Obama has reportedly sent out a call for another summit, not for the economy of the world, but the greening of it. According to the linked article in The Independent, a call has been made to the G20 for a summit to talk about the climate change issue. This is great news, though slightly bittersweet in my opinion. We can do such great things in the greening of our economy and global society, but the economic meltdown’s need for massive stimulus and short-term aid could overshadow the greater need for the long-term investments. Here’s to a successful G20 summit in London this week, a stable next few months (once the bottom of the economy is found of course), and a fruitful climate change summit this summer.

Now that you’re caught up to speed, read the quoted ex-coal miner’s comments on the detriment of mountaintop removal and his opinions concerning the value of human life:

Please tell the fellas, they are better off on welfare, or doing part-time, and living in poverty, but living. I am on permanent disability from the hard-rock mining industry. The “Danger pay” is not worth it! let the f*ckin’ new robots like they have in the Inco mine in Sudbury, Ontario get silicosis, let black lung kill off the automated scoop trams. Maybe a computerized radio controlled “Jumbo” drill can get rheumatism and arthritis instead of you. Let the rich pricks at the top of the hole have the money, and go live, and stay alive, in a Shanty far from the mines. Settle for less, you’ll get more in the long run!

via 

Coal: Jobs should not trump mountains | MNN - Mother Nature Network.

This is a Greenpeace USA Facebook note about the presence of global warming control in the budget. I don’t care if you are republican or democrat, whether you like Bush, Obama, Reagan, whoever. Read this note, and if you need to, go to www.coal-is-clean.com, to read more about global warming and the affect it is having (most notably from the coal industry). If you want more reading, I can also provide that, or would be more than willing to objectively discuss the possibilities of whether any of this is true.

This is amazing! I found this on Twitter via Treebanker (http://twitter.com/TreeBanker) and I have been searching for something like this for a quite a while. Thank you to Dan Tefft, aka Treebanker, for this. It reminds me of a question I asked acclaimed author Thomas Friedman a couple weeks ago when he came to Ball State.

Friedman came to speak to the Ball State community (at a pretty penny, of course) about his book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded. He gave his talk with excellent delivery. When he finished he asked for questions. He received a couple typical, what is our state now? What do we do?, etc. I thankfully was able to ask a question. I asked him how it is that we, the audience who believed in what he was talking about, could convince other people who doubt the authenticity of climate change to come to lectures like this. I believe that grassroots, peer-to-peer education is one of the most effective forms of learning, if a way to relate the content can be found. Dan’s twitter to this Gristmill article is exactly how to find that way to relate and educate I think. So thanks Dan.

Tomorrow we leave for Belfast. We’ll try to not get shot or stabbed or whatever. kinda. Look at some pictures of Dublin. It’s a great city. Very well connected, small scale. Very walkable, and highly walked by its residents, etc, and did I mention all the modern architecture? dsc_0019 dsc_0076 dsc_0109 dsc_0112 dsc_0121 dsc_0134 dsc_0184 dsc_0205

I can’t post exceptionally long because my power converter popped in the wall a minute ago, and as such, I’m without anyway to recharge my batter on my computer. I will post a couple of pictures, however, however, of the places I’ve been to hopefully make up for the shortcoming. Aran Isles Queens Street | Galway Galway Aran Isles Aran Isles Coast

Watch the video in this Huffington Post article. It’s astounding that the front group for the Coal Industry still has the audacity to say that they do not know whether burning coal contributes to global warming. Are you kidding me? Why can we not just own up to it and move forward?

“First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully,” the memo says. “The current campaign against terrorism may require even broadened exercises of federal power domestically. Terrorists operate within the continental United States itself and escape detection by concealing themselves within the domestic society and economy.”

via

ABC News: DOJ Memos Reveal Legal Thinking Behind Controversial Bush Terrorism Policy.

And they call Democrats Communists…psh.

NYC’s Mayor Bloomberg is taking one of Manhattan’s most well-known streets and pulling cars out of the equation. It makes sense…going to NYC last fall, I observed the tight corners and crazy alignment of Broadway compared to the rest of the grid in Midtown. While I like European street patterns (where you have no idea you are at any point in time or place on them), Broadway stuck out and created confusion in one of the busiest places in the world. This is a huge step, and as stated in the article, could be cited as the largest street reclamation project since 1974 with Portland, OR reclaiming the Mt. Hood Freeway for pedestrians.

Google supports smart grids!

Check out these tips for saving energy:

Energy Saving Info. Google Style.

On Brad’s prompting, I went ahead and did a little research. I found several articles that were just short of hostile (calling Democrats closet communists and Republicans oppressive bastards), but I did find a couple good points in sifting through the data. What I have deduced are a couple pros and cons about each…

In a Democracy, the people all come together to make decisions as a whole. It is a true government by the people. It’s not new, in fact. It was common practice in Greek city-states 3000 years ago (WilliamPMeyers.com). Can you imagine the stalemates inherent in that system, or contention? It would be chaos.

