The GOP has a few unscrupulous political bullying tactics to prevail, either by gaining public opinion or convincing Democrats to pre-compromise followed by one-sided "bipartisianship." One is the fear card based on racism/sexism/lies, whatever suits its whims. The GOP can't use the fear card with climate change because the reality of impacts is frightening. You can imagine the ads we would see if the GOP supported climate change and the Democrats opposed. The horror of impacts happening now and projected to occur are worse than any lies the GOP typically use on issues to scare and shock Americans into supporting their positions.
So the GOP relies on its standby that comprehensive climate change legislation is a tax. This ignores the reality that we already are paying a fossil fuel tax based on the corporate welfare paid to fossil fuel industry as we foot the bill for external costs. While not planned beforehand, our Gulf Recovery Blogathon focused on a variety of these costs. I think this might be an effective message to counter the GOP's "cap and tax" that appears to have impacted public support for climate change reform.
While Democrats called our climate change measure cap and trade, the GOP quickly renamed "cap and tax" and the "change in one word proved lethal." The change was typical hypocrisy, given that "cap and trade is really a Republican instrument" used in 1990 to reduce air pollution. The GOP tax meme was needed because public opinion changed over the past few years. In 2007, most people were ready for a tax on energy to help address climate change.
In 2009, two factors merged to decrease support for comprehensive climate change. The economic shit really hit the fan thanks to 8 years of George and Dickie AND a fairly successful disinformation campaign by climate change deniers. For the "first time in 25 years of polling, more Americans care[d] about economic growth than the environment."
So, the GOP pound the message that comprehensive climate change legislation is a tax, and in June 2010, "large majorities believe in climate change and want the government to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, make polluters pay, and support clean energy. The one thing they don't want? Taxes. The public doesn't like taxes."
However, I don't think the public generally views the vast corporate welfare provided to the industry as a Fossil Fuel Privilege or tax. While BP and the fossil fool industry claim the Gulf Gusher is a one-off, a new report by the National Wildlife Federation shows a pattern of thousands of spills over the past 6 or 10 years resulting in "hundreds of deaths, explosions, fires, seeps, and spills as well as habitat and wildlife destruction in the United States" from our fossil fuel addiction.
Some of the costs of this fossil foolish policy were discussed in our Gulf Recovery Blogathon this past week. These costs are a Fossil Fuel Tax, but the GOP is not likely to want to have a public discussion about the very existence of this tax that for years has been considered business as usual. Sometimes the GOP does flip on issues when they want to avoid being connected with an objectionable point of view. Witness John McCain, the Dred Scott flip-flopper. How would the public react to the realization that we are paying a Fossil Fuel Tax now?
noweasels explained in Gulf Recovery (I): Introduction that our blogathon was "about what we can do to assist the citizens, wildlife and eco-systems of the Gulf Coast" with this continuing crisis caused by BP. Recovery is a process that started on day 1 of the BP oil gusher and will continue for years, perhaps decades.
Recovery may also be difficult due partially to the detailed list of FAILS by BP that Fishgrease discussed in Booming the BP Magic that BP likes to spin as success. Fortunately, organizations like Project Gulf Impact exist to document the impacts and point out pesky facts, such as the oil has not disappeared.
JekyllnHyde has this issue covered with his cartoon collection in "Gulf Recovery in Editorial Cartoons - Helping the Helpless." (His cartoons are posted throughout my diary.) boatsie also made us laugh with a humorous diary snarking about the idea of whitewashing this BP oil gusher disaster by magically making it disappear with sci-fi, high tech invisibility cloaks and time warps.
BP is exhibit 1 of our fossil fuel addiction
A comprehensive climate bill should be the focus of any effective response to the BP oil gusher. Yet, President Obama and the Democrats have not made the case to the American public. Enter danieljkessler and Bill Mckibben to the rescue.
danieljkessler explained, in Ending the Age of Oil, how the disaster on numerous fronts in the Gulf States is the "incredible price we are paying for our addiction to fossil fuels." Bill McKibben continued in Feature or Bug, maintaining that the "BP spill is just one tiny part of the daily ongoing destruction that comes from the fossil fuel business." The result of continuing a fossil foolish policy is more spills in our future combined with using oil that fuels global warming.
