Practice Round HFC

7/31/2019 Practice Round HFC

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Practice Round HFCs

Table of Contents

Practice Round HFCs .......................................................................................................................................................... 1

ASPEC??? ............................................................................................................................................................................. 3

F-SPEC ................................................................................................................................................................................. 5

Topicality ............................................................................................................................................................................. 6

Politics ................................................................................................................................................................................. 8

Ice Age ............................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Water Tradeoff .................................................................................................................................................................. 14

Rickshaws CP ..................................................................................................................................................................... 16

Consult States ................................................................................................................................................................... 20

Foucault - Virilio ................................................................................................................................................................ 23

On Case ............................................................................................................................................................................. 30

Warming ADV ................................................................................................................................................................ 32

Food Wars ..................................................................................................................................................................... 34

Artificial Photosynthesis................................................................................................................................................ 37

Economy/Employment ................................................................................................................................................. 38CX Questions 1AC .......................................................................................................................................................... 40

2NC / 1AR .............................................................................................................................................................................. 41

F-SPEC............................................................................................................................................................................ 42

Conditionality Good ...................................................................................................................................................... 43

Multiple Conditional Advocacies are good ................................................................................................................... 44

Multiple Worlds Good ................................................................................................................................................... 45


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A-spec

F-spec

T

Politics

Ice Age

Water Tradeoff

Random Da

Rickshaw CP

Consult States CP

Foucault CP

On case


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ASPEC???

A. Interpretation- The aff must specify the agent

First, the government consists of three branches: the legislative, the executive, or the

judicial,

B. Violation- The aff didnt specify

C. Reasons to prefer

1. Predictable limits - There are dozens of executive agencies that can regulate the authority

of their personnel to search without probable cause and there is a split between congress

and the courts in terms of legally restricting the authority. The literature on each of the

agents is unique from other agents making later specification render a specific negative

strategy null.

2. GroundSpecification key to DA links like politics and courts as well as process

counterplans

3. Education- 90% of policy is implementation

Elmore, Prof. Public Affairs at University of Washington, PolySci Quarterly 79-80, p. 605,1980

The emergence of implementation as a subject for policy analysis coincides closely with the discovery by policy analysts thatdecisions are not self-executing. Analysis of policychoices matter very little if the mechanism for implementing thosechoices is poorly understood in answering the question, "What percentage ofthe work of achieving a desired governmentalaction is done when the preferred analytic alternative has been identified?" Allison estimated that in the normal case, itwas about 10 percent, leaving the remaining 90 percent in the realm of implementation .

4. Aff conditionality- They can skew our strategy by dodging out of DA links and CP

competition we present in the 1NC

5. Most real world- The USFG isnt an actor- all three branches cannot pass a policy as one.


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6. Voter for fairness, education and jurisdiction


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F-SPEC

Interp - The AFF should include its amount and funding source in plan text.

Violation- the plan doesnt

Standards-

1. Ground- Neg loses certainty of links to funding off case argues such as budget and

spending DAs.

2. Strad Skew- AFF can shift fund sourcing to get out of NEG arguments. Only plan text

checks.

3. Takes out solvencynot specifying means the plan wont be enacted correctly.

Voters

For the reasons above, competitive equity, and potential abuse


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Topicality

1. Transportation infrastructure is highways, roads, bridges, intermodal transit, inland

waterways, ports, aviation, and rail systems.Congress 11

[The US House of Representatives the 112thCongress of the United States. HR 402 National Infrastructure

Development Bank Act of 2011 1/24/11http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr402/text//Cal-JV]

(25) TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT- The term transportation infrastructureproject means

any project for the construction, maintenance, or enhancement of highways, roads, bridges,

transit and intermodal systems, inland waterways, commercial ports, airports, high speed

rail and freight rail systems.

The Aff only puts hydrogen cells on buses, this is a form of energy infrastructure

2. Thats distinct from water, energy, or social infrastructureHeintz 9(James, Associate Research Professor and Associate DirectorPolitical Economy Research Institute, et al., How Infrastructure Investments Support the U.S.

