The Good & the Bad About Low Gas Prices

Gas prices are lower than they have been in a long, long time.

Of course, anyone who has been paying attention to world news headlines will not be surprised. After all, the price of oil was falling when the Covid-19 crisis hit. Obviously, demand for fuel to get around, to and from work and to and from other places, has fallen dramatically. 

For a little while, Trump wanted to bail out the oil industry.

Seriously?

It seems to me that there are good aspects and bad aspects to this.

On the one hand, I will admit that it is pleasant to not spend much money and see my tank filled. After all, my jobs both still require me to show up to work. There may be less driving on my part than usual, but that certainly does not mean that I am barely driving. In fact, I have still needed to drive, and fairly substantially, on a daily basis. So obviously, on a personal level, the drop in oil prices has been nice, and easier on the wallet.

That said, low gas prices are also a problem, as they often encourage people to drive, even when they do not need to. That is perhaps a particularly bad idea these days, with the coronavirus crisis, since surely, people are getting out of their cars at some point and going somewhere or doing something, most likely in relatively close contact with other people at some point, when we should be on lockdown. But beyond just the Covid-19 lockdown, low gas prices usually still encourage people to drive, or to go out and buy big, gas guzzling vehicles like SUV's and such. Hummer may not be as popular as they once were, but you do occasionally still see them around. And all of that is terrible for the environment, and it encourages people to pollute, unthinkingly and unnecessarily.

Now, I do not want to get on a soap box here, and will readily admit that, yes, I have driven unnecessarily at times, as well. There are times when I have driven too much, without really needing to, for things that were not essential. Times when I drove to places tat could have waited, and where perhaps it would have been better to combine purposes before driving out to someplace. Hell, years ago, before the rather dramatic spike of gas prices in 2005 leading up to and especially following Hurricane Katrina, when I would go out at night and drive around (sometimes very late), listening to music probably too loudly, and without a particular destination or objective.

But those are bad habits. Once I began to pay attention to that, particularly around the time of George W. Bush's illegal and immoral invasion or Iraq, there was an urgency on my end to put a stop to those particular bad habits, which were then more or less under control.

Maybe most people forgot, but gas prices soared following Hurricane Katrina. And much like they did within hours of Saddam Hussein invading Kuwait back in the summer of 1990, gas stations wasted no time spiking up the price of gas. Within hours, gas stations had jacked up the prices, even though in many cases, it was the same gas that had been there before, without any new deliveries of gas that had actually gotten impacted by the natural disaster. Before long, the high gas prices became one of the big topics of conversation, with many expressing their disappointment that the invasion of Iraq had not produced cheaper, more affordable gas. I still remember my boss saying that the days of sub-two dollar gas (per gallon) were over, although this proved not to be entirely true.

Yet, here's the thing: nothing got me to limit my own driving, or to be as aware of how unnecessary a lot of the driving that I was doing was, quite as much as prohibitively expensive gas prices. Once we began to flirt with gas prices of approaching or even, in some cases, over $4.00 per gallon, the need to limit driving, and to end unnecessary driving, became readily apparent.

If that was true with me way back then, maybe a decade and a half ago now, then it seemed also to be true of the country - and again, no country seems to be quite as addicted to casual oil use as Americans. At least that is true of countries that do not mostly produce oil, like those countries in the Middle East. When gas prices were so high back then, you may or may not have seen a drop in the volume of vehicles on the road during morning and afternoon/evening commutes, but you definitely saw a drop in casual driving. Also, you saw a hell of a lot less inefficient and irresponsible gas guzzling vehicles like over-sized SUV's on the road.

So while I recognize and acknowledge that the low as prices have been good for my wallet or finances personally, there also is the understanding that, by and large, low gas prices are not good news. As an environmentalist, this is pretty much undeniable. Yes, driving around aimlessly at night while listening to loud music used to be a kind of escape and even, later, a guilty pleasure. But that does not mean that I should have done it. And if low gas prices encourage that kind of behavior in others, as well as urges them to either get out their SUV's, or even to buy brand new, inefficient gas guzzling vehicles, more expensive gas prices have the opposite effect. If people cannot be trusted to their own devices to be responsible and get more fuel efficient cars (witness the often unrelenting mockery of some vehicles specifically intended to be fuel efficient, such as the Toyota Prius), then hitting them in the wallet may force them to be a lot more efficient in terms of using their gas, and thus, indirectly, force them to be better at being responsible towards continuing life on this planet as we know it.

In other words, while it may hurt us personally, in the wallet (myself included) to have higher gas prices, by and large, it forces us to do what we should know and be willing to do (but apparently, collectively, still neglect to do) on our own, without that kind of urging. Yes, it forces us to limit our gas usage, and that is pretty good news, as far as air quality and minimizing pollution.

For now, it seems that Covid-19 has taken care of unnecessary driving, and wasteful use of gas while prices are so low. But many nations, and a number of American states, are preparing to open back up, even if this is done gradually, in phases. Will gas prices spike back up? Or will low gas prices, once again, kind of tacitly encourage people to engage in bad behavior once again, after weeks and weeks of visibly cleaner and clearer air in cities around the world?

