Good News Bears Repeating

Joe Romm has a couple of great posts this week. One references a "Green Path out of the Red" discussion on the PBS program "Living on the Earth:"

JONES: We've gotta make this bailout bail out the people and the planet, not just the people who want their platinum parachutes. The bottom line is that we got ourselves into trouble because we started building our economy based on consumption, based on debt, and based on environmental destruction. The way forward is to recreate the U.S. economy so it's based on production, savings, and environmental restoration. That's the way forward. And any help that anybody gets now should have green strings on it to pull us into the only part of the economy that's going to grow, which is the green part.
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YOUNG: Hendricks helped bring business, labor, and environmental groups together in the Apollo Alliance. He's now a senior fellow at the progressive policy think tank Center for American Progress. Hendricks thinks Congress will try another economic stimulus package to bring the country out of recession. The last stimulus, you might remember, came in the form of checks straight to taxpayers. Hendricks says a CAP study shows a green stimulus package creates more jobs than just encouraging consumption.

HENDRICKS: That money stays locally—you can't outsource jobs retrofitting buildings for efficiency or building transit systems. Put aside the environmental benefits. Investing in a green recovery is better economic policy and it puts us on a faster road to recovery.

The other summarizes a proposal put forth by Google for revolutionizing our energy sector while reducing greenhouse emissions. Of note, Google proposes "Replacing all coal and oil electricity generation, and about half of that from natural gas, with renewable electricity." In light of the destructive manner in which coal is being mined and the problems associated with CCS, a coalless future is highly desirable! Way to go, Google!!!

And last night on Jim Lehrer, there was a segment on the Barefoot College -- a program in India that educates village women and employs them in the installation and maintenance of solar panels. The solar panels provide clean power to nearby villages creating a win-win-win situation. In addition to the solar project, "The College addresses problems of drinking water, girl education, health & sanitation, rural unemployment, income generation, electricity and power, as well as social awareness and the conservation of ecological systems in rural communities."

And for a bit of fun, this SNL spoof of the Vice-presidential debate pretty well says it all.

Does one's heart good . . .