05/10/2007

The Moral Universe

Theodore Parker, Unitarian minister, reformer and abolitionist, died 147 years ago today.  To save you from having to do the math, the year was 1860.  He did not live to see emancipation, nor even the election of Abraham Lincoln, which caused the slave states to secede from the Union.  I wonder if he even knew Mr. Lincoln was a candidate.  The political season was not so drawn out in those days.

Rev. Parker is remembered – or not remembered – as the man who said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”  Martin Luther King, Jr., a student of Rev. Parker’s sermons, often quoted the line and so people now misattribute it to him, which is why Rev. Parker is not remembered.

Rev. Parker must have been a bold man to make his statement in the time and political landscape that he did.  That Dr. King would quote the phrase in the depth of the struggle for civil rights speaks to his own audacity.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
05/03/2007

The Leaf and the Niagara

This week I’ve been looking at satellite photos of the Niagara River and wondering about a hypothetical leaf floating on its surface. From the pictures, it seems the leaf would only be a few hundred yards from the renowned falls before it began to pick up speed.

The leaf, of course, is a metaphor for us and the river is the damage we’ve done to our planet. Environmentalists are constantly accused of doom saying. I know, I’ve been in this business 20 years. When I first got into this, I could not have imagined global warming would be as bad today as it is, nor could I have imagined the state of our oceans, nor extreme-drug-resistant tuberculosis. I would not have foreseen endless wars for oil or terrorist attacks or the secret police and security checkpoints that are parcels of everyday life.

It was the newspapers that got me started thinking about the leaf and the Niagara. There are stories about Colony Collapse Disorder, in which honeybees are disappearing from their hives. In one week, there were stories on the phenomenon in the New York Times, my local daily and the alternative weekly “arts” paper. The day after the local daily ran the CCD story, it carried a wire piece about VHS – Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia – an Ebola-like disease that scientists worry may decimate freshwater fish. It’s showing up in the Great Lakes and in Conesus Lake south of Rochester, New York, where I was a summer camp counselor 30 years ago. The same day, reports from Europe show weather in the past 12 months to be significantly hotter and drier than normal. My parents in central Florida say their skies are hazy with smoke from drought-induced wildfires in Georgia, 200 miles away.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Energy, Global Warming, Oil | Tagged , | Comments (0)
04/26/2007

Because We Can

America is still grieving for the 32 students and professors killed at Virginia Tech last week, as we should. Several people pointed out to me – to you too, probably – that five or six times as many innocent people died in Iraq last week. News is a product of importance multiplied by proximity. The Virginia Tech murders were thousands of miles – both geographic and cultural – closer to us than the violent deaths in Iraq.

On the other hand, we all had at least an indirect hand in the Iraqis’ deaths. Either we voted for George W. Bush or we didn’t do enough to get out the votes for his opponents. Our tax dollars pay to keep our troops an exacerbating presence in the middle of the Iraqi civil war.

Not all of the innocents killed in Iraq are caught in the Sunni-Shi’ite crossfire, either. The news carries too many stories of innocent people killed either carelessly or deliberately by U.S. soldiers. It happens in Afghanistan, too. This week Congress is looking into the cover-up of the friendly-fire death of former NFL star Pat Tillman, as it should, but where’s the outrage and grief for the woman whose husband and children are killed by the side of the road?
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
04/19/2007

Through the Cracks

The more I learn about Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui, the less I understand.  Teachers, fellow students, even his family say they could rarely get him to say a word, that he was silent to the point that some wondered if he was autistic, but he put together a multi-media press pack complete with written statements, still photos of himself in “action” poses and self-produced talking-point videos.

Reported to be shy and withdrawn, Mr. Cho was nonetheless accused of making unwanted “annoying” advances toward two women on campus in the fall of 2005.  The women’s complaints occurred the same semester he scared his fellow students so badly in an English class that many stopped attending.  A professor, going above and beyond the call, volunteered to teach Mr. Cho one-on-one and urged him to seek counseling, even volunteered to walk with him to the counseling center.

