Articles by David Roberts

“America’s Providential History”

So I'm reading Harper's this morning, and they have an excerpt from America's Providential History, by Mark A. Beliles and Stephen K. McDowell, published by the Providence Foundation. Says Harper's, "the authors hold courses and seminars based on the book that were attended by more than 25,000 last year." Take it away, fellas:

A secular society lacks faith in God's Providence, and consequently men find fewer natural resources. The secular or socialist has a limited-resource mentality and views the world as a pie (there is only so much) that needs to be cut up so that everyone can have a piece. In contrast, the Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in God's earth.

While many secularists view the world as over-populated, Christians know that God has made the earth sufficiently large, with plenty of resources to accommodate all the people He knew would come into existence.

Kinda makes you think about this.

(Incidentally, God also hates the Federal Reserve and Social Security. FYI.)

More mort!

Speaking of the alleged death of environmentalism, ONE/Northwest has a few discussions thereof, introduced here, including some righteous umbrage from Tim Greyhavens, Executive Director of Wilburforce Foundation and Aron Thompson, ONE/Northwest board member. ONE'er Jon Stahl also links to this piece in the Tyee, which discusses the stuff from a Canadian perspective.

For various reasons, I find all the responses unsatisfying. A lot of it just amounts to, "No we're not!" and "We must redouble our efforts!" There's talk about a more positive, inclusive vision, but what is it?

It so happens I'm hard at work on an editorial on just that question, so all the questions will soon be answered and the debate will be called off. Ha ha.

Some people get rice and need water; some people get water and need rice

Enviros should pay a lot more attention to stories like this one about the role of grassroots techies in disaster relief in Indonesia. A group of people that met in an online chat room formed the Aceh Media Center, with coordination and funding help from the Indonesian Information Technology Federation, a coalition of nine local business groups. It's an absolutely remarkable tale:

An energy-secure state

There are very few details in the story, but it's intriguing nonetheless: Chhattisgarh, a reasonably undeveloped and biodiverse state in the heart of India, aims to plant some 2.5 million acres of jatropha, a source of bio-fuel, in a bid to become "energy secure."

Chief Minister Raman Singh said the plantations would cover only one million of the state's eight million hectares of wasteland and would provide energy security to the country by saving at least Rs.100 billion ($2.2 billion) on fuel imports every year.

"Besides import savings, jatropha cultivation would give the state Rs.40 billion from the sale of seeds. Reducing hazardous pollution from diesel-pumped vehicles, developing greenery in wasteland areas and providing employment to local population would be the other major advantages," he said.

Hm... using green industry and agriculture to develop and revive rural land while protecting it from old-school, polluting industrial development ... if only there were some other country where that might work ...