Personal thoughts on Social Justice, Environment, Linux and Buddhism
The NukeFree.org web site is sponsoring a petition, that is going to be sent to the members of the US Congress at large, about upcoming legislative attempts to fund the building of new nuclear plants in the United States. Which of our politicians is greedy enough and brain-dead enough to even consider the development of new construction of nuclear power plants?
An activist movement in Australia in 2007 struck a strong chord with people all over the world–turn off the lights in your home (or business) for one hour in your city for one evening, Saturday March 29, 2008 from 8pm to 9pm local time. Turning off the lights on a large, city-wide scale can have a profound impact on local energy consumption. Take the idea from local to global and think of the energy savings happening all over the world! The concept of Earth Hour was born and is now planned for on a global scale!
Take the idea a step further and…
Visit the Earth Hour web site and view the video there.
Heartbreaking story on NY Times article on the continuing problems with the Union Carbide accident in Bhopal, India and how Dow Chemical is still doing its best to do nothing about the after-effects and weaseling out of helping with remediation of the site/community. Groundwater and soil are rarely tested and continued birth defects plague the area. Toxic waste is still being stored in sheds and a toxic sludge "pond" is used daily by children and dogs.
The big boys are making nice-nice and pooling their smarts and monies together to develop foundation systems for future vehicles. But, about these vehicles: GM and Chrysler/Daimler-Benz just don’t get the point about conservation, fuel efficiency, being responsible corporate citizens helping to reduce greenhouse gases and the effects of global warming.
Ford Motor Company announced another series of lay-offs and plant closings today. So how many more Americans and Canadians (yes, Canadians) are losing their jobs this time because of poor corporate vision? Those fickle Americans! Why won’t they buy more of those wonderful Ford trucks and SUVs to drive their kids to school and toodle around town?
Some environmentally-oriented lawmakers in California have filed a law suit against the Big 6 auto manufacturers over global warming! This following their recent adoption of laws mandating reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Apparently, they don’t have too many Texans there.
Reuters has this news story here released today about the law suit against Ford, GM, Daimler-Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan, and Honda. Hell, at least Toyota and Honda are making a decent effort at raising fuel efficiency and are giving U.S. drivers a choice. They can do more, of course. I guess the question is, "Why aren't the Japanese doing more? Why aren't they doing all that they can to take over the American market?" As if we'd let that happen, right? Import restrictions, tarriffs against Japanese imports.
It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. Ford, GM, Chrysler: get ready for the firestorm!
Here's the NYTimes story about the Union Carbide Corporation's Bhopal India chemical plant disaster from the day after the accident on 12/3/1984. Accident? Here is a very instructive bit of history on how we do out-sourcing and some of the consequences.