Economy: Employment, Productivity and Growth, January, http://americanmanufacturing.org/files/peri_aam_finaljan16_new.pdf)

II. ASSESSMENT OF INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS FOR THE U.S. In the previous section we looked at trends and patterns of public investment since 1950. We now

examine what levels ofinfrastructure investment are required in the future to address expected needs and to fill the gap left byinadequate rates of past investment. We will then use this assessment of needs to develop policy scenarios and to estimate the employment impacts of an expanded

infrastructure investment program. We will show, in later sections of the report, that a program of accelerated investment which aims to eliminate the countrys

infrastructure deficit can generate millions of new jobs. In this section we focus on four broad categories of infrastructure and

specific areas of investment within each category. The infrastructure categories are: 1.

Transportation : the road system; railroads; aviation; mass transit; and inland waterways andlevees; 2. Public school buildings; 3. Water infrastructure: drinking water, wastewater, and

dams; 4. Energy: electrical transmission, through all sources, including renewables, and

natural gas pipeline construction. These categories constitute the most important components of U.S. economic infrastructure. In addition,public schools represent one of the most important pillars of the countrys social infrastructure, one with important implications for the long-run productivity of the

economys human resources. Taken together, we capture the most important assets that collectively reflect the state of the nations infrastructure. In this section, we

examine each of these areas in turn and then pull the information together to provide a more complete picture of infrastructure needs. Transportation

Highways, Roads and Bridges The nations highways, roads, and bridges constitute the single most important transportation system for theU.S. population and economy. According to the Federal Highway Administration, the U.S. maintains 4 million miles of roads and nearly 600,000 bridges (Department

of Transportation, 2006). In dollar terms, the Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that the current value of public assets in road infrastructure totals $2.6 trillion.

The Department of Transportation periodically evaluates the condition of the countrys roads, bridges, and transit systems in its report Status of the Nations

Highways, Bridges, and Transit. According to the most report, 85 percent of roads are in acceptable condition but only 44 percent were deemed to be in goodcondition. In 2004, 26.7 percent of bridges were considered to be structurallydeficient and 13.6 percent were functionally obsolete. The cost to maintain the U.S.

road system in its current condition is estimated to be $78.8 billion a year. Current levels of annual investment are around $70.3 billion, a gap of $8.5 billion. The

Department of Transportation has conducted research into the level of investment needed to minimize the costs associated with prolonged travel times, vehicle

damage, accidents, and excessive emissions. Bringing the system up to this high-quality standard would require annual investment of $131.7 billion, an increase of

$61.4 billion over current levels (Department of Transportation, 2006). Freight and intercity rail By 2035, demand for freight rail transportation isexpected to double (AAR, 2007). Maintaining adequate infrastructure is essential if freight rail is to continue to provide a more environmentally benign alternative to

long-distance trucking. Intercity passenger rail, mostly on trains operated by Amtrak, currently links over 500 cities nationwide and provides a viable alternative to air

and road transport (Department of Transportation, 2007). Insufficient capital investment in freight and intercity rail would compromise the future contributions of

railroads to the U.S. economy. In turn, these investment gaps would slow down the transition to a clean-energy economy. Unlike road transportation, rail

infrastructure is largely financed by private companies. Since the railroads were deregulated in the late 1970s, securing the funds for ongoing capital improvements
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr402/text/Cal-JVhttp://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr402/text/Cal-JVhttp://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr402/text/Cal-JVhttp://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr402/text/Cal-JVhttp://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr402/text/Cal-JV


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has been a challenge. It is unclear to what extent railroad companies will be able to finance future fixed capital requirements from ongoing revenues (ASCE, 2005). If

railroads cannot finance sufficient capital improvements, the growth in demand for rail services would shift onto the road systemincreasing congestion, road

maintenance costs, as well as increasing greenhouse gas emissions. A recent study by the Association of American Railroads projects that infrastructure investment o

