River Activity

Factory in Chester along the Delaware

Street of abandoned buildings in Chester, Pa

BP Oil refinery in New Jersey, Picture take from PA side of river byPaPeR.cLiP on flicker

Fighting Environmental Injustices

These days Van Jones is almost synonymous with the green economy and creation of green collar jobs.  However he has been fighting against environmental injustices for nearly two decades.  His ideals promote a very logical approach to the environmental movement and need to make itself relevant to low-income Americans.  

"Why should a single parent working two jobs care about greenhouse gases if there are far-more-immediate concerns at hand?"

Phrases like this one are key issues when trying to creating a greener future for everyone.  In order to really make a difference people of all socioeconomic levels need to be involved and have a way to create change. Green collar jobs is a way to transform blue collar jobs into employment thats benefits the worker, the earth, and creates positive externalities.  

Think about Chester, Pa and all the industries located there and amount of pollution created.  Now thinking about the people who live there, it is largely comprised of low income households and minorities.  Pollution affects the daily lives of these residents and a lot could change if the factories changed their business practices and higher the residents to help institute that change.  Solar panels need to be installed by someone, homes need to be weatherized by trained auditors, local farms need maintained by workers to produce food for the local residents.  Green collar jobs can fill in all these gaps while educating an individual, a family, and the future about our environment.

Here is a short video of Van Jones of the Colbert Report explaining what a green economy is and what it can do for our future.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/164563/april-01-2008/van-jones

Environmental Theories

Environmental issues have been and continue to be very controversial.  With almost every proposition to protect, preserve, or enhance the environment questions of effectiveness and strategy are brought up.  Every detail must be throughly explained, such as what a human is what a animal is, what is right, what is wrong.  With such need for detail it is easily seen why environmental policies take time and thought before change occurs.  It also points out the need for theories in the heart of environmental history.

Throughout my quest to find roots for my research, I have come across Plato and his work the Republic, Book 1, Law 845.  Where he says:

Water is easily polluted by the use of any kind of drug.  It therefore needs the protection of a law, as follows:  Whoever purposely pollutes water shall be obliged, in addition to paying an indemnity, to purify the spring or receptacle of the water, using whatever method of purification is prescribed by ordinance, at all times and to everyone.

Plato points out point pollution sources by saying " whoever purposely pollutes"  perhaps this is way the Clean Water Act (passed in 1972) focuses on point sources rather than non-point sources of pollution.

(point pollution sources, are known polluters such as industries while non-point pollution source has no direct source, such as urban runoff)

More importantly Plato makes a case that everyone is entitled to clean water and those who pollute it must take responsibility for their actions with the help of laws.

I'm currently reading more about the Clean Water Act from a fantastic resource published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, it helps to explain the pit falls within the act's structure. One thing I've gathered so far is that even the term pollutant has different meanings to different companies, states, and regulators. interesting.  This is where we go back to defining what is good and what is bad, what is human, and what is an animal.  Detail detail detail.

The scary business of externalities

This topic is too scary for me to write about just yet.  In the mean time you can suffice your eagerness to learn more about such an exciting topic with the definition that follows. Otherwise just google it. 

noun. 

1. Economic.  side effect or consequence of an industrial or commercial activity that affects other parties without this being reflected in the cost of the goods or services involved, such as pollination of surrounding crops by bees kept for honey.

2. Philosophy. the fact of existing outside the perceiving object

Why So Dark?

In an effort to lower my energy consumption by a small margin, this blog has been given a black background. When translated by your computer, darker coloring has a very low LCD projection rate. To produce the light frequency for this kind of backgournd takes far less energy than any other type, especially white. This is a trend that has been pursued by popular websites such as Google. Google recently released Blackle, their lower energy counterpart. On the website it is explained in great detail how much energy is saved by simply switching the color of the background and why it has been a successful website.