Video: National Landscape Conservation System

This video narrated by actor and conservationist Edward Norton, reviews a land conservation system for the twenty-first century. See some of America's most prized landscapes known as the Conservation Lands. A new land ethic is focused on protecting some of the most beautiful American lands from development. A conservation system is dedicated to the sacred trust of stewardship of special places. The conservation mandate is to provide a safety net for wildlife seeking migration pathways and new habitat as climate change alters the landscape. Over 28 million acres are protected under this system which seeks to offer a positive legacy for future generations. This is the geography of hope.

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Obama Cancels the Keystone XL Pipeline Project

On January 17th the Obama administration denied a permit for TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL. The pipeline would have carried tar sands oil to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries. Approximately one month earlier, Republicans agreed to pass legislation on tax-cuts and employment benefits by forcing the President to decide on the Keystone XL pipeline.

EDF's Voices for Clean Air - National Week of Action 2011

The EDF is behind a campaign to help remind political leaders that clean air is something that the majority of Americans support.

Democrats, Republicans and Independents have very different visions for America, but one thing they all agree on is that Everyone deserves the right to breathe clean, healthy air. Support for clean air comes from 58% of Republicans, 79% of Democrats and 54% of those polled with no party affiliation. The majority of voters of all political stripes trust EPA more than Congress to set clean air standards. By a 65 to 30 percent margin, voters agree that we can set stricter standards for cleaner air.

The False Choice Between the Economy and the Environment

In debates on the issue of climate change we are often asked to make a false choice between the environment and the economy. However, an intelligent discussion of climate change cannot be framed as a choice between the environment and the economy.

The rise of sustainable business is making it abundantly clear that we can have it both ways. Businesses are adopting new models that both contribute to the economy while minimizing their environmental footprints.

According to a May 2011 Yale Survey, 56% of Americans now believe that protecting the environment improves economic growth and provides new jobs.

Previous polemics argued that you can either have the economy or the environment. Contemporary wisdom reveals that you can have both.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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The Environmental and Economic Implications of a Government Shutdown

On Friday April 8, 2011, Republicans came within minutes of shutting down the federal government. A federal government shutdown would have directly affected the economy and the environment. Although lawmakers would have continued to get a paycheck, 800,000 federal workers would not, this includes government officials charged with the responsibility of protecting the environment.

According to CNN, 368 National Park Service sites were closed during the last government shutdown which lasted 21 days and prevented 7 million people from being able to visit US national parks. A government shutdown would have had an adverse economic impact in states across America. As reported on Yahoo! News, states like Indiana, would have closed three national parks and 30 national natural landmarks, deterring 2 million visitors with an annual spend of more than $51 million.

A government shutdown also has very serious economic implications beyond important tourist dollars. As reported in the New York Times, The last shutdown shaved a full percentage point off the nation's productivity.

An April 8, 2011 a Grist article by Christopher Mims reviewed several ways the environment would be harmed by a Republican shutdown of government.

A shutdown would have been very disruptive to everything from small business to renewable energy. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a memo, "For the American people, a shutdown of the Department of the Interior's services would disrupt everything from family vacations and small businesses that rely on tourism to renewable energy projects.”

Important environmental cleanups would have been abandoned and hazardous sites including mines, oil and gas production facilities, dams, aqueducts, nuclear power plants, would have gone without inspection. The Washington Post reported that toxic waste cleanup work was halted during the last shutdown. 609 sites reportedly stopped their cleanup projects, and 2,400 Superfund workers were furloughed.

Almost 18,000 EPA employees would have been furloughed and their cleanup activities would have been suspended. Climate research including NASA, NOAA, NSF would have shut down which would have in turn hurt contractors, and small firms that provide goods and services to these scientific research organizations.

National Parks would have been shutdown and protection of natural areas would have lapsed leaving these lands vulnerable to poachers and polluters. The last time there was a government shutdown there were also serious problems at national zoos across the country.

On the bright side, if Republicans had succeeded in shutting down government, it would have given the Democrats an opportunity to stand up against some of the Republicans' most egregious cost cutting efforts including attempts to strip the EPA of many of its key regulatory powers.

While a government shutdown was narrowly averted, we can expect to see another showdown over the 2012 budget. The cuts Republicans seek in environmental oversight would harm the planet and the health of Americans. The cuts Republicans seek in education and other programs would undermine the future competitiveness of the American economy. Republicans continue to put their party interest ahead of national interest.

Republican's cost cutting tenacity is proof of the Tea Party's influence, and as they move ever further to the right of center they are abandoning any hope for functional government.

America may have dodged a bullet this time, but Republican obstructionism does not bode well for the looming 2012 budget. With high unemployment and a fragile economy, this is a very bad time for Republicans to pull the plug on government.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Republican's Fail in their Bid to Defund the EPA

The President and the Democrats managed to stave off a government shutdown as well as exclude some far flung Republican riders like the one that called for the defunding of the EPA.

Despite major concessions from Democrats, Republicans came within minutes of shutting down government on Friday April 8, 2011.

In a statement shortly after the budget agreement was reached, Obama called it “the largest annual spending cut in our history.” Discretionary spending for the rest of FY 2011 is nearly $39 billion less than had been budgeted for the previous year and $79 billion less than Obama had wanted for 2011.

Riders that were defeated include the Republican's controversial attempts to eliminate federal funds for the EPA's regulation of greenhouse gases linked to global climate change. One of the riders that did make it through prevents the use of federal or local funds to pay for abortion services in the District of Columbia.

