12/21/08: The envionment, Obama and his appointees & our financial crisis

Obama has identified most of his environmental appointees already. If these guys can not turn as around in the environmental sector then we are hopeless. I have confidence in them because the ideas and infrastructure already exist to create a sustainable economy, we just need to do it. Mainly, we need support & money behind science. It is technology that improves our lives, not men in suits talking politics. Politicians just bicker over who gets what when and how, scientists and engineers are the ones that bring us increased productivity and comfort.

The secretary of the interior is going to be Ken Salazar. The secretary of the Interior in the Executive branch holds a lot of power over land even if the name does not quite imply it. They manage "public lands, national parks, oil and gas resources, and even the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey." This is an article by motherjones that shows what some major environmental groups thinks of the appointee. And this is an article by the NYTimes that gives some good background to who Salazar is

It will be interesting to see how many environmental issues Obama focuses on. Of course there is Climate Change. But, a deeper issue is industrial chemicals in our life. The testing for chemicals before they are allowed to be manufactured is inadequate for a couple of reasons. One of the main reasons is that chemicals are tested in isolated circumstances instead of in mixture with other chemicals that it may interact with in the world. This article explains this and focuses on men's reproductive health.

Shall we forget the crimes of Bush and Cheney. Many groups have been trying to bring Cheney to court for international and national crimes.

Our financial situation is in a strange situation. Banks borrowed a lot of money from the US government so they could still function and survive as a bank. The problem is that when they got lots of money they hoarded it instead of lending it. The other problem is that Henry Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, is not spending the $4 trillion relief money as Barny Frank intended him to as dictated in the recent bail out billC. Part of the relief money was supposed to go to the US government buying risky home-loans from banks and refinancing the loan to suit the borrower. This is not happening though, instead Paulson is charged with just protecting investors. It is important to protect the economy by creating an environment that is conducive to investment, but the economy represents the wealth of people and if the economy is not providing for the people this is when the government steps in.