[Section 15] Does Harper think The Economist to be crazy?

It's Harper who must be crazy.

Harper's very much on record calling Dion's Green shift crazy:

"Mr. Dion's policies are, as I said, crazy. This is crazy economics. It's crazy environmental policy. " - Prime Minister Stephen Harper, June 19, 2008

And yet, what's the cover editorial of the latest issue of the Economist about? Read the conclusion for yourself (emphasis mine):

The best thing that rich-world governments can do is to encourage the alternatives by taxing carbon (even knowing that places like China and India will not) and removing subsidies that favour fossil fuels. Competition should do the rest—for the fledgling firms of the alternative-energy industry are in competition with each other as much as they are with the incumbent fossil-fuel companies. Let a hundred flowers bloom. When they have, China, too, may find some it likes the look of. Therein lies the best hope for the energy business, and the planet.

Harper, of course, knows that Dion's Green Shift plan is a reasonable idea. He's just shooting down tax shifting because if Dion can sell it, Harper will never sit in the PM's chair again.

I guess Harper must be cancelling his subscription about right now.

H/T Sober Second Thoughts.

--
Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 6/29/2008 09:25:00 PM

[Section 15] JPL's Climate Change Machine

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has placed an interactive climate change application online. It lets you view changes in the Arctic polar cap, sea level changes over the Pacific, CO2 emissions and the changes in average global temperature.

Play with it!

Here's a few images I grabbed.



Yes, that's our northern polar ice cap melting. The red outline is where the ice cap was at the end of summer, 1979. The ice cap seen is its extent at the end of summer, 2007.

It is believed that the ice cap may completely melt by the end of this summer (CTV).

I am sadly amused by denialists who claim that thickening ice during the winter 'proves' global warming to be a sham.

The temperature record from 1990 to 2007 is shocking:



--
Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 6/29/2008 01:09:00 PM

[Section 15] Beehive killoffs accelerating

Our bees are dying.

One out of three commercial bee hives in the US were lost last year due to mysterious circumstances.

Colony collapse disorder is what they call it, and there's no answers in sight. First blamed on mites, speculation has moved on to new bacterias (or revisiting old), GM crops, climate change, and, for all I know, space aliens.

The point is, not enough is being done. We depend on bees for the pollination of our crops. It's time to get a move on.

See McClatchy for more.

--
Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 6/27/2008 11:12:00 AM

[Section 15] Libertarians as Anarchists

In a comments discussion over at Runesmiths blog, I said:

True libertarianism is about having THE PORTION YOU ARE DUE. The brand of libertarians you are dealing with are interested in whatever they can steal.

Don't expect them to debate rationally. That's not what they are trying to do. These guys have the mindset of robber barons and con artists. Caveat emptor applies.

I'm not in the green party any more, but quite a few greens are libertarians who woke up. They figured out that social and environmental debts and deficits damage liberty as much as fiscal ones.

...A lot of these 'libertarians' aren't. They actually espouse many anarchistic beliefs.

For example, a typical libertarian would blow your head off for dumping garbage on their land (trespassing and vandalism). So why should they accept a coal plant upwind dumping mercury on their land? Or human-induced climate change altering their land?

Since their much-loved political and social philosophy can't deal with these realities (that is, they fail to account for externalities), they go into a state of denial. To admit that these externalities must be dealt with is to admit that their simplistic philosophy is wrong.

Those libertarians who recognize the problem, but still don't want to adjust their behaviour, are actually moving away from libertarianism into the open arms of anarchy.

I'll be expanding on the themes I raised above on another date. Be on the lookout for a future post named

My Name is Mark Francis, and I am a Libertarian

--
Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 6/25/2008 03:34:00 PM

[Section 15] Glee!

Black loses U.S. appeal

I'm sure he'll keep appealing. In the meantime, glee!

--
Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 6/25/2008 01:20:00 PM

[Section 15] Dear Ed: Reduce emissions or lose business

Never mind the Liberal's Green Shift plan, there are significant forward-thinking groups which are actually refusing to buy tar sands oil. Another one announced today:

U.S. mayors have become the latest group trying to reduce the use of gasoline made with oil from Alberta's oilsands. A resolution has passed at their annual conference in Miami that urges cities to forbid the use of such gasoline in municipal vehicles.

Get with the program, Stelmach.

--
Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 6/23/2008 03:03:00 PM

[Section 15] Stelmach hits the nail right through his thumb

From the CBC:

'My greatest fear is for those on fixed income, because your heating costs will go up. Just visiting your grandkids, you know, the fuel for the car will go up.'—Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach

Ignoring for the moment that Dion's Green Shift will not be taxing gasoline further, Stelmach is arguing by default that it's wrong to up the cost of carbon-polluting fuels, but that it's fine to make those precious grandkids spend their renewable resource-poor lives paying for the ills of previous generations.

--
Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 6/23/2008 01:21:00 PM