Government Policies

President Obama's insistence, and for that matter persistence, to stick to his plan of reigniting the job market and stimulating the economy can certainly be admired by those finally back at work. Increased governmental intervention in unemployment, has perhaps, prevented an even more deflated job market than the 9.7% recently reported.

Although stabilizing, the unemployment percentage is still daunting and one question remains to be seen: Is President Obama's next step in his unemployment and stimulus plan finally going to turn the tides on the recession and unemployment?

As President Obama openly admits, the 9.7% unemployment is unacceptable. In Virginia on Friday he said, "Far too many Americans remain out of work, far too many families are still struggling in these difficult economic times."

Global warming is a contentious issue again because skeptics have pointed out inconsistencies with the data scientists are using to measure how much humans are impacting the environment. Setting that debate aside for a moment, scientists have discovered that somewhere around 7 teragrams of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, has been released each year from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. That’s around 7.7 million tons of methane, and the data was aggregated from 5,000 locations. Sound credible?

In a situation like this the argument over who is causing global warming – man or nature – becomes almost irrelevant. It’s important for us to understand how that much greenhouse gas drifting into the atmosphere will affect the climate. Our ability to adapt or prevent that shift in climate may determine the next step in our collective bloodline.

Governments have often used subsidies to help spur the adoption of greener choices. The US had the Cash For Clunkers program, Germany gave subsidies to solar panel owners, and now the UK wants to subsidize plug-in or electric cars.

It’s a global trend. More people are getting mobile phones and more people are getting computers every day. That’s great because it means all of us are more connected and essentially able to communicate with the broader world, right? Sure, so what’s the problem?

Everybody’s mobile phone and computer eventually becomes garbage. Manufacturers are making efforts to reduce the amount of hazardous materials contained in electronics but that’s only half of the battle because even safer materials are reusable and we need to reclaim them to reduce our environmental footprint. Developing nations like China, India, Mexico, and Brazil all are rapidly increasing their adoption of electronic goods but don’t have an infrastructure or regulations in place to foster sound recycling processes.

Texas is making more noise about the threat of tougher emissions standards than a trampled rodeo clown.

The Lone Star state filed a petition in federal court this week, arguing the government has no right to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The message is loud and clear: Don’t mess with big business in Texas, or you’ll have a fight on your hand.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry says the regulations will sacrifice jobs and hurt the energy industry. According to the EPA, Texas and other Region 6 states are responsible for 35 percent of greenhouse gases emitted by industrial sources. But that doesn’t mean much in Texas.

Early on in his presidency, Obama looked like the anti-Bush when it comes to green issues. He pushed tougher vehicle emissions standards through and was hitting hard on climate change legislation.

Then reality struck. The health care debate slowed green negotiations and now Obama is tripling federal loan guarantees for nuclear reactors to $54 billion, while opening the door to off-shore drilling and more coal plants.

From the looks of things, his next move will be to buy a big ranch in Texas.

As you might expect, the reaction to Obama’s change of heart has been harsh from the environmental community that thought Bush’s replacement would turn the country toward renewable energies at a much faster pace.

Apparently Michael Pollan’s seven-word philosophy on eating – “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants” – is falling on millions of deaf ears.

The author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food says the U.S. spends $500 to $750 billion on health care just because of the way we eat. Things like high fructose corn syrup are finding their way into more and more foods, which is cheap and profitable for the processed food industry, terrible for consumers and a boon for the health care industry, he says.

“The health care industry profits mightily from the sickness of the population,” he said. “You know, the food industry is producing lots of patients for the healthcare industry. It’s a very convenient relationship.”

Half of the electric power in the United States is generated by coal, compared to 80% in China. India also has a growing appetite for electricity and right now coal is its cheapest solution. With so much of the world’s power centered on coal, any country that’s serious about reducing carbon emissions will need to renovate or replace coal power plants with something cleaner.

Clean coal has a nebulous reputation, and it seems to mean different things depending on who you ask. Obama supports it, and suggests that one way to reduce carbon emissions from coal is to extract key chemicals from it that are capable of creating fuel, leaving the carbon in a solid state.

Major corporations like Starbucks have adopted LED lights to cut costs and save energy. Cities in Scotland and Michigan are now embracing the benefits of LED lights on their streets.

Home to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor has made efforts to be a national leader in energy efficiency. In 2007, the city decided to switch all of their aging street lights in the downtown area to greener LED lights. Not only were the lights going to save the city energy and maintenance costs, they didn’t contain mercury like the older street lights.

Ann Arbor had over one thousand lights in the downtown area that needed to be switched from old 120-watt bulbs to 56-watt LEDs. The replacement LEDs had the added benefit of being mercury free unlike the older street lights.

Even the environment is sometimes bad for the environment.

When cold weather and huge amounts of snow hit a region – like recently on the East Coast, dubbed “Snowmageddon” by President Obama – it takes a tremendous amount of resources to adapt.

Road crews drop thousands of tons of salt to keep ice off the roads. Plowers come from hundreds of miles away to help clear high-priority urban roads. Heating systems go into overdrive to keep in-door temperatures up. Consumers rush to stores for emergency provisions.

Storm like the one that was projected for Maryland and Virginia are actually referred to as emergencies by the National Weather Service. In this case, the National Guard was even called in to help in the cause.

Gas and oil prices were through the roof in the region because of higher than normal demand, not only hurting the environment but pocket books as well.