Sunday, November 22, 2009

The Green Hawks and the Hippies should be Friends!

A Green Hawk believes that greening our economy is a matter of national security.

Thomas Friendmann recently wrote about the concept, arguing (if I may paraphrase) that even if global warming is a hoax (it's not) and even if hippie communal sandal wearers look funny (yes we do!), still the reality is that our planet has several billion people who will not stop trying to get to our American standard of living, and THAT will totally break any carbon-based energy economy.

It is indeed awkward to square a just and necessary criticism of free market capitalism with the equally just and necessary use of its enormous power for good. Power tools are like that; you can lose a finger or even more if you're not careful, but you wouldn't want to do without them. People who, like me, have concerns should ponder the Salon "interview" of Adam Smith; he's not necessarily who we think he is.

Now, I'll expect the next week to be filled with climate change deniers cherry-picking phrases from some stolen email and ignoring the debunking of their claims. But even if deniers are right (they're not) and those greedy climatologists are on the take from Big Wind and Big Solar (they wish!), still the Green Hawks are right. And a patriotic American would want our nation to be #1 into the solution, so as to reap the benefit, instead of selling ourselves to others, e.g. Chinese Solar Panel Firm to Open Plant in Arizona.

Of course, I understand patriotic Chinese saying the same thing about THEIR nation. Do your most, and may the best planet win!

And for a bit of fun ... since I said "Big Wind"

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