Raging Cynic

Okay, I know it’s been a WHILE since I’ve posted anything. But I’m getting on track again.

First think I’d like to point out is there’s a Bay Area Team Bike Challenge for the month of May. It’s set to coincide with Bike to Work Day (May 15th) which, true to its name, encourages people to bike to work. Gas is hitting record highs, oil companies are making record profits; stick it to ‘em. Google directions has a sweet program where you can see how to get places using mass transit. Better, they give you cost of the trip on mass transit vs driving. Absolutely brilliant.

Second,  anyone who wants a good, passionate, cynical view of the American political landscape from someone who can say “saw this coming three decades ago” should look into picking up a copy for Gore Vidal’s Imperial America. It’s a few years old but the points he makes are still extremely relevant to this election cycle just as they were to the last.

I’m off to find a bike to fix up for the Challenge ^__^

I love it when countries lead by example. No, this isn’t about anything the US is doing; it’s about something good for the environment. The International Herald Tribune is reporting that weeks following a 2002 plastic bag tax in Ireland, use of plastic bags plummeted 94%. Ninty-four percent!

Elisabeth Rosenthal writes in the Jan 31st 2008 article that,

 Within a year, nearly everyone bought reusable cloth bags, which they now keep in the office and the back of their cars. Plastic bags became socially unacceptable - on par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after your dog.

There are cities here in the US that fully ban the use of plastic bags and even Styrofoam material, but countries like Ireland, Germany, and Taiwan (just to name the few I know off hand which tax plastic bags) show us that national bans and taxes on such environmental garbage are practical, enforceable, and, most importantly, effective measures for curbing environmental degradation.

It’s actually shameful for me as a Californian when the best we can do, our “mandatory recycling program,” doesn’t even mandate recycling or fine those who don’t recycle. The California Redemption Value (CRV), a surcharge on beverages sold in markets, is a good show of how policies which require follow up by consumers fail. In China the redemption value of a bottl, from what I encountered, can be half the value of the drink itself. Levying a 10 cent charge on a three-dollar drink is almost asking it to be ignored. In the best case, a thoughtful consumer may figure paying the CRV is paying to have the environmental impact of a wasteful purchase offset so he can feel better about throwing away the bottle when he’s done with it. Worse case is people don’t even think that much about it.

The great thing about programs such as Ireland’s is that people get the message that it’s their own actions which are impacting the environment. It raises awareness and with a simple tax, avoidable if consumers chose to bring a reusable bag, offers the realization that we can do better.