Environmental Ethics: Thoughts on Last Nights Debate

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Thoughts on Last Nights Debate

Sadly, our world's environmental problems were not talked about much in last night's Presidential Debate. It was referred to maybe once or twice, but was quickly redirected by President Trump to the cost of the Green New Deal. President Trump stated that the Green New Deal would cost 100 trillion dollars, this cost is more accurately presented as 50-90 trillion, but either way is a lot of money. However, Biden claimed that he would be implementing his plan not the Green new deal. Which is a 10 year plan costing 1.7 trillion dollars, a considerable difference in price than the Green New Deal.

This morning on twitter Trump reposted a tweet claiming that Biden does support the Green New Deal because of his statement on his website,

"Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face. It powerfully captures two basic truths, which are at the core of his plan: (1) the United States urgently needs to embrace greater ambition on an epic scale to meet the scope of this challenge, and (2) our environment and our economy are completely and totally connected."

I think the important distinction in this statement is the word "framework" I believe that these two core truths are very important so it was necessary for Biden to cite where his ideas for his plan came from. In my opinion, the difference between these two candidates is professionalism. Not only in giving credit where credit is due, but revering professional opinions on topics like environmental issues. President Trump seems to disregard the science behind environmental issues and even blamed the fires in California on not keeping the forests clean enough. I am not sure what exactly he meant by this but he quickly redirected blame onto California's care for their forests in last nights debate.

3 comments:

Kate PhillipsSeptember 30, 2020 at 3:23 PM
I think you made some really good points in your post. I think there is also key difference between these two candidates, apart from the obvious professionalism, is the lack of acknowledgement to the current climate crisis as you pointed out. Biden has a plan of some sort, or at least tried to talk about his plan before being interrupted, while Trump just complained about how much it costs without offering a plan in its place.

Overall, I really enjoyed your post and agree with you. At this point we just have to hope for the best.
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Stuart McLeanOctober 1, 2020 at 3:06 PM
I begrudgingly watched the whole debate to ensure my knowledge of what is to be expected by these two candidates. I would like it to be known that I believe many of the memes regarding an argumentative nature are being represented by Trump supporters. I believe it is their way to blame both parties for what their leader was doing throughout the debate. I did not see Biden interrupting Trump, obviously he told him "shut up man" under his breath but only after Trump interrupted him countless times during something as sacred as a presidential debate. However I digress, I did listen to Biden speak about the Amazon rainforest and ways to create jobs and simultaneously conserve the forest. Also, I listened to Biden speak about creating 500,00 new electric car stations in the US and creating new jobs as well in this field. So I do believe there was talk of conservation. In regards to the covid-19 virus there were little to nop remarks of how to contain the virus.
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First things first--a proper education

“The complexity of our present trouble suggests as never before that we need to change our present concept of education. Education is not properly an industry, and its proper use is not to serve industries, either by job-training or by industry-subsidized research. It's proper use is to enable citizens to live lives that are economically, politically, socially, and culturally responsible. This cannot be done by gathering or "accessing" what we now call "information" - which is to say facts without context and therefore without priority. A proper education enables young people to put their lives in order, which means knowing what things are more important than other things; it means putting first things first.” ― Wendell Berry

The college project

“The American college may be considered a continuation, at the human level, of the self-education process of the earth itself: universe education, earth education, and human education are stages of development in a single unbroken process...The entire college project can be seen as that of enabling the student to understand the immense story of the universe and the role of the student in creating the next phase of the story.” --Thomas Berry, “The American College in the Ecological Age,” in The Dream of the Earth

“Odd as I am sure it will appear to some, I can think of no better form of personal involvement in the cure of the environment than that of gardening. A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world. He is producing something to eat, which makes him somewhat independent of the grocery business, but he is also enlarging, for himself, the meaning of food and the pleasure of eating.”
― Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

“Nature shrinks as capital grows. The growth of the market cannot solve the very crisis it creates.”
― Vandana Shiva, Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis

“Why should we tolerate a diet of weak poisons, a home in insipid surroundings, a circle of acquaintances who are not quite our enemies, the noise of motors with just enough relief to prevent insanity? Who would want to live in a world which is just not quite fatal?”
― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

“How can we be so arrogant? The planet is, was, and always will be stronger than us. We can't destroy it; if we overstep the mark, the planet will simply erase us from its surface and carry on existing. Why don't they start talking about not letting the planet destroy us?”
― Paulo Coelho, The Winner Stands Alone

“When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: if you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse.”
― Martin Keogh, Hope Beneath Our Feet: Restoring Our Place in the Natural World

“When the last tree is cut and the last fish killed, the last river poisoned, then you will see that you can't eat money.”
― John May, The Greenpeace Story

“We are being made aware that the organization of society on the principle of private profit, as well as public destruction, is leading both to the deformation of humanity by unregulated industrialism, and to the exhaustion of natural resources, and that a good deal of our material progress is a progress for which succeeding generations may have to pay dearly.”
― T.S. Eliot

“There is a tendency at every important but difficult crossroad to pretend that it's not really there.”
― Bill McKibben, The End of Nature

“We know, at least, that this decision (ending factory farming) will help prevent deforestation, curb global warming, reduce pollution, save oil reserves, lessen the burden on rural America, decrease human rights abuses, improve publish health, and help eliminate the most systematic animal abuse in history.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

“An attitude to life which seeks fulfilment in the
single-minded pursuit of wealth - in short, materialism - does not fit into this
world, because it contains within itself no limiting principle, while the
environment in which it is placed is strictly limited.”
― Ernst F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.”
― Aldo Leopold

“Saving the world requires saving democracy. That requires well-informed citizens. Conservation, environment, poverty, community, education, family, health, economy- these combine to make one quest: liberty and justice for all. Whether one's special emphasis is global warming or child welfare, the cause is the same cause. And justice comes from the same place being human comes from: compassion.”
― Carl Safina, The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World

“The re-establishment of an ecological balance depends on the ability of society to counteract the progressive materialization of values. The ecological balance cannot be re-established unless we recognize again that only persons have ends and only persons can work towards them.”
― Ivan Illich

	Michael Pollan (@michaelpollan) http://michaelpollan.com/
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Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Thoughts on Last Nights Debate

3 comments:

Peripatetics