Word: carbonized
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Whether or not Congress passes some kind of carbon-taxing scheme that ushers in a true alternative-energy era, "sustainability" is going to be shaping individual and public-policy decisions. And I don't just mean eating locally grown foods, driving more fuel-efficient cars and using weird lightbulbs. Annual increases of 10% and 15% in real estate prices were not sustainable; endlessly lowering taxes and expanding government isn't sustainable; Medicare and the war on drugs as currently constituted are not sustainable. Sustainability in this sense is as much old-fashioned green-eyeshade Republicanism as it is newfangled kumbaya...
...must start spending again, and we will. But we've all known people who, having survived the 1930s, never lost their Depression habits of frugality. And so it will be again. We don't need to turn ourselves into tedious, zero-body-fat, zero-carbon-footprint ascetics, but even after the economy recovers, deciding to forgo that third car or fifth TV or imperial master bathroom or marginally cooler laptop will come more naturally...
...will be based on sounder principles. Countries will be more willing to cooperate not just on the environment but on other issues. I believe people looking to the future - and I'm looking to the future all the time - will see that our economies can be built as low-carbon economies, highly skilled economies. There's a huge opportunity over the next 10 or 20 years...
...course, if the Obama Administration achieves its stated goal of passing carbon cap and trade legislation, EPA regulations might be superseded - and even deep greens generally prefer Congressional action to federal fiat. But with cap and trade looking like it may become a victim of the White House's need to prioritize amidst a sea of crises, the EPA's actions could provide a much-needed nudge to Congress. "This is a strong message," says O'Donnell. "Congress either has to face the reality that something has to be done, or the Obama Administration will just do it itself." What...
Lights Out. If your hotel goes dark this weekend, don't be alarmed. To honor Earth Hour - organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to encourage businesses and people to take simple steps every day to reduce carbon emissions - many hotels and cities are turning off the lights on Saturday, March 28, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The WWF hopes that it can get 1 billion people in more than 1,700 cities and towns in 80 countries to participate. Switching off your lights is a vote for the earth, says the WWF, while leaving them...