A Republic on the other hand, is representative. A smaller body of people makes the decisions based upon the overall welfare of the people or society. To bring a realistic view to the more popular terming of the word “Republic” as a form of government, here are a couple of well known Republics in history: the Roman Republic (only a specific amount of people were allowed to vote) and the Soviet Union (all elections were open, but only to Communist Party members). Now this can be seen in the USA at its inception, too. Only white male property owners could vote in elections.

In my opinion, America has morphed into a Representative Democracy. People vote for their representation, giving them a “more” equal share in their views and communicating the needs they require for their “welfare.” Of course, this is assuming that politicians aren’t corrupted by lobbyists and crooked corporations (thanks Bank of America) that shovel money into Washington’s mouth to make what they want happen, no matter the party.

“By popular usage, however, the word “democracy” come to mean a form of government in which the government derives its power from the people and is accountable to them for the use of that power. In this sense the United States might accurately be called a democracy.”

via ThisNation.com–Is the United States a democracy?.

Brad, I don’t know if this answered my meaning or not, but thanks for the note, because I would agree that I was uneducated on the specifics of the subject. Although, in the end, remove the word Democracy, or the note in general in parentheses. The major point in context was that if we are capable of such amazingly innovating things (such as the mere existence of our country and it’s form of government, which is not seen elsewhere in history or the world, I think), then we can surely rethink the way our healthcare works…

• Mr. Quicksolve does not live here anymore. In fact, he is like George Kaplan in Hitchcock’s classic film North By Northwest: Mr. Quicksolve does not exist (and never did).

• Accepting a quick solution means that we are addressing symptoms not causes.

• Quick solutions do not work and often make things worse.

• Quick solutions take away needed resources from solutions that actually might work.

via Deane Waldman: Rejecting Mr. Quicksolve.

What if health care were to be designed? What if, rather than an engineer that cares only about efficiency and costs, a designer that can balance needs, wants, amenities were to design the health care system?

In talking to my parents and family about their thoughts on the potential for nationalized health care (they are very against it, by the way), all arguments I receive cite the broken medicare system, social security’s flaws, or the issues with having any coverage in other countries. My only frustration is, why do we have to think that the country responsible for so many innovative technologies since it’s inception (Democracy seems to be a pretty popular trend that started about 233 years ago) cannot rethink the way this type of system can work?

via Use Organic Agriculture to Fight Climate Change, EU Official Says : TreeHugger.

I wonder if there would be a severe cut to the production levels?

Not much more to type, except, why do we continue to subsidize and not tax carbon-heavy emmitting industries? I wish I knew the quantifiable data showing the detriment these types of industries do to the Earth.

Maybe the answer is not a Pigouvian tax, maybe instead its a credit toward the cleaner industries, like organic agriculture…

Paul Peete: It’s Us Versus Them with the Stimulus

Robert J. Elisberg: A Rush to Bad Judgment

Here is an example of the typical partisan politics we keep seeing, especially in this Democrat-controlled term. As a once-Republican, I’m finding myself embarrassed and ashamed to have ever associated my name with the party. If this is their way of “reinventing” their identity, great job at making it a positive image guys…and Sarah.

When will partisan politics stop? I don’t understand it. Our society has engrained itself so deeply into this right/wrong sense of doing things, based on a simple ideological difference. We have lasted for over 200 years as a Democracy, made it through some pretty tough times. Maybe it is just because I am living during this time that I think so, but I feel like there is a fiercer partisanship divide than ever before.

I know that history tells us that parties have always existed, primarily two (Whig/Federalist, Republican/Democrat, a little bit of Progressive mixed in there, whatever), but since when do we have to be so harsh about the outcomes? It’s like we stop at nothing until we have our way, and that’s all. There is no analysis of whether something will be beneficial to constituencies.

The only thing that makes me even more frustrated is people that disagree with something that is going on, and then refuses to do anything about it or speak up. We must be the change we want to see in the world.

Text the numbers from Idealbite.com and they give you tips on how to live more sustainably and info about companies that are sustainable (like Starbucks, Apple, etc.).

The tips aren’t hard things to implement in your daily routine. They’re just the little, useful ones mom always knew but didn’t think it was important enough to say…funny how second nature to some completely misses our thought process…

Some people might criticize this notion, saying that the use of the energy to send the texts is not sustainable, but considering the sustainable lifestyle-building elements the information concerns, the savings would undoubtedly outweigh the costs here.