A rider, also known as 'pork,' is an attachment that is added to a document in order to modify it. However, the Republicans use riders to add entirely new, unrelated laws. These riders reveal much about the Republicans political agenda. Republicans attempted to introduce unpopular fiscal changes that would otherwise have attracted public protest. Republican riders were a blatant attempt to sneak through unpopular measures like the elimination of abortion funding.

“Some of the cuts we agreed to will be painful. Programs people rely on will be cut back. Needed infrastructure projects will be delayed. And I would not have made these cuts in better circumstances,” he said. “But beginning to live within our means is the only way to protect those investments that will help America compete for new jobs – investments in our kids’ education and student loans; in clean energy and life-saving medical research. We protected the investments we need to win the future.”

“In the end, Boehner got far more than he gave up, and far more than Obama, [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid and the Democrats were initially willing to offer,” write John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman at Politico.com. “It sets the stage for a stronger hand for Boehner as he enters politically perilous fights to raise the debt ceiling and pass 2012 spending bills.”

While Obama wants to protect investments that America needs to "win the future," Republicans can be expected to doggedly pursue cost cutting in an effort to pander to their base.

The fight over this bill is tangible proof of the tea party's far-right influence on the Republican party. This does not bode well for the real showdown looming over the budget for 2012. While a government shutdown may have been avoided this time, it may prove unavoidable in the next couple of months.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Korea's Green Growth and the New Expanison Paradigm

At the recent G20 meetings in Seoul, Korea put green on the the business summit agenda. The world wide recession propelled the global economy in a new direction, forcing many countries around the world to follow a new green expansion paradigm.

For sustainable and balanced development, governments are increasingly aware of the fact that green growth is the future of economic development.

In an interview with The Korea Times, Young Soo-gil, chairman of the Presidential Committee on Green Growth said, “The agenda for the summit will be crowded with other issues of pressing priorities to allow much discussion on green growth. The Korean G20 Summit Preparatory Committee is aiming for mainstream advancement on the agenda for the summit, and so ‘development’ will be a prominent theme.”

“This will hopefully allow President Lee Myung-bak to bring the attention of the G20 Leaders to the value of the theme of green growth as a catalyst for global cooperation in many development dimensions,” he added.

Young said that Korea is seeking to take a lead in the global green growth drive by sharing its knowledge and experience.

“Korea would like to help those developing countries harmonize their growth aspirations with the environmental ones by sharing its green growth tool kits and experiences, as well as by working together to undertake specific mitigation and adaptation projects in cost-effective and growth-friendly ways in individual countries,” he said.

“Korea is also willing to take leadership in the international efforts to help build physical infrastructures in the developing countries in climate-change resilient ways. For these purposes, Korea is to make green growth partnership a leading component of its increased ODA (Official Development Assistance) commitment as a new member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC),” he added.

As part of this effort, Korea has launched the East Asia Climate Partnership (EACP). Most significantly, on July 16 of this year, the Korean government launched a Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) based in Seoul.

“Korea hopes to develop GGGI into an international treaty-based institution by 2012 with support from other countries which share belief in the value of green growth as well as of sharing insights, know-how and experiences on it,” he said.

“The Green Growth Committee also hopes that Korea’s green growth inspirations will play a facilitating role in making a breakthrough over the issue of how to reconcile economic, social and environmental development objectives at the Rio plus 20 Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in 2012,” he added.

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Video on Green Growth - Korea's Key to a Better Future

With the recent G20 summit held in Seoul, Korea is taking the opportunity to show its leadership in the development of the green economy. This 6 minute video reviews green growth generally and then zeros in on Korea's efforts. The video contains a great introduction on green growth and the need for transnational wisdom.

The Presidential Committee on Green Growth of Korea announced on May 13 that the Korean government will invest about 12 trillion won (roughly US $9.5 billion) by 2013 in the development of green technology as part of the "Green New Deal" announced earlier this year.

Since his inauguration, President Lee Myung-bak has put green growth on top of the country's agenda. He has stressed the importance of the development of environment-friendly technologies that will boost Korea's economic competitiveness.

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UN Hopeful about G20 Climate Finance

The Seoul G20 summit ended on 12 November, 2010. On November 9, Achim Steiner, the UN Undersecretary General and Executive Director of UNEP, wrote about the important role the G20 can play 'embedding a fundamental transition to a more sustainable global economy that looks beyond the current, narrow definition of wealth and GDP.'

The G20 has acted to stabilize banks and to counter the financial and economic crisis. Steiner hoped that the G20 meeting in Seoul could have been 'a watershed in international financial and economic affairs, where the pledge, made at the G20 in London, toward a green and more sustainable recovery moves from communique to concrete commitment.'

The G20 must deal with the important issues of averting economic crises similar to the recent recession and 'the even bigger and more complex ones emerging as a result of climate change, environmental degradation and unsustainable overexploitation of the planet’s natural assets.'

As Steiner pointed out, there are some very promising signs that more and more countries are understanding the urgency of the climate change crisis. Korea has earmarked close to 90 percent of its funds to a short- and long-term vision of green growth. The country’s leaders have also made the indivisible link between the leadership role of public policy making in terms of unleashing private sector investment into clean tech and other green sectors.

The costs associated with climate change are being factored into the thinking of an increasing number of banks and pension funds who are beginning to see rising risks to their investments from the loss of ecosystems. Increasingly people understand that the disruption to food supplies, supply chains and other challenges linked with natural resource losses are a much bigger threat than international terrorism.


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