Time will tell. 

This picture was from a few weeks ago, probably sometime in late March (memory is not serving me). This was the first time in years (since October 31, 2016, specifically, when Governor Chris Christie raised taxes on gas, making prices much higher) that gas prices in New Jersey dipped down below $2.00 per gallon. 

Then, gas prices just kept getting lower....

And lower....

And lower still.....

Until recently, it seems, they bottomed out. Even while the price of a barrel of oil reached record new lows not seen in decades, gas prices did not keep plummeting, but leveled off.  Below is a picture of a gas station in West Milford. Later that same day, I actually got gas somewhere else for two cents less than what is seen here in this picture. Maybe they will get lower still. But for now, these are the lowest prices that I believe I have seen in well over a decade, maybe a decade and a half, or even possibly two decades (especially taking inflation into consideration), since that huge dip in gas prices back in 1998. 

🌎 🌲 Earth Day Week: Pope Francis Feels Combating Climate Change is Christian Duty 🌲 🌎

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143809369

Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!

Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here. 

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."

~Mahatma Gandhi

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

  

~John F. Kennedy  

Why does it seem that, for many, being a good Christian means specifically ignoring what is best for our planet, and voting against what is best for it? How charitable and spiritual is that?

Well, that might finally be changing.

Pope Francis I, who seems like a very cool Pope so far and, frankly, a breath of fresh air, seems to take a different tact when it comes to the environment then a lot of other Christian leaders, who seem almost to view the Earth as the property of mankind and, thus, subject to whatever the hell the owners want to do with their parcel of land, no matter how potentially detrimental this may be to the health of the planet.

Pope Francis took a decidedly, refreshingly different approach last year:

“Creation is not a property, which we can rule over at will; or, even less, is the property of only a few: Creation is a gift, it is a wonderful gift that God has given us, so that we care for it and we use it for the benefit of all, always with great respect and gratitude.” 

Now, that does not sound like so many Christian leaders here in the United States, who almost seem to feel that doing anything to preserve the natural Earth is tantamount to Godless communism and evil.

Francis went further, even. He likened the destruction of the Earth - of God's Creation - as a sin! Here is some more of what he said on the subject:

“But when we exploit Creation we destroy the sign of God’s love for us, in destroying Creation we are saying to God: ‘I don’t like it! This is not good!’ ‘So what do you like?’ ‘I like myself!’ – Here, this is sin! Do you see?”

He referred to Christians as "custodians of Creation" who needed to have a healthy admiration and sense of wonder for the “beauty of nature and the grandeur of the cosmos”.

Finally, we are seeing and hearing something quite different from the general indifference with which too many religious leaders in the past have ignored the subject of environmental degradation.

Now, let's see if this has a widespread impact among the world's over 1 billion Catholics!

One way or another, however, I do want to say how refreshing this is! Pope Francis seems to me to truly be a man of the strongest faith, and one who does not overlook any aspect of that faith, and who does not leave his faith open to many (if any) contradictions.

Here is the link to this story:

Pope Francis Makes Biblical Case For Addressing Climate Change: ‘If We Destroy Creation, Creation Will Destroy Us’

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/21/3440075/pope-francis-if-we-destroy-creation-creation-will-destroy-us/

🌎 🌲 No One is Losing the War on Climate Change as Badly as the United States 🌲 🌎

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143809369

Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!

Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here. 

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."

~Mahatma Gandhi

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

  

~John F. Kennedy  

Here in the United States, we seem to want to liken everything to war. We have had the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on illiteracy. We talk about the possibility of war all of the time, and we sure seem to like to fight in a lot of wars. Clearly, we spend a hell of a lot of money preparing for wars, and we really enjoy the war toys that the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about provides for us. 

Hell, we even like to use war references for our favorites sports and games. This is especially true for our most popular sport of football. Comedian George Carlin famously pointed out these comparisons. We call a seasoned quarterback a "field general," and we suggest that the players are "in the trenches." There are numerous terms in American football that are borrowed directly from war, such as "blitz" and "touchdown" and "defense." 

We also like to think that we are winning these wars that we fight, even though we do not always win. We did not win in Vietnam, and it can be argued that, more recently, we did not really win in Iraq or Afghanistan, either. We did not really win the war on drugs and, in fact, the strategy that we employed to try and win it - harsh sentences for those caught with drugs - has become an embarrassment, as we have more people behind bars for nonviolent offenses than any other country in the world. 

Well, there is another war that we are losing, although I am not entirely sure that Americans even knew that they were fighting it. That is the war on climate change, and because so many Americans were not aware that we were fighting it, we are apparently not doing well. Hell, the problem is that so many Americans do not realize that this is a fight worth investing in.

But collectively, we would rather be distracted by keeping up with the Kardashians, say, or basking in the light of other distractions. Many of the beauty products that celebrities like the Kardashians push on us are absolutely detrimental to the environment, as are the burgers that we so love eating. The energy that we waste, as well as the food that we waste, is also contributing to the fact that we are losing this war on climate change.

