This week, I’d like you to take a look at the environmental platforms of the Presidential candidates from the two major parties. I’d then like you to do two things:
1. Characterize the competing platforms using Clapp and Dauvergne’s categories from our last class. That is, do the candidates sound like Market Liberals, Insitutionalists, Bio-environmentalists, or Social Greens? Do these categories help you make sense of differences between the candidates?
2. Tell me (and one another,) which of your two candidates seems to be talking the most sense on the environment? Why?
Here are links to the principal environmental platforms (or, failing that, the energy platforms) on the websites of John McCain and Barack Obama:
John McCain on Climate Change, Energy, and the Economy.
Barack Obama on Energy and the Environment and the Economy.
Happy blogging!
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4 comments:
1. Do the candidates sound like Market Liberals, Institutionalists, Bio-environmentalists, or Social Greens? Do these categories help you make sense of differences between the candidates?
Obama is more of a social green and market liberal, seeing the direct and consistent connection between the environment and our society and economy, believing in getting gall the facts before acting on anything and learning about a topic to try and make an actual difference. McCain rubs me as an institutionalist, if anything. He’d rather make a financial gain out of working with the environment and utilize sustainable development for the ideals of profit before forgetting the capital and doing the right thing for the environment just for the sake of the future of mankind. These categories can be applied to people who are specifically interested in the environment though, so they honestly cannot apply to everyone unless everyone truly believes the environment we live in is affected by us and supports us-within limits. Titles don’t make a difference, people do. We’re all so different; it’s impossible to categorize people into different groups all the time. Opinions change, or are different enough to blow any categorization away. The differences between our two candidates are just as easily veiled by Clapp and Dauvergne’s categorization process as they are revealed.
2. Tell me (and one another,) which of your two candidates seems to be talking the most sense on the environment? Why?
Actually I think they’re both full of shit when it comes to which candidate is talking the most sense on the environment. I don’t think either candidate really will know how to handle the climate change and energy issues until they get into office, which is unfortunate for the voter because the platform gets fuzzy. Obama has better advice from his would-be cabinet members, because those guys contact actual atmospheric scientists for data and approaches to dealing with a carbon-impacted future- it seems like McCain’s policies on these subjects are fabricated, spewing out too many words that don’t tie together to form a coherent thought. What they aren’t realizing in the McCain camp, which is made even more obvious when you toggle back and forth between the two sites of the candidates, is that LESS IS MORE- having too much to read as an average American voter on a website only confuses us further. What’s interesting additionally is the comparative language distinguishing the candidates. Obama’s language is clear, looking forward to rebuilding the economy by creating economic opportunities out of climate change needs. McCain’s site make me feel like I’m back in grade school where the teacher has tenure so they don’t actually care if you learn anything. Education issues in America aside, McCain’s goals for the environment and the US aren’t rigorous enough; I honestly don’t think he cares in a realistic fashion for the future of the environment simply on his goal of reducing 60% of Carbon emissions by 2050- Obama wants 80% reduction by then, but Christ guys, if Al Gore knows we can do 100% clean energy within ten years, why isn’t either candidate listening? He’s not a crackpot; his goals are realistic and tangible. We won’t get solid approaches to climate change issues out of our candidates because the data keeps coming in from atmospheric scientists, the solid approach were seeking is going to end up being a ballsy move, more likely from Obama than McCain, and will push Americans out of our comfort zone and redirect us from the mindless consumerism so heavily engrained in our minds.
Having looked at both policies, it appears that Barack Obama is an social green/ bioenvironmentalist while John McCain is more of a market liberal/ institutionalist.
One of McCain’s biggest policies is the “cap and trade” program; this program, if implemented successfully (as it has begun to be in Europe) provides money incentives for big companies to cut their emissions; however, implementing it on a personal level, where a lot of the pollution is taking place, seems very difficult as it would be nearly impossible to regulate and monitor.
Obama on the other hand, recognizes that the problem is more of a reality than McCain thinks and has set goals that back it up. His plans, while there is an influence from the business side, address the individual more so than McCain. Producing hybrid cars and setting the 80% reduction goal show his knowledge of the problem. In all honesty though, like Mackenzie touched on, these categories are hard to place on the candidates. McCain Vice presidential pick doesn’t even believe in global warming, and I think that a lot of this is just campaign blather. While it is reassuring to see someone like Bill McKibben supporting Obama, as well as a plethora of other noteworthy scientists, only time will tell who has the will to bring us through this problem.
