ARTS & FARCES internet

What if our society should decide that no public, natural resources could be exploited for private gain? What if we decided (as Paul Hawken suggests) to change what we taxed (i.e., pollutants) instead of who we taxed? Refusing to become victims of supply lines, corporate misdeeds, and mismanagement, what if cities and regional entities once again pursued ownership and distribution of its energy sources?

My best bet: the energy and profits these new power companies generated would most likely be held to higher standards for safety measures (including appropriate storage solutions to cope with the scary life-span of plutonium); we would see research and development for clean and renewable sources become prolific; and we would eventually see energy costs fall. The most important “fall out” might be that we would immediately insist that Israelis and Palestinians either come to an agreement or risk cutting off all aid and funding of any kind for both parties. The threat to world-wide environmental and infrastructural safety represented by an all-out war between these two factions is simply incalculable.

Power concentrated in one location has historically proved dangerous. It doesn’t matter whether you’re examining government, banking, communications, energy, education, or an ethnic population. You name it—a concentration of power has always resulted in abuse. And our current main-stream energy sources (oil and nuclear) simply pollute—big time. They are more expensive than clean and renewable sources for all of society to support; requiring huge lobbies, a heavily centralized infrastructure, and more safety and security measures than money could every truly buy us. Most egregious of all our current energy sources encourage foreign dependency rather than self-sufficiency among a community’s residents.

The relationship between poor energy policy and poor conservation habits is symbiotic—and we’ll never have one without the other. The synergy created when policy and habits are in harmony however, could bring about the reform necessary for human beings to live in cooperation with the earth, and with each other. So, what does it mean when President Bush encourages consumption yet owns a ranch (see Michael Moore’s latest tome) that is so environmentally correct that it’s tempting to think one might hole-up there in the event our major infrastructures were damaged?

Is Bush more in tune with environmentalists than he dares admit? Could he have queasy feelings about the direction this nation is taking with regard to energy and environmental policy? Or does this mean that an overt schizophrenic-style posture has become standard in political situations? Or perhaps he merely received a farm tax subsidy to experiment with just how free we might all eventually be from oil and nuclear interests?

As the average taxpayer already funds all energy policy with comparatively little benefit to themselves or their communities, perhaps we could all now take a former first lady’s advice seriously and “just say no” to some current addictions to many things nuclear and petroleum derived. Although both petroleum and nuclear interests have become so systemic in our economy, there are still things we can do to avert a third oil crisis. Let’s just say “no” to petroleum and nuclear special interests by tackling some of the following:

1. Planting trees, not new nuclear plants in our communities;
2. Checking off the “public funding for political campaigns” check box on our tax returns, and while we’re at it, write-in a check box for “public ownership of all our natural resources;”
3. Committing to turning off the lights (and anything else) in rooms not in use; don’t bag your grass clippings and let them nourish the lawn instead;
4. Tossing out politicians that fail to demand and vote for a major increase in research, development and implementation funding for clean and renewable energy, and significantly reduce tax credits and other subsidies for nuclear and petroleum interests; voting out politicians that allow nuclear power companies to declare nuclear generated power as a “no emissions” source of energy as if plutonium by-products do not constitute a toxic “emission;”
5. Re-committing to shared transportation systems—ride mass transit; display stickers that say “My car wasn’t hijacked, I just like people;” display “Arrive alive—55 MPH” bumper stickers; either park that SUV or create a carpool now;
6. Tossing out politicians that fail to demand and vote for legislation that includes serious penalties for excessive executive compensation and corporate leadership misdeeds (this movement needs to go global, folks);
7. Refusing to purchase genetically modified foods—committing our bodies to as much organic produce as possible (many pesticides are either petroleum based products, or owned by companies with heavy petrol interests);
8. Tossing out politicians that fail to demand and vote for eliminating taxes on wage-based labor that results in $18K per year (or less) per wage-earner (an effort to increase job creation and real wages, while reducing expenses and excuses for all employers);
9. Consuming no more than six ounces of alcohol per day to reduce auto accidents that result in loss of life and add to the number of automobiles that ultimately sit in a landfill
10. Camping out at the offices of polluters geared in gas masks, and handing out fact sheets regarding the companies’ lobbyists, special interest campaigns, political funding habits, and its executive pay (If law enforcement officials should ever feel the need to accompany you, give them a red rose, blow a kiss with a smile, and sit upon the ground. They might think you’re on pharmaceuticals, but you’ll know that your “drugs” of choice consist of nothing stronger than sugar, shade-grown espresso, and a little music—unless your physician found it necessary to prescribe prozac to cope with all the noise coming out of polluters public relations departments)
11. Tossing out politicians that fail to demand and vote for the extermination of “junk” bills—this forces bills to stand on their own merits and renders transparent the agendas, pork barrels, and negotiations of our legislative representatives;
12. Think “green:” restore the country’s ability to identify, penalize, and prosecute the most egregious abusers of the tax code, i.e. the wealthy expatriates most likely found living part-time in Bermuda, Belize, or the Bahamas.