About this blog

This blog was born out of my personal disdain for the usual conversations around politics, as well as my desire to blog about something a bit more meaningful and relevant to my current life path. In order to clear some things up ahead of time, here is what this blog will be about:

Environmental Policy, Deep Ecology, and other Environmental issues

After a ten year hiatus, I’m putting myself back through school, pursuing a degree in Environmental Policy. The need for higher education arose with the birth of my second child and a small job market considering my experience and skills. I wanted to get a degree in something that would help make a difference, and when I found that I could get this degree by a combination of online and night classes at my local Community College and University, I decided to go for it.

The environmental crisis we currently face is easily the biggest issue facing humanity in the next 100 years. The effects of climate change, pollution, and over-harvesting of flora and fauna will have deeply felt effects over the next several decades and shape the course that society will have to take. It will impact the global economy, provide catalyst for great migrations, wipe out entire countries, threaten our food supply, and likely cause another great extinction.

Yes, global warming is happening , and we are causing it.

Yes, there is a scientific consensus that it is happening.

Politics and Ideology

Politics and the conversations surrounding politics have spiraled out of control. Instead of “what is best” or “what’s the best solution”, our questions are “how will this play out politically” or “who wins?” These are all the wrong questions, and the wrong approaches. Their source, of course, is the two-party duopoly, the misguided notion that “left/liberal/democrat” or “right/conservative/republicans” are the only choices, and the attempt to make sure policy always runs the test of a certain party’s ideology.

The two-party duopoly.

I am neither a Democrat nor Republican. I certainly do end up voting for these people, but only out of lack of choice. Thankfully in my state of Washington, we usually have 3^rd party candidates that run for all sorts of offices, and I’ve been able to cast my vote for an “alternative” candidate for President. You don’t need me to tell you that our two major political parties limit our choices, and are largely bought by large, corporate interests that do not have the interests of the people our representatives are supposed to represent in mind. I’m all for expanding the election process to include more candidates (especially at national and local debates) from other parties, as well as limiting the amount of money corporations are able to use to influence elections. Money should not be the ultimate factor in who wins a political election, but 95% of the time that’s what happens.

The political spectrum and ideology.

As far as my political affiliation and leanings go, I consider myself “non-linear.” I really dislike that the conversation ultimately boils down to whether you hold a “liberal” or “conservative” view-point, especially given the history of these ideologies, and how much they change over time. For starters, in what possible definition of conservative is wrecking the environment included? Yet the latest crop of GOP “conservative” congresspeople seem hell-bent on dismantling the EPA, peeling back decades of bi-partisan conservation initiatives. There’s also quite the overlap when you toss in libertarianism, which is not conservative, but was born out of classical liberalism. Today’s libertarians would see an end to the EPA, public schooling, and federal drug possession laws. You can’t lump all of these under a left or right tent, as those terms are used in popular culture today.

So where does that leave me? I suppose pragmatism closely aligns with what my outlook entails. I’m not at all concerned with ideology, or ideological consistency. I’m much more concerned with what works, the best solutions, and the reality of the situation at hand, for each individual situation. Gun laws and abortion laws and zoning laws shouldn’t all be decided by placing them into some narrow ideology. I’m happy to answer questions clarifying my position on specific issues if that helps at all in the comment area below.

Local/Sustainable/Renewable/self-sufficiency and such…

I believe that keeping things local as much as possible is in the best interest of everyone and the planet. I’m also very interested in self-sufficient living that involves making things at home, gardening, DIY and similar activities. I’m the first to admit I’m no shining example of green living or sustainability, but I’m working on it. Currently my family and I are apartment dwellers, so our ability to make certain things or garden is severely limited by space. Hopefully, we’ll be buying a home in the next year or so, and we can get to planting. (Also I’ll have the space for all-grain homebrewing, another exciting incentive…)

I also believe that in general, local politics has a greater impact on our daily lives than does the over-dramatized national version. So I’ll be blogging a bit about Washington State and other local issues as they come up.

Media

The mainstream media, especially the 24-hour cable news channels, are failures of the institution that they are a part of. They are biased towards sensationalism, sound bites, gossip, and ratings. Luckily, I don’t have television service at home, and don’t have to put up with those ‘news’ channels. Rather than getting information from one or two sources, the best way to stay informed in this digital age is by utilizing the broad scope of the internet. There are plenty of more independent news outlets and sources to draw from. I have several of my favorites listed over on the right hand side. I don’t think it’s important to read from “both” points of view, but rather what is important is being able to cut through the bullshit and get enough of the facts to make an informed decision. Also, there is no reason that in this day in age, claims made by any agency can’t be backed up with a simple link or reference, especially on the internet. And when in doubt, use Snopes or Politifact.  Although, even when presented with the facts, that may not matter much...

About the name of this blog

While there has been interest in a separate nation in this area stretching as far back as the early 1800′s, I’m certainly not encouraging secession here! Rather, one of the main ideas of Deep Ecology calls for bio-regional governance and organization, and I hope to focus on some more local issues on this blog in addition to the national political and environmental topics I plan on writing about.

Also, naming a blog these days is really, really tough. After years of people creating and abandonning blogs, it is almost impossible to grab the first name that comes to your mind. And I might have been listening to Colbert while I was thinking it up…