After a short stint in a treatment center following the harassment complaints, Mr. Cho checked himself out; there was nothing school or civil authorities could do to compel him to stay.

I live in a college town; the news has hit people here hard.  At the same time, there’s a sense of déjà vu among the student life staff.  There are kids on every campus that give the willies to everyone around them.  “A problem with these kids is we – the faculty, the staff – only deal with one part of the kid,” one professional told me.  “We focus on getting them through to the end of the course, of having them get along with people in their dorm until the end of the semester.  We don’t ask, ‘What’s going to happen to these kids when they get their diplomas and go out in the world?’ because clearly they can’t function.  Unless they’re willing to accept counseling, there’s not much we can do.”
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
04/12/2007

The Oil Deficit

Late last week, the federal government’s Energy Information Administration posted the final global oil consumption figures for 2006. Although we pumped more oil than ever in 2006, on an average day, we consumed over 400,000 more barrels of oil than we produced.

This is not the first time demand has exceeded supply; in 2002 we used over a million barrels per day more than we pumped. How can it be that we use so much more oil than we produce over the course of a year and not run out? At any one time, there are millions of barrels of oil “in the pipeline,” whether they’re in transit (sometimes in actual pipelines) or refineries or in reserve inventories. When there’s too much oil “in the pipeline” producers slow the pumps, which draws down reserves, supply gets tighter and the price rises.

In 2002, the average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. rose 29 cents from the first week of the year to the last ($1.15/gal-$1.44/gal). In 2006, the price rose 10 cents per gallon over the course of the year ($2.28-$2.38). When the oil cartels want to get rid of excess reserves (and raise prices), consumption will often exceed production. The EIA reports that the average price of gas is nine and a half cents per gallon higher this week ($2.80) than last week, almost 12 cents higher than at this time last year and 42 cents higher than at the end of December.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Economy, Oil | Tagged , | Comments (0)
04/05/2007

A Way Forward

It’s been a big week for the atmosphere.  Monday, the Supreme Court ruled five to four (Hang on, Justice Stevens!) that the Clean Air Act does allow the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant.  Just because the EPA can regulate CO2 doesn’t mean it will, at least not under the current administration, but we can all hope 2009 is not too late to pull the planet back from the brink of destruction.

In another Monday ruling – this one unanimous – the court ruled that existing power plants that have been rehabbed or expanded must meet the same (stricter) standards as new power plants.  Just to clear up any confusion, this case has been kicking around since 1998, when the Clinton administration tried to hold utilities to the higher standard.  It’s unlikely the case would have been generated under the current boss.

Tomorrow, in news that’s not so good, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will release the second part of its fourth assessment report.  Part one, released in February, said scientists are 90 percent certain the Earth’s warming trend is caused by human activity.  Tomorrow’s release will discuss specific effects.  For example, scientists are 90 percent certain earlier bird migrations and shifts of species’ ranges toward the poles are caused by human-induced global warming.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
03/29/2007

War of Words

The late, great Molly Ivins called politics “the finest form of free entertainment ever invented.”  Sweeps week is coming to Washington, DC very soon.

Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill to fund the troops in Iraq – on the condition that they’re brought home by the end of August 2008.  This week, the Senate passed a version of the same bill, but sets its withdrawal deadline for the end of March 2008.  Some compromise date will be hashed out in a conference committee, but whatever that date is, George W. Bush has promised to veto the bill.  The Democratic-controlled Congress doesn’t have enough votes to override Mr. Bush’s veto and force the withdrawal on him.  Speaking to a meeting of cattlemen Wednesday, Mr. Bush said unless he and Congress can come to an agreement, funds for the troops will begin to run out in mid-April.

All this reminds Washington watchers of the 1995 government shutdown that resulted when Bill Clinton’s White House and the Republican Congress, led by Newt Gingrich (R-GA), couldn’t agree on spending priorities.  Mr. Clinton vetoed the Republican spending plan, Mr. Gingrich and company couldn’t override and soon government workers began to be laid off.  Bill Clinton won that fight; the public sided with him and he was re-elected the following year.  Mr. Gingrich slowly lost power and was ousted by his own people in 1998.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)