If you were in charge of developing one new policy to reduce humanity's impact on the environment...?

Question

What would you propose? Remember to take in the considerations of all citizens, from suburban soccer moms to factory workers to coal miners to farmers to urban business men and everyone in between.

Thanks for the manifesto, louy.

FredHH, you're just sick.

Since I don't think I can choose best answer for this question without letting my own bias into it...I'm going to let it go to voting. :)

With the obvious exceptions, they are all great answers! Thank you.

Answer 1

I'd invest in developing solar, wind, hydro electric, biomass and geothermal energy, as well as increasing energy efficiency, conservation, etc. I'd promote better technology and better, wider, cheaper, easier use of current technology. I'd give tax credits and other benefits to businesses and individuals to encourage all this.

Answer 2

Always one to favor the two birds with one stone approach...

I would institute a mandatory 2-year public service for everyone under the age of 35. This could be served in a variety of ways: military, education, health care, law enforcement, emergency services, infrastructure, low/no income assistance and finally, environmental protection. As we have almost full employment in most of these areas already, the programs that would receive the greatest influx of "human energy" would be in the areas of low/no income assistance and environmental protection.

How I think this will help is that it will make everybody aware of the debt they owe society and the environment, to witness firsthand the damages caused by neglect. If everyone realized that they would ultimately have to "fix" what they break, instead of just letting someone else worry about it, then they might not be so inclined to break it in the first place.

No one except the severely, permanently disabled would be exempt. No cherry jobs for the rich or otherwise "connected" kids. Those who already have a job/career in these fields would, of course, be able to count time towards the requirement as long as the two years are for a public entity.

Ideally, the program would help to heal the disconnect many of us feel with the rest of society and/or the world we all share. Just as we know the example of our military fighting to assure our freedoms, it is also important to realize that caring for others and the environment also guarantees our freedom. (For those with the quizzical look on their faces, think about the heavy burden that poverty, depleted resources, or a damaged environment that limits our abilities/choices...in other words: takes away our freedom.)

Answer 3

I would propose that everyone become a vegetarian or vegan, or, at the very least reduce meat consumption, ie; eat meat only 2-3 days/week. Here is a great article that suggests that vegetarianism can save the planet. http://www.emagazine.com/view/?142

Recycling, changing your lightbulbs, and driving a Prius are great places to start, but during desperate times more desperate measures are required. We need to be making some serious sacrifices and soon.

Answer 4

Taxes on fossil fuels, subsidies on efficient vehicles, industries making improvements with new technologies and public transport. Some help for people in rural areas, perhaps by exemption of road tax or other means as a compensation for increased fuel tax. I think these measures could be escalated over time in a controlled manner to make a real difference and with a controlled effect on the economy. It is the state of the economy which most impacts on poor people which is why I feel that the disruptive effects (and perhaps growth of corruption) of rigid rationing should be avoided.

More effort should be devoted to explaining, to people with a variety of levels of scientific understanding the science of global warming.

Answer 5

Eliminate ruralification programs. These programs tax cities to bring technology to rural areas.

Because of these programs, they make city living ,ore expensive while subsidizing country life. People follow the money, creating urban sprawl.

Urban sprawl creates road blocks and turns out highways into parking lots twice a day, almost all cars have just one person in them.

End these programs, make modern technology more expensive in the burbs, city life cheaper and more affordable where mass transit is readily available.

Answer 6

End the use of landfills and use the stuff that is dumped as raw material for industry. All the stuff that is poluting the environment in very bad ways can be reused over and over with great benefit tto the environment and the world economy if good engineering is used to develop this new process for disposal of watse matter. About 30% of the energy needs on mankind can come directly from stuff being dumped and as much as 50% of the raw material used by industry could also be supplied from waste matter now being dispoded of in landfills.

Answer 7

The problem is the burning of fossil fuel.

I suggest that fossil fuels be taxed at the source. The tax should be imposed gradually, perhaps over a period of 10 years. The amount of the tax would be proportional to the number of carbon atoms removed from the Earth. To keep the tax revenue-neutral, other taxes (the income tax in particular) should be reduced in order to keep the overall tax rate on economic activity constant. No exceptions would be made, except to the extent that the mined carbon atoms were sequestered by an industrial process after burning. No subsidies would be made by government to alternative energy sources, except for a rational reduction in the restrictions on nuclear power.

Answer 8

Policy: to use electric/alternative motors in vehicles. I don't see why they wouldn't work in every type of vehicle people use..."and (for)everyone in between."

These motors could have the capability to run on corn oil (I believe that's something I've read that's thought of for fuel, as well as the oil from a certain type of very plentiful plant in the southern U.S., kelp of some kind; it's undoubtedly beside most warm gulfs or seas)...so that electric vehicles would run even in the event of electric failure due to storm, etc.

These motors would include those put in machinery in factories or any tool that runs on fossil fuels.

No more fossil fuels! Their day has gotten way out of hand, causing "night" to fall for a lot of young troops fighting in wars. There is espionage, cheating, threats, terrorism... all for the money to be had from fossil fuels.

Those who work the jobs that keep fossil fuels coming could work on the corn and kelp oils, probably with a lot more safety to them.

Enough rant... that's what I would propose. (And recycle!)

Answer 9

return the land to its natural state: reduce the amount of asphalt.

mr jello is on to something when he points out the wastefulness of single car vehicles sitting idly in stop and go traffic on huge concrete pastures.

viewed from space the amount of pavement in american cities as a percentage of total land space is amazing. pavement eliminates the ability of the land to serve as a reservoir for rainwater, which increases flooding. it raises the air temperature in its vicinity, creating urban heat islands that are incresingly expensive to maintain at comfortable temperatures. it uses valuable land that could be made productive agriculturally, ecologically, recreationally.

you asked for one simple policy, and that is as simply put as i can make it. now about that impact on citizens...

everyone USES highways and parking lots. what alternatives can be offered? light rail uses less space than multilane highways. working shopping and playing close to home minimizes the need for long commutes. multi-use zones in cities, remediating brownfields in order to reduce sprawl, implementing more effective and unser-friendly mass transportation strategies... all help to lessen the reliance on the automobile. through smart growth and sound land use choices, communities can become more ped-friendly.

the roads we have are here. it's unlikely they'll be ripped out any time soon, as desirable as it might be. but by lessening their impact on the physical environment and encouraging other means of transport, their footprints can become just a bit lighter.

Answer 10

Ban beef imports/ and idustrialized farming( which also increases antibiotic resistance)
Ban construction of new coal fire power plants
Push nuclear energy
More mass transit, less roads (city)


Tax SUV drivers to the stone age (i just hate SUV drivers- sorry)

Answer 11

Remove the political barriers preventing construction of new nuclear power plants.