There is no question but that the environment is a major issue BUT it is not one people care about. In my view, we first have to elect a President based on electoral reform and a coalition cabinet. THEN we have to educate the people and look at what I call the ten threats, twelve policies, and eight challengers. The URL for a one page summary of these is at www.oss.net/TERMS. All of this has to be understood in context, a strategy with a balanced budget and a stable long-term campaign plan introduced, and--most importantly--the people have to be shown in graphic visualization the returns they and their children get for specific sacrifices. Water and energy are the wild cards. The same month that Cheney was meeting in secret with Enron CEO Ken Lay and Exxon CEO etc, WIRED produced a fine plan for a two way energy grid and much more localized agriculture, etc. The brainpower is there, what has been lacking is the political willpower.

Bottom line: electoral reform, not the environment, is what will bring the people together to empower a team that can THEN address poverty, disease, the environment, and the other seven threats.

IMHO

Robert,

Thanks for taking the time to post a comment.

I generally agree with you, with a few caveats:

1: We have lost at least 30 years of opportunity to address the consequences of nearly 200 years of releasing the sequestered carbon in fossil fuels back into the atmosphere. The consequences of this appear to becoming more sever at an accelerating pace. So the question is: Do we have two more years to wait? The environment knows nothing or our quaint political schedule.

2: While it is true that in the past, and into today, the general public is apparently not yet troubled or alarmed about global climate changes, I suggest that this situation could change very quickly. A few super hurricanes with land falls at major coastal cities, significant and prolonged killer heat waves and droughts, much higher energy prices, a significant loss of ice in Greenland or Antarctica, and so forth, may cause a “tipping point” in public awareness and concern much sooner than any us might expect. Sooner, rather than latter, the challenges posed by accelerating and ever increasing global climate changes will make Environmental Stewardship the #1 organizing principal of politics around the world.

3. I suggest that we will be looking at significant and new positive opportunities as much as we might be looking at “sacrifices”. It is important to remember that change is opportunity and a great deal more. Sacrifice is not the only possible outcome. Not to say that there are not likely to be some sacrifices to go along with the exciting new opportunities.

Regards,
Jock

Jock,

We are on the same wave length with respect to what must be done, but I beg to differ on timelines and perceptions.

All of you may be interested in my reviews of four new books on climate change, URL for *all* of my reviews (these are the top four most recently entered) is:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1S8AJIUIO6M9K/ref=cm_pdp_content_reviews/102-8217757-1116169

First off, interestingly, you say two years, the literature in now saying that climate changes that used to take 10,000 years are now taking place within three years. So yes, time is of the essence, but generally I thought your earlier focus on 50 years to fix was right. Clearly, 2008 is a CRITICAL election, and I stand by my views that the idiot DNC cannot win base on base--this will take a national uprising.

Second, and as a logical segue to the national uprising idea, while you are right about more hurricanes causing outrage, I think you are wrong about people associating that with the environment. Instead, as with Katrina, they associate it with government failure to prepare or respond, so the visceral appeal to the people needs to be focused on the failure of government and--as the Op Ed you sent me earlier suggests--outrage over blatant intimidation of people of color in Florida and Ohil, and blatent THEFT of specific districts to STEAL critical electoral votes.

I come back to some fundamental precepts from my 700+ books at the above URL:

1) The people will response to authentic leadership.

2) A coalition government with a coalition cabinet announced in advance of the election will be CREDIBLE and will trounce the "banana peel" words of even so great a hero as born again Bushophile John McCain.

3) Fair voting, not the environment, is the dog catcher issue for winning the election.

4) Once the election is won, the President and his team should have two priorities:

4a) Legislatively mandated reform including the instant run-off and the other measures Ralph Nader and I have recommended, to once and for all eliminate the "margin" for thievery, and to eliminate the post-election corruption of incumbents by special interests or "the party line" (see Tom Coburn's "Breach of Trust").

4b) A holistic national strategy that addresses the ten threats, twelve policy areas, and eight challengers (with some amusement, I note I now sound like Mao). See www.oss.net/TERMS for the specifics. This strategy must be accompanied by a transparent balanced budget online that serves as a town hall meeting and "world game" in one.

We can win, but only if we get a leader that is NOT from the old guard, that is willing to LISTEN, and that is willing to take risks by creating a non-rival Citizens Party to level the playing field once and for all.

Robert

Robert,

Happy Father's Day.

i agreee with your last sentence -- as far as it goes. It is necessary, but not sufficient.

Aldon's June 16th post on Narrative, see GD's main page, points to the additional requirement for winning: a powerful political story map provided by a compelling narrative.

See also Frank Rich's Op-Ed in the NY Times of June 18th, 2006.

Regards,

Jock

Post copied from www.citizens-party.org

The Environment Runs Through It…
June 19th, 2006
Several of us have been having a debate about whether the Environment is THE issue for 2006 and 2008, or whether it is Electoral Reform that must preceed any focus on any issue, however imporant.

While it is my view that Electoral Reform is the fundamental enabling objective in the near term, I put together a chart that shows the ten threats identified by the High-Level Threat Panel of the United Nations, in which Environmental Degradation was third, below Poverty and Infectuous Disease, and the twelve policy areas (debt, diplomacy, economy, education, energy, family, immigration, justice, revenue, security, society, and water.

What jumps out from this chart, visible at the link under Public Intelligence titled “Matrix of Issues,” is that the Environment is the one threat that impacts on every single policy area. Also noteworthy the fact that water, not energy, is part and parcel of every threat situation, and that in combination, the staggering size of the debt and the inefficient generation of revenue (e.g. subsidies, tax loopholes, and tolerance of crime) are foreclosing whatever options we might hope to exercise.

Hence, in my view, the Environment is a pervasive and fundamental issue, but there are two pre-conditions for our being able to address it effectively:

1) Electoral Reform that ends special interest bribery of Congress and the White House

2) Immediate attention to doubling federal revenue and eliminating the debt.

Each of the issue areas, and especially the environment, can and should be addressed from day one of the new enlightened Administration’s tenure, but electoral reform, and balancing the budget, are the empowering preamble to addressing the Environment as well as the other threats, all of which are related in some way to the Environment.

Thoughts from anyone else?

Robert Steele