Hi Tony, Your friend Piper reframed the issued very well. Thanks.
>My friend Piper in Holland has some interesting words about the >biofuels debate. > >Tony Ingraham >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Hi Tony, > >The back-and-forth debate about biofuels is a textbook example of how >issues are "framed," a concept elaborated in recent years by George >Lakoff and others. While politicians, businesspeople, intellectuals, >and ordinary citizens from all segments of the ideological spectrum >go around and around about "which fuel is best" or "which car is >best," hardly anyone is engaging is the serious exercises of lateral >thinking that we need so badly right now: To what extent do we need >fuels at all? To what extent do we need cars at all? We are only >going to have a truly productive discussion after we move the frame >from "fuels" and "cars" to "mobility." > >Just one high-profile example: in the "Energy and Environment" issue >statment on Obama's web site, the word "fuel" and its variants >appears 25 times, and the word "oil" appears 9 times, while there is >not a single mention of "public transportation" or of "carbon-neutral >city design". > >Most North Americans have never heard of the Carfree Network or the >Transition Towns Network, nor do they wonder how it can be possible >that Dutch people and Danish people have a higher standard of living >than North Americans in spite of a per capita usage of motor fuels >that is less than half that in the USA and Canada. George Bush just >proposed helping to finance his latest wave of military adventures by >slashing public transportation funding (just one more way of putting >some more dollars in the wallets of ExxonMobil and Halliburton), and >were you bowled over by the wave of popular indignation? No? But >folks will rubberjaw about the pros and cons of ethanol until the >cows come home. > >Take care, > >Piper >_______________________________________________ >RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: >[email protected] >http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins >free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
