August/September 2008
We're All in This Together
Tom Atlee
Bridging the Green Divide
Interview with Van Jones by David Kupfer
A Generational Challenge to Repower America
Al Gore
The Golden Voice of the Southwest
Amy Goodman interviews Utah Phillips
The Traveling Peacemaker
Interview with Mashall Rosenverg
Ronna Kabatznic and Margaret Cullen
Non Violent Communication Basics
Gary Baran
Table for Six Billion
Interview with Judy Wicks
David Kupfer
Seasonal Detoxification for Year Round Health
Bonnie Nedrow, ND and Rod Newton, DC
Top-Down or Upside-Down
Peter Moore
Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life
Book Review by Alan Sasha Lithman
Cosmic Calendar
Salina Rain
By Deborah Mokma
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” - Albert Einstein
Exxon Mobil Corporation reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion last July, the biggest quarterly profit ever by a US corporation. Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, responding to this report stated “Contrary to what Bush is claiming, the Department of Energy determined that an increase of offshore drilling would have an insignificant impact on oil supply and prices. These profits at Exxon Mobil and other big oil companies are not being re-invested into things that would end our oil addiction; they are being used to finance things like stock buy-backs. We need to stop subsidizing big oil so we can invest in clean energy.”
A statement released by Public Citizen goes on to say “A bureaucratic oversight has allowed 24 oil companies to skip out on more than $1.3 billion in royalties (55% by foreign oil companies) for the privilege of extracting oil and natural gas from US territory in the Gulf of Mexico. But this $1.3 billion in forgone royalties pales in comparison to the $60 billion that Americans stand to lose in royalty revenue over the life of these leases. If Congress repeals the moratorium on offshore drilling, these freeloading oil companies will gain more record profits while American families are left holding the bag.” Imagine what these billions of dollars in royalties could do if they were directed toward creating a sustainable energy infrastructure?
The New Deal, instituted in the US from 1933 to 1938 to put unemployed people to work during the Great Depression, is an inspiration for the way in which we can address the problems of high oil prices, global climate change, and a troubled economy. Mark Hertsgaard (Mother Jones, June 14, 2001) explained a New Green Deal as “... a government-led, market-based plan that will solve the nation’s energy problems while also yielding economic returns and addressing the most urgent environmental hazard of our time, global climate change. Such a deal would be green in both senses of the word: it would clean up the environment and make money for workers, businesses and communities. In essence, the New Green Deal would do for clean energy technologies what government and industry have already done so well for computer and internet technologies: help launch their commercial take-off.”
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, when asked about “Green For All,” a new organization which is committed to building a green economy that will lift people out of poverty, expressed her support for their ideas: “The beauty of it is that all these new technologies—the new jobs, the green jobs—everybody’s on the ground floor, inner city neighborhoods, rural America. We have to have a different economic, a progressive economic agenda that includes the new the greening of America, the building of infrastructure.” (You can read an interview with Green For All founder Van Jones beginning on page 6.)
And in the UK, the New Economics Foundation (NEF) is urging a Green New Deal to confront the serious situation resulting from the combination of climate change, high inflation and economic slowdown. The report believes that every home must generate its own power, that an oil legacy fund must be set up using taxes on oil and natural gas companies to help pay for green transformation, and that carbon should be priced according to its climate impact. They also recommend investment in green energy and transport infrastructure, and say global financial companies should be broken up so that if one fails it would not destabilize the entire economy.
Andrew Simms, director of the foundation, said recently “A credit crisis, coupled with high and rising oil prices and long-term climatic upheaval, are conspiring to create the perfect storm. Instead of desperate bailing-out, we need a comprehensive plan and a new course to navigate each obstacle in this new phenomenon. We need a modern Green New Deal that has the scale, boldness and vision previously only seen, for example, in Roosevelt’s response to the Great Depression.”
Tony Juniper, co-author of the NEF report and former head of Friends of the Earth added “We need real leadership and vision to get through this, and right now we are not seeing it. Politicians from across the spectrum should signal their willingness to think differently and to embrace new ideas.”
It is up to We The People to let our representatives know that it is time to institute these new policies and programs. It has been said that when the people lead, the leaders follow. Contact your representatives, talk to friends, family and community leaders, make improved choices in personal energy use and conserve wherever possible. Join this exciting new venture towards a healthier future for our planet, our communities, and our children. Together, we can make a brighter tomorrow—without fossil fuels!