$148 billion is required in the next 28 years to be able to meet the projected level of demand (AAR, 2007). This translates into a capital investment need of $5.3 billion

per year. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that investment needs of freight rail and intercity systems would total $12-13 billion a year over the next

20 years (ASCE, 2005). However, this estimate includes investments that would have taken place anyway, given historical trends. Therefore, we use the $5.3 billion

figure as the best available estimate of the need for additional rail infrastructure in the future. Aviation According to forecasts compiled by the FederalAviation Administration, the number of passengers flying on commercial airlines is expected to increases at an annual rate of 3.0 percent a year from 2008 to 2025(FAA, 2008). By the end of this period, annual passenger travel is expected to reach 1.3 billion. This increase in volume will require capital investments in airport

capacity and air traffic control systems if congestion and delays are to be minimized and passenger safety maintained. Updating the traffic control system has been

ongoing since the mid-1980s, but the process has taken longer and required more investment than initially thought (ASCE, 2005). According to the results of a survey

administered to the nations 100 largest airports by the Airports Council International (North American branch), annual capital investment needs over the period

2007-2011 total $17.5 billion (ACI, 2007). This represents a $3.2 billion increase over the assessment of annual investment needs from 2005 to 2009. The FAA

estimates the shortfall in investment funds available to be somewhat lower: $1 billion per year from 2006-2011, based on airport master plans and ACI estimates

(GAO, 2007). However, neither set of estimates include capital investment for security improvements and air traffic control systems, as documented by the ASCE

(2005). Therefore, we use $3.2 billion a year in additional infrastructure as a reasonable estimate of investment needs in the absence of more comprehensive data.

Mass transit Increased usage of public transportation is one of the most efficient ways to promote energy conservation in the United States. It is thereforea positive development that public transportation has been growing steadily in recent years. The increase in demand for public transportation accelerated sharply

over 2007-08, as gas prices at the pump rose as high as $4.00 a gallon. But more generally, over the decade 1996-2005, passenger miles traveled with various forms

of public transportation increased by over 20 percent (Department of Transportation, 2007) and usage is expected to rise faster in the future. Capital investments in

transit have increased in recent years, particularly at the state and local level (Department of Transportation, 2006). Despite these improvements, public investment

must increase further if the transit system is to be maintained, and beyond this, if public transportation is to become an increasingly significant means of promoting

energy conservation. According to the 2006 Status of the Nations Highways, Bridges, and Transit, transit investments must total $15.8 billion a year just to maintainthe current operating system. This would represent an increase of $3.2 billion a year over current levels. But to meet government operational and performance

targets by 2024, annual investments must grow to $21.8 billion, requiring an additional $9.2 billion. Inland waterways and leveesApproximately 2.6 billion short tons of commodities are transported on U.S. navigable waterways each yearan extremely cost-efficient transportation system (Army

Corps of Engineers, 2005). The Army Corps of Engineers maintains and operates the inland waterway system which includes 257 lock systems nationwide, the average

age of which is 55 years. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, by 2020 80 percent of the lock systems will be functionally obsolete without new

infrastructure investments (ASCE, 2005). The estimated cost of updating all the lock systems is $125 billion. In addition, the Army Corps of Engineers assess the state

of the nations levees and flood control systems, amounting to 2,000 levees totaling 13,000 miles, which include projects built and maintained by the Corps of

Engineers; projects built by the Corps of Engineers and subsequently transferred to a local owner to maintain; and projects built by local communities. In 2007, the

Corps identified 122 levees, across the country, which are in need of additional maintenance and repair.4 The investment needed to update the lock system

combined with an additional $30 billion to improve the nations levees would total $155 billion, or about $6.2 billion annually over the next 25 years.

Vote negative for limits and ground other forms of infrastructure like HFCs self-evidently

explode the topic and require a different and unrelated set of negative argumentsrejecting the plan is necessary to preserve a manageable negative research burden and

preserve competitive equity.