Let's face it: perhaps the biggest, yet least seen, problem in the United States today is that we are, far and away, the most wasteful society that the world has ever seen. We fill our landfills with single-use plastics. We waste 40 percent of our food, which goes unconsumed, while millions around the world starve. We waste electricity, we waste money, we waste precious resources on frivolous things. And in the process, we are wasting our natural resources. Hell, we are even wasting the easy access to knowledge that a vast majority of Americans have, and indeed, we have earned a reputation as being generally far more ignorant than we should be. Let's face an even grimmer truth: we are far more comfortable with that ignorance than we should be. 

Not really a shock, then, that we are losing this war on climate change. We do not take it seriously, and take such a blasé attitude towards that, that our collective efforts as a nation - if they can even be defined as real efforts on a national level - are laughable when compared to other countries. Even tiny Iceland, with a population significantly smaller than the smallest state in the union, is leading the mighty superpower known as the United States in alternative energy development.

How depressing, And how embarrassing.

But it is a sign of the times, and once that we cannot afford to forget or ignore.

Here is a link to an article by John Sutter of CNN that discusses this a bit further:

We're losing the war on climate change Analysis by John D. Sutter, CNN, April 22, 2019:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/21/world/sutter-earth-day-climate-scn/index.html?cid=web-alerts&nsid=68875649&fbclid=IwAR3li0zmd06vw9tu6zIvFUPOjdqxqKeUegeHhtcOHRQxaF0gaAb8NkxS_0E

🌎 🌲 Stupidity, Arrogance & Ignorance Still Dominate Discussion on Climate Change in Washington 🌲 🌎

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143809369

Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!

Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here. 

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."

~Mahatma Gandhi

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

  

~John F. Kennedy  

This is just embarrassing!

The polls keep showing that a solid majority of Americans accept that climate change is a reality, and that most even feel that action needs to be taken on this issue. Indeed, polls reveal that roughly 70 percent of Americans believe in climate change. And polls also show that about half of millennials believe that climate change is an absolutely crucial issue that needs to be addressed right now, and with urgency. In fact, almost half of Americans polled believe that we need to take action on climate change.

You might be excused, then, if you thought that this would translate to some actual, meaningful action. But in a country where a presidential candidate is declared the winner after officially receiving 2.7 million votes fewer than the official losing candidate, that is not quite the case. Read this clip from an article from The Atlantic earlier this year (The Unprecedented Surge in Fear About Climate Change More Americans than ever are worried about climate change, but they’re not willing to pay much to stop it. by Robinson Meyer - see link below):

Despite this increasing acceptance, there is no clear political path forward. Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes” were needed to keep the Earth’s temperature from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius. Such a transformation would be, in other words, expensive. But almost 70 percent of Americans say they wouldn’t pay $10 every month to help cool the warming planet. 

Some people who have complex or unconventional relationship history often sum up their status by saying "It's complicated." Apparently, the same can be said about the relationship that Americans have towards climate change generally, and towards environmentalism more generally. It was here in the United States (on the east coast) that Henry David Thoreau, influenced by Native American thinkers and their way of life, gave birth to modern day environmentalism. It was here that John Muir (on the west coast) advanced many of those theories and the appreciation for the wilderness, and for keeping more land wild, for our own betterment. It was here that the first efforts at conservation bore fruition, as the national parks were established under Theodore Roosevelt. So, after seeming to be so forward thinking on this issue from the better part of two centuries ago until more than a century ago, how did we become the one country in the world who is not part of the Paris Climate Accord on the grounds that we are skeptical of the science behind it? How is it that we still have politicians championing the cause of greater pollution and easier ways for major polluters to get away with their wrongdoing?

The paradox is that, on some level, some leaders and forward thinkers in the fight against climate change are still American. It was an American senator who first invented the idea of an Earth Day. It was American scientists who first noticed the trend that the world was apparently warming. It was an American scientist, Rachel Carson, who first woke the world up to the reality that all of the stuff that we were doing to the Earth was actually dangerous and amounted to poisoning our own world, with her "Silent Spring."

With all of that, we should be the undisputed leaders in the fight against climate change. The science really is settled, there is no real substantive debate, even if big-mouthed politicians insist on advertising their ignorance - sorry, there is no other word for it - on this subject. Yet, many Americans - too many to ignore, certainly - muddy the waters with their disbelief. They are skeptical of scientists, and seem to believe that there is some kind of worldwide conspiracy among scientists (including Americans scientists) who invented this supposed conspiracy in order to undermine America's economic potential. Yet, these same people hold no skepticism at all towards the pseudo-science that major polluting corporations that try and cast a shadow of doubt on the science of climate change.

So, yeah, it's complicated.

Of course, it should not be. Democracy should be far more straightforward, to be quite frank. And my own belief is that until it is, this country will remain viewed - rightly viewed, in my own opinion - as a basket case with an against the grain and opposed to conventional wisdom approach that makes sense to Americans, and only Americans.

