Do you support the new EPA CO2 standards?

If so, see the following from USAction and show your support.

The Environmental Protection Agency made a historic announcement. President Obama’s administration announced proposed regulations that would cut carbon pollution from all existing power plants by 30% by 2030. We applaud the President's bold action to clean up the way we power our country and the air we breathe.

Join USAction and stand with President Obama’s decision to clean up dirty power plants that create the largest share of carbon pollution in the United States.

The planet and our communities could not wait any longer. As Republicans scheme to obstruct all progress in sight, the President took executive action against climate disruption. We can’t let big polluters continue to harm our environment and our health. The President’s action is a bold step against big polluters in the long fight to tackle climate disruption.

Stand with President Obama and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy for taking a big step in curbing carbon pollution.

Thanks,

Camden Lee
Digital Manager

Buddha dharma, the Deleuzian virtual, and object a

In this IPS post Balder linked to an article on the above by networkologies blog. And where have we heard many of these points before? In the OOO thread so linked.

He claims that perceiving nonduality requires not rationality but intuition. This of course sets up exactly the kind of false dichotomy he just denounced. It's true that 'false' reason cannot so perceive it, but 'real' reason can, the latter being exactly the sort of nondual imaginative rationality L & J describe. A rationality (or vision logic) that exemplifies the sort of openness to the real he describes. He acknowledges that language (and therefore rational thought) can get at this via poetry and koan (paradox).

Like several of our posts, he discusses the virtual much like differance. Object a though he is using the strict Lacanian interpretation based on desire and sees it more as an obstruction, whereas I applied de/re to the term (using Zizek and Bryant, both Lacan experts) to be more akin to the virtual. He also makes the typical mistake of limiting Derrida to language whereas he was very much into ontology per se, but does give him create for finding the virtual in language.

Rifkin responds to new EPA CO2 standards

Rifkin has a new blog post here in response to the EPA CO2 emission standards released today. He takes this as an opportunity to reiterate many of the same points from his new book, although he does provide some updated information since the book was published. Some of it I've already provided in recent post. One update in the post consistent with the last post in this thread is that in Germany individuals owned 40% of the RE capacity. This is consistent with the developing Commons whereby individuals own and generate their own energy and share it with each other via the IoT.

Solar energy generation on the rise in the US

More evidence supporting claims in Rifkin's new book. See this article on US solar power generation. It represents 74% of all new US electricity generation in the first quarter of this year. And 60% this is coming from middle income residents. They don't say what % solar is of the overall US energy production. But it must be getting significant because fossil fuel companies and their regressive government toadies are trying to suppress its growth.

The Walmart economy

See the video below and take action at walmarteconomy.com, thanks.

CO2 emission standards already working and saving $

See this previous post on the topic. In today's article on power plant CO2 emissions there is State flexibility as to how they implement the reductions, allowing for their unique circumstances. And evidence that it can work, citing "the northeast's Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a nine-state pact launched in 2005 that uses a cap-and-trade system to reduce emissions." They've made greater cuts at lower projected costs due to not only using natural gas but innovations in renewable sources. The projected costs of critics do not account for savings from innovations in renewable sources because they refuse to accept 1) climate change is real and 2) that we need to invest in RE at all. All they see is the cost to their dirty energy regimes.

Otto Scharmer, from ego to eco

The following are from his blog post. The bullet point headings are below with my comments on some of them following. See the link for his detailed explanations.

10 insights on the ego-2-eco economy revolution

(1) The root cause of today’s global crises originates between our ears — in our outdated paradigms of economic thought.

(2) The blind spot of modern economic thought can be summarized with a single word: consciousness.

(3) The evolution of the economy and of modern economic thought mirrors the footprints of an evolving human consciousness.

(4) To paraphrase Einstein, the problem with today’s capitalism is that we are trying “to solve problems with the same consciousness that created them.”

(5) Helping stakeholder systems shift their way of operating from ego-system to eco-system awareness is the central leadership challenge of our time.

Our romance with the car is over

Recall chapter 13 of Rifkin's new book discussing car ownership, then see this article. Driving has decreased by 10% in US households in the last 10 years while owning less than 2 cars, the lowest figure in 20 years. Less than 70% of 19-year olds have a license, down 17% in the last 20 years. Enrollment in high school driver education is down 40%. Drive-in theaters are down to just 350 from over 4000 in the 50s. More people are bicycling, taking buses, light rail and other public transportation. When cars are necessary, sharing them is on the rise. The article notes something is up but doesn't articulate it much. Rifkin's book puts it in context on the emerging Commons era.

Obama's new pollution rules will save $

Oh yeah, and maybe the planet. They will come out Monday, where by executive order he'll limit CO2 pollution. Which of course has created a stir with climate deniers as well as business promoters, often one and the same. I laud the President for taking action when the regressive-controlled Congress obviously will not. One of the faux reasons offered by the latter is epitomized by the US Chamber of Commerce's specious frothing. Krugman as usual destroys their rabidity. 

The Chamber tried something highly unusual for regressives in trying to prove Obama's regulations would destroy business; they tried facts! I know, hard to believe. Thing is, what their facts proved was that while the new regulations would indeed cost something, it will hardly destroy business. Yes, it will cost $50 billion a year until 2030, but when you compare it with the GDP over that same period, $21 trillion, our investment in reducing CO2 pollution comes to about 0.2% of GDP.

Relations and functions in truth values

Warning: this one is not for the faint of mind, as it may cause a headache. For me it induced an eating frenzy followed by an urgent need to void my bowels. Enter at your own risk.

Following up on this post and ensuing discussion, Priest's article he discusses relations and functions regarding truth values. The Aristotelian principles against contradiction, i.e., the excluded middle and non-contradiction, rely on the function of truth values. Priest's solution around this is to make the values relations. But when it comes to Buddhist emptiness he seems to mix and match functions and relations. On one hand emptiness is based on relations, since nothing has an inherent existence but is conditioned by its relations to other things. But on the other hand it is based a function because the previous relations relate only to conventional reality; ultimate reality per this other Priest article posit is as "pure form" (11), itself a preconditional function for conventional reality.