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Showing posts from May, 2014

Environmental Protection Incentives: My Thoughts

I've noticed that people are far more likely to support anything if they're given an incentive to do so.  Now, take something I'm passionate about, say, the environment.  How do you get people to become on board with this?  One way, which is already in place is tax credits for solar and wind power, hybrid vehicles, etc.  Great, but adding on this, there could be a system set up in which one's purchases had a sort of points system.  More points are awarded for eco-friendly items  When April 15th comes, the points are tallied up and one either receives money or pays based on the degree to which the purchases help our environment.  Progress could really be made if we emphasized a plant-based diet which is far more sustainable than animal alternatives.  Take for instance, this statement by the United Nations in their October 2012 report titled: "Growing greenhouse gas emissions due to meat consumption", which states "... the true costs of industrial agricultu

Biodiversity or Brutal Drilling

Ecuador allows big oil's exploitation of the Amazon after being widely neglected for their environmental support by the "civilized" world.  In a noble attempt to keep drilling off this pristine forest, President Rafeal Correa vowed to halt polluters if half of the would be profits from drilling the region ($3.6 billion) were raised by the international community.  When only $13 million was raised, Correa said "the world has failed us"; and allowed for drilling to start potentially as soon as 2016. @http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/23/ecuador-amazon-yasuni-national-park-oil-drill It's a tragedy to look at what the oligarchs decide we can and can't afford today.  We can "afford" grotesque international and state surveillance systems, expanded military bases, hydraulic fracturing, dangerous nuclear and coal energy and health eroding subsidies to Big Agra & Big Pharma; yet it's considered a waste of one kind of green (mo