A Wall Street Shade of Green

Futurism Now has just been moved from another server, which is why it disappeared for a couple of days. I’ve done website migration before before but for some reason it was a little more challenging this time.  There might still be some link problems. Now I’m leaving town for a few days so FN won’t be updated much in the meantime.   And for some reason, there’s no climate change legislation news today because it wasn’t introduced in the Senate.  Apparently the other two senators (Kerry and Lieberman) can’t function, for some reason,  without Lindsay Graham, (who is pouting in the corner about immigration.)

And the huge amounts of oil leaking from the collapsed, exploded oil rig continues to pollute the water in the Gulf of Mexico, where it’s about 30 miles off the coast and threatening all life in its path.  It’s almost too depressing to think about.  Meanwhile, enjoy this “Earth Day”  video of James Cameron, creator of Avatar, one of the most awesome environmental and anti-war movies ever made, at the climate rally in D.C. last Sunday.  I recorded a large portion of the climate rally and will try to put it out in a podcast if I can find the time,  because the music was great.  I finally got to hear Joss Stone sing live, and since I’ve been watching her play Anne of Cleaves on The Tudors, (Showtime)  it was a huge change to see her rocking with The Roots.  (The “best band in the world!”)

Also recent, this article below, which I thought was notable last week.  From the WSJ, no less.  Are the old-school capitalism devotees getting it about climate change? Some are.

By William Ruckelshaus, first EPA administrator.

Today’s environmental challenges are far different from those of 40 years ago. And so, argues William Ruckelshaus, the solutions must change as well. —

A NEW SHADE OF GREEN

“In the 1960s, it all seemed so simple.

We humans with our big cars and our big factories and our big cities were discharging terrible stuff into the air and water, and it had to be stopped or we would soon make our nest uninhabitable. The public was growing increasingly outraged. Every night on color television, we saw yellow sludge flowing into blue rivers; every day as we drove to work, we saw black smudges against the barely visible blue sky. We knew that our indiscriminate use of pesticides and toxic substances was threatening wildlife and public health.

But we didn’t do much about it. Until 1970, most regulation of industry was done by the states, which competed so strongly for plants and jobs that regulating companies to protect public health was beyond them.

Environmentally, it was a race to the bottom.

Until, that is, the public had enough and demanded action. A seminal moment: the [...]

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