As should Salem and Marion County

Image via Wikipedia

9. Oregon county bans bottled water

Multnomah County became the first in Oregon to ban bottled water from all county meetings and functions. From now on, the county will serve pitchers of cool liquid from the tap -- and save itself thousands of dollars. Oregonian 10/14/2010

Word: Recognizing the elephant in the doctor's office

From The Lund Report:

http://www.thelundreport.org/resource/it%E2%80%99s_time_for_doctors_to_reclaim_ownership_of_their_profession

It‚s Time for Doctors to Reclaim Ownership of Their Profession We can't sustain rising healthcare costs and, more urgently, we can't sustain the aftershocks of a healthcare bubble bursting

By: Dr. Kris Alman . . .

It must be understood that doctors no longer own their own shingle. When post-World War II America ceded healthcare to employers, insurance companies inherited a cash cow. Individuals, families and businesses now realize that insurance companies cannot deliver a product that can be consumed for their benefit when profits are involved. The conundrum is very basic. Health is a societal investment and not a commodity that can be consumed and marketed as healthcare. For-profit healthcare creates perverse incentives for those who profit from the unhealthy and the worried well. Employers, tired of insurance companies profiting from their employees, are marketing a new paradigm of managed care through self-insuring. Consumers should be wary of "roadmaps" for employer health management and value-based benefit designs. Values will be compromised for the sake of value. Market-based healthcare demoralizes the doctor. I left my career as an internist and endocrinologist over ten years ago, when I was at my prime. My integrity was too compromised by the compromises the market demanded of me. Many of my physician friends envy my good fortune married to a radiologist who gives me that choice. But I still mourn the loss of my career especially since I know there are critical needs for primary care doctors. Market-based health care won't work. Quality healthcare depends on a trusting relationship between the doctor and patient, an art that that is unquantifiable. Yet we're reassured that healthcare reforms will be evidence-based. Even a spoonful of sugar doesn't help swallow "evidence-based" research cooked by PhRMA and medical device companies. Healthcare reforms were adopted from the evidence-based playbooks of No Child Left Behind. I assure you doctors will be treating to the HEDIS test. This approach is impersonal and non-specific. . . .

We already have rationed care. The question is who should who should determine how we ration care: doctors or employers and insurance companies? Doctors must reclaim ownership of their profession and demand full transparency of healthcare costs. They'll better grasp the inherent inequities that arise from the multiple payers and deniers of employer-based healthcare. In doing so, doctors can reassert true value to the care they give and to healthy values we, as patients, must embrace. We can't sustain rising healthcare costs and, more urgently, we can't sustain the aftershocks of a healthcare bubble bursting. ================== Dr. Kris Alman retired from healthcare to become a citizen activist for a healthier democracy. She advocates for fair taxation to invest in our common goods--prioritizing education, renewable energy, campaign finance and healthcare policies and laws.

Seattle shows the way: Bans phone book littering

Image by The Library of Congress via FlickrAwesome. Salem City Council folks, are you taking notes and drafting ordinances yet? If not, why not?

Using land to feed cars -- like burning down the house to get some light

Image via WikipediaFrom the ASPO-USA Peak Oil Review weekly newsletter:

Last week the USDA released a revised estimate for US grain production this year that shocked observers. The new report cut US harvest projections from corn, soybeans and wheat. The reduction in terms of bushels was the largest in nearly 40 years. Although the harvest is expected to be the third largest ever – 12.7 million bushels – the increasing call on US agriculture to make up for shortfalls around the world should lead to much higher prices as more nations move to restrict exports.
As we saw two years ago, the imposition of food export bans by governments fearful of the domestic unrest that could result from grain shortages led to higher food prices around the world.

The conversion of corn into ethanol for motor fuel is using up US corn reserves which are expected to fall to the lowest level in 15 years. In the past four years, the US has had its four largest corn crops ever and supplies are still tight. Due to the rapid expansion of the corn to biofuels program that began in earnest five years ago, there is little spare farm land that can be brought into production. This suggests that high corn prices could lead to shortages of other crops as farmers react to high corn prices. Given the bad economic conditions, US food companies say they are reluctant to pass on price increases to retail consumers.

