Chapter 12 Discussion

In Chapter 12, "Shattered Skies," Steven Darksyde provides a witty analogy (of bringing his wife diet coke) to the detriment that politics is having on finding a solution to environmental pollution. Darksyde goes back through time to recount the discovery of "black powder," the canon, and the gun through the enlightenment, the industrial revolution, and the development of CFC's to accommodate modernized material demands of society at an economical cost to the consumer and the producer. More importantly, Darksyde recounts the ways in which politics helped and then hindered the damages being caused to the environment by industrialization.

The portion of this reading that stuck out to me was the discussion about the Clear Skies Act of 2003 and the strong negative impact Darksyde perceived it as having on the environment to protect the high money stakes of politics. I remember hearing about the act when it was being proposed and the media always gave the impression that it was this swee[ing act to reduce emissions and not a law to "halt research and applications into solutions for dangerous emissions" the way Darksyde describes it. After researching the act to get more information, it does seem to involve a lot of fancy words that sumarise nicely as don't do anything that woon't make us more money, well aside from the idea of reducing the amount of gasoline used by vehicles but you will pay the car dealerships more money for a fuel efficient car so the consumers still get the short end of the stick and the environment seems no better off.