rubio who may be a presidential nominee come 2016, is not sure how old the earth is!
“It could have been made in 7 days” says Rubio, but we should include the “study” of the differences in our school curriculum as a means of sorting it out. WTF?
This guy wants to be POTUS but he is open to debate biblical myths! Are you kidding me? How much ignorance and pandering is on display in this comment is too ridiculous to comprehend.
And we wonder if anyone will be able to convince the public to change their thinking and adopt some measures to halt the rape of the environment if we are expected to sit around “debating” if the universe is a result of a 7 day creation vs billions of years of evolution?
This man is the “face” of the new GOP undergoing changes to keep up with the electorate. While Jindahl pushes for “creationism” to be part of the curriculum in LA this group promises to put a halt to critical thinking in the face of scientific research.
Give me a break!
November 20, 2012 at 9:52 am
“This is a very American idea,”
Yup, and so was Deming’s…no problem we wouldn’t listen to him and Japan did! By 2020, we will lead the world in buggy whips. We are the stupidest country sometimes.
November 20, 2012 at 10:09 am
@6 Sophie, well done! When I was training in project management methodology, Deming was a god. The profs could not explain why he had been able to give the Japanese the tools to turn around the economy, yet he was ignored and ridiculed in his home country. I believe that Dakinikat trained under Deming lucky lady.
Re the post, well stated Madamab. It’s bizarre that more people do not understand that there is a co-relation between the well being of the earth and the continued existence of the human race and all the creatures who share the planet (mind you, non human cock roaches, alligators/crocs and sharks will probably survive). And as everyone has touched upon it’s dependent upon education, which is being eroded for political purposes to accommodate the big money people.
November 20, 2012 at 10:13 am
@4 – I think the market reflects that people are interested in cleaning up the environment, and that we do want fuel-efficient cars, for example. Every top luxury brand is coming out with a hybrid either this year or next year, and all major automakers have either electric cars, hybrids, or some other form of high-mileage alternative out there. There is only one reason for this – demand.
http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/most-fuel-efficient-cars-2012/1.html
In states like New Jersey, there were programs in effect that gave homeowners tax credits for installing solar panels. A friend of mine did it and says he has plenty of electricity. Of course, this was before Chris Christie became governor.
As a long-time IT consultant and adoption advocate, I think the key to getting people to embrace change is two-fold:
1) Make it easy; and
2) Make it pay.
If we had the political will in America, we could certainly do both of those things to enable the switch to solar energy. But both Parties are bitterly clinging to their oil and gas addiction, enabled by beaucoup de bucks from both industries. So pathetic!
November 20, 2012 at 11:11 am
@6 & 7 – Change is hard, even change for the better. Given the choice, most people will choose the status quo.
Look at what happened with the Dust Bowl. People stayed there for 10 years, making clothes out of flour sacks and dying from “dust pneumonia.” They didn’t want to admit that anything they did caused the disaster, nor did most of them leave for (literally) greener pastures.
November 20, 2012 at 11:27 am
Keep in mind that during the 30s there was also a compatible global depression also going on that left many in the Dust Bowl without means to go elsewhere seeking relief. As Burns pointed out, and what was chronicled by Steinbeck, those people were exploited by the CA produce owners in offerering wages that were far below the level of survival.
Most felt they were at the mercy of a drought and it wasn’t until several years later that they were presented with the facts that their argricultural efforts were essentially responsible for the destruction of the environment, something that had been forewarned by the Native Americans who had toiled that same soil for centuries.
Those who stayed seemed to have little choice on where they could go since all they knew was farming and their lack of education outside that arena prevented them from finding a different way to make a living.
Scientific methods were only being felt at that time when studies were coming into their own and thanks to the tenacity of FDR that land may have been lost forever.
It is what has been learned and forgotten that is placing this area again peril.
We never seem to “get it”.
November 20, 2012 at 11:36 am
So true Pat – under historical farming techniques, crop rotation was a must. One year, the field(s) would be plowed and left unseeded (fallowing) while the fields that had been left fallow the year before would be seeded. This allowed the fallowed field to recoup from the nutrient drain and recover. That doesn’t seem to be done anymore, what with agribusiness, huge farm corporations taking over. One more area where we just do not get the lessons that history has taught us. It’s also a problem in areas that encounter drought conditions, which ultimately results in an inability to produce food. If the land is depleted, and there is no water, then the plants will wither and die.
