thoughtmechanics

Senate Republicans, who seem to only be able to see things in black & white (and of course, green), are trying to sell your soul to the devil. The price? One hundred dollars.

Every American taxpayer would get a $100 rebate check to offset the pain of higher pump prices for gasoline, under an amendment Senate Republicans hope to bring to a vote Thursday. However, the GOP energy package may face tough sledding because it also includes a controversial proposal to open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration, which most Democrats and some moderate Republicans oppose.

Curious about effects of drilling for oil in a national wildlife refuge, I emailed a good friend of mine Scott Jones, an environmental expert, and asked the following. “Isn’t it better to open up drilling in our wildlife refuge than to continue to be dependant on foreign sources of oil?”

His answer is what follows.

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Hey Sonny.

No, it’s not. Continuing to exploit “new” sources of oil isn’t the path we should be heading down, at all. First, it simply continues our addiction on oil–and since we don’t have a hell of a lot of the oil left in the world, it also continues our reliance on foreign supplies. Think of it like this: if you’re a meth addict who usually buys the stuff from a dealer, deciding to make your own for a week isn’t going to cure your addiction…it just postpones the inevitable sale another week (and likely ensures a larger future purchase, as your usage might increase). Would it decrease prices? Who knows…it would simply allow demand to continue to rise, which according to the law of supply and demand, would simply allow prices to continue to climb over time. We shouldn’t be doing anything right now that continues our addiction–we should only be taking steps to limit it. Investing a bunch of money into oil drilling infrastructure is a step in the wrong direction–we could easily save the amount of oil we’d get from ANWR by just making our vehicles get a few more miles to the gallon–something imminently doable that would continue to produce benefits long after the 6 months of ANWR oil dried up.

The other issue with drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is that we’d only get a small drop of oil–less than 6 months worth under our current usage–and the spigot wouldn’t even turn on for at minimum 10 years. And, with the increased permafrost melt resulting from global warming, construction might take longer. This is akin to treating a decapitation with a band-aid–it’s just not going to work.

Of course, as I wrote last year on TM, drilling in the Arctic isn’t really about oil to begin with. In fact, conservative strategists have said (sorry, I don’t have the quote handy, but it’s something like this) that “if we can can drill in ANWR, we can drill anywhere…even Yellowstone.” See, nobody really thinks that the oil will help us in any meaningful way. This is really about redefining what activities can occur on protected public lands. Conservatives hate that the government owns land that it manages for all of us–they of course, think that business should be able to exploit these places instead. It’s part of the broader strategy to rid the federal government of “public” lands–selling off national parks to companies to manage as vacation resorts, allowing oil/gas drilling in special places like national monuments, attempting to privatize national forests, or the current plan of selling national forests to help pay for the debt and rural education. Top conservatives believe that drilling in ANWR will be the death of the environmental movement (it won’t be, of course).

Now sure, there are some other motives–particularly for the folks up in Alaska, who believe that the federal government should let them do whatever they want on their own land. Drilling in ANWR would bring them jobs and tax revenue, of course. But the problem is that we’re not talking about Alaskan land, we’re talking about federal public land–land that you or I have the same right to as any Alaskan. It was all of our tax dollars that purchased the state from Russia, all of our tax dollars that manage it, and all of our right to maintain it as the pristine landscape it was set aside to be. This is an important point to remember. It’s a national treasure that belongs to all of us, our kids, and our future grand-kids. Arizona can’t close off the Grand Canyon to nonresidents or decide to dam the Colorado River and turn it into a lake (oh wait, the Sierra Club already killed that bill decades ago…it’s how we lost our 501c3 tax status), because it is part of the national heritage and you have as much right to it as I do.

As you can see, I haven’t even gotten to the ecological (drilling impact, global warming, etc) reasons why we shouldn’t drill for oil. There are compelling arguments here too, but I’m a bit out of time. The Republican proposal you mentioned sucks too, as does President Bush’s call for more refinery capacity (hint–oil companies don’t want any more refineries).

Anyway, hope that helps explain it a bit.

Scott.
http://www.rscottjones.com/

I never thought that Neil Young would play any part in a giant rift between me and my dad. I mean, what’s there to argue when you’re talking about the man who wrote “Heart of Gold????