I think Obama is speaking the most sense on the environment in his campaign. When you have a running mate who doesn’t even believe in global warming, you have a huge problem. McCain’s plans are vague at best and don’t set any goals besides the 60% reduction and the smaller numbers up until then. Besides the Cap and Trade, he gives no concrete details on how he wants to reach his goal. Obama wants hybrid cars, a separation from Mid East and Venezuelan oil in ten years and many others things. What sets him apart though is his specificity on the subject and the numbers he uses to take the US from point A to point B. However, like I mentioned earlier, this is campaign season, and both candidates are talking the talk but we aren’t so sure they will be able to walk the walk come January 20th. Al Gore has something. Mackenzie brings up a good point, he has spent a while looking into the energy thing and if he thinks that the US can go completely “green,” he probably knows what’s going on.
1. After looking over the different policies of both Presidential Candidates, I think it would be safe to say that Barack Obama would fall more along the lines of a Bioenvironmentalist or a Social Green while John McCain falls more along the lines of a Market Liberal or an Institutionalist. Barack Obama seems to approach the problem of the environment with a more personal solution in that he addresses the American citizen. Through such policies as the Emergency Energy Rebate for American Families, the desire to create millions of new jobs through the advent of green technologies, and to increase the overall efficiency of the American Auto Owner, Obama seems to follow the policy of a Bioenvironmentalist/Social Greens to help “restore autonomy and empower those whose voices have been marginalized”…which in this case could be considered the American people in the face of big oil companies and foreign oil producing states. It also addresses the idea of creating a new global economy within limits to growth by creating a whole new sector of business on the idea of reducing emissions so as to limit the input of our wastes into natural sinks. John McCain also addresses the ideas of promoting jobs and economic growth for the American people, however, he approaches it through some ideologies possessed by the Market Liberals or Institutionalists of working through strong, global institutions and globalization. This is evident in his strive towards finding a global solution to the global climate change problem by “actively engaging to lead United Nations Negotiations”, providing “incentives for rapid participation by India and China” and establishing a global market for greener and more energy efficient markets.
The categories established by Clapp and Dauvergne do help in trying to make a sense of the differences between to the two candidates, but only to a specific limit. As evident through the various elements that make up the Candidates views on energy and the environment, it seems that certain aspects touch on various elements of the four categories we learned about. It is pretty well near impossible to completely classify someone as being entirely an Institutionalist or a Social Green. Each person has varying ideas about the environment and what should be done about it…some feel that a combination of solutions can bring about an overall solution. What this goes to show is that although the categories can help offer the basic groundwork towards understanding the varying viewpoints of the candidates, it cannot speak entirely for the differences amongst the candidates, or any individual for that matter.
2. Of the two candidates, I would honestly have to say that both of the candidates talk a lot of sense about the environment. I say this not as a way to totally disregard anything that Barack Obama or John McCain has offered in his platform towards energy and the environment. They both offer some good insight and ideas regarding the desire towards greater fuel efficiency, a reduction in greenhouse gases, and the desire to have energy independence from the Middle East and Venezuela. A lot of what John McCain and Barack Obama share in terms of the future of energy and the benefit of the American people can be seen as near one in the same. Both men want what’s best for the country. However, their biggest problem seems to be the views of International Community and their contribution to the issue of global climate change. Granted, Obama discuss the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change but this is the part of the original problem that doesn’t see China, India, and other emerging economies that contribute substantially to the climate change problem as areas of concern. John McCain makes it clear that the failures that have come from such articles as the Kyoto Protocol are to be remedied and that beyond such institutions as the United Nations and other international organizations geared towards finding a global solution, bilateral negotiations between us and some of the other nations of the world are important too. Simply stating that working through special international organizations where consensus amongst a variety of nations can take a substantial amount of time before any semblance of work can progress just isn’t the simplest answer. All areas of diplomatic engagement need to be addressed in order to ensure that our actions towards a solution are reinforced, not hindered, by the actions of the rest of the world. Though from differing parties and backgrounds, both of these men end up sharing a lot more than people would like to admit. Perhaps a mixture of various ideas and solutions from a set of bipartisan minds would be the best answer towards the climate problem.
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