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Politics

U. The farm bill will pass now but Obamas political capitol is key to overcome initial GOP

backlash against spending

AP, 6/29 *Agriculture secretary presses House on farm bill, Originally Posted on the Sacramento Bee,http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/29/v-print/4599206/agriculture-secretary-presses.html]

The Senate last week voted 64-35 to pass a five-year bill. It ends direct payments to farmers

regardless of whether they plant crops, sets up new crop support programs and reduces the

federal deficit by $23 billion over the next 10 years. Obstacles to passage are greater in the House, where

conservatives are seeking deeper cuts in the federal food stamp program, which makes up

about 80 percent of the nearly $100-billion-a-year spending under the legislation. The

Senate bill targets $4 billion in savings from the expected $770 billion in food stamp costsover the next decade. The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee told the AgriTalk radio show on Thursday that the House's farm bill, which

has yet to be introduced, would probably look for $14 billion or $15 billion in food stamp savings. Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., aid the entire bill would

reduce spending by about $30 billion. Lucas has scheduled a committee vote on a farm bill for July 11,and said that once the committee has acted, he will ask Republican leaders for floor time. "I don't care if it's 8:00 in the morning or if it's 3:00 in the afternoon, or if

it's 10 minutes till midnight, just give me time." GOP leaders have not ruled out action on a farm bill, but have indicated

they want to devote much of the House's time to jobs and regulatory bills that draw a

contrast with Obama administration policies, and with 2013 spending bills. Vilsack said he was confident

that Lucas and the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, were committed to

getting a bill passed. "I want to strengthen their hand as they deal with House leadership,"Vilsack said. The secretary said that without a new farm bill in place, farmers would be unable to make

decisions about future production, there would be a lack of clarity about trade promotion programs

and uncertainty about conservation programs, He said the farm bill could become a part of expected yearend talks on how to handleexpiring tax cuts and automatic cuts in defense and domestic programs, resulting in deeper reductions to farm programs. "I don't think that's in the best interest of

rural America," he said. The House bill, in addition to seeking greater savings, is expected to retain some aspect of price

support programs, supported by Southern rice and peanut farmers, that are eliminated in the Senate bill. Lucas

said he thought differences with the Senate version could be worked out quickly . But he also said there mighthave to be a one-year extension even if a new bill is passed because of the time needed to phase in new programs. "I have carried for a year a draft copy of an

extension in my pocket," he said in the radio interview. He said he hoped it wouldn't be needed but would be used "if an extension is in the

best interests of the folks back home on the farm."

Hydrogen unpopular flip-flop.Merchant 11*Brian Merchant, Reporter for Treehugger.com; Obama to Cut Funding for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Research;2/14/2011; http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/obama-to-cut-funding-for-hydrogen-fuel-cell-

research.html; Boyce]
http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/obama-to-cut-funding-for-hydrogen-fuel-cell-research.htmlhttp://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/obama-to-cut-funding-for-hydrogen-fuel-cell-research.htmlhttp://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/obama-to-cut-funding-for-hydrogen-fuel-cell-research.htmlhttp://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/obama-to-cut-funding-for-hydrogen-fuel-cell-research.html


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The Obama administration is getting down to the business of showing the public that it's

serious about cutting the federal budget, and even Energy Secretary Stephen Chu is getting in on the action. He's trying to

divert some of the funding currently going to hydrogen fuel cell research to other more

immediately viable clean tech departments. While in the short term, this might be for the better -- we need to concentrate as mucheffort on improving the most viable renewable energy sources as possible -- it nonetheless marks a depressing trend, one that epitomizes the severe short-term

thinking that defines our politics. After all, hydrogen cells remain intriguing, despite the fact that, as physicist

Joe Romm of Climate Progress notes, it would take four near-miracles to make the

technology viable as a transportation fuel anytime soon. Here's Romm: In a blog post Friday, "Winning the

Future with a Responsible Budget," the Nobel prize-winning physicist [Steven Chu] explains, "In the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the

