Navigation
User login
Who's online
Online users
- tuliuzi Duro
- Dylan Carlson
- einmaleins
- DrewHendricks
- ogive
- Phil Owen
- JonHaber
The Road to Copenhagen: Two Articles on Human Caused Climate Disruption: Criticism of Cap and Trade | Impacts on Mental Health
A couple articles to share relating the problem of human caused environmental degradation. One is from The Guardian about James Hansen's opposition to cap and trade. Hansen is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. He opposes cap and trade, and instead favors a more simple approach of taxing the carbon economy.
The second article is about how some researchers are expecting climate change to have ever more serious impact on peoples' mental health (as if it isn't already having serious impacts.)
Here are excerpts and links:
Copenhagen climate change talks must fail, says top scientistnext article:
Exclusive: World's leading climate change expert says summit talks so flawed that deal would be a disaster
'We don’t have a leader who is able to grasp [the issue] and say what is really needed. Instead we are trying to continue business as usual,' says James Hansen.
The scientist who convinced the world to take notice of the looming danger of global warming says it would be better for the planet and for future generations if next week's Copenhagen climate change summit ended in collapse.
James Hansen talks to Suzanne Goldenberg Link to this audio
In an interview with the Guardian, James Hansen, the world's pre-eminent climate scientist, said any agreement likely to emerge from the negotiations would be so deeply flawed that it would be better to start again from scratch.
"I would rather it not happen if people accept that as being the right track because it's a disaster track," said Hansen, who heads the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.
....
Copenhagen climate change talks must fail, says top scientist
Major impacts of climate change expected on mental health
Leading mental health researchers are warning that some of the most important health consequences of climate change will be on mental health, yet this issue is unlikely to be given much attention at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen next week.
Dr Lisa Page and Dr Louise Howard from the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King's College London reviewed a range of recent research by scientists into the potential mental health impacts of climate change.
In an article published in Psychological Medicine online, the two mental health experts conclude that climate change has the potential to have significant negative effects on global mental health. These effects will be felt most by those with pre-existing serious mental illness, but that there is also likely to be an increase in the overall burden of mental disorder worldwide.
...
Major impacts of climate change expected on mental health
- Berd's blog
- Login or register to post comments
OlyBlog is a site for news and discussion about Olympia, Washington.
OlyBlog.net
OlyBlog is devoted to citizen journalism, including hyperlocal news and discussion specifically about Olympia, Washington. If you care about this community and are tired of corporate media, then this is the place for you.
If you'd like to contribute, please register for an account. Here is a list of local news beats that need to be covered. You can post your news as a personal blog entry, and it will be reviewed (and possibly edited) for promotion to the front page. Once you've established a record of responsible blogging, you can become an autonomous user. You can also send news via email. All members of OlyBlog agree to abide by our comment and fair use policies. If you are frustrated about something said in a comment thread, go here.
OlyBlog is run by volunteers who care about Olympia. If you like what we're doing, make a donation:
Upcoming events
Latest Classified Ads
Comments
Hansen and Nuclear Power
In the audio interview, Hansen supports the use of nuclear power. I would ask him how he thinks nuclear waste can be stored safely and indefinitely.
I have heard of the process where the radioactive waste is encapsulated in glass, however, I am still skeptical and I'm not sure if this is the best route. Maybe scientists will figure out how to make nuclear fusion work sometime soon.
Cap and Trade v. Direct Tax Debate: A Red Herring?
I think that it is entirely possible that the whole debate between carbon "cap and trade" v. direct taxation (on various intersections in the carbon economy) is a red herring. Along with James Hansen - and contrary to the audio interview above, many economic experts - I strongly favor the direct taxation method. However I think the real culprit here is that, in our society, some people reap personal profit from economic activities, at the expense of collective wellbeing. People profit from activities that are harmful.
Whether people are profiting as employees, as shareholders, or in any other capacity - it is wrong for some people, but not others, to profit from destructive activities.
That is why I favor nationalization - and even further, internationalization, or the term I prefer, Universalization - of the carbon economy. In this way, all people can more surely be guaranteed to benefit equitably.
I wish for social progress - so that we learn to live in a way that is benign, and in harmonious coexistence with all living beings - that we learn to truly share this planet, as members of an interconnected community, which we are. It just doesn't make sense for some to profit at the expense of the well-being of some others.
Although, that said, I do think the direct tax method has distinct regulatory advantages in comparison with the cap and trade method. Even so, I don't think either way is probably the best way for addressing the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.
Lately I have been thinking more and more that the economic model of profit-making in and of itself is at the root-level of the problem. I have been thinking that it is just wrong to compete for profit. Good-spirited, fair and honest competition in some fields (like biological reproduction, sports, or the arts) is okay, I think. But competition and pursuit of control over the resources necessary for basic sustenance and economic survival? Well... In my honest opinion that amounts to savagery, plain and simple (especially when factors like systematic privilege and oppression, and the ongoing existence of slavery, whether direct or virtual, are taken into account.)
Peace,
berd
Berd, have you examined our nation's experience with
Ode to Capitalism
Not the greatest picture, but I like the sign:
Could Cap and Trade Create a False Sense of Progress?
False sense of progress?
Great Video
This video contains a great analysis of the problems of Cap and Trade:
The Story of Cap and Trade
The wealth of "developed" nations is based not only on hard work, but also, very importantly, on violence - on oppression.
It is wrong to externalize harmful impacts onto the backs of the poor.