2007.09.21: September 21, 2007: Headlines: Figures: COS - Congo Kinsasha: Global Warming: Environment: Grist: Tidwell responds to scientists responding to Tidwell
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Congo - Kinshasa (Zaire):
Special Report: Writer and Environmental Activist Congo Kinshasa RPCV Mike Tidwell:
February 9, 2005: Index: PCOL Exclusive: RPCV Mike Tidwell (Congo Kinshasa) :
2007.09.04: September 4, 2007: Headlines: Figures: COS - Congo Kinsasha: Global Warming: Environment: Speaking Out: Grist: Mike Tidwell writes: Every time an activist or politician hectors the public to voluntarily reach for a new bulb or spend extra on a Prius, ExxonMobil heaves a big sigh of relief:
2007.09.11: September 11, 2007: Headlines: Figures: COS - Congo Kinsasha: Global Warming: Environment: Speaking Out: Grist: Social scientists respond to Mike Tidwell :
2007.09.21: September 21, 2007: Headlines: Figures: COS - Congo Kinsasha: Global Warming: Environment: Grist: Tidwell responds to scientists responding to Tidwell
Tidwell responds to scientists responding to Tidwell
"Other people -- including a whole panel of PhDs from around the world -- were critical of this point of view. They accused me -- wrongly -- of dismissing altogether the virtues of voluntary change. As I type this essay from my solar-powered house, with a Prius in the driveway and a vegetarian lunch in the oven, I assure you I view voluntary measures as very important. They just won't save us in time, that's all. The Arctic ice is melting way too fast." Author Mike Tidwell, founder of the Chesapeake Climate Action Committee, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Congo Kinshasa.
Tidwell responds to scientists responding to Tidwell
Forget the light bulbs: Part II
Tidwell responds to scientists responding to Tidwell
Posted by Grist at 8:43 AM on 21 Sep 2007
The following is a guest essay by Mike Tidwell. It's a response to "The Power of Voluntary Actions," written by a phalanx of social scientists, which was itself a response to Tidwell's "Consider Using the N-Word Less." Tidwell is director of the U.S. Climate Emergency Council and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network based in Takoma Park, Md.
-----
My Sept. 4 essay on the merits of voluntary versus statutory responses to global warming triggered quite a firestorm of debate. Lots of readers agreed with me: All those happy lists in magazines and on web sites -- "10 things you can do to save the planet!" -- actually trivialize the scale of the problem. We'll never solve the climate crisis one light bulb at a time. What we need, à la the civil rights movement, are ten historic statutes that ban abusive and violent practices like the manufacture of gas-guzzling cars and inefficient light bulbs.
Other people -- including a whole panel of PhDs from around the world -- were critical of this point of view. They accused me -- wrongly -- of dismissing altogether the virtues of voluntary change. As I type this essay from my solar-powered house, with a Prius in the driveway and a vegetarian lunch in the oven, I assure you I view voluntary measures as very important. They just won't save us in time, that's all. The Arctic ice is melting way too fast.
Other readers commented that we can't simply legislate our way to positive and permanent changes in human behavior. We need a deeper spiritual approach -- with a big emphasis on education -- to alter the greed and selfishness of human behavior. There's merit to this view, of course -- but it, too, fails to recognize nature's inconvenient deadline: We have to get off fossil fuels right now! We don't have time to change human nature.
In keeping with the civil rights parallel, consider the following hopeful example. In 1960, four black students refused to leave a whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. Their goal was to change the practice, enshrined in law, of banning blacks from segregated public eateries. And the tactic worked. Within four short years, statutes were passed affecting every southern state and banning this discriminatory practice.
So here's my question: Did those four students completely transform human nature throughout the Deep South in 12 short months? Of course not. They changed the legal structure, which stopped the immediate abhorrent practice and over time has led to serious changes in the racial views and values of Southern whites. I should know. I'm white, was born in Tennessee in 1962, and was raised in Georgia. My Southern world, though far from racially perfect, has been a far cry from the formal apartheid of my parents' upbringing.
Here's the point. Today, like in the 1960s, a majority of Americans are ready for a national transformation. They are ready to address the great moral wrong of our time: global warming. Not everyone is ready. Rush Limbaugh and James Inhofe are the George Wallace and Lester Maddox of our day. But a majority of Americans are clearly eager to overcome this wrong-headed minority with national mandates that put our country on a better path.
The problem is we've somehow forgotten how it's done. Martin Luther King famously and repeatedly asked, "Why should we wait one more day for our freedom? Why?" King resisted public pleas to go slow; to let voluntary measures work; to understand that some people just can't change very quickly. No, King said, America must have a new set of laws that address the great moral urgency of now!
So why -- with Arctic ice vanishing, and hurricanes getting bigger, and sea levels rising -- why are we still politely urging Americans to change a few light bulbs and voluntarily spend a little more for a hybrid car? What breakdown in ethical thinking prevents us from insisting that all serious conversations on this topic focus on demanding governmental standards that allow only 50 mpg cars into the marketplace? In other words, given the great ecological, economic, and moral implications of global warming, why should we wait one more day for clean, efficient energy? Why?
Again, I'm all in favor of simultaneous voluntary changes that help grease the market wheels. I voluntarily live an extremely low-carbon lifestyle, and every American who understands the full threat of global warming has a moral obligation to make as many personal changes as possible right now.