My mom and dad were hippies when I was born. They lived on a farm and grew carrots and marijuana in the big garden in our yard. My dad had a huge bushy beard that once caught on fire when he was lighting a joint. And we have the photos to prove it.

So you can imagine how delighted they were when I gave them the incredible news – I was going to sing backing vocals for every song on Neil’s new album! They were thrilled.

I was ecstatic. Driving to the studio that day, April 6th, 2006, I was nervous and excited. I didn’t know what to expect.

I walked into the Capitol Records building in Hollywood with my friend Franne. There were 98 other singers – all the finest session singers in L.A. People who had sung backup for everyone from Stevie Wonder to Michael Jackson…the guy who sang the “Good Times??? theme song was there! I was completely impressed by the talent in the room. And that was even before Neil walked in.

I had no idea that Neil would actually be there. Not only was he there, he hung out in the studio with us, suggesting parts, voicing his opinion on what we sang. His lyrics popped up on the screen and he watched all of our reactions. I don’t know if he anticipated such strong emotions from all of us as we read his incredibly powerful words. We laughed, cried, cheered, clapped. By now, thanks to diligent news reporters, everyone reading this most likely knows the nature of those lyrics – they were provocative, anti-war, anti-Bush yet full of hope. When the lyrics to “Let’s Impeach the President??? came up on the screen, he told us the story of a friend whose young child turned to his father after hearing the song and asked “Can you say that???? Amazing how perfectly a child’s comment sums it all up.

That was one of the most influential and wonderful days of my musical career so far. I was the youngest singer there and I was in the company of some of the greats. And then there was Neil…the energy that exuded from this man was so compassionate, so full of love and peace. And focus. He had a reason for writing the words he wrote and recording this album. His determination lit a fire in me and probably everyone else in that room.

On my way out of the studio that night, he said to me and my friend Franne, “what we did in there will create a ripple.???

And it started immediately. I felt like a changed person. I felt so much energy flowing into and through me. I felt the need to do something. I didn’t know what exactly, but it was as if the option of complacency was no longer present. The apathy that seems to plague my generation was lifted. I felt compelled, obligated to take action in some way.

That night, in my apartment, in my bed in the dark with my notebook on my pillow, I furiously scribbled as words flooded my brain. A song was writing itself, influenced by the events of the day.

I considered Neil’s friend’s child and the question he asked as I thought about the potential downsides of releasing a song like this into the world. I do not have the fame of someone like Neil Young. I am an up and coming artist with so many odds already stacked against me in the music industry of today. I thought about the child’s question as it pertained to my career, too, knowing it would piss some people off. Maybe people who I want to like me. Sign me to a big record label. And then I thought about the things that are so much bigger than all of that. I thought about the things that people need to hear right now. Things Neil tapped into and passed on to all of us in the studio that day. Not only CAN we say these things, we have a DUTY to say them. We have the obligation to question our authority figures all the time. And if we don’t like the answers we get we need to dig deeper and push harder.

I am already getting major criticism from various people on my websites. And I’ve only had the song posted for 1 day. People are asking me why I hate the president (I don’t), do I think I could do a better job at running the country (probably not), did I vote at the last election (I did). And there are also people thanking me for speaking the truth, for taking a chance and putting a song out there that will make people think and maybe make people want to help this world move toward change. I am not so naïve to think that a song can change the world. But maybe a bunch of songs. Sung by people who believe in the ideas expressed. Embraced by many who make the songs their own.

Oh – and my dad – where does he fit into all of this…well, a lot of time has passed since his hippie days. He is still the wonderful, loving father I am blessed to have grown up with, but his politics are…how should I put it…not what I choose to believe. The fact that one of the toughest critics of my song is the man I have grown up idolizing – that’s a difficult one to reconcile. But I am able to see where his beliefs come from and love him just the same.

There is nothing like politics to divide a group of people. Or unite us.

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Post by Terra Naomi
You can see (and more importantly hear) more of Terra Naomi at the following websites: http://www.myspace.com/somethinggoodtoshowu and http://www.myspace.com/terranaomi