November 20, 2012 at 11:38 am
It has always been amazing to me that the Native Americans, labeled as “savages”, were the ones who lived by the unwritten rule to “take only what you need” whereas the white European settlers preferred to “need all you can take”.
Beginning with the total destruction of the American buffalo – often just for “sport” – we managed to rape and exploit the natural resources these tribes lived in union with for centuries.
And we continue to do so at our own peril.
November 20, 2012 at 11:47 am
The Native Americans “studied” weather patterns. It was how they learned to survive in a harsh environment.
The European settlers saw vast regions of land that could be had for the asking and set about ignoring what came before them.
The Native Americans did not possess written documents to describe what those studies of the environment had meant for them so they were “dismissed”.
But that’s just us: we always “know better” than the experts whose very survival rested with a communion with nature. Knowing they could not “harness” it they learned to adapt. Not us.
The treatment of the Native American is another example of the mistreatment of those who “differ” from us.
November 20, 2012 at 11:57 am
Not just the buffalo – some tribes were wiped out in the white man’s quest for more, more, more – the Beothuk for example (from whence came the term “redskin”). Darned tribe who relied on fishing, who finally learned to trust the white man, and were met with cannonballs when a meeting was arranged. And that is our problem isn’t it – this quest for more, more more? How much “more” is enough?
November 20, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Oops, I’m in moderation. Was it the term? BTW, I’m paler than pale – blonde, blue, freckles, no sun without hat and SF70 sunscreen.
November 20, 2012 at 1:33 pm
You’re out, HT.
Pat, very well-said about the Dust Bowl inhabitants who didn’t leave. I have to admit I missed the first part of the documentary, so I wasn’t fully tuned in to why they stayed. It makes total sense.
When you say “we,” as in “we” don’t treat others we see as “different” with respect and dignity, I think what you mean is “white European men and their ancestors.” I wonder if things would have been any different if women had been in charge of settling the New World. I’d like to think so.
November 20, 2012 at 1:47 pm
madamab: If the nation at that time was looking to somebody like me to venture forth into the uncharerted West we wouldn’t have gotten any further than Hartford, CT!
If there is one thing I can attest to is that I truly “love, love, love” my comforts and spending unending days without virtue of a taking a shower or nibbling on M & M’s as the scenery rolled by is not my idea of adventure.
I would have hopped off the covered wagon about 15 minutes in as staring at the rear end of a horse and making fire from a flint would have sealed my fate.
I was never designed for “pioneering” outside of wearing a miniskirt to church back in the day.
But I do give those women credit who did. They were made of much stronger stock than myself in giving birth on an open prairie in the middle of a snowstorm surrounded by bear and buffalo that would have had me “hitchhiking” back to civilzation faster than a speeding bullet.
November 20, 2012 at 3:04 pm
@17 & 18 – My instinct is that I would feel EXACTLY the same way, ladies! So maybe if women had been in charge, colonialism would not have taken hold at all. 
Food for thought.
November 20, 2012 at 3:10 pm
Excellent post MB and thank you for doing it. I’m here for just a few minutes. Can’t stand being in the bed with legs elevated forever; I need a wee break from that. I have to go back to my doctor tomorrow and then next Thurs. I have an appt. with a specialist.
If I’m not back before, everyone have a great and safe Thaksgiving. HT: you just enjoy your Thursday. 
Later!
November 20, 2012 at 3:16 pm
Pat@17: I’m with you. Got an email from a friend who had gone campng and had taken a couple night photos with some meteors showing . I replied back laughing and about the only way I could or would go “camping” now is in one of these.
http://tuscanyrv.com/xte/overview.php
November 20, 2012 at 4:42 pm
@20 – Fredster, I was happy to be able to help you out for a change. Now that my travel has stopped for the moment, I have a lot more time to spend on the blog. Just take it easy and take care of you.
November 20, 2012 at 4:51 pm
You have to admit it is pretty much genius of the conservative media complex and particularly Frank Luntz to design words for certain issues whereby their natural audience automatically turns off any data that might clarify or educate.
Global warming and climate change are perfect examples — I have Fox addicted acquaintances who, when they hear the words climate change, without anything else or additional prodding, completely shut the person down and declare them addled-brain communist drug users who want to take their guns and use them as bongs.
There is a certain ingeniousness to molding a word into a trigger that forecloses any chance of educating oneself. It really does make for great literary economy which is a good thing since they know so few words and almost none over three syllables.