Seriously, where else do they believe the kinds of things that we Americans believe? It is not just climate change, either. We have tens of millions of people who cannot afford our "for profit" healthcare, and we have tens of millions of people more who have healthcare insurance, yet are seen as too high risk or, everyone's favorite corporate term, have "pre-existing conditions," and are thus under-insured. And still, there are tens of millions of Americans - some of whom surely number among the people who I just mentioned - who would insist that the United States has the greatest healthcare system in the world. Hell, Republicans even had the audacity to name their healthcare proposals a few years ago - proposals that would have added to those numbers of millions of Americans struggling to afford healthcare, that is - as the greatest healthcare system in the world. We are also the only people in the world who truly seem to believe - or at least we keep electing politicians who officially believe, which almost makes it the same thing - that the solution to gun violence is to add even more guns into the equation. We also are the country which proclaims itself to be the "land of the free," yet we have far more people behind bars than any other country in the world.

I mentioned how the healthcare system is a "for profit" system, but in fact, this is true for all of the problem areas in the United States. Hate to dumb it down, but frankly, it really is not all that complex. Why is our healthcare system a problem? Because it is openly "for profit." Why are guns a problem? because for the NRA and for too many elected leaders, supporting gun rights is, for all intents and purposes, "for profit." Why is the prison system so racist and backward and unforgiving, essentially producing more criminals than opportunities for people to overcome troubled pasts and try and get normal lives? Because our prison system is a "for profit" system. Why has the national government have well over $20 trillion of debt? Because the military industrial complex, and the corporate welfare system, are also "for profit," and they suck so much damn taxpayer money in order to reap still more profits. And, let's be truthful: this is what is behind the skepticism and disbelief of climate change. Really, does anyone really believe that there would be anywhere near as many skeptics if it was clear that jobs and profits could easily be obtained in trying to combat climate change?

Yet, these ignorant lawmakers - most of whom take considerable donations from major polluters and big energy corporations, who have invested considerable sums of money to cover up inconvenient findings from research spanning decades (particularly Exxon), and who use every possible sliver of doubt to try and muddy the waters of the science behind climate change for Americans.

Still, the fact that an overwhelming mountain of evidence exists, and that scientists the world over are pretty much in agreement that there is indeed climate change, and that it is either being causes, or at the very least accelerated, by human activity, is virtually beyond dispute.

I say virtually, because the Republican party has taken it upon themselves to become the world's only major political party, in any nation in the world, to challenge the science behind climate change. Usually, their biggest qualifier for their arguments is to quickly proclaim that they themselves are not scientists.

To put that into perspective, that would be like someone taking their computer to a place that specializes in computers and then challenging the diagnosis of what is wrong with the computer, and then adding that their qualification for challenging the diagnosis is that he or she is not a computer expert. Or perhaps doing that at a doctor's office, or with a car mechanic. It would be simply ridiculous, and these people would surely feel that they cannot waste their time arguing with someone who, frankly, has no idea what they are talking about.

Yet, somehow, this argument wins the day, time and time again in American politics! And these guys keep getting elected into office, and winning re-election (surely with some funding from those major polluting corporations that sponsor them, of course). 

Absolutely humiliating!

Recently, I saw a picture of a protest sign that really spoke to me. This is what was written on it:

Your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it

Sounds not only reasonable, but obvious, to me. beyond debate, really. After all, what kind of argument against science is "I'm not a scientist?" Because that is how Republican lawmakers still seem to preface their arguments expressing skepticism of climate change. They are basically saying that they themselves are not experts, and not qualified to argue about it intelligently, one way or the other, but still want their voices not only to be heard, but to dictate the very argument altogether.

Really, it proves that anti-intellectualism is alive and well in the United States. It also reminds me of another quote that perfectly encapsulates this duality and paradox of these United States, this leading superpower (for now) of the world. Here is the quote by W.E.B. DuBois:

"Either the United States will destroy ignorance, or ignorance will destroy the United States."

DuBois wrote some powerful stuff, but that particular quote just seems to sum up what the United States could be in the best case scenario, versus what the United States also could be threatened with. Anti-intellectualism has always had a prevalent, some might say overly powerful, voice here in the United States. But these days, with the stakes as high as it is, it feels like it is positively killing all that is good with this country, including the potential to produce a truly better future for all. What is happening now does feel like an unraveling. And the anti-intellectualists are loudly and proudly stomping and cheering and hooting and hollering their support throughout. 

This anti-intellectualist tradition is allowing these politicians who are completely unqualified - intellectually or, frankly, morally - to speak out on this issue, and to make sure that their voices are heard, even when what they are expressing is sheer ignorance. I mean, I remember that arguments that environmentalists were making in the 1980's and 1990's that global warming was real were literally being laughed at and regularly ridiculed. Nobody believed it, and a majority of Americans were skeptical and/or indifferent. Then, once the temperatures continued to rise and once storms and incredible weather events began to gain in severity, the laughter abruptly stopped and, mostly, so did the denial that climate change, or global warming, was real. Yet now, the argument is mostly on whether or not human activity is responsible. 

