Best Ideas I've Read in a Long Time!

The fine folks inside the Beltway keep telling us how terrible global warming is ("a bigger threat than terrorism") and that we must reduce our carbon footprints. Glenn Reynolds says we should take them at their words,

So I have a few suggestions to help bring home the importance of reduced carbon footprints at home and abroad:
  1. Extend [Senator Lamar] Smith’s bill to cover the entire federal government. We have Skype now, and Facetime. There’s no reason to fly to meetings. I’d let the President keep Air Force One for official travel, but subject to a requirement that absolutely no campaign activity or fundraisers take place on any trips in which the president travels officially.
  2. Obama makes a great point about setting the thermostat at 72 degrees. We should ban air conditioning in federal buildings. We won two world wars without air conditioning our federal employees. Nothing in their performance over the last 50 or 60 years suggests that A/C has improved things. Besides, The Washington Post informs us that A/C is sexist, and that Europeans think it’s stupid.
  3. In fact, we should probably ban air conditioning in the entire District of Columbia, to ensure that members of Congress, etc. won’t congregate in lobbyists’ air-conditioned offices.
  4. Speaking of which, members of Congress shouldn’t be allowed to fly home on the weekends. Not only does this produce halfhearted attention to their jobs — the so-called “Tuesday to Thursday Club” — but, again, it produces too much of a carbon footprint. Even if they pay for the travel out of campaign funds, instead of their own budgets, they need to set an example for the rest of us — and for those skeptical foreigners that Obama mentioned.
Global warming: Time for action!!

UPDATE: 11:42am Monday. From a news story,

“Democrats believe that climate change is too important to wait for climate deniers and defeatists in Congress to start listening to science, and support using every tool available to reduce emissions now,” the draft platform reads, according to excerpts posted by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign.
I agree completely and the current Administration, which is Democrat, should lead the way and set the example with the four steps above.

Comments

  1. Members of Congress could just stay home in their districts, and handle debates and votes by Skype equivalent. (There would have to be provision for high-quality encryption for closed hearings covering sensitive/classified info.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Surely you jest... we just found out you can keep a private email server and come out on the rosy end of it all.

      Delete

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