Department is reducing funding for the hydrogen technology program by more than 41

percent, or almost $70 million, in order to focus on technologies deployable at large scale in the near term." Chu said in May 2009 that the multiple

technological and infrastructure challenges meant it was unlikely we would convert to a hydrogen car economy in the next two decades. Basically, the

problems are, as outlined by Chu in Technology Review, 1) "the way we get hydrogen

primarily is from reforming [natural] gas.That's not an ideal source of hydrogen. You're giving away

some of the energy content of natural gas, which is a very valuable fuel ... 2) "if it's for transportation, we don't have a good

storage mechanism yet. Compressed hydrogen is the best mechanism [but it requires] a large volume. We haven't figured out how to store it with

high density ... 3) "The fuel cells aren't there yet, and 4) "The distribution infrastructure isn't there yet." So. Hydrogen-powered transit is a long shot. And

that's the reason that Chu, Obama, and Romm are seeking to cut funding to research it --

electric cars and solar power technologies are improving quickly right now. We can deploy these soon. ButI still think it's too bad that the president feels the need to gut research for a technology that could - - if in the long-term -- produce a fuel whose only byproduct is

water (and a wee bit of nitrogen oxide). When taking a long view of the nation's potential energy mix, it's not hard to see why having a clean alternative to electricity

would be a major benefit as EVs begin to dominate the roads in the wake of oil's decline. In the rush to provide enough clean energy capacity for EVs (or other, even

more sustainable forms of transit like rail), hydro could be a major boon.

Hydrogen policies take political capital- even if there is support, it takes push to make itthrough congressBarlett and Steele 03 [Donald L. and James B. staff writers for the Time "Why U.S. Is Running Out of Gas" 7-13-03http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030721-464406,00.html

But hydrogen power went nowhere then, just as it went nowhere when it was trumpeted nearly a century

ago. It will probably go nowhere today, for many reasons, most notably a chronic case of

short attention span among American politicians when it comes to energy policy. With great

fanfare, lawmakers and Presidentsboth Democrats and Republicansannounce sweep-

ing plans to end or ease American dependence on foreign oil and find other stable sources of

energy. When the headlines and television sound bites fade away, however, they scrap the

programs, which then are often reintroduced to an unsuspecting public as new in later years by another generation of lawmakers and Presidents. But

changing anything as deep-seated as America's habits of energy use calls for consistency and

follow through, so the failure of Washington to stick with hardly any of its plans has wound

up making the U.S. more dependent than ever on foreign sources. Now Congress is about to enact

yet another doomed energy policy that promises more of the same. Take hydrogen. Ideally, the


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gas would be extracted from water using fusion technology. But that won't be available for

decades. In the interim, a substitute energy source would be usednatural gas. Yes, the same natural gas already in short supply.

Costs political capital California proves

Fuhrmans 11 *Vanessa, Hydrogen Fuel Cells Are Down, but Perhaps Not Out, 5-22,http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703778104576286620950028178.html]

Hydrogen still faces plenty of practical challenges. The biggest may be creating a refueling

infrastructure. While battery-powered cars can be plugged into the electricity grid, building even a basic network of

hydrogen refueling stations would cost billions. And as California's experience shows, such

initiatives are highly dependent on political will. But other initiatives are making progress, albeit slowly. In Germany, the federagovernment has pledged to spend some $2 billion over the next decade on a public-private plan to build at least 1,000 hydrogen stations, while a Hawaiian plan

partially backed by General Motors Co. GM +0.51% calls for building as many as 25 stations on the island of Oahu by 2016.

IL. U.S. drought is already affecting and causing tensions around the globeMurphy. 7/27/12 (Dan, Christian Science Monitor, U.S. Drought Already Rippling Out Into the World,

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2012/0727/US-drought-already-rippling-out-into-the-

world

Much of America's grain belt is gripped in one of the worstdroughts in 50 years, and grain prices are already surging.