November 20, 2012 at 5:51 pm
Hey, don’t knock the gun-bong, Prolix. (inhales deeply)
Seriously – great comment. The conservatives have been creating trigger words for 40 years. They’ve done it very well, too. Of course, it helps if you have fear-based, authoritarian followers to work with, who lack critical thinking skills. Such is the current Republican base….
November 20, 2012 at 6:06 pm
Solar power is getting bigger here. Hubbie was in charge of a large Solar Photovoltaic project for a new high tech school in LAUSD territory. He says its working great makes tons of electricity, is greatly reducing the electrical costs for the school, and when the school is closed the excess is sold back to the power company. They are planning many more of these. Solar power has come a long way since the 80s when people used it to warm up water for their pools.
Hi Fredster! Take care!
November 20, 2012 at 7:21 pm
socal, that is great news. Now if those ideas and actions would spread throughout the continent – no more oil sands or pipelines. Works for me.
Prolix, great comment. Trigger words, it’s almost like a post hypnotic suggestion isn’t it.
Fredster, your mission which you have no choice but to accept, is to concentrate and get your leg better – stat. While we all miss your pithy posts, this is a time when you need to devote all your energies to yourself. Do it!
November 20, 2012 at 7:25 pm
P.S. Socal, how’s our guy Laker doing? Almost the end of the first semester isn’t it?
November 21, 2012 at 12:16 am
#6 Sophie, I had no idea someone else on my blogger block new Old Ed Deming! I could do hours on the guy, was personally in his presence as he laughed his ass off at America. In fact, I have done hours on him. I learned much from him.
He warned us post-war that USA might not always be on top in manufacturing, so we funded him to go play in Japan,- to get him out of our hair. (Made in Japan jokes, anyone?). The rest is history over a period of 40 years as Japan slowly ate our lunch, first in the auto industry and then on and on. They had this silly notion that quality actually meant something more than shipping on time – or that it might be a good idea to actually ask the customer what they wanted. By the time we wanted him back, he had one foot in the grave. And of course, we wanted him to ‘fix’ things in a couple of weeks.
November 21, 2012 at 12:19 am
Hubbie says he just talked to the principal of that school and she said the photovoltaic has reduced their electrical bill 90%!!!! In other words their monthly bill is only 10% of what it used to be. That is progress!
November 21, 2012 at 12:23 am
HT, laker is here & says HI, hopes you and the kids are fine, and sends a big hug! He is doing well, enjoying college more and his band did a couple of performance this past weekend. They are getting better each time.
He also says Get Well Soon to Fredster!
(I would’ve had him post himself, but its such a pain now since WordPress “upgraded” their system. I have to log out and he has to log in and sometimes it doesn’t take it and takes forever.)
November 21, 2012 at 7:51 am
@29 I was in manufacturing for many years, spanning the 80s. I had a front seat view of them eating our lunch. Long story short: Sony bought our company.
November 21, 2012 at 4:51 pm
@8 Sorry to follow so late, but I don’t have Internet at home. In fact, I don’t even have the home.
But before my career and livelihood became collateral damage in a gang rape in a college town, I was employed in IT in the college’s environmental department. My job was collecting data into a central repository and delivering it in response to dynamic web queries. I also collected print stories about the environment, many from CBC and David Suzuki.
That college department, so officially environmentally conscious and so status conscious in reality, made me realize how hard it is to change ordinary people’s habits given the enormous self blindness factor. The vast majority of vehicles in this state, both in the mountains and on the flatlands, are SUVs.
In my nine years as a consultant out of the preceding twenty years in IT, I saw many different attitudes towards environmental solutions, but most were prey to this kind of personal myopia. In Washington State, for example, the bus system in one of the most ecologically conscious towns there didn’t start until after a considerable number of the workforce – the poorest and those that needed it most, ironically enough – already had to be at their jobs. Their cars put out the most pollution, but they had to drive them. The bus system administrators acknowledged that these people’s problems were the least of their worries – getting cars off the roads to ease congestion, and presumably smooth the commutes of the better off, was their main priority.
I agree with you that people want better environmental solutions. I think that they have to want it enough to overcome the political inertia, just as they had to in the 1970′s.
Comments are closed.
November 20, 2012 at 8:37 am
Well, if Jimmy Carter wanted it, it must be stupid or evil. Otherwise Reagan could not be our savior.