Articles by David Roberts

It isn’t about abortion.

This point is not mine -- it's been made several places before -- but it can't be stressed enough: In the upcoming battle over the Supreme Court, abortion should not be the focus. Social issues should not be the focus.

Evangelical Christians are, by and large, useful idiots for the Republican Party. The leadership of the party stokes their ressentiment, keeps them in a perpetual state of outrage, feeds them a steady diet of bogeymen and faux controversies, but never does anything of substance for them. It's symbolism and rhetoric, top to bottom. The number of abortions isn't going down, the amount of sex and violence in the media isn't going down, divorce rates aren't going down -- we're no closer to being a "Christian nation" (by their warped definition) than we ever were. Evangelicals flock to the polls for Republicans, but they don't get shit in return.

It is to the right's great benefit that the public battle should focus on social issues like abortion. It's their terrain, it works well for them, it pumps up their base.

Greens shouldn't fall for it.

The leadership of the modern right is devoted to their large corporate donors. Not the "free market," but funneling favors, tax breaks, and subsidies to big business, creating a more "relaxed" regulatory climate. That's not always what they talk about, but it's what they do.

It's possible, though I doubt it, that Bush would nominate someone to the Supreme Court that isn't a hardcore conservative on social issues -- not committed to overturning Roe v. Wade, not of the opinion that the separation of church and state is mythical, etc.

But it is unthinkable that he would nominate anyone other than a hardcore conservative on fiscal and regulatory issues. It is environmental laws, workplace safety laws, labor organizing laws -- any law restraining corporate behavior -- that will come under intense scrutiny.

Those are the stakes. Matt Yglesias is probably right that the short-term fight over nominees is already lost, but there's still the matter of how to frame the fight, position this as a political issue, and lay the groundwork for future judicial battles.

For a good roundup of materials on this issue (via Mooney), see this post from Jordan Barab.

Playpump

I'm finally reading Cradle to Cradle in earnest, cover to cover, rather than in pieces. I hope to have more to say about it soon.

One thing it's made me realize is how ubiquitous and close-at-hand solutions like this are: Check out the playpump, a water pump that runs on the power of a children's roundabout (or as I believe they're called in these parts, "merry-go-round"). Simple, easy to make and repair, contains no proprietary technology, and works with local energy flows. Lovely.

(Via BB)

(I can't believe I finally got to post about something like this before Worldchanging!)

Go give some money to Sustainablog

Jeff at Sustainablog is, as promised, blogging around the clock tonight. He's already got 32 posts up, and he's about halfway done with his 24 hour blogathon. Yowza!

Now get over there and start reading. My guest post, on procreating (I'm for it), is up, as are guest posts from a whole range of interesting, provocative eco-bloggers. It's quite a party.

And while you're there, don't forget to donate to the Missouri Botanical Garden's Earthways Center -- make Jeff's 24 hours worthwhile.

New blog on climate science

Via son Roger Pielke Jr. comes news of father Roger Pielke Sr.'s new blog: Climate Science.

Big Pielke, as I think I'll start calling him, is a professor of atmospheric science, and the blog -- which just started -- will host fairly technical material on climate science, from the look of it. ("These heterogeneous climate forcings could represent a more significant threat to our future climate system than the risk of an increase in the atmospheric concentration of CO2.")

It's a great new resource to read side by side with RealClimate.