Whilethat's bad news for America's farmers, the real danger is the effect that will have in poor

countries, where even small shifts in prices can have a big impact on the living standards of

hundreds of millions of people fromCentral AmericatoEgypt(the biggest wheat importer in

the world) and right across toIndonesiaandChina.The US is the world's largest wheat and corn exporter, and its third largest exporter of

soybeans. This is less of a case of the beat of a butterfly's wings causing a storm on the other

side of the globe then a storm here causing a catastrophe elsewhere. With the northern hemisphere summer lessthan half over, and no relief in sight for the US drought, the impact of rising food prices globally is set to become a big story in the months ahead.

Globalization has its upsides, but it also means that a peddler inMexico Cityor a factory worker inMumbaiis more vulnerable than ever to the whims of North

American weather and agricultural policies in the developed world.

Already some places are grappling with the issue. Take Indonesia, where soybeans are used to

make tofu, the staple protein for the country's poor. There, soybean prices have risen 33

percent in the past month, and are already causing tensions. Yesterday, there were clashes in

Jakartaand other major cities in markets as a coalition of tofu producerssought to enforce a

national production strikeprotesting against a 5 percent soybean import duty.

IL. Rapid rise in food prices sparks widespread political unrest mathematical signals proveKeim 11(Brandon, Wired, Food Prices Could Hit Tipping Point for Global Unrest,)
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When food shortages and rising prices drive people to desperation, social unrest soon

follows.Its as true today as it was in 18th-century France. According to a new analysis of food prices and unrest, the 2008 global food riots and ongoing Arab

Spring may be a preview of whats coming.When you have food prices peak, you have all these riots. But look

under the peaks, at the background trend. Thats increasing quite rapidly, too, said Yaneer

Bar-Yam, president of the New England Complex Systems Institute. In one to two years, thebackground trend runs into the place where all hell breaks loose.Bar-Yam and his colleagues

are hunters of mathematical signals in social data:market trendsandeconomic patterns, ethnic violence, Hollywood movies. Intheir latest expedition,described Aug. 11 in the prepublication online arXiv, they focus onthe 2008 food riotsand the Arab Spring, both of which followed year-long

surges in basic food prices. The researchers are hardly the first to portray food problems as a spark

that inflames social inequality and stokes individual desperation, unleashing and amplifying

impulses of rebellion. Therole of food prices in triggering the Arab Springhas been widely described. Their innovation is a pair of price points on theUnited Nations Food and Agriculture Organizations food price index: about 215 in current prices, or 190 when corrected for inflation.Its at those points where, on a

graph of food prices and social unrest between 2004 and 2011, unrest breaks out. But whereas they were crossed by price jumps in 2008, Bar-Yam and colleagues

calculate that the underlying, steady trend driven primarily by commodity speculation, agricultural crop-to-fuel conversion and rising prices of fertilizer and oil

crosses those points between 2012 and 2013.Once we get there, the peaks arent the problem anymore. Instead

its the trend. And thats harder to correct, said Bar-Yam. At that point, widespread politicalunrest and instability can be expected, even in countries less troubled than those in North

Africa and the Middle East.When the ability of the political system to provide security for

the population breaks down, popular support disappears. Conditions of widespread threat to

security are particularly present when food is inaccessible to the population at large, write

Bar-Yam and colleagues in arXiv. All support for the system and allowance for its failings are lost. The loss ofsupport occurs even if the political system is not directly responsible for the food security failure, as is the case if the primary responsibility lies in the global food

supply system.The analysis comes with caveats, one of which is the possibility that its the dynamics of spiking prices, rather than a particular price level, that

unleashes unrest. But according to Bar-Yam, even the underlying trends are rising at an extremely fast pace. If things change slowly rather

than rapidly, there would be a different response, he said. If it was going to happen over a period of 10 to 20 years,wed be talking about something else.But the circumstance were talking about is one of changes in a year or two.

