Inconvenient Language Barrier: Ignoring the Hispanics
!CALENTAMIENTO GLOBAL!
Most of you know that it’s 2007. A great portion of you know that we need to reduce global greenhouse emissions 90% by 2030 if we’ve any hope of stabilizing runaway global temperatures. Here in the United States, instead of working together to achieve these goals, we politicize the subject (thanks, Al! thanks, George!), meaning we make it a whole lot harder to achieve a national consensus on what steps we need to take. This is a problem that is close to insurmountable, but I’m a closet optimist, so I think that, with the help of a new political party and a series of crippling general strikes, we’ll get there! Is Eugene Debs running in ‘08? (Perhaps three of you got a chuckle out of this.)
But even this problem of politicization of a fundamentally nonpartisan issue is, I think, secondary to a massive and largely ignored language and cultural barrier. Specifically, while the U.S. “CAUTION: GLOBAL WARMING” chorus continues to swell in number and volume, it delivers its message almost exclusively in English. Given that, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (LINK), the Hispanic population is going to be responsible for nearly 50% of the U.S. population growth between now and 2030, this is something we need to fix immediately. Some forward thinkers, like the Earth Policy Institute (LINK), responsible for the publication of Lester Brown’s seminal “Plan B 2.0″ (think “Inconvenient Truth” but with ANSWERS: LINK) are publishing their output in dozens of languages, but a direct targeting of the U.S. hispanic population by everyone (including yours truly) is required.
As of 2007, the eco-community is overwhelmingly white-midde/upper class. By 2030, over half the Western United States will be non-white. We won’t achieve our reduction goals unless we expand our ranks to include a representative slice of the population and citizenry.
If the eco-community doesn’t start making websites (Grist, Treehugger, Worldchanging, etc), and if Hollywood doesn’t start making films that at least partially cater to the surging populace of Hispanics in the United States, their critical messages will not reach the population that is making itself, each day, more and more of a powerful consumer and voter force. As a result, we’ll all be poached (LINK).
Song o’ the Day = Baja La Luna Mexicana by Concrete Blonde. Do you remember it? I have a real soft spot for this one . . .
Technorati Tags: earth policy institute, eugene debs, greenhouse emissions, hollywood, lester brown, treehugger
Tags: environment, Inconveniences, Politics, Ruminations
I, for one, do not believe that an additional political party is the answer to anything. If the problem is politics, how is adding more politics going to help? The issue, in my opinion, is money. In order to successfully run a campaign for election you need lots and lots of cash, which means you need to know the right people with that cash, which means you already have cash to start out with which means you are way out of touch with the rest of the Americans (and the world, for that matter).
What I say is that in order to find that special American to be elected President (or other office), you need to level the playing field and somehow remove money from the picture. Then, and only then, will you see what’s in the soup when you scoop all that fat from the top.
Kirk T said “what’s in the soup when you scoop all that fat from the top.” What an amazing line! I have to concur with you, Kirk. Alas, neither party has any inclination to engender form in this direction which means what? We need Thomas Jefferson to lead a little insurrection? Or a mass demonstration? Or do we stay with ineffectual orgs like MoveOn who siphon cash and energy with little actual results? YOUR FRUSTRATION IS SHARED.
Calling Mr. Long….
I agree with Kirk that it’s about money, which is why I support public funding of campaigns. However, I also believe in many poltical parties. As David Cobb said shortly after he lost the 2004 election, we need to either change the better of the two parties from the inside (obviously the Dmeocrats) or move outside and apply pressure. I’ve chosen the latter and have been a Green for several years now.
A few days ago I posted about Camp Wellstone, which is providing citizen activism training for people running for office, handling campaigns, and generic activists, which describes me.
I’ll never forget what I heard when I went to Camp Wellstone in November of 2003: When the late Sen. Paul Wellstone first ran in 1990, he was outspent 8 to 1, but had 14,000 grassroots volunteers and an old school bus painted green that frquently broke down but managed to carry him to the miners and farmers of Minnesota.
Wellstone’s campaign manager, Jeff Blodgett, is carrying on at Camp Wellstone, and trainees are running and winning elections.