In a searing article in Harper’s Magazine in September 2004, Naomi Klein laid out a theory of the Iraq War that shreds even today’s conventional wisdom about the motivations for our invasion. Her theory was that the neocons saw Iraq as a potential test tube for their ideological utopia, and pursued a strategy of shock therapy, where the devastation of war would force Iraqis to rebuild their nation from scratch. Out of desperation (not to mention shock and awe), they would be receptive to U.S. economic policy unimaginable in any other country.
Continue reading The Greening of the Peace MovementThis week a reporter from the Berkshire Eagle contacted me and other candidates for a story in progress. One item requested was a short explanation of why I’m running for office. The question is a good one to regularly ask oneself while in the public spotlight. Below is what I submitted.
Continue reading Why Am I Running?Sporting large, brown ‘oily hands,’ and carrying signs reading “Fight Climate Change Now,” a dedicated group of climate activists spent nearly two hours ‘shadowing’ US Senator Scott Brown at fundraising events in Boston on Wednesday evening.
Four groups were involved in planning and carrying out the shadow event: 1Sky, 350.org, the Global Warming Education Network, and Paint Brown Green. Supporters of the groups first gathered outside of a fundraiser for MA treasurer candidate Karyn Polito, held at the Liberty Hotel, a former prison in Boston. Among other taunts, three of the activists chanted, “Climate change victims, hear them wail; climate change deniers belong in jail!” Senator Brown was not seen entering or leaving the event.
After 45 minutes of demonstrating outside the first fundraiser, the protesters marched past the offices of both US senators Kerry and Brown on their way to a second fundraiser, held for Brad Marston, republican candidate for US Congress, held at the Kinsale restaurant, on Cambridge Street in Boston. Commenting on Boston’s weird recent weather, the activists chanted, “Six weeks of drought, then four inches of rain; how do you like your climate change?”
Then, just as the demonstrators were told that “security had been notified,” the impossible happened: Senator Brown approached the restaurant on foot. Seeing her chance, activist Susan Shamel immediately went to the senator’s side to voice her request for strong US climate legislation. Shamel and Brown spoke for nearly a minute before the senator waved to the other
activists and disappeared inside.
“He was supportive of my request for legislation, but blamed democrats for not bringing appropriate legislation to the senate for a vote,” said Shamel. “He also said that he could not support a tax on energy,” she went on. “I told him that revenues collected could be returned to the taxpayers, but he was skeptical of this approach,” Shamel said.
Continue reading Climate Activists’ Senator Brown Shadowing Event Huge Success in Boston{ Installment 3 of Ivan Illich’s Energy and Equity series }
Speed-stunned imagination
Past a certain threshold of energy consumption, the transportation industry dictates the configuration of social space. Motorways expand, driving wedges between neighbors and removing fields beyond the distance a farmer can walk. Ambulances take clinics beyond the few miles a sick child can be carried. The doctor will no longer come to the house, because vehicles have made the hospital into the right place to be sick. Once heavy trucks reach a village high in the Andes, part of the local market disappears. Later, when the high school arrives at the plaza along with the paved highway, more and more of the young people move to the city, until not one family is left which does not long for a reunion with someone hundreds of miles away, down on the coast.
Equal speeds have equally distorting effects on the perception of space, time, and personal potency in rich and in poor countries, however different the surface appearances might be. Everywhere, the transportation industry shapes a new kind of man to fit the new geography and the new schedules of its making. The major difference between Guatemala and Kansas is that in Central America some provinces are still exempt from all contact with vehicles and are, therefore, still not degraded by their dependence on them.
Continue reading Energy and Equity: Speed-stunned imagination
Graphic by Jeff Walsh, Boston Herald
As Green-Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein called out the backroom deals with a monopoly utility at last week’s Cape Wind debate by MassINC, her demands for transparency, accountability and fair competition by municipal energy providers surprised many observers. David Bernstein of the Boston Phoenix didn’t even know how to categorize her criticism, incorrectly pigeon-holing Stein’s critique as opposition to the Cape Wind project, end of story.
The Boston Globe reported on Martha Coakley rushing in to show that they weren’t hiding anything. Nothing to see here! So it was interesting when the Boston Herald reported that Coakley’s 85-page report to the Department of Public Utilities was heavily redacted. According to the Herald:
Continue reading Backroom dealing toward our green energy futureThe report, which was Coakley’s official justification of her rate settlement with Cape Wind and National Grid, includes “redacted” words, numbers, sentences, paragraphs and charts. It even blanked out a question asked of an energy expert hired by Coakley’s office – and the expert’s response was also crossed out.
WASHINGTON, DC — The Green Party of the United States congratulates Australian Greens (http://greens.org.au) on their ‘greenslide’ in Australia’s parliamentary elections on Saturday, August 21. Preliminary results show the Greens will take ten seats in the Australian House of Representatives and Senate.
“The Australian Greens’ impressive totals follow on the election of Caroline Lucas, the first Green to Parliament in the UK, in May,” said Julia Willebrand, candidate for New York State Comptroller (http://www.juliaforcomptroller.com) and member of the Green Party’s International Committee (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl). “It’s only a matter of time before the first Green is elected to the US Congress. We need a shock to the two-party status quo in America, the kind of shock we’re seeing now in Australia.”
“When we get some Greens in Congress in the US, we’ll see an enormous change in the direction of America — a change for the better, since Democrats and Republicans will no longer take their exclusive control over US politics and government for granted. Like Australia and the UK, Americans will have legislators from a party dedicated to human needs, human rights, and the health of our planet,” Ms. Willebrand added.
Continue reading US Greens congratulate Australian Greens on election ‘greenslide’ in Parliament189 Pleasant Street, Easthampton, MA, Saturday, August 28th, 2010, 8 AM- 12:30 PM.
Project Retrofit of the Western Mass Green Consortium is holding its 2nd 2010 Workshop to involve community voices in strategies to grow the “green economy.”
$992 Million Dollars in Federal Stimulus money has been spent in 4 Western MA Counties in the past 18 months.
How can we collaborate & work together to build an economy in Western MA that works for ALL of us. Help us build a vibrant Green Economy that builds upon what we have done AND outlasts the Stimulus Funding.
February 13, 2010 was the first Project Retrofit Workshop to identify regional barriers to growing the energy efficiency/retrofit industry. This meeting will bring together individuals, businesses, and community organizations at a morning planning session to begin implementation of the needed tools identified in February.
Participants who arrive at 8 and stay until 12:30 are welcome to stay for a party and BBQ, as well as guided tours of the sustainable designed property. Please bring a dish to share.
For a complete agenda, to volunteer, or for more information visit www.westernmassgreenconsortium.org.
Continue reading Strategies to Grow the Green Economy in Western MassI’ve been gone all summer – traveling, gardening, volunteering a bit, and doing some other things – and as much as I had a lot of fun, it is nice to be back. In all that time, some interesting things have happened with what I consider to be one of the better Green campaigns in the nation this year, and one that I’m very involved with, Hugh Giordano’s campaign for state legislature as a Green.
In case you don’t know who Hugh is, he’s a 25 year old union organizer running as a Green in PA’s 194th district, which is mostly in Philadelphia and also a bit in Montgomery County (for locals, it encompasses Roxborough, Manayunk, parts of Lower Merion, and some surrounding areas). He’s been running a great campaign, knocking on doors, holding fun fundraisers, getting in the newspaper, and raising as much money as a typical Green congressional candidate.
Anyway, below the fold is some news from the campaign, including an endorsement from a fairly prominent local Democrat.
Continue reading Some news from Hugh Giordano’s Green campaign for state legislature in Philadelphia