IMP. Leads to resource wars and World War IIICalvin, 98 - Theoretical Neurophysiologist, University of Washington, (William, ATLANTIC MONTHLY,

January, The Great Climate Flip-Flop, Vol 281, No. 1, 1998, p. 47)

The population-crash scenario is surely the most appalling. Plummeting crop yields would cause some powerful

countries to try to take over their neighbors or distant lands -- if only because their armies,

unpaid and lacking food, would go marauding, both at home and across the borders. The better-

organized countries would attempt to use their armies, before they fell apart entirely, totake over countries with significant remaining resources, driving out or starving their

inhabitants ifnot using modern weapons to accomplish the same end: eliminating competitors for the remaining food. This would be a

worldwide problem -- and could lead to a Third World War -- but Europe's vulnerability is particularly easy to analyze.The last abrupt cooling, the Younger Dryas, drastically altered Europe's climate as far east as Ukraine. Present-day Europe has more than 650 million people. It has

excellent soils, and largely grows its own food. It could no longer do so if it lost the extra warming from the North Atlantic.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/market-panic-signs/http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/market-panic-signs/http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/market-panic-signs/http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/economics-of-network-collapse/http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/economics-of-network-collapse/http://necsi.edu/research/ethnicviolence/highlight/http://necsi.edu/research/ethnicviolence/highlight/http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/networked-movies/http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/networked-movies/http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/networked-movies/http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.2455http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.2455http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.2455https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/americas/18iht-18food.12122763.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/americas/18iht-18food.12122763.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/americas/18iht-18food.12122763.htmlhttps://www.npr.org/2011/01/30/133331809/rising-food-prices-can-topple-governments-toohttps://www.npr.org/2011/01/30/133331809/rising-food-prices-can-topple-governments-toohttps://www.npr.org/2011/01/30/133331809/rising-food-prices-can-topple-governments-toohttp://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/wfs-home/foodpricesindex/en/http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/wfs-home/foodpricesindex/en/http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/wfs-home/foodpricesindex/en/https://www.npr.org/2011/01/30/133331809/rising-food-prices-can-topple-governments-toohttps://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/americas/18iht-18food.12122763.htmlhttp://arxiv.org/abs/1108.2455http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/networked-movies/http://necsi.edu/research/ethnicviolence/highlight/http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/economics-of-network-collapse/http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/market-panic-signs/


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Ice Age

We must act now to survive; solar studies indicate that an ice age is approaching.

Hecht 11 (Laurence, Editor of 21st Century Science & Technology, 6-24, http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/Articles_2011/WeakSun.pdf, 7-1-11, AH)

Three independent U.S. studies of solar act ivity arrive at the same conclusions put forth earlier by the Pulkovo Observatory in St. Petersburg, Russia:

solar activity is declining; the current solar cycle, 24, which began in December 2009, is likely to be a

weak one; and the following cycle, beginning around 2018 to 2020, may be so weak as

to bring on a new Little Ice Age. In the worst case, the developments could signal the

beginning of a new period of reduced solar activity and extremely cold climate, like that in the period

known to solar scientists as the Maunder Minimum, also known as the Little Ice Age, which lasted from approximately 1645 to 1715.Such has been the expectation of the Russian group led by Habibullo Abdussamatov of the Pulkovo Observatory, a possibility that is now being openly mooted

by some of his American counterparts. To meet such an eventuality, a rapid mobilization of high technology capabilities, especially the

energydense technologies of nuclear fission and fusion, is imperative for the survival of civilization.

Fossil fuels produce CO2, prevents ice age.

Thompson 7(Andrea, Live Science, 9-7, http://www.livescience.com/1846-global-warming-good-news-ice-ages.html, 6-29-11,AH)

Finally, theres some "good" news about global warming: All that carbon dioxide weve

emitted into the atmosphere could mean no more ice ages anytime soon, new research says. Most researchinto the effects of the carbon dioxide accumulating in our atmosphere has looked ahead only to the next century or two. But the emitted carbon dioxide isn't

just going to disappear after thatresearch has shown that some of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now will

hang around for quite awhile, probably tens or even hundreds of thousands of years.