Exhibit 2 is the big picture of the fossil fuel industry here and globally.
citisven tells us in It's a CRUDE CRUDE world about life in the Niger Delta where oil impacts, spills, leaks and gas flares are so commonplace that this woman is baking tapioca in the heat of a gas flare site where pollutants shorten their life span. LaFeminista notes the common occurrence of oil leaks and spills from land-based activities in A Skeptical Perspective and how volatile organic compounds are released into our atmosphere and deposited into marine environments.
Human Life and Health Costs
In Who Cares About Health Effects?, mogmaar writes about the direct health impacts of these oil disasters on the clean-up workers. BP thinks its ok to assure the workers that they don't need respirators, "even as they were getting sick from the fumes."
Cultural and Environmental Justice Costs
pico wrote about the costs on Cultural Ecology: The "language, music, and lifestyle of the Louisiana Isleños may disappear with the marshes, while choking in dispersant-contaminated water." As Oke explained in Genocide by Oil, tribal citizens are dependent on the commercial fishing industry for jobs as well as sustaining their way of life with traditional medicinal remedies. Laurence Lewis addressed Helping those that need it most: While all suffer, poor and minority communities often suffer most, and one impact is the threat to livelihood for Southwest Asians.
Ecosystem Costs and Wildlife Costs
We're familiar with some of the damages to ecosytems and wildlife. The good news is that danieljkessler informed us that Greenpeace just launched a three-month expedition to research and examine "everything from the plankton on the surface to the subsurface plumes" to document the impacts of this BP disaster on marine life. My diary, Art to the Rescue, discussed the unseen underwater damages caused by oil and dispersants and how the Smithsonian researchers and scientists will play a key role in assessing damages and monitoring recovery because it has a warehouse of samples of 15,000 species from the Gulf waters that can be used to measure the impacts on this ecosystem.
Economic Costs
rb137 highlighted how the "future of renewable energy depends on the policy decisions we make today" in "It's [still] the economy, stupid...", alerting us to the "trends toward privatizing scientific research [that] foster anti-competitive trends in the energy playing field."
Proposals for Sustainable Changes: Jobs, Economy, Life and Environment – or how to reduce the Fossil Fuel Tax
Meteor Blades has proposed a few ideas that will be updated in his contribution to our blogathon that will be posted this week.
In Resurrect and Energize the Conservation Corps, Meteor Blades proposed a "modernized Civilian Conservation Corps" that would be a "Clean Energy Conservation Corps" to create jobs and "provide a massive public investment with positive impacts living decades into the future."
In Jobs Summit Needs Big-Picture Focus, Meteor Blades discusses how we need an industrial policy because "America’s job situation needs a transformation before the race to the bottom becomes an irrevocable plunge." The key to that "transformation is industrial policy, which includes trade policy and a labor-market strategy."
Another proposal by Meteor Blades is "Eco New Orleans" that was written about Katrina but his proposals would be beneficial today. Meteor Blades proposes a new city paradigm that is based on sustainability. There are too many great ideas to cover here, but two I loved are an ecosystem restoration project to restore wetlands, another fossil fuel cost, that are crucial for storm surge protection, avoiding harm to people and infrastructure, the seafood industry, fisheries, and wildlife.
Another cool idea is rebuilding with green housing that is not only energy efficient but includes collection facilities for rainwater runoff.
The needs for recovery are many. Pam LaPier compiled an extensive list of organizations that highlight the vast range of needs in How To Help: birds, wildlife, fisherman, sea turtles, dolphins, whales, sharks, manatees, pelicans, wildlife sanctuary, national parks, pets, as well as the organizations that do the research, investigations, advocacy, and volunteer work.
Our blogathon ended with Gulf Recovery Earthship: Blogathon Roundup by the ekos team of boatsie, solarmom, Hopeful Skeptic, citisven, ellinorianne, and LaughingPlanet.
This past week was also a new beginning of sorts...of renewed energy, devotion, teamwork and determination that we will move forward together to ensure comprehensive climate legislation, among numerous other environmental issues that are intertwined with issues of economy, jobs, civil rights, national security, human rights, health care, and justice.
We have the power of our community to brainstorm to find the solutions that DC ignores. Daily Kos has the structures of DK GreenRoots, EcoAdvocates, our BP mothership and a boatload of eco series and diaries on all related issues to provide a forum for discussion and organizing activism. And we have the eKos widget code to keep us apprised of the latest in eco diaries and environmental issues:
Please rec our BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 82