Government-mandated and -subsidized ethanol from corn will go down in history as the "Iraq War" of environmental solutions: ill-considered, costly, and disastrous.
Interpretation
Ethanol from corn, supported by the government, is seen as a costly and misguided attempt at solving environmental issues.
Van Jones critiques the government’s support for corn-based ethanol as an environmental solution, comparing it to the Iraq War in terms of being poorly conceived and ultimately harmful. He suggests that this approach, although well-intentioned, has turned out to be expensive and ineffective, illustrating how certain environmental policies may fail to deliver real benefits and instead create new problems.
In practice
Mention this quote in a debate about renewable energy sources and their impacts.
The surest path to safe streets and peaceful communities is not more police and prisons, but ecologically sounds economic development. And that same path can lift us to a new, green economy - one with the power to lift people out of poverty while respecting and repairing the environment.
We have the chance to build this new energy economy in ways that reflect our deepest values of inclusion, diversity, and equal opportunity for everyone.
Will the new environmental leaders fight for eco-equity in this new "green economy" they are birthing?
Our point of view is, lets not be so elitist that we can't honor good, hard, dignified, ennobling work: people working with their hands, building things, putting up solar panels, weatherizing homes, working on organic agriculture, building wind farms. We don't have robots in society, so somebody has to do that work. Lets make sure that the people who can use that work get a chance to do it. I see that as a first step toward bigger and better things.
We pull out of the ground death, we burn death in our power plants, and then we act shocked when we get death in the form of oil spills and global warming.
When you take the people who most need work and connect them with the work that most needs doing, you save. You save that young person’s life, you save a whole bunch of money, and you save the soul of this country when you invest and give people a chance, give people hope, give people opportunity.
Everything we make pollutes. The most responsible thing we can do is to make each product as well as we know how so it lasts as long as possible.
This fight against drilling in the Arctic Refuge is a fight about our principles. Its about standing up for our environment, our families and our future, and I wont give up this fight.
I wish America would spend even half as much time complaining about plastics in our oceans as we do about actresses' plastic surgery.
The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved.
You cannot achieve environmental security and human development without addressing the basic issues of health and nutrition.
Hydraulic fracturing requires massive amounts of water. Disposing of the toxic wastewater, as well as accidental spills, can contaminate drinking water and harm human health.
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