This is awesome. I had heard mention of Obama proposing bring rail back, but this sounds pretty great. The bit about the Midwest being a concentration point will be pretty crucial. It is reminiscent in some ways of the Interurban lines that used to crisscross all of Indiana. Not having to drive to Indianapolis and just hop on a train has definite perks in my view…

Now what if the east connection of this High Speed Rail went straight down or alongside the right of way for interstate 70? Imagine it:

Get on the train in Washington, it is high speed, so there are limited stops so it can keep its speed. It could stop in

• Washington, PA (close to Pittsburgh
• Columbus, OH
• Indianapolis, IN
• St. Louis, MO
• Kansas City, KA
• and Denver, CO
• maybe it could turn up and go to Salt Lake City, UT from there…

From these major metro areas, the entire network from there could disseminate with other rail lines crisscrossing to connect the regions, sub-regions, and the nation as a whole.

And as the article mentions, rail is the most sustainable means of transportation (besides walking).

I have Google Reader up and running, and am successfully creating a need to hit that “feeds” bookmark in my Safari browser. If you use Google Reader and haven’t found this bookmark yet, you should get it. It will automatically jump you to a new unread story in your Google Reader.

When I find an article I really like and that I want people to see, I hit the Share fBook link on my Bookmarks Bar to automatically post the article to Facebook, even though the one I probably want is right next to it…

Since I am a child of the social network Facebook (”back in my day…”Facebook only had photos and was first introducing events), I have taken to heart posting articles I find for others to see. The stalker-ish News Feed so conveniently tells everyone I know when I post articles. It’s my own passive aggressive model for advocacy and developing what I believe. I want to take this one step further, and hit the Share WP link instead of Facebook, forcing me to reflect a bit on it and post it here. There’s no difference from what I’m doing now, but it creates a more appropriate and cleaner collection of my thoughts and interesting articles. Even better, I can link this blog to my Facebook Notes, to automatically post, so I’m still advocating my beliefs and interests as well as promoting just this blog…

Look for this in the future, or watch my Facebook posts and click to find yourself here. I want comments, too. We only grow our views and define our values solidly by debating and exchanging differing opinions…

we also discussed the advantages and disadvantages of Local Sales Taxes…such as

Advantages–

• Local Autonomy
• Administrative Efficiency (state does the work)
• Diversifies tax base–smooths fluctuation with market
• Public Acceptance–don’t notice paying of it over time

Disadvantages–

• Regressive
• Shrinking Tax Base (shift from buying goods to buying services–online sales big now)
• Competition
• Rural Areas with low retail, shops no good
• Distorts land use decisions–lends toward more shopping, etc.

That’s about everything we covered in a nut shell…or a blog post.

A couple thoughts on each…

Spur v. Del Webb
Both Spur (cattle feedfarm) and Del Webb (Sun City communities) expanded their existing land. Spur grew first and Del Webb simultaneously but second. Del Webb sold its houses before residents moved in and then brought a public/private nuisance suit against Spur for the health detriment its feedfarm brought to its residents. The ruling was in favor of Del Webb. Spur was compensated for their land and moving somewhere else.
This ruling angers me in that a developer can come in to an area, sell its land to owners, and then send packing the former land use and surrounding owners because they are now NIMBYs. The land was most likely purchased as greenfield, cheap development, too. And of course this is done on “behalf” of the homeowners.I feel like the ruling only sets a precedence for further sprawling development continuing to fill the pockets of greedy developers.

Berman v. Parker
This case is one of the most influential cases on eminent domain for planning. It involves a private owner upset about losing his property as a result of a redevelopment in DC. The case ended in the ruling that if an entire area was determined blighted for redevelopment for public purpose, one property within the surrounding blighted area is not exempt from the ruling.

Kelo v. The City of New London should have never happened. It involved residents within the framework of a proposed redevelopment area approved by a comprehensive plan and legislative body protesting the right of eminent domain. The primary issue was that the “public purpose” primarily cited was economic development (pfizer as well as residential and recreational uses would be located in the site after construction) by the hands of a private developer commissioned by the city. The court ruled in favor of New London, citing that they merely deemed the public purpose, not the means by which it is achieved as well as Berman v. Parker, which i very much disagree with. First, it is significantly different a case from Berman v. Parker in that it does not deal in any way with blighted property. There was not even a claim that the properties being claimed were blighted. Second, Justice O’Conner cited the fact that this case is merely taking property from one private owner and giving it to another. This is no different from taking a Motel 6 and exchanging it for a Ritz Carlton because it might produce higher tax revenues. It is unjust that a pocketbook is a key part to the transaction. After the order was passed, a firestorm of legislation went through more than 40 states banning eminent domain for economic development purposes (or other similar actions). The result has been a negative view on eminent domain (more than what already existed) and a severe limit on the possibilities of it. New London, in my opinion, should not have fought this so hard, and saved us all the negative externalities that have now subsided as a result.