tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post981629249160760167..comments2024-03-22T05:20:44.167-07:00Comments on The Disaffected Lib: The World Bank Weighs In On Global WarmingThe Mound of Soundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-64947641292749743662011-05-19T18:47:10.272-07:002011-05-19T18:47:10.272-07:00Thanks for the link. If you have time, check out t...<i>Thanks for the link. If you have time, check out the clip Dan linked to above.</i><br /><br />Unfortunately, I'm on dial-up at home. Managed to download the opening. It sounds interesting from your comments there. :( Found some essays Jason Scorse's wrote on the <a href="http://www.grist.org/article/An-open-book" rel="nofollow">same subject.</a> (Sharing for anyone else with dial-up.) <br /><br />As for Robert Ward, I'll admit that I didn't go into any depth on his work beyond the small quote in Business Week. Some of it, like <a href="http://www.rockinst.org/observations/boydd/2011-04-how_to_address_volatility_in_taxes.aspx" rel="nofollow">this one</a> is depressing. Ugh. <br /><br /><i>Tough choices must be made. Most Canadians understand that. I suspect a good many of them are waiting for a leader who shows he/she is willing to do that. Or maybe it's too late. Maybe we have degenerated into Easter Islanders.</i><br /><br />I think people in general want to do the right thing. People participate in the Earth Hour challenge enough to make dents in energy consumption. Things like the One-Tonne challenge actually motivated my parents (not environmentalist) to drive less and find ways to conserve energry at home (which they've succeded in doing). The good will is out there. What is needed is direction.sharonapple88https://www.blogger.com/profile/11149226422042041129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-9760971401041396092011-05-19T09:20:37.416-07:002011-05-19T09:20:37.416-07:00@ Sharon. I did a little reading on Robert Ward&#...@ Sharon. I did a little reading on Robert Ward's ideas. Yes he bemoans political spinelessness but he's strictly autocratic in his argument. He brings the depth of a bookkeeper to his thinking and looks for answers in the minutiae while ignoring the greater scheme of things. He's focused on balancing - cutting services or trimming wages - without considering how American government got into this Gordion's Knot in the first place.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-65402009853348209122011-05-19T06:29:51.481-07:002011-05-19T06:29:51.481-07:00@ Sharon. Mr. Ward's observation is not just ...@ Sharon. Mr. Ward's observation is not just true but obvious or at least it should be. Today's cadre of politicians of all stripes are shirkers and cowards. That was one of the failings that cost Ignatieff his job and his seat.<br /><br />If the Liberals want to be reborn they're going to have to grapple with this. Tough choices must be made. Most Canadians understand that. I suspect a good many of them are waiting for a leader who shows he/she is willing to do that. Or maybe it's too late. Maybe we have degenerated into Easter Islanders.<br /><br />Thanks for the link. If you have time, check out the clip Dan linked to above.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-38467659630738862011-05-19T06:25:29.748-07:002011-05-19T06:25:29.748-07:00@ Dan - thanks for the link to that clip. the poi...@ Dan - thanks for the link to that clip. the point is well made - economics and environmentalism are on the same side on climate change. as i've written here many times before, real Conservatism, as espoused by the likes of Edmund Burke and Teddy Roosevelt, is truly committed to environmentalism. what's labelled "Conservative" today is a pretty rank perversion of conservatism.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-28923315406675537102011-05-18T19:05:47.246-07:002011-05-18T19:05:47.246-07:00Our governments all along should have kept us educ...<i>Our governments all along should have kept us educated and well informed of these "inconvenient truths." That's their job, that's their duty. They owe us that much. Yet they stand mute about these things and they do that quite deliberately.</i><br /><br />There was a comment in a Business Week article that hit on this point. <br /><br />"Elected officials don't want to make tough choices anymore, and they are flat-out refusing to do so," says Ward of the Rockerfeller Institute of Government. <br /><br />****<br /><br />As for leadership on this issue, we should consider what was done in <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_kolbert" rel="nofollow">an island in Denmark.</a> Social relations... turning it into a sport/competition.sharonapple88https://www.blogger.com/profile/11149226422042041129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-85859569022286798792011-05-18T16:44:48.877-07:002011-05-18T16:44:48.877-07:00The problem is that many in the environmental move...The problem is that many in the environmental movement see economists as the enemy, when in reality they are our greatest ally.<br /><br />See <a href="http://www.irregularclimate.com/archives/economists-are-not-the-enemy" rel="nofollow">this</a> videoScruffyDanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16713742939840041196noreply@blogger.com