Red State, Green Campaign

• subscribe to print magazine

• stay in touch with our email newsletter

  Subscribe to our regular weekly e-mail newsletter. It's packed with updates on recent and upcoming stories, events, campaigns and things every progressive should be informed about.

   

• email this article to a friend

  Your Name Your Email Recipient Email

  Personal message Thought you might be interested in this article from In These Times.

   

  Please help us prevent spam by verifying the word you see in the image above

  Send to multiple recipients. Just separate each email address with a comma.

• Reader Comments (4)

  Page 1 of 1 pages

  Andrew is amazing.  Inhofe votes against children, farmers, families and veterans.

  Let’s help the good guy.

  http://www.andrewforoklahoma.com

  http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/18228

  Posted by JimInhofeHatesPeople on Jun 2, 2008 at 7:27 AM

  There are people with excellent credentials who disagree with what has become the common wisdom regarding global warming or climate change. It may be we are entering a cycle such as the world has experienced many times before. Some say we may be about to experience another cooling period. What is without doubt is that our habits are causing toxic fumes and endangering lives — both animal and human.

  While we know this is true and not enough is being done, it is a topic politicians can back to get votes and never worry the results or lack of will come back to haunt them in their lifetime.

  It becomes one more distraction to avoid dealing with the more politically dangerous ones like illegal immigration, Social Security and Medicare, the disappearing middle class, tax reform, health care — all those messy ones they want to just wish away.

  -----------
  Separation of church and state — the “largest hoax”?

  Granted, it gets a lot of media play, but is only an issue if any religious belief or doctrine is made into a government requirement. These things are something WE can just ignore and it will go away or go on without us. Don’t sweat it.

  I guess he’s willing to accept the Y2k events as a non-hoax. Like so many things we’ll never know if it was a real crisis which was dodged by the actions taken or if it was a non event either way.

  Posted by whattheheck on Jun 3, 2008 at 2:00 PM

  I’m impressed (or rather--not dissappointed as usual) to see Rice isn’t proposing to use corn for ethanol or “clean coal” or some other such bogus, industry-backed, psuedo-progressive approach to alternative energy like, unlike most so-called progressive politicians. 

  Regarding whattheheck:
  There are also people who think that PCBs and DDT are harmless to humans.  And, while they may rightfully discount most of the scientific evidence to the contrary, most scientists in the field would yeild to the huge weight of evidence that the chemicals are very likely to be harmful to humans.  You can play it safe (even though you can’t be absolutely certain it necessary) or be reckless (throwing caution to the wind). 

  A few simple stats: over the last 650000 years the CO2 level has varied between 180 and 300ppm.  In the last 150 years humans have increased CO2 levels from 282 to 383ppm--well beyond the naturally occuring maximum.  Of course climate change is far more complicated than a simple CO2 cycle, but temperatures have followed the CO2 level throughout studied geological history.  Anyone who disregards that suggestion that CO2 levels rising well above historical levels creates dangerous situation in that temperatures as well may exceed historical levels despite whatever the natural cycle we are in would cause is a reckless fool and a blight on humanity.  The fact that the anthropogenic CO2 shift has occurred in a tiny fraction of the time such a change usually takes makes the short and long term changes we may be facing unpredictable and ought to be quite alarming.  It’s not just another vote-getting issue.  More to your point, the solution(s) are also solutions to economic and social issues and may be passable under the title of climate change mitigation than they would be under the headings of social welfare or taxation.

  “Separation of church and state — the “largest hoax”?  Granted, it gets a lot of media play, but is only an issue if any religious belief or doctrine is made into a government requirement. These things are something WE can just ignore and it will go away or go on without us. Don’t sweat it.”

  No.  The sloganeering of deists in my government is offensive.  “In God we trust” is an affront to my personal beliefs and a promotes a misperception of what my country’ and my countrys government were designed to be.  There are way too many idiotic Amerikkkans who think that this is a Xian nation--totally in opposition to the founders’ good intentions.  Same goes for “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.  Likewise there should be no religion-based bans on any behaviors such as sex, suicide or abortion.  Religion hindered good government for almost 1500+ years before the founding of the US; what we have in this nation is a tremendous revelation the likes of which have not been seen since the founding of the Holy Roman Empire.  The threat placed on this revelation by the misinformers and demagogues who like to think this is a Christian nation (the same people who would privatize medicare and social security and deny climate change) are bolstered by the failure to put the brakes on the religification of our nation and government.  “Don’t sweat it” my rear!

  Posted by beersnob on Jun 4, 2008 at 8:08 AM

  beersnob, I quite agree with you. What’s more, I think the Bible has been a tool used for many years to make people accept the unacceptable. The notion that a god chose a particular people from the many tribes to talk to is quite discouraging. The notion that all the creation was just something for man to use as he pleased is such a big mistake we are bound to pay for it. We are part of nature, not nature’s masters as we are constantly reminded by the events we are facing now. The sooner we all develop a conscious about the results we are harvesting through our thoughtless and selfish attitudes, the bigger a chance of trying to reverse our situation.

  Posted by Maria on Jun 5, 2008 at 11:40 AM

  Page 1 of 1 pages

• register a new account »Posting Security

  To participate in our forums, please register for a free account.

  Username Password

    Remember me
  

  Retreive lost password »

Also by Sam Boyd

• Red State, Green Campaign