Special Series
This Land: Measure 37's Impact on Oregon
In a Series
Oregon's 49ers
When the word "parsing" starts showing up in newspaper headlines, you just know something has gone horribly awry. In this case, that something is Oregon's Measure 37, which voters may modify next week when they weigh in on Measure 49.
Starting in 2000, with Measure 7, Oregon's so-called "property rights" initiatives have unleashed perhaps the nastiest and most confusing series of election battles in Oregon's history. (And that's really saying something if you know Oregon politics.) For the last few months the debate over 49 has become a sort of bizarre monument to popular ballot measures: a dark gothic dread under-girding the swirling rococo flourishes of campaign rhetoric.
But at this late hour -- and lacking the intestinal fortitude to descend into the fever swamps of Oregon's electoral screaming match -- it's maybe worth reminding the state's voters what happened at the ballot box in other states last year:
Special Series
Word on the Street
In a Series
Canadians "Cranky" about Climate Doublespeak
Surveys show Canadians want action, vision, and leadership on climate change. In fact, Canadians' concern about the environment is
off the charts (see recent numbers at the bottom of this post). There's a real opportunity here for Canada's leadership to win hearts and minds with
decisive climate policy.
But what they’re getting in Canada is doublespeak. Aspirational targets for reducing carbon intensity? That may sound positively "green" -- even uplifting, but on closer inspection it’s simply gobbledygook. In a speech excerpted by the Vancouver Sun this week, Jim Hoggan, president of James Hoggan & Associates -- which has recently completed "the most comprehensive [opinion] research project on sustainability and the environment ever undertaken in Canada" -- PR-speak that obscures inaction on climate change is making Canadians cranky.
