winterbadger | Entries tagged with environment

U.S. to Delay Decision on Pipeline Until After Election

The Obama administration is preparing to delay a decision on the contested Keystone XL pipeline while it studies an alternate route, effectively pushing any action past the 2012 election, officials and lobbyists who have been briefed on the matter said on Thursday. An announcement is expected as early as Thursday afternoon.

Current Mood: cheerful

Johann Hari in The Independent

"In my parents' lifetime, we have killed 90 per cent of the world's fish. In my lifetime, we will finish off the rest – unless we change our ways, fast. We are on course to be the people who wiped fish from the earth."

I wish I could see this ending well, but given human beings, I doubt it will.

And I wish people would, in general, stop blaming politicians for things. Politicians act in terrifically rational reaction to their incentives (votes, and money to get more votes). If we wish politicians to behave differently, we need to change their incentive structure. At the moment, expecting a politician to ignore lobbyists is like asking a business to ignore its suppliers--without the cash they get from them, they can't run for election and advertise to get the votes they need. If we want them to concentrate only on voters, we need to take money out of the election equation.

Current Mood: morose

I walk past a house with wonderful planting in the yard on my neighbourhood stroll, and the truck outside it is plastered with stickers of the sort you'd expect in Takoma Park. But two are especially good, I think:

COMPOST: Because a Rind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste

and

Suburbs: Where they tear up all the trees and then name streets after them

:-)