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GSX2EVO
02-08-2007, 05:07 PM
I have to write a 20 page paper in my environmental policy class and I'm looking for inspiration.

Are there any policies you guys would like to see implemented or feel strongly about? I'm curious to see what this community thinks.

Ricardon
02-08-2007, 11:09 PM
Yeah write something about how California gas is a fucking joke. I could write a god damned book about how backwards the gasoline policy is in this state. Seriously...fuck the EPA.

Terry S
02-09-2007, 11:04 AM
I have to write a 20 page paper in my environmental policy class and I'm looking for inspiration.

Are there any policies you guys would like to see implemented or feel strongly about? I'm curious to see what this community thinks.


I'm currently working on organizing a grass roots campaign to revise the CARB certification requirements for aftermarket modifications to where a part does not need to be OEM or CARB approved to pass a visual smog inspection as long as the vehicle passes the sniffer test in exchange for slightly stricter sniffer requirements. You can write about that..

Terry S

Eckolaker
02-09-2007, 11:30 AM
Write about how implementing taxes on emissions and green house gases won't solve the problem.

Ricardon
02-09-2007, 04:15 PM
Write about how implementing taxes on emissions and green house gases won't solve the problem.


That would actually be a good read if done properly. In my first semester at UCLA, I had a 30 page research paper to do with a partner for my conservation biology class. We wrote out a really sick report on alternative energy sources (the typical ones, not any of the highly experimental stuff that's fairly mainstream today). It seemed that the deeper we dug, the less atractive some of the options became. And of course, we had to take a completely objective approach to it. The professor wasn't pleased one bit. She was one of those hardcore "only flush the toilet if you take a dump" type people. Luckily for us, the TA was the one grading the assignment and we got an A lol.

That assignment, as much as I hated the class and the professor, really set the tone for most of the rest of my college career. I can count the times I've actually agreed 100% with my professor's point of view on one hand, but I always made sure to back up my arguments. I managed to pull a 4.0 in my majors while contradicting the professors literally 70% of the time hahaha.

GSX2EVO
02-10-2007, 05:20 PM
Write about how implementing taxes on emissions and green house gases won't solve the problem.


What problem are you talking about specifically? If taxes won't cut down on the negative externalities that come from emissions and green house gases, what do you propose will?

Ricardon
02-10-2007, 05:24 PM
Write about how implementing taxes on emissions and green house gases won't solve the problem.


What problem are you talking about specifically? If taxes won't cut down on the negative externalities that come from emissions and green house gases, what do you propose will?


Nothing.

EVOMANIAC
02-10-2007, 06:31 PM
No matter what we do here in CA or the USA to lower emissions the other countries of the world have to get on board with the same program or it wont have any real affect.

Ricardon
02-10-2007, 07:03 PM
No matter what we do here in CA or the USA to lower emissions the other countries of the world have to get on board with the same program or it wont have any real affect.


You're logic on the collective piece is correct. Unfortunately, even if every single person on the planet was in some sort of envirmentally friendly compliance...the earth still would'nt notice. She's gonna' wipe us all out sooner or later anyways, and when she does it'll have nothing to do with anything humans have done in our entire history of existence.

Eckolaker
02-12-2007, 10:37 AM
Write about how implementing taxes on emissions and green house gases won't solve the problem.


What problem are you talking about specifically? If taxes won't cut down on the negative externalities that come from emissions and green house gases, what do you propose will?


Look at the legislation being written currently, most of the proposed programs to cut emissions aren't really proposing any such thing. What they want to do is just implement taxes on anything that pollutes. The people that can afford the taxes will be fine(corporations), its those that can't afford the taxes(You and I) or afford to not use the things that pollute in order to survive. I bet you can't name one product you use that doesn't cause pollution somewhere down the road, maybe not direct pollution, but certainly indirect pollution.

I agree that mother earth will eventually swallow us up anyhow. It may be tomorrow, it may be 100,000 years from now. Regardless, Global warming is not a product of human invention. All the reports I found, including the UN report, show that Human contribute about 6% towards global warming.

Ricardon
02-12-2007, 06:21 PM
All the reports I found, including the UN report, show that Human contribute about 6% towards global warming.

Pretty sobering is'nt it? The world would instantly become a better place if everyone in the world embraced the fact that is suggested by the quote above. We are'nt shit. All of our posturing and the fact that we have opposable thumbs does'nt make a damned bit of difference. Wow, that's a completely new topic in and of itself. Someone start a new thread!! Fight Club referrences will be welcome of course!

Eckolaker
02-13-2007, 09:59 AM
Dinosaurs dying and Nuclear reactions in the sun have nothing to do with SUV's. Surprise!

Ricardon
02-13-2007, 06:58 PM
Dinosaurs dying and Nuclear reactions in the sun have nothing to do with SUV's.* *Surprise!


Expound please.

GSX2EVO
02-27-2007, 04:13 PM
This is where I'm heading with my paper. I know there are many of you guys in this community that have tremendous insight on the topic, so any criticism or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I haven't started all my research yet, but if anyone knows some good book/articles/websites to find out some information please let me know. Here goes...

Topic: Lobbying in Policy Making of Emissions Restrictions

Lobbying is undoubtedly an influential factor in the promotional function of policy making especially in the case of emissions restrictions or lack there exemplified by the Bush administration’s failure to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Global warming which is affected by Greenhouse gases has been predominantly on the international agenda for the last decade. Because of its potential harm to human health and the environment, and what seemed to be a situation the necessitated governmental intervention to cease or implement emission restrictions, many corporations voluntarily spent millions of dollars to cut emissions. However, the environmentally conscious are now the obvious losers as lobbying by this group is now aiming to persuade congress to initiate bills that cut down emissions. There is a tremendous part of lobbying by both sides, but the one that really got my attention was the differing restrictions placed on gasoline powered passenger vehicles (auto, motorcycles, etc) and diesel powered vehicle (buses, trucks, etc).
It appears that a cost benefit analysis (CBA) has been implemented and concluded that the benefits from diesel powered engines are perhaps greater than its harm, but found the opposite to be true for gasoline powered engines. The “so what?” portion of my paper will find out if it really is solely that the government agency implemented these restrictions based on solid evidence through a CBA, or that in fact it was lobbying by corporations the persuaded the Bush administration to work in their favor. Nonetheless, it is important to note that the promotional function is a crucial aspect of policy making and one that corporations will utilize through lobbying. Whether or not the policy that is produced at the end up the say is the question I intend on answering in my report.


The professor kept asking me "so what?" so I needed to address that fact that my "so what?" is that CBA are downplayed by all the lobbying done by major corporations that want to swing the policies in their favor.