Bill, I used to think you were a man of infinite patience and good will. I am so relieved to see you get mad! Thanks for telling it like it is. Hang in there.
I lived in West Michigan for 30 years, up to 1982. I retired here in 2018 - 5 miles from where I grew up. So I have a pretty good then vs. now picture of Michigan's weather, climate, and pollution status.
In the 1960s we were told that living and working in downtown Muskegon (about 10 miles north of me) was equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day - mostly due to 3 major foundries in the city. If you parked your car downtown for an hour, you could wipe the foundry dust off the car with your finger. Downtown workers were used to the paint job on their cars being ruined within 6 months. Lake Michigan was choked with algae while many rivers and smaller lakes in the region were cesspools. I recall as a child passing near a local leather processing company and seeing foul-smelling effluent draining directly into the Grand River via a large pipe coming from the leather company. Several large local paper mills spewed chemicals into the atmosphere that smelled like a raw sewer.
Today Michigan's theme is "Pure Michigan," and it couldn't be more accurate. The water is crystal clear and the air smells sweet (when the Canada fires aren't burning, that is!). The major polluters are gone, people are happily employed doing work that doesn't foul our environment, and the region remains at least as prosperous as it was in the last part of the 20th century. Turns out cleaning up the air and water had many benefits and few if any down sides.
So the next time some greedy corporation brings a case against environmental regulations, tell those bought & paid for justices to come visit Pure Michigan and knock on my door. I'll be happy to give them the grand tour and describe how things used to be back in the "good old days" before those environmental laws took hold.
I'll do my best to avoid scolding them with my finger pointed at their noses, but it'll be tough.
Thank you, Bill, from Canada. I see signs that people are beginning to take notice that our climate is indeed changing. At a protest against fossil fuel subsidies on a smokey day last week, our group received way more appreciative honking than usual, and only one crackpot denier (who was easily ignored). I think we'll see a stronger shift towards grassroots support for bold government action when people realize that there's no going back now. Glaciers won't return, we can't refreeze the arctic ocean, and extinction is forever.
'Congress is of course a democratic institution; it responds, even if imperfectly, to the preferences of American voters.' Sadly this is at best grossly understated and fundamentally imaginary. I don't point this out to quibble with language, but because THE fundamental problem with Amerika is that the 1% wealthiest and Corporations have always had an enormous anti-democratic and outsized impact on our outdated and ossified 2 party political system - and it's only gotten worse. Congress responds first and most profoundly to the legions of corporate lobbyists who scurry about their chambers like well dressed cockroaches proffering astronomical sums for (or as a threat against) reelection, and other blandishments, if only they can use their skills of articulation and persuasion to tweak laws and regulations for the benefit of the lobbyists' employers' class and corporate needs.
Cap and trade, carbon offsets and net-zero are just smoke and mirror schemes that obfuscate the fact that we need to stop all greenhouse gas emissions. What we need is a national Carbon Fee and Dividend Policy that directs the proceeds to be divided equally to everyone. It keeps our elected miscreants out of the decision-making process, they can’t get their hands on the proceeds, and it would actually benefit those that can least afford the cost fossil fuels. But best of all, it prices the fossil fuel industry out of business.
Oh, and by the way, the existing Carbon Fee and Dividend Policy drafts need to be amended so that any export fee refund is limited to the lessor of the accumulated US fees or the carbon fee of the importing country.
Thank you Bill, for clear, honest and courageous reporting! Sharing.
Bill, I used to think you were a man of infinite patience and good will. I am so relieved to see you get mad! Thanks for telling it like it is. Hang in there.
Tech in service of keeping the thing that's killing us rolling is just fancy madness.
And it's not nihilism or doomerism or cynical to point out this ground truth.
Official recognition of another disastrous way to kick the can on the required fundamental change in human behavior has been released: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/01/white-house-cautiously-opens-door-to-study-blocking-suns-rays-to-slow-global-warming-ee-00104513
I lived in West Michigan for 30 years, up to 1982. I retired here in 2018 - 5 miles from where I grew up. So I have a pretty good then vs. now picture of Michigan's weather, climate, and pollution status.
In the 1960s we were told that living and working in downtown Muskegon (about 10 miles north of me) was equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day - mostly due to 3 major foundries in the city. If you parked your car downtown for an hour, you could wipe the foundry dust off the car with your finger. Downtown workers were used to the paint job on their cars being ruined within 6 months. Lake Michigan was choked with algae while many rivers and smaller lakes in the region were cesspools. I recall as a child passing near a local leather processing company and seeing foul-smelling effluent draining directly into the Grand River via a large pipe coming from the leather company. Several large local paper mills spewed chemicals into the atmosphere that smelled like a raw sewer.
Today Michigan's theme is "Pure Michigan," and it couldn't be more accurate. The water is crystal clear and the air smells sweet (when the Canada fires aren't burning, that is!). The major polluters are gone, people are happily employed doing work that doesn't foul our environment, and the region remains at least as prosperous as it was in the last part of the 20th century. Turns out cleaning up the air and water had many benefits and few if any down sides.
So the next time some greedy corporation brings a case against environmental regulations, tell those bought & paid for justices to come visit Pure Michigan and knock on my door. I'll be happy to give them the grand tour and describe how things used to be back in the "good old days" before those environmental laws took hold.
I'll do my best to avoid scolding them with my finger pointed at their noses, but it'll be tough.
Thank you, Bill, from Canada. I see signs that people are beginning to take notice that our climate is indeed changing. At a protest against fossil fuel subsidies on a smokey day last week, our group received way more appreciative honking than usual, and only one crackpot denier (who was easily ignored). I think we'll see a stronger shift towards grassroots support for bold government action when people realize that there's no going back now. Glaciers won't return, we can't refreeze the arctic ocean, and extinction is forever.
'Congress is of course a democratic institution; it responds, even if imperfectly, to the preferences of American voters.' Sadly this is at best grossly understated and fundamentally imaginary. I don't point this out to quibble with language, but because THE fundamental problem with Amerika is that the 1% wealthiest and Corporations have always had an enormous anti-democratic and outsized impact on our outdated and ossified 2 party political system - and it's only gotten worse. Congress responds first and most profoundly to the legions of corporate lobbyists who scurry about their chambers like well dressed cockroaches proffering astronomical sums for (or as a threat against) reelection, and other blandishments, if only they can use their skills of articulation and persuasion to tweak laws and regulations for the benefit of the lobbyists' employers' class and corporate needs.
For any readers looking for a radical new perspective on the issue. Don't worry--not denialist propaganda!
https://open.substack.com/pub/thespouter/p/revised-hydrogen-corpse-juice
I just donated a small monthly to 350.org bc you’re a great writer of very important information. Thank you.
Cap and trade, carbon offsets and net-zero are just smoke and mirror schemes that obfuscate the fact that we need to stop all greenhouse gas emissions. What we need is a national Carbon Fee and Dividend Policy that directs the proceeds to be divided equally to everyone. It keeps our elected miscreants out of the decision-making process, they can’t get their hands on the proceeds, and it would actually benefit those that can least afford the cost fossil fuels. But best of all, it prices the fossil fuel industry out of business.
Oh, and by the way, the existing Carbon Fee and Dividend Policy drafts need to be amended so that any export fee refund is limited to the lessor of the accumulated US fees or the carbon fee of the importing country.
fires are set by eco terrorists. Your friends. Please tell them to stop.