Kill Your Television

For the eco-chic who have been watching the new "Planet Green" channel, I hope you haven't been doing it on a flat-screen TV:

Booming demand for flat-screen televisions could have a greater impact on global warming than the world's largest coal-fired power stations, scientists warn.

A greenhouse gas called nitrogen trifluoride, used to make the TVs, is 17,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide, said Michael Prather, director of the environment institute at the University of California, Irvine.

So does that mean those of us without flat-screen TVs can sell carbon credits? Oh brother.

"Exposing the leftist myth of 'fair trade'"

Today's column by Michael O'Neal in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News is his best yet. He accurately skewers the elitist, wealthy, latte liberal set, in much the same fashion as Matt Taibbi did in his column.

Readers of Charles Dickens' "Bleak House" may remember the frowsy Mrs. Jellyby, who spends her days engaged in voluminous correspondence to raise money and recruit emigrants for the purpose of ameliorating the condition of the natives of Borrioboola-Gha, an imaginary colony in Africa. The quintessential do-gooder, she utterly neglects both her own family and the crushing poverty right under her nose in London. Poverty for her is a cause because it's over the horizon.

Prompting this book report was a recent trip to Portland. Like Jim Carrey's Truman, we escaped the dome that is Moscow-Pullman to idle away a few days in the naked city. They actually have little bakery shops and costermongers and fish markets, places called Starbucks that sell coffee by the jeroboam, scores of nutritional sustenance solution establishments (restaurants), and even by golly a trolley.

A store similar to the Moscow Food Co-op called Whole Foods Market purveys, among other essentials, organic litter so that environmentally sensitive cats can tarry with a good conscience, and briquettes for the grill made from a substance called "natural wood" - in contradistinction, one presumes, to unnatural wood. We're told at every turn that "Portland Recycles!" The exclamation point makes clear they mean it. And, in downtown Portland, there wasn't a big-box store in sight, unless you count all the chic, multistory department stores that occupy what looked suspiciously like big boxes. During our window-shopping experience, we strolled through 10,000 Villages, a home-furnishings emporium that sells items made primarily in Africa. The store adheres to the principles of "fair trade," though the vendeuse I chatted up was never able to give me much of an explanation of what that means without simply repeating the words "fair" and "trade." The store, eschewing profit, is organized as a nonprofit and staffed by volunteers, a congregation of Mrs. Jellybys who should feel awfully darn good about themselves because, presumably, they're helping the natives in Africa.

OK, so I thought that since the place is a nonprofit, the prices should be pretty reasonable. I was quickly disabused of that notion. A small hutch that might cost $300 or $400 under the principles of unfair trade cost upwards of $900 at 10,000 Villages. A desk that one could purchase from a profit-making enterprise for a grand cost twice that at the fair-trade store. I don't know who's getting hosed here, the guy in the bush, or me.

Shoppers also are told that the wood used to make the furniture was harvested according to the principles of sustainability - though once again, no one was able to explain why harvesting a U.S. oak to make a $300 hutch that a middle-class person can afford is evil, but cutting down an exotic African hardwood to make a $900 hutch that only the affluent can afford is an act of sanctification.

"Fair trade" is just another slogan the left has dreamed up to make themselves feel better about their wealth. Pundits enjoy fulminating against the wealth of Bush and his "cronies" - a favorite word among leftists - yet the data shows that contrary to conventional wisdom, liberal families earn about 6 percent more than conservatives. Liberals don't know what to do with all their lucre, so they concoct stuff like "fair trade" so they can buy spendy furniture made with exotic woods, then tell the rest of us that their purchase is an act of virtue because it's helping ameliorate the condition of the natives of Borrioboola-Gha.

"Fair trade," like "living wage," "affordable housing," and similar bromides, is so much whipped syllabub - all bubbles and no substance. It has the ring of, well, fairness, but in reality it does little more than create artificial price supports that encourage oversupply of the goods in question. In the long run, it leads to inefficient allocation of resources and labor because it encourages production of goods for which demand is limited - and in the case of furniture, to harvesting lumber for products no one can afford, unless you're a well-heeled John Edwards liberal who doesn't know what else to do with your money.

Meanwhile, on the way back to our hotel, we came across more than one homeless guy sleeping on cardboard in doorways. We wanted to help, but they weren't far enough away.

Co-Opted Out of a Living Wage

The liberal chic place to shop on the Palouse is the Moscow Food Co-Op. Among the elitist denizens who you'll find browsing down the organic, fair trade aisles at the Co-Op are members of No SuperWalMart and PARD.

One of the monotonous left-wing canards offered against Wal-Mart by its fanatical haters is that Wal-Mart fails to pay its employees a so-called "living wage."

The Penn State University Living Wage Calculator figures a living wage for one adult with one child in Moscow to be $12.33 an hour. The City of Moscow established a "living wage" last year of $10.00 an hour for all businesses that conduct business with the city.

That's why this admission from Co-Op board member Bill London last week was a bit startling:

Most starting jobs (after training) at the Co-op pay from $7.25 to $8.75 per hour. A very few lowest-rung jobs do begin at $6.75.

Benefits to workers of 20 hours/week or more includes:
2 week paid vacation
sick leave
18% discount on purchases and free lunch
Benefits to workers of 30 hours/week or more includes those plus health/dental insurance (retirement benefits if work longer than 2 years)

$7.25 to $8.75 an hour? A starting wage of $6.75? Wal-Mart in Moscow pays $8.50 to $10.00 an hour, with a starting wage of $7.25. The Wal-Mart medical benefits plan is open to all part time workers, regardless of hours worked, after one year of service, and all other Wal-Mart benefits are much more generous than the Co-Op.

One could hope that the Co-Op might be an oasis of sanity, where socialist rhetoric meets capitalist reality, or where the realization could sink in that stocking shelves or working a cash register are never going to be high-paying careers. One could hope. Instead, anyone think it's time for a petition?

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Crow Can't Spare a Square

We've all heard of the "courtesy flush." But now enviro-wacko singer Sheryl Crow informs us on her blog that we can help stop global warming by "putting a limitation on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting.... I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required."

By the way, Crow and environmentalist Laurie David have been traveling across America on a biodiesel-powered bus conducting a two-week Stop Global Warming College Tour. Whew! After two weeks on a bus with everyone using one square per toilet visit, every day is a winding road.

Eco-Chic Phonies, Or How Al Gore's Pals Celebrate Earth Day

Al Gore and John Edwards' pals in Manhattan are going eco-chic for Earth Day. Like the pair mentioned before, they have a very good idea how you should live. I have often said that I'll take global warming seriously when liberals start taking it seriously. People like these are why I don't expect to be challenged any time soon.

Concerned with carbon emissions, she is about to replace the Barnetts’ two family cars with hybrids. “I turn the water off when I’m brushing my teeth,” she said. “I’m always learning, I’m always trying to improve.”

Still, she has no plans to reduce the family’s significant carbon footprint by, say, selling the Manhattan second home. “I’m not a perfect person,” she said. “I’m not the greenest woman in America.” And there was scant indication that other guests, most of whom, presumably, knew their way up the steps of a private jet, were contemplating major lifestyle cutbacks. Glancing about the room, Ms. Barnett said, “We aren’t all going to move to one-bedroom apartments.”

And,

She plans to practice conservation, to a point. Energy-saving light bulbs are fine — for the utility closet, perhaps. In other rooms, “they don’t give a very pretty light,” she said.

Taking in such reservations, Ms. Barnett remained sanguine. “This is the grass-roots way to help save the world,” she said.

One pointy-toed step at a time.

They do know how you should make sacrifices.