Articles by David Roberts

Clever

Jeffrey Sachs:

The biggest energy crisis of all, it seems, involves the misdirected energy of a US foreign policy built on war rather than scientific discovery and technological progress.

WTF?

Let's take a moment, shall we, and dig through the layers of conservative talking points on the Kyoto Protocol.

The main claim is that it's "unfair" because it requires emissions reductions in developed countries, but not in developing countries (especially China and India) -- a commonly cited rationale when senators refused to vote for it under Clinton.

This is, as many others have pointed out, a morally troglodytic argument. The developed countries put the CO2 up there. That's how they got developed. That's how they got rich. Of course they have an obligation to act first and do more to solve the problem. If you spend years crapping in your house, and then take a homeless person in as a roommate, you don't quibble with your new roommate over who cleans up the shit. You clean it up. It's your shit.

Oy.

But then you have another argument which, instead of insulting the intelligence and moral standing of those in the developing world, adopts an unctuous tone of concern for their wellbeing. Consider this bit from Inhofe's goofball speech:

A heaping helping of paranoia

I went through a brief period of being obsessed with the Bush administration’s transparent attempt to elevate so-called "eco-terrorism" to the status of Biggest, Baddest Domestic Bogey Man. (Honestly, what threat will these supposed tough guys not piss their pants about?) But the Bushies are caught up in other struggles now, and the propaganda push […]

How would you spend it?

A new congressional analysis shows that we are spending roughly $2 billion a week on the Iraq War.

(Amusingly, when I Googled the subject, Google asked: "Did you mean: congressional analysis two million a week" -- I wish, Google. I wish.)

Meanwhile, Bush's FY06 budget request pushes for steep cuts in renewable energy funding.

Let your mind wander a bit. Imagine, if you will, that the situation were reversed: that Bush pushed for cuts to military spending and poured $2 billion a week into researching, developing, and deploying new renewable-energy and energy-efficiency technologies.

$2 billion a week. What would you do with it?