TenHaken’s Pumpkin Policy Advisor doesn’t believe in mandates

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In this interview with the administration’s newest advisor, she revealed something I have known about PTH for awhile;

“Our goal is to put something together that is realistic and achievable and well accepted by a diverse group of stakeholders and the public,” Harris said. “Sustainability should be a choice, and our job in government is to provide an education so people can make those choices. We aren’t doing mandates or forcing it on people because that isn’t how we want to govern. That isn’t how the mayor sees his role. He wants to be a uniting mayor.”

I would agree that a mandate doesn’t always solve an issue, in fact it can make it a lot worse, but when it comes to climate change we have exhausted most options. Letting industry decide if or how they are going to tackle climate change in their respective private industries means they will just choose to NOT do what government suggests. They already are on record for that. Sustainability isn’t a question of giving options you have to give and mandate direction, you also need followup and enforcement.

Just look at the over 4,000 property owners over the past 2 years that were MANDATED to repair city owned sidewalks because of the multiple ADA lawsuits filed against the city. So when the city is under fire from the FEDs to get their poop in a group they turnaround and mandate taxpayers fix the very sidewalks they are being sued over. City ordinance is pretty clear, the city has the authority to MANDATE just like they would when it comes to sustainability. I would even argue that global warming is a much bigger threat then cracks in a sidewalk.

If this mayor wants to UNITE the community, why not UNITE them around cleaner air and water? Recently the Argus Leader touched on that very problem;

Everything in the EPA’s dataset looks squeaky-clean for South Dakota, except for one category: water releases in Sioux Falls. In 2021, Sioux Falls disposed more than 5 million pounds of toxic waste into the Big Sioux River, about 2.5% of the nation’s overall generated water waste.

Nearly all TRI-registered water releases in the city involve one source: Smithfield Foods’ Sioux Falls facility, formerly known as the John Morrell Co. meatpacking plant.

In many ways, the Sioux Falls meatpacker is one of the worst water polluters in the U.S,

So while the mayor and his policy advisor want UNIFICATION I think mandating a communist Chinese owned packing plant would be a better approach since ‘suggestions’ are NOT clearly working. Now let’s all join hands and sing Kum by yah while the earth is burning.

Augie students to have ‘Climate Strike’ on Friday

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The Augustana students are leading a “Climate Strike” tomorrow (Fri. Sept.20) on campus at 10:30am. It is part of a nation-wide and worldwide effort to ask for action referred to as “climate justice”, because so much is at risk, including the livelihoods and even lives of the poorest people. Some references:

Action Network

“Our house is on fire — let’s act like it. We demand climate justice for everyone.”

Global Climate Strike

The Nation

By coming, we can support the cause and these students.

Is having NO or FEWER kids the key to a Greener Planet

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I have this discussion with a few friends over the past couple of years. It’s an interesting concept;

Standing before several dozen students in a college classroom, Travis Rieder tries to convince them not to have children. Or at least not too many.

He’s at James Madison University in southwest Virginia to talk about a “small-family ethic” — to question the assumptions of a society that sees having children as good, throws parties for expecting parents, and in which parents then pressure their kids to “give them grandchildren.”

Why question such assumptions? The prospect of climate catastrophe.

For years, people have lamented how bad things might get “for our grandchildren,” but Rieder tells the students that future isn’t so far off anymore.

He asks how old they will be in 2036, and, if they are thinking of having kids, how old their kids will be.

“Dangerous climate change is going to be happening by then,” he says. “Very, very soon.”

Adding to that challenge, the world is expected to add several billion people in the next few decades, each one producing more emissions.

In fact, without dramatic action, climatologists say, the world is on track to hit 4 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century, and worse beyond that. A World Bank report says this must be avoided, and warns of unprecedented heat waves, severe drought and serious impacts on ecosystems and “human systems.”

Here’s a more CRASS (NSFW) approach.