Mostly.

Still, there are some people who continue to try and deny that climate change even exists. Prominent people, such as President Trump, who suggested in a tweet (before he reached the White House) that climate change was a hoax invented by the Chinese to hurt the American economy. Or Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhoffe, who chaired the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and brought a snowball into the halls of Congress on a wintry day in Washington as proof that global warming was not real. Or former House Majority Speaker John Boehner, who once made a video on Earth Day where he ate jelly beans, and claimed that he particularly liked the green ones. Or, more recently (just to prove that this kind of mocking idiocy is far from dead) Thomas Massie, a member of the House of Representative from Kentucky, who recently made a jackass of himself, and a mockery of official government proceedings, while attempting to scrutinize former Senator and Secretary of State John Kerry. 

Massie was trying hard - too hard, frankly - to checkmate John Kerry quickly and decisively. And while I am not the biggest fan of Kerry myself, it is beyond dispute that he is a well-spoken man with a high degree of intelligence, which is far more than I can say for Massie. And so, Massie made a complete ass of himself for all to see. He questioned Kerry's science credentials, pointing out that Kerry's degree in political science (from Yale) is not an actual science degree, and going as far as to suggest that this was a pseudo-science degree.

"You are the Scientist, you have a degree in Political Science" Massie said.

I wish that I was kidding. But apparently, this man actually is this stupid, and yes, apparently, he really does want to advertise this. This reminds me of another quote, although there is uncertainty as to whether it was from Abraham Lincoln, or Mark Twain. One way or the other, this particular quote seems apropos:

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt."

Massie apparently never heard that one before. Either that or, like with climate change, he does not believe in it. Massie kept pressing the issue, foolishly pursuing his checkmate. Here is a bit of the exchange (taken from‘Are you serious?’: John Kerry responds in disbelief to questions about his college major, climate change by Nik DeCosta-Klipa, updated on April 10, 2019 -see link below):

“How do you get a bachelor of arts in a science?” Massie asked.  

“Well, it’s liberal arts education,” Kerry replied, before Massie interjected to say, “OK, so it’s not really science.”  

“I think it’s somewhat appropriate that someone with a pseudoscience degree is here pushing pseudoscience in front of our committee today,” he said.  

Kerry was incredulous.  “Are you serious?” he asked. “I mean, this is really a serious happening here?”  

“You know what? It is serious — you calling the president’s cabinet a kangaroo court,” Massie replied.  

Kerry noted that he wasn’t calling Trump’s cabinet a kangaroo court. He was calling the president’s climate change committee a “kangaroo committee.”  “It’s not science,” Kerry told Massie. “You’re not quoting science.”  

“Well, you’re the science expert.” Massie responded, sarcastically. “You’ve got the political science degree.”  

The two then proceeded to argue about atmospheric carbon dioxide. Kerry noted that current CO2 levels have exceeded more than 400 parts per million, with 350 parts per million “being the level that scientists have said is dangerous.”  

“Are you aware that since mammals have walked the planet, the average has been over 1,000 parts per million,” Massie asked.  “Yeah, but we weren’t walking the planet,” Kerry replied, citing research that said the current levels of atmospheric CO2 are the highest they’ve been in at least 800,000 years.  The reason for the average CO2 levels that Massie cited, according to Kerry, were the thousands of years of massive volcanic eruptions that occurred in what is now the Atlantic Ocean roughly 200 million years ago, which increased CO2 levels to more than 4,000 parts per million at the time.  

“There weren’t human beings,” Kerry reiterated Tuesday. “It was a different world, folks. We didn’t have 7 billion people. … There were all kinds of geologic events happening on Earth, which spewed up…”  

“Did geology stop when we got on the planet?” Massie asked. 

 “Mr. Chairman…” Kerry said, with an exasperated chuckle. “This is just not a serious conversation.”  

“Your testimony is not serious,” Massie shot back.  Earlier in the hearing, Kerry praised House Democrats’ leadership for their proposed climate change plans — including Sen. Ed Markey (who holds Kerry’s old seat) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal resolution — and questioned why Republicans hadn’t put forth any ideas to address the issue. 

Unbelievable!

Kerry did answer how he felt this issue should be dealt with:

Massie questioned how Kerry would propose paying for the proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Kerry suggested carbon pricing or repealing the recent Republican tax cuts.  

“There are all kinds of other things we could do,” he said. “One would be to not give a trillion dollars-worth of tax benefits to the top 1 percent of Americans. I’m one of them. I didn’t deserve to get that tax cut — nobody did in this country — at the expense of average folks who can’t made ends meet.”  

“So that would be a fair way to start,” Kerry added.  “You don’t want to politicize this, but you just played the ‘1 percent card,”’ Massie replied.  “No, I actually played a moral judgment about what is appropriate in building a civil society,” Kerry said.

