- In the midst of highly publicized steps to dismantle insurance coverage for 32 million people and defund women's healthcare facilities, Republican lawmakers have quietly laid the foundation to give away Americans' birthright: 640m acres of national land.
In a single line of changes to the rules for the House of Representatives, Republicans have overwritten the value of federal lands, easing the path to disposing of federal property even if doing so loses money for the government and provides no demonstrable compensation to American citizens.
At stake are areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Forests and Federal Wildlife Refuges, which contribute to an estimated $646bn each year in economic stimulus from recreation on public lands and 6.1m jobs. Transferring these lands to the states, critics fear, could decimate those numbers by eliminating mixed-use requirements, limiting public access and turning over large portions for energy or property development.
This one is particularly heartbreaking to me.
China in investing somewhere north of $300 Billion in renewables. Norway is trying to purchase a bunch of Amazon rainforest for the purpose of preservation. That's stuff I just read this week. I'm really hoping that other countries continue to step up their game to pick up the slack we drop. It's not fair to ask them to shoulder this, but our fuck ups are the world's burden and right now, the world could really use some fuxking help.
Honestly for me it's much more selfish than renewables. I take advantage of public lands, my friends take advantage of public lands, many other people (it's the Pacific Northwest, for chrissakes). We should be making them more accessible (while maintaining certain divides) to everybody, not declaring them valueless (because apparently you can do that when it's a convenient thing to do) and potentially depriving ourselves and future generations of the most beautiful thing around us.