Bill McKibben
9/10/2010
President Carter installed solar panels on the White House roof in June of 1979, invoking both their enormous potential and the risk of irrelevance. Unfortunately, the latter appears to have been the case in the United States. The panels were removed during the Reagan administration and less than one percent of American homes have solar heated water. In contrast, China leads the world in solar technology with 250 million homes utilizing the panels.
McKibben, founder of the global warming campaign 350.org, is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College in Vermont and the author of “Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet.”
David Brooks
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Kristof says one way to fight terrorism at home is to invest in schools abroad. He says the reason so many terrorists are coming from Pakistan, a US ally, could be that in the 1970s and 1980s Pakistan’s leader used religious fundamentalism to buttress his regime while ignoring education. In contrast, Kristof looks at neighboring Bangladesh, which Henry Kissinger called an international basket case and now, thanks to education, has bolstered its economy, reduced population growth, encouraged growth of a civil society, and dampened fundamentalism. Encouraging education and dropping tariffs on imports from Pakistan could do the same for Pakistan.
Comparing global climate change to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Tidwell claims that sweeping, political change is the only hope of saving the planet from large-scale destruction caused by greenhouse gas emissions. While many distractions and inhibitions have prevented legislation that would effectively cease the burning of fossil fuels, the “go green” movement–hyped by the media and thus appearing larger and more significant than it really is–shares the blame. Rather than obsessing over green fads, the author calls Americans to real action.
Brown believed he was chosen by God to destroy slavery, the size and make-up of his strike-force was similar to that of the 9/11 hijackers, he used covert backers, and the group used aliases and coded language. John Brown sought to free slaves, terrorize the South, and incite a broad conflict. The 9/11 terrorists sought to hobble America, and after eight years, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have killed nearly twice as many Americans as the hijackers did. And Americans domestic and foreign policy options will continue to be hobbled as it increases troops in Afghanistan.
Europe’s strength will be determined by how well it competes economically with the rest of the world, and for this reason Mandelson says the distribution of the big economic portfolios in the next European Commission are critically important. The choices of José Manuel Barroso, the Commission president, will carry much weight in defining the direction of EU policy. The new commissioners will have to be much more than quiet consensus-builders because there is little to recommend European consensus for its own sake.