The Unprecedented Surge in Fear About Climate Change More Americans than ever are worried about climate change, but they’re not willing to pay much to stop it. by Robinson Meyer, Jan 23, 2019:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/do-most-americans-believe-climate-change-polls-say-yes/580957/

Nearly half of young Americans say climate change is a "crisis" requiring "urgent action" by Camilo Montoya-Galvez, APRIL 22, 2019:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nearly-half-of-young-americans-say-climate-change-is-a-crisis-requiring-urgent-action/

Earth Day arrives as many still doubt climate change is a threat Recent polling finds most people believe global warming is happening and humans are responsible, but less than half are greatly worried about it.   April 22, 2019 at 8:36 AM EDT - Updated April 22 at 8:36 AM Author: Travis Pittman April 22, 2019 at 8:36 AM EDT - Updated April 22 at 8:36 AM Author: Travis Pittman

http://www.wtol.com/2019/04/22/earth-day-arrives-many-still-doubt-climate-change-is-threat/

‘Are you serious?’: John Kerry responds in disbelief to questions about his college major, climate change by Nik DeCosta-Klipa, updated on April 10, 2019:

https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2019/04/10/john-kerry-thomas-massie-climate-change

World Has Over Three Million Confirmed Covid-19 Cases, United States Reaches Over One Million Covid-19 Cases

As of today, Tuesday, April 28, 2020, the world now has over three million confirmed cases of Covid-19, and has seen over 211,000 deaths from the disease to date.              

The United States, a country with less than five percent of the world’s population, has had almost one-third of the confirmed cases.              

Indeed, it has happened. It took a few months since the very first coronavirus case was confirmed in this country, but we now have over one million people who have gotten Covid-19 here in the United States. To date, over 56,000 people have died from the coronavirus, while on a more hopeful note, more than 139,000 have recovered.              

We Americans also have a sitting president who seems to take it upon himself to provide medical advice and suggestions, despite his lack of qualifications to do so, and despite receiving serious blowback on what many consider ridiculous and even dangerous medical advice. The efforts of Trump and his administration have been greatly criticized, and many feel that they have actively gotten in the way of serious efforts to keep the coronavirus crisis in check.              

The United States has far and away more confirmed Covid-19 cases than any other country in the world. The deficit between it and the other leading countries has been steadily growing, both in terms of confirmed cases, and in terms of total deaths.              

That said, there are other countries that have serious coronavirus crisis issues. This is particularly true in Europe, where the epidemic may not have started, but where it really has hit hardest (along with here in the United States).  Spain has the second most amount of confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with over 229,000 cases, and has seen well over 23,000 deaths. Italy has just shy of 200,000 cases, and has seen almost 27,000 deaths, which puts it at number two in total deaths to date from the Covid-19, behind the United States. France is fourth, for now, both in terms of confirmed Covid-19 cases, at over 165,000, and with deaths, at more than 23,000. Germany has the fifth most confirmed Covid-19 cases at over 158, 000, although the death rate there remains very ow compared to the other European countries with over 100,000, having suffered just over 6,000 deaths so far. The United Kingdom has over 157,000 infected, and has seen over 21,000 deaths. Finally, Turkey is the seventh country to reach the grim milestone of over 100,000 confirmed cases, although they have not yet reached even 3,000 confirmed deaths.              

One huge country that has been steadily rising both in terms of confirmed cases and deaths is India, the nation with the second largest population in the world. It is a country that many experts around the world are concerned about, because it is a largely impoverished nation without the resources that wealthier nations have. Also, there are a lot of poor people there living in tight slums, and without much in the way of a real chance to practice social distancing. To this point, India has just under 30,000 confirmed cases, and for now, has not yet reached 1,000 deaths. But the number of infected, as well as deaths, has been consistently on the rise.

🌎 🌲 Earth Day Week: Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" First to Suggest Human Activity Detrimental to Earth 🌲 🌎

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143809369

Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!

Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here. 

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."

~Mahatma Gandhi

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

  

~John F. Kennedy  

A lot of arguments could be made about where the environmental movement really began. I heard many people say Henry David Thoreau started it with his writings, and particularly with his landmark book, Walden. I think an argument could certainly be made for the Native Americans, who had a sustainable relationship with the Earth, and urged the encroaching white culture to find a more sensible and balanced approach in terms of their use of the land. Some might say that it started with Senator Gaylord Nelson, and his creation of Earth Day.

But Daniel Quinn argues that the new conscience regarding the problems that human activity has created on the planet really began in the early 1960's, with Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. This was the first time that someone actually revealed that our activities with chemicals being buried in the ground and the pollution that we were causing everywhere actually was effectively poisoning the planet, and calling it what it really was: evil.

Yes, evil. That is not too strong of a word to use in such a case. If anything, it does not go far enough, although some will surely dismiss it automatically. Funny, how the main incentive for denying it almost always tends to be the profit motive.

In any case, that was what awoke a previously sleeping world to the dangers of our activity, and to the knowledge that there were indeed limits to what we could do to this world, before it began to have a serious effect on life here.