Ironically, the price surge comes just as the government is expected to approve the marketing of 15 percent (E15) ethanol blend for use as a motor fuel. This move could, in theory, increase the demand for corn-based ethanol from its current 12-13 billion gallons every year by 50 percent. There is, however, a possibility that the government could restrict its use to vehicles built in the 2007 model year and later. This would greatly complicate the marketing of the product as retailers would have to install new tanks for the E15 and might have to eliminate self-service pumps to ensure that the right blends get into the right vintage cars. All this suggests that it may be some time, if ever, before E15 comes into widespread use.

Megabridges are Megadisasters

Someone who cares did a great job warning the powers that be about the upcoming disaster if plans to build a megabridge over the Columbia proceed (pdf).

We need a similar study for the ongoing waste of money called the Salem River Crossing, a dreamed-of third auto bridge.

Seen near the Capitol, Part Deux

Speaking of insane lobbyist power, there's this sign, a perfect commentary on what Salem and Oregon find worthy of exaltation and glory. This plaque is perhaps in the most prestigious spot imaginable -- dead center in front of the Capitol, just on the other side of the fountain, centered on the Capitol mall greensward, we find

a) a monument to, a hero or heroine from Oregon's storied history?
b) A tribute to the brave fallen from the wars?
c) A gentle encouragement to better citizenship?
d) A plaque glorifying a parking garage for cars?

Of course you knew it was d) all along. Truly, we can know a people by what they honor.

Seen near the Capitol

Tobacco lobby missing a beloved pet?

Please note, sign, and forward a link to the petition to the right

Please click on the petition to the right and consider it carefully as we approach the National Work Day on climate, 10/10/10.

Here's what the best thinking is on climate, in a nutshell: humans will use all the oil and gas we can get our hands on, and it's irrelevant to climate stability as to who uses it. And even so, we have a good chance of getting a grip on climate. What we can't survive is coal use, whether mined, or fractured to get at the coal-bed gas.

And we have zero chance of persuading others to forgo coal use unless we lead by example. Oregon is the perfect place for leadership, because we have just one coal plant (Boardman) and it's such an inefficient and dirty pig that we'll see tremendous benefits from its closure or conversion to other fuels.

But its main owner, PGE, is playing the terrorist, pointing a gun at the planet and saying "Yo, here's the offer, you leave us alone and don't make us spend any money on cleaning up this pig and we'll agree to shut it down in 2020 or else" with the "or else" being that they will fight to keep the plant open to 2040 or beyond.

Just as with so many other steps towards environmental sanity, the business fighting progress is the very one that will benefit the most from the measures that they're fighting. It has happened again and again and again, so much so that it's practically an iron law: given any proposed environmental restriction that has costs and benefits, businesses grossly overestimate the costs of environmental improvements, downplay the benefits, and ignore the followup benefits that accrue to society in general (like, you know, a livable planet).

PGE is in an interesting spot because their PR machine is all about being green, even as they operate the single biggest polluting facility of any kind in Oregon. You practically need a microscope and a Ph.D in research to find the word "coal" on the PGE website, so adverse is the utility to admitting that it's a filthy polluter that uses the atmosphere as a sewer for tons of CO2, NOx, particulates, and mercury (not to mention polonium, lead, and a host of other nasties, all of which coal plants emit in tremendous quantity relative to any other source of exposure for society).

So the petition offers a deal: Make the bastards richer for doing the right thing (getting off coal by 2014) than they are getting from doing the insane thing (continuing to burn coal). We shouldn't have to pay people to act sensibly, but that's the way it is. The other side of the bargain is that, after 2014, nobody could make a dime -- not even recover their costs -- for burning coal or selling imported electricity derived from coal.

We can't afford zero progress on coal until 2020 -- and if places like Oregon don't lead the way, that's exactly what we're going to see, zero progress globally. I'm starting into the back nine of life, so this won't affect me too terribly much, but if you have kids or grandkids you care about, then you owe it to them to understand the world PGE plans to unleash on them and why that's not a world you should want to leave them.

99% perspiration

Image via WikipediaEdison would disagree with her statement that she's not a genius. And she's doing work in a vital area.

Could be called "Desperately Sought in Salem"

Perhaps our longings will be satiated . . . .