Skip to main content

Barack Obama's Environmental Policy and Inauguration Carbon Footprint

Source Material (edits are mine and Copyright of the Humble Libertarian 2009)

Today we have this headline: Obama presses for tougher controls on US car emissions

Barack Obama made his opening move in the greening of America's economy yesterday, using his presidential authority to press for tougher emissions controls on cars and promising global leadership on climate change.

In signing a pair of executive orders, Obama delivered his strongest repudiation to date of the policies of George Bush, inviting environmentalists to the White House to announce that America would play a global leadership role on climate change.

Less than a week after an inauguration unprecedented in size, cost, and pollution levels, Obama has shown some audacity for sure. This is another example of America's systemic failure to live up to the wise adage of the venerable Mahatma Gandhi- to be the change that we want to see in the world. Instead we force the change that we want to see in the world on everyone else and in many cases fail to live up to the demands of that change ourselves.

An Inconvenient Truth

How could Obama and the environmentalists believe that our climate and pollution situation is an emergency and yet emit over 500 million pounds of CO2 in an unnecessarily extravagant inauguration? Why can't Obama and his followers suit action to words? What I personally find even more appalling, is the 130 tons of trash left behind by the crowds, which didn't consist exclusively of garbage, but included left behind tables, sleeping bags, blankets, hand warmers, and other personal effects. In an event that was supposed to exemplify unity, change, responsibility, and "the putting away of childish things," we have people committing a selfish, common, irresponsible, and entirely childish act- that of failing to clean up after themselves.

"No we can't!" save the environment.

Echoing what may become a common theme on this blog, this is yet another example of the "No we can't!" mentality at work. We have said collectively as a nation by voting for Barack Obama and his environmental policies, "No we can't be the change we want to see in the world and live up to our values by purchasing cleaner and more efficient cars voluntarily. No we can't put economic pressure on car companies to produce the vehicles we desire by refusing to buy vehicles we believe harm the environment. Hell, we can't even pick up our own newspapers and sleeping bags and throw them away or carry them out because it's easier to leave them in the street for someone else to deal with! So it's great to have a President who will force us all to be responsible, especially people who disagree with us."

Popular posts from this blog

Obama keeps pushing the bipartisan religion of interventionism

Michael Scheuer is deadly accurate - foreign interventionism is a bipartisan religion (or disease, whichever you prefer). Too often, I believe, Americans think about Washington’s interventionism only as the actual physical intervention of U.S. military forces abroad in places where no U.S. interest is at risk. That activity certainly is intervention, but President Obama’s despicable decision last week to have his administration leak intelligence claiming that Israel has concluded an agreement with the government of Azerbaijan to allow its use of Azeri airfields for an air strike on Iran is just as much an unwarranted intervention by the United States government. Readers of this blog will know that I carry no brief for Israel, that I believe it is a state that is irrelevant to U.S. national interests, and one whose U.S.-citizen supporters are disloyal to America and involved in activities that compromise U.S. security and corrupt the U.S. political system. That said, Israel — l...

How Thorough a Brainwashing

Saw this on Facebook: Left this comment: It's more thorough of a wash job than that. They don't just believe they are not brainwashed, the question has never occurred to them and as long as they keep reading TIME and watching MTV, it's *impossible* for the question to occur to them. Oh brave new world, that has such people in it. EDIT: And one more thing-- don't ever stop considering what questions it is currently impossible to occur to you . This is what I've been thinking about a lot lately and I'm worried just how large and numerous my own blindspots are. The only solution is to be as intellectually curious as possible. To learn voraciously. To read things that challenge us. To read things that are hard for us to understand and then try to understand them. To expose ourselves to ideas far removed from our present culture and place on the timeline. Read old books. Read foreign books. Turn off the TV. You have already absorbed its biases and blindspots. ...

How To Gain More Twitter Followers

Earlier today, I wrote : "My goal is to write a book before the end of March. My goal is to spend no more than a week from start to publication, spending as much time as I need in order to get it done during that week. My goal is to give it away to you for free here on HumbleLibertarian.com. What's a goal you have? Something you may have been putting off for years? Something you could accomplish in one month if you were determined? If it's near-term enough of a goal, and specific enough of a goal, and you share it in the comments below, feel free to tell me how I can help you and I'll do whatever I can. If it's a libertarian / news / politics-related goal, my manner of help would be easy to determine. I could promote it, introduce you to someone via email, (etc.). If it's something apolitical like quit smoking cigarettes, start exercising, learn guitar, start a business, gain more Twitter followers, learn another language, eat a paleo diet, or...
–––As Featured On–––