"The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world — the very nature of its life." -- From Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring

Clip: The Bravery of Rachel Carson May 15, 2014 by Karin Kamp:

http://billmoyers.com/2014/05/15/how-one-brave-woman-sparked-the-environmental-movement/

🌎 🌲 Earth Day Week: More Quotes From Great Native American Thinkers 🌲 🌎

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6143809369

Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!

Here is a picture of a very similar logo, with the same message, that was on the t-shirt that I purchased from the BCC Environmental Club and, if memory serves me correctly, may even have helped to make. There were a few projects like that which club members, myself included, were regularly involved with. It has been so long, however, that I no longer recall specifically if I actually helped to make these or not, although I do believe so, since I remember seeing the process of the t-shirts being dyed. In any case, I loved this t-shirt, and have kept it ever since, even if I do not regularly wear it. Since it was part of my experience with the BCC Environmental Club days, as well as more generally having an environmental theme, it seemed appropriate to share it here. 

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."

~Mahatma Gandhi

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

  

~John F. Kennedy  

Here are some other sites with powerful quotes from Native Americans.

In the spirit of Earth Day, which is technically tomorrow, but which I will be honoring on "The Charbor Chronicles" all week, and which I believe we should recognize and celebrate every single day, here are more sites that offer great quotes and, hopefully, very different perspectives on life and our world than what we find available on television or newspapers. These are very different truths indeed, and we need to expose ourselves to these, and try to understand them:

10 Quotes From a Oglala Lakota Chief That Will Make You Question Everything About Our Society By Wisdom Pills / wisdompills.com:

http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/10-quotes-from-a-oglala-lakota-chief-that-will-make-you-question-everything-about-our-society/


Luther Standing Bear Ota K’Te (Plenty Kill)  Oglala Lakota (1868-1939)

http://nativewarriors.net/chief-luther-standing-bear-photo-gallery-and-quotes.ht

The Lack of Respect Towards Trump & His Supporters is Well-Deserved

Yesterday, I mentioned something that has been a relative rarity: an encounter with a respectful, even an intelligent, Trump supporter.

Okay, so he's not exactly a typically mindless and passionate Trump supporter. In fact, he seems quite critical of Trump. Yet, he was defending the president during the whole injecting disinfectant controversy, saying that he did not even know where people got the idea that he was promoting injecting Lysol as some kind of cure for the coronavirus. I responded, and that response was published yesterday.

Later, he posted something that I found interesting, and wound up responding to. It basically stated that while many people blasted Trump and were disrespectful towards him, they would not reject the stimulus checks that each of us are supposed to get (though I did not get mine yet). 

Many people responded, and pointed out that, in fact these stimulus checks are not just Trump's doing, and that other presidents would surely have done the same. He did concede that point. But I responded a little differently, asking him, basically, whether or not he had the same level of respect towards previous presidents - particularly recent presidents like Obama and Clinton - and whether or not it outraged him that so many people were disrespectful towards those two presidents. I made the point that the original idea of presidents was that they would not be kings, much less something higher, and that nobody - absolutely no one - was beyond criticism, something that this notoriously thin-skinned president seemed especially sensitive of and resistant to (even the mildest criticism). A president, like other high-ranking officials in this country, are public servants. No more, no less. They are public servants, which means that we, the American people are their bosses. That is how it is supposed to work, at least, but I also expressed my concern that we seem to be losing that in this country.

When he responded, he basically agreed, and said that we probably would have a decent conversation offline, if the opportunity presented itself.

He began to receive a lot of critical posts, and so he apparently took it down.

Unfortunately, I was at work on my weekend job when I posted that on his link, and was so tired after getting home, that uncharacteristically, I did not copy and paste, and thus record, that response as part of my daily writings. Almost everything that I write is kept in daily writings notes or journals. But those comments were lost, although the substance of them was more or less captured in the above paragraph.

My fatigue was so extreme last night, that my planned response also to his response was basically put off. When I woke up early - very early - this morning, the link was gone.

But what I wanted to tell him, without berating him verbally or seeming like I was trying to pick a fight (again, he is a very decent guy, whom I never had a problem with in high school) was more or less about this respect that he was talking about. By now, almost everyone has heard Trump supporters (and others) bemoan the seeming lack of respect that people have these days, particularly towards recent presidents. And so, my response, which would be directed not strictly towards him but to many Trump supporters in particularly who feel outraged at the admittedly serious lack of respect that people have for Trump and his supporters, would probably have looked something like this below. I am not including the personal note of friendliness originally to be included as the opening, but diving right into the meat of the argument:

Do you truly believe that Trump is a victim of a complete lack of respect that people have towards presidents these days? After all, before he himself became president, he proudly started the "birther" movement, questioning whether the very presidency of Barack Obama was legitimate, under the popular (and some feel racist) suspicion that Obama was not born in the United States, but in Kenya, and thus was not actually American at all. How respectful of the Office of the Presidency is that? This is just one example of how Donald Trump has, in fact, been disrespectful to the office of the presidency, and why so many (myself included, admittedly) that Trump in particular, and mindless loyal Trump supporters and enablers more generally, are fair game to harsh criticism, even to the point of a complete lack of respect. After all, this merely mirrors this particular president's own behavior, which has consistently lacked any class or dignity, much less respect. How respectful was he when he started the "birther movement," after all? And he took pride in the fact that he started that nonsense, to boot? How respectful was he - a draft dodger - when he took particularly low shots at Gold Star families, or when he claimed that John McCain was no war hero because he, the draft dodger, prefers people who were not captured to become prisoners of war? In fact, he kept on attacking McCain even after his death, which is a level of blatant disrespect that even most young children know better than to engage in. Apparently, the man now serving as president, who is well into his 70's, does not know better, because respect is one concept that this self-proclaimed "very stable genius" apparently learned nothing about. How respectful was he when he labeled dozens of countries in Africa and Latin America as "shithole nations"? Indeed, the list goes on and on of examples in which Trump conducted himself in a particularly classless and disrespectful manner. When he was first elected to be president, many expressed a hope that Trump would put all of that aside and rise to the office of the presidency, that he might somehow become more dignified just in sheer reverence to the traditions and values that the presidency is supposed to represent. But he clearly has not done so, and thus, in my opinion, he deserves every bit of criticism, and every ounce of the complete lack of respect that he gets. Because his actual presidency is, in a very real sense, the most severe attack imaginable on the office of the presidency in particular, as well as to democracy more generally. His mindless hordes of supporters and enablers also deserve it, too. By now, they should know that in this world, you give what you get. And Trump gets what he gives out relsentlessly, which is a complete lack of respect, classlessness, and dignity. That will be his legacy, as well as his current attempts to undermine every aspect of American democracy as we know it, flawed though it may have been. What they have done to this country, and to it's now obviously fragile democracy, is frankly unforgivable, and the damage may be irreparable. But to the point that it might still be saved, I would suggest that the criticism, even the less respectful criticism, is still, on some level, the voice of the democracy that Trump has worked so hard to trash, again with a complete lack of respect. That is why personally, I am not too troubled that attacks on Trump lack respect. After all, they are a mirror of the man's own lack of respect. If he showed even a sliver of respect towards others, maybe it would feel excessive or in bad taste. But as it is, given the state of things, it almost feels like these attacks are, in fact, the last gasp of a dying democracy, fighting and clawing not to go gently into the night. And the darkness that it is rebelling against is Trump, and those legions of mindless morons who instinctively, unthinkingly support, and thus enable, him. Trump is no victim, he is the instigator. He made the bed, now let him sleep in it. 

Daily White House Briefings May Soon End

After a ton of criticism regarding the factual legitimacy and inconsistencies of Trump’s daily press briefings on the coronavirus, CNN reported that there is apparently serious pushback within the White House to end these briefings.  

Not long ago, Trump had bragged that these press briefings were rated number one on television. That boast seemed like it not only betrayed the president’s shallowness, but his seeming indifference towards the victims of the Covid-19 crisis.              

Again, Trump has received a hell of a lot of criticism, especially when he seemed to promote questionable solutions and medical procedures that were, according to him, potentially very helpful to combating the coronavirus.              

This came to a head earlier in the week when Trump made strange sounding claims about putting a light inside of the human body and watching the injections of disinfection to combat the coronavirus. There was massive outrage by professional medical experts and the media, as well as those opposed to Trump more generally, when he did this. The concerns ranged from him not being qualified as an expert, and potentially promoting solutions that could in fact prove harmful for anyone who took this at face value and attempted it.              

I myself got in some arguments about this with some Trump fans on my personal Facebook page. There was some name-calling on the part of a couple of Trump fans, who called me “absolutely nuts” on one case, and a “moron” in another.

But one guy, an old high school classmate who seems to have a lukewarm support of Trump, responded without insults, and stated that he does not know how Trump's words seemed to be taken as promoting injecting Lysol as some cure to Covid-19. And so I responded to him, trying to remain respectful. This following was my response:

I stated that Trump suggested injecting disinfectants as a possible for the coronavirus. Afterward, he claimed that he was being sarcastic. "I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen." So my question is, which one is it? Is it your interpretation, that it's not such a ridiculous idea. Or is it what Trump is now saying, that he was being sarcastic? You can't have it both ways. And clearly, people will take him seriously. So was he suggesting something that is sound, medically, or was he being sarcastic? Another question: would it not be better simply to step aside for once, and let people who are truly qualified as experts in the field finally actually have a say? Or does it always have to revolve around him? If you are surprised that people mock him relentlessly, it seems to me an obvious reaction to someone who claims to always be right, can never admit to making a mistake (I literally can't think of one instance when he did that), and hypes himself and his abilities to such preposterous levels that it is almost begging people to prove him wrong. And whether or not you are willing to admit it, he has been proven wrong quite a lot now. Even his political allies will admit that he plays fast and loose with the truth.