But let's not ignore human psychology. When given the chance, only a very small percentage of Americans agree to voluntarily purchase -- at a modest premium -- clean electricity from their local utility. In surveys, those who decline typically say it's not the money. It's their sense of fairness. Why should they be the only ones on their block to pay extra to clean up the air and lessen global warming for everyone else? When asked if they'd support instead a law requiring a greener grid as a whole, with similar cost increases shared by everyone who uses electricity, the customer support level skyrockets.
We are a big, big, ambitious nation now faced with a big, big problem. And we know how to respond in an appropriately big way. We did it during World War II. We did it during the civil rights era. And now nothing short of a Bill of Rights for our life-giving climate will do. A Bill of Rights that bans the bad stuff -- new coal-fired power plants and energy-profligate cars -- while incentivizing the good stuff: wind power, solar energy, and ethanol from switchgrass.
Anything less is to accept the coming slavery of life on a planet ruined utterly by runaway climate change.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: September, 2007; RPCV Mike Tidwell (Congo Kinshasa); Figures; Global Warming; Environment; Maryland
When this story was posted in October 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Senator Dodd's Peace Corps Hearings Read PCOL's executive summary of Senator Chris Dodd's hearings on July 25 on the Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act and why Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter does not believe the bill would contribute to an improved Peace Corps while four other RPCV witnesses do. Highlights of the hearings included Dodd's questioning of Tschetter on political meetings at Peace Corps Headquarters and the Inspector General's testimony on the re-opening of the Walter Poirier III investigation. |
| What is the greatest threat facing us now? "People will say it's terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what is the great threat we are facing? I would approach this differently, in almost Marshall-like terms. What are the great opportunities out there - ones that we can take advantage of?" Read more. |
| Paul Theroux: Peace Corps Writer Paul Theroux began by writing about the life he knew in Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer. His first first three novels are set in Africa and two of his later novels recast his Peace Corps tour as fiction. Read about how Theroux involved himself with rebel politicians, was expelled from Malawi, and how the Peace Corps tried to ruin him financially in John Coyne's analysis and appreciation of one of the greatest American writers of his generation (who also happens to be an RPCV). |
| Dodd issues call for National Service Standing on the steps of the Nashua City Hall where JFK kicked off his campaign in 1960, Presidential Candidate Chris Dodd issued a call for National Service. "Like thousands of others, I heard President Kennedy's words and a short time later joined the Peace Corps." Dodd said his goal is to see 40 million people volunteering in some form or another by 2020. "We have an appetite for service. We like to be asked to roll up our sleeves and make a contribution," he said. "We haven't been asked in a long time." |
| Public diplomacy rests on sound public policy When President Kennedy spoke of "a long twilight struggle," and challenged the country to "ask not," he signaled that the Cold War was the challenge and framework defining US foreign policy. The current challenge is not a struggle against a totalitarian foe. It is not a battle against an enemy called "Islamofascism." From these false assumptions flow false choices, including the false choice between law enforcement and war. Instead, law enforcement and military force both must be essential instruments, along with diplomacy, including public diplomacy. But public diplomacy rests on policy, and to begin with, the policy must be sound. Read more. |
| Ambassador revokes clearance for PC Director A post made on PCOL from volunteers in Tanzania alleges that Ambassador Retzer has acted improperly in revoking the country clearance of Country Director Christine Djondo. A statement from Peace Corps' Press Office says that the Peace Corps strongly disagrees with the ambassador’s decision. On June 8 the White House announced that Retzer is being replaced as Ambassador. Latest: Senator Dodd has placed a hold on Mark Green's nomination to be Ambassador to Tanzania. |
| Peace Corps Funnies A PCV writing home? Our editor hard at work? Take a look at our Peace Corps Funnies and Peace Corps Cartoons and see why Peace Corps Volunteers say that sometimes a touch of levity can be one of the best ways of dealing with frustrations in the field. Read what RPCVs say about the lighter side of life in the Peace Corps and see why irreverent observations can often contain more than a grain of truth. We'll supply the photos. You supply the captions. |
| PCOL serves half million PCOL's readership for April exceeded 525,000 visitors - a 50% increase over last year. This year also saw the advent of a new web site: Peace Corps News that together with the Peace Corps Library and History of the Peace Corps serve 17,000 RPCVs, Staff, and Friends of the Peace Corps every day. Thanks for making PCOL your source of news for the Peace Corps community. Read more. |
| Suspect confesses in murder of PCV Search parties in the Philippines discovered the body of Peace Corps Volunteer Julia Campbell near Barangay Batad, Banaue town on April 17. Director Tschetter expressed his sorrow at learning the news. “Julia was a proud member of the Peace Corps family, and she contributed greatly to the lives of Filipino citizens in Donsol, Sorsogon, where she served,” he said. Latest: Suspect Juan Duntugan admits to killing Campbell. Leave your thoughts and condolences . |
| He served with honor One year ago, Staff Sgt. Robert J. Paul (RPCV Kenya) carried on an ongoing dialog on this website on the military and the peace corps and his role as a member of a Civil Affairs Team in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have just received a report that Sargeant Paul has been killed by a car bomb in Kabul. Words cannot express our feeling of loss for this tremendous injury to the entire RPCV community. Most of us didn't know him personally but we knew him from his words. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends. He was one of ours and he served with honor. |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: Grist
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Congo Kinsasha; Global Warming; Environment
PCOL39332
31