Two excellent analyses

First, watch this video of Robert Kennedy JR put the smack down on the media. For one, I'm glad to see the old boy put the bong down long enough to project his opinions in a very compelling way. I would argue that it was not just the media that dropped the ball on the environment these past couple of election cycles, it was also the Democrats that seemed willing to allow the media to paint the picture that the environmental movement is made up of weenie demi-demonic freaks, while they were pursuing the pro-war image of their party. These are issues that need to be made obvious to the population: if you live within a certain radius of a coal-fired power plant or derive your food from there, you, yes you, and your family are at risk. And who put you at risk: the administration and those who think like they do. Bring the Mercury argument--and similar ones--into the light of a bigger picture that illustrates how the current conservative movement stifles the one thing that makes our economy unique: constant innovation. This article should help make that point:

"we've become increasingly dependent on maintaining our edge in discovering the new technologies and applications that create whole new industries—just as other countries are closing that gap."

However, the current movement in our society is skewed away from this:

"The worry of economists and business leaders is not simply that Japan, Israel, or South Korea will beat us, like one football team does to another. It is, more precisely, that we'll only be able to take advantage of rising wages in those countries (and afford our own here) if we continue to create new, cutting-edge products and services to sell to those countries—and right now America does not seem to be doing as much of that as we were just a few years ago."

And this takes wise government support of science:

"For decades, the United States ranked first in the world in the percentage of its GDP devoted to scientific research; now, we've dropped behind Japan, Korea, Israel, Sweden, and Finland. The number of scientific papers published by Americans peaked in 1992 and has fallen 10 percent; a decade ago, the United States led the world in scientific publications, but now it trails Europe."

and support of policies that foster innovation and help the environment:

"But there is perhaps no economic sector that is undergoing a more profound evolution, or in which government investments could make a bigger difference, than energy....Demand in America for electric-gas hybrid cars already outstrips supply, but Ford is so behind the curve that it's leasing its hybrid technology from Toyota. Europe, meanwhile, is setting the pace on the next promising auto technology; clean diesel-electric hybrids. Companies in Europe and Asia have also made more progress than have their American counterparts in developing the technology for crafting energy-efficient appliances, offices, and factories—a consequence of higher energy taxes and stricter environmental regulations in those countries....A better strategy, says Harvard's John Holdren, would be for the federal government to raise automobile fuel efficiency (CAFE) standards, impose a carbon cap-and-trade system for factories and power-plants, and let the market decide which new energy sources and technologies are the best. These ideas now have broader backing than they did a decade ago. The bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy issued a report in December calling such measures the most critical to ensure America's energy future—and that commission's members includes the CEOs of old-line energy giants such as Exelon and ConocoPhillips. And, Holdren told me, executives at old economy companies from Monsanto to Dow Chemical have signed on. “Five years ago, we didn't have a shot at getting them on board,” said Holdren, “but the situation is getting dire enough that now they're leading the charge.” Still, many sectors, including the automobile and power industries, vehemently oppose higher CAFE standards and carbon emission limits, and the president has repeatedly rejected them."

Folks, there's a future to be had out there for progressives and democrats. We should seize it.