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The Mustache of Understanding speaks truth

Woah. Tom Friedman is on fire. Of course you can't read it unless you pay for Times $elect, so here are the relevant bits:

Sorry, but being green, focusing the nation on greater energy efficiency and conservation, is not some girlie-man issue. It is actually the most tough-minded, geostrategic, pro-growth and patriotic thing we can do. ...

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The biggest threat to America and its values today is not communism, authoritarianism or Islamism. It's petrolism. Petrolism is my term for the corrupting, antidemocratic governing practices - in oil states from Russia to Nigeria and Iran - that result from a long run of $60-a-barrel oil. Petrolism is the politics of using oil income to buy off one's citizens with subsidies and government jobs, using oil and gas exports to intimidate or buy off one's enemies, and using oil profits to build up one's internal security forces and army to keep oneself ensconced in power, without any transparency or checks and balances.

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No matter what happens in Iraq, we cannot dry up the swamps of authoritarianism and violent Islamism in the Middle East without also drying up our consumption of oil - thereby bringing down the price of crude. A democratization policy in the Middle East without a different energy policy at home is a waste of time, money and, most important, the lives of our young people.

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We need a president and a Congress with the guts not just to invade Iraq, but to also impose a gasoline tax and inspire conservation at home. That takes a real energy policy with long-term incentives for renewable energy - wind, solar, biofuels - rather than the welfare-for-oil-companies-and-special-interests that masqueraded last year as an energy bill.

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Green is the new red, white and blue.

Amen, brother!

Update [2006-1-6 11:11:0 by David Roberts]: Just as a tangential side-note: I know how (conservative populism) and why (9/11) it happened, but nonetheless I find it utterly galling how completely our national dialogue has come to be dominated by arguments about who is more macho and who is a "sissy." (Note to Friedman: "sissy" is not a word that genuinely macho people use.) What about intelligence? Pragmatism? Anyone?

Lists and very alternative energy

Among the nifty things to read about in L.A. Weekly's List Issue is this:

"8 New Very Alternative Energy Ideas"

I particularly like the bit with the hamsters.

Who’s fired up about energy?

New York governor George Pataki (R) is delusional if he thinks he's going to win the Republican nomination for president. McCain might have a teeny tiny eensy beensy sliver of a chance. Giuliani, even eensier. But Pataki, no. The very things he's done to appeal to moderates in his home state will damn him irredeemably in the eyes of today's Republican base.

That said, he does seem set to run, and as peakguy on Oil Drum NYC says, his final State of the State speech may well be setting up one of the central planks of his strategy: independence from "foreign oil."

Not just here in New York, but across the nation, our reliance on foreign oil is hampering the financial freedom of our working families and their employers; it is hurting our economy, damaging our environment and enriching regimes that support, harbor and encourage the terrorists who threaten our national security.

You'll be hearing this kind of stuff from members of both parties. It will be pitched to sound tough on national security and bullish on the economy. Environmental messages will be muted at best.

I must say I'm skeptical about the electoral efficacy of energy independence, at least at present. While it is carefully calibrated to appeal across a number of demographics, I don't think anybody but environmentalists really feel fired up about it. Like most environmental issues, its appeal is broad but shallow.

We've had high gas prices this year, and that put oil on everybody's radar. And of course there's, you know, the Iraq war, which according to a new study may run this country up to $2 trillion. But most folks still don't connect that to oil.

Most people have not have their lives directly affected by our dependence on oil -- at least in ways they perceive as such. Most people are still living their comfortable, driving, suburban, middle-class lives just fine. It will take a huge, sustained price spike, I think, before "energy independence" gets any real traction as a campaign slogan.

It’s over

Well, damn. Kevin Drum stole my thunder.

I wanted to draw special attention to a post by John Quiggin, which announces:

More significantly, perhaps, 2005 saw the final nail hammered into the arguments climate change contrarians have been pushing for years. The few remaining legitimate sceptics, along with some of the smarter ideological contrarians, have looked at the evidence and conceded the reality of human-caused global warming.

He also makes this crucial point:

In India, fair trade is changing a centuries-old industry

The cool, misty highlands of the Western Ghats punctuate south India’s steaming tropical plains. Their forests shelter tigers and elephants, and protect the fragile watersheds of the flatlands below. They also harbor pieces of a colonial legacy: the tea industry. Click play or use the arrows to advance through photos. Photos: Gregory Dicum Colonial authorities […]

The science of cute

Ever wonder what makes some things (babies, puppies, the smiley-face emoticon) cute and other things (cockroaches, dinosaurs, Richard Pombo) not-so-cute? This New York Times article examines "The Cute Factor" -- science behind the characteristics such as roundness (think VW Beetle) and fuzziness that make an object worthy of the lovable, squeezable, I-want-to-eat-it-right-up-able adjective.

And cuteness is certainly not a concept lost on environmentalists. (See any plea from the World Wildlife Fund ever.) Listed in the article as ranking high on the cuteness scale are panda cubs, the stars of "March of the Penguins," and even the Prius. Now if only we could make carbon trading round and fuzzy.

A preview of this year’s green-tinted movies

Last year was a banner one for nature movies, kicking off with The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill and ending up with the wild cowboys of Brokeback Mountain (c’mon, Jake wasn’t the only gorgeous scenery). In the middle, there were record-grossing Penguins, a trip to Syriana, and the horrors of The Island. So what does […]

You Light Up My Strife

Solar LED lamps provide clean, cheap lighting to rural poor A handful of villagers in rural India are receiving a life-transforming technology: low-cost, solar-powered light-emitting diode (LED) lamps. Bombay-based Grameen Surya Bijli Foundation has installed the $55 lamps free of charge in about 300 homes. “Children can now study at night, elders can manage their […]

Since U Been Overdrawn

California delta tapped for too much water, in ecological crisis The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in California is in ecological freefall. The 738,000-acre area supplies drinking water to millions and irrigation water for major agricultural producers. The delta smelt, a fish that’s an indicator species for the region’s overall health, is fast sliding toward extinction, […]

You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Home Builder

Demand up for eco-friendly home-building supplies Consumers have turned on to the benefits of eco-timber, sustainably harvested cork flooring, and low-VOC paint, moving green home-building supplies out of the fringe and into the mainstream. “There’s no question where this is going; it’s hot,” says Timothy Taylor. His company, Environmental Home Center, started up in an […]