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We Don't Have Time

We don't have time for Colin Wright's utopian proposals to ban the private car if we want to deal with global warming in time. When Wright says it is "irresponsible" to advocate for replacement of the auto fleet with 100 mpg cars before we can sequester the carbon, he is being irresponsible by not taking account of the full context. Transit is simply ineffective when there are less than eight dwellings per acre. That is the conclusion of detailed studies of cities around the world. We need to dramatically shift our land use and transportation patterns toward more compact communities where people can use transit, bicycles and shoes. The needed change in land use patterns will take 50 years or more if we start today.

We need to begin dramatic reductions in carbon dioxide over the next 10-20 years. If we don't, the consequences in terms of catastrophic disruption of climate and ecosystems will be dire. We're talking about stuff like setting polar ice caps on irreversible pathways to disintegration. Unfortunately we have built too much auto-dependent infrastructure, and will have to deal with that reality that in this crucial immediate period most people will still drive, by providing far more efficient cars. For example, cars sold in Washington state will generate 30% less greenhouse gases and use around 30% less energy by 2015, with improvements starting to kick in by 2009, as a result of Clean Car legislation passed in the 2005 Legislature. Washington now joins a line-up of states with nearly one-quarter of the US market where these cleaner cars will be sold. If we were to take Wilson's advice, we would not have made the substantial effort it took to pass that legislation.

Wilson also does not seem to understand the potential plug-in hybrids have to be near or completely free of climate change impacts. Electricity for the cars can be supplied by wind power and other renewables. Because electric drive train is far more efficient than mechanical drives, and because plug-ins could run many days on battery charge alone, that will reduce the need for liquid fuel. That liquid can be net greenhouse gas free if it is celluosic ethanol, made of basic plant matter rather than starch like today's corn ethanol. Cellulosic ethanol will emerge over the coming decade. Using agricultural waste material and sustainable energy crops like switchgrass, we can substantially replace gasoline, in the context of more efficient vehicles and land use patterns. For documentation see a paper I co-authored, "The New Harvest," at www.ef.org/biofuels.

--Patrick Mazza, Research Director, Climate Solutions

The Set-Up

I believe that President Ahadmenijad of Iran is goading the US and Israel into attacking him. He knows he does not have sufficient military assets to attack Israel let alone America, but he knows he can win a defensive war and bring down the American empire. When America can no longer subsidize Israel, Zionism will be put to rest. I would like to make a few points about the insanity of attacking Iran.

1) Iran has Russian-made Sunburn missiles which can sink an aircraft carrier and shoot down an F-16. Are you preprared to lose all US Navy ships in the Persian Gulf? Do you realize what that loss would do to America?

2) Iran has the ability to shut down all shipping in the Gulf. Are you prepared to pay $300 to $400 for a barrel of oil?

3) Iran stopped recruiting suicide bombers when they had 40,000 volunteers. That many dedicated and educated young people could easily cut US supply lines into Iraq, kill many thousands of our troops and destroy what is left of our military morale. Are you prepared to destroy the only army that is willing to defend you?

4) The air campaign against Iran would include targets 150 feet under Tehran protected by double concrete walls with lead lining. There would be enormous civilian casualties. How many suicide bombers would it take to blow up the oil refineries in your area? How many Americans would die if all the refineries in the greater Houston area were blown up? What would the price of gasoline be if oil were $300 a barrel and several dozen refineries were destroyed? What would happen to your country if gasoline were $9.00 a gallon? What percentage of Americans would not be able to afford to drive to work?

5) America does have a strategic petroleum reserve which could sustain us for a few months though we would have to build refineries to process it. China and Japan have almost two trillion dollars of absolutely worthless paper currency that they cannot spend. If they spent all the money they earn selling to us, the dollar would collapse from the sudden increase in circulating dollars. You must realize that raising the price of oil to $300 a barrel would destroy the dollar and the world economy. Look at a world map and ask yourself which of these countries both import oil and cannot afford to pay $300 a barrel? All of those countries will be destroyed economically and politically. And you will have no army to protect American citizens and property.

6) You must realize that your purchasing power is being propped up by China, Japan and a handful of other nations that are willing to accept absolutely worthless pieces of paper for cars, computers, and everything at WalMart. Attacking Iran will bring all of those subsidies to a crashing halt. When that happens, everyone will protect themselves by dumping trillions of dollars into commodity and currency markets. I calculate that prices will go up 1,000%. That means a relatively well-off pensioner with a 2005 income of $3,000 a month will have to live on $300 a month. That will not pay rent, buy food, pay for utilities and incidentals. Millions of elderly will have no choice but to commit suicide. I would expect an unemployment rate of 25% and real after tax wage cuts of 50% to 70%. Do you realize what would happen to your community if half the people could not afford to eat? Would you be willing to shoot people who had not eaten food for 3 days? a week? Would you be willing to shoot their children? Would you be willing to live in a country that did precisely that?

I repeat. President Ahadminejad of Iran has thought this out. He knows what he is doing. He is so unwilling to live under the New World Order that he has decided to risk his life and the lives a few million Iranians. It is true that you can drop a few nukes on Iran and destroy it. But you must realize that your country will cease to exist as you knew it. Do you really want to destroy America?

--Daniel Fey

A Modest Proposal

"Wall Street Cheers Phone Deal--AT&T to Cut 10,000 More Jons"(New York Times Headline--March 6, 2006)

Labor is a pernicious burden on capitalist profits. So why not reinstate slavery? America operated with it until 1865. Japan and Germany tried it too from the 1920's and 1930's to 1945. The capitalist American dream is to abolish wages, health insurance, pensions, and unions. Slavery has none of those pesky benefits.

America is an equal opportunity, racially unbiased nation, so the new slavery will subjugate blacks, browns, yellows, reds, blues and whites.

America espouses democracy, freedom, and choice, so those who, like Bartleby (Herman Melville's rebellious clerk), prefer not to go into slavery, can go into the army to wage the next war of liberation as in Vietnam and Iraq. That war will enjoy the current, obligatory, political mantra of, "moving forward."

Capitalists and those with lucrative jobs are free to suckle the American dream, to shop till they drop, and to consume till they combust. The rest are free to be slaves, soldiers, homeless, or emigrants.

Today's high school and college students have the unprecedented opportunity to study first hand the unraveling of an empire (the American) and the institution of a military dictatorship (the American) before their very eyes. Books and instructors are superfluous.

It would help the students if they read several periodicals like the Washington Post, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, or The Guardian of London. And to listen to Amy Goodman's, "Democracy Now!," to the BBC, and to NPR, paying particular attention to reporters writing and speaking from Iraq and Afghanistan.

If there are students brave, wealthy, and curious enough, they can look for a package tour of Iraq.

--Bob Miller, Seattle