So the effects of burning fossil fuels today will extend long beyond the next couple hundred years, possibly delayingthe onset of Earth's next ice age, says researcher Toby Tyrrell of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. Ice agesnaturally occur about every 100,000 years or so as the pattern of Earth's orbit changes with time and alters the way the sun strikes the planet 's surface. Whenless solar energy hits a given area of the surface, temperatures become cooler (this is what causes the difference in temperatures between summer and winter).Long-term changes in Earth's orbit that cause less solar energy to hit the surface can cool down summer temperatures so that less ice melts at the poles. If icesheets and glaciers don't melt a bit in the summer, the ice accumulates and starts to advancein past ice ages, sheets of ice covered all of Canada and most of

the Northern United States. The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is also an important

factor in triggering an ice age . In the past, lower carbon dioxide levels (caused by natural processes)

helped cool the Earth and again allowed ice to advance. Rising carbon dioxide levels,

as is the case with global warming, can have the opposite effect.

Impact: The brink is now-- an ice age would lead to extinction.

Chapman 8(Phil, NASA Astronaut, Geophysicist and Astronautical Engineer, 4-23,http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sorry-to-ruin-the-fun-but-an-ice-age-cometh/story-e6frg73o-1111116134873, 6-29-11, AH)

It is time to put aside the global warming dogma, at least to begin contingency planning about what to do if we are moving

into another little ice age, similar to the one that lasted from 1100 to 1850. There is no doubt that the next little

ice age would be much worse than the previous one and much more harmful than anything

warming may do. There are many more people now and we have become dependent on a few temperate agricultural areas, especially in the US and


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Canada. Global warming would increase agricultural output, but global cooling will decrease it. Millions will starve if we do nothing to

prepare for it (such as planning changes in agriculture to compensate), and millions more will die from cold-related

diseases. There is also another possibility, remote but much more serious. The Greenland and Antarctic ice cores and other evidence show that for the past

several million years, severe glaciation has almost always afflicted our planet. The bleak truth is that, under normal conditions, most of

North America and Europe are buried under about 1.5km of ice. This bitterly frigid climate isinterrupted occasionally by brief warm interglacials, typically lasting less than 10,000 years.

The interglacial we have enjoyed throughout recorded human history, called the Holocene, began 11,000

years ago, so the ice is overdue. We also know that glaciation can occur quickly: the required decline in global

temperature is about 12C and it can happen in 20 years. The next descent into an ice age is inevitable but may not

happen for another 1000 years. On the other hand, it must be noted that the cooling in 2007 was even faster than in typical

glacial transitions. If it continued for 20 years, the temperature would be 14C cooler in 2027. By then, most of the

advanced nations would have ceased to exist, vanishing under the ice, and the rest of the world would

be faced with a catastrophe beyond imagining. Australia may escape total annihilation but would surely be overrun by millions o

refugees. Once the glaciation starts, it will last 1000 centuries, an incomprehensible stretch of time. If the ice age is coming, there is asmall chance that we could prevent or at least delay the transition, if we are prepared to take action

soon enough and on a large enough scale.


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Water Tradeoff

U. The US spends 32 billion on waterFrelinghuysen, committee on appropriations, 2012 (Sen. Frelinghuysen, May 2 2012,, "Energy and Water Development Appropriations", RR)

The Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2013 totals

$32,[billion]097,500,000, $87,500,000 [million]more than the amount appropriated in fiscal

year 2012and $964,955,000 below the Presidents budget request. Total security funding is $11,275,000,000, $275,000,000 more than the amountappropriated in fiscal year 2012 and $260,886,000 below the budget request. Total non-security funding is $20,822,500,000, $187,500,000 below the amount

appropriated in fiscal year 2012 and $704,069,000 below the budget request. The Committee notes that significant unobligated balances rescinded in fiscal year 2012

are unavailable in fiscal year 2013, making annual comparisons difficult. Adjusting for rescissions, the bill provides a non-emergency program level of $32,278,667,000

for fiscal year 2013, $622,542,000 below the amount appropriated in fiscal year 2012 and $1,150,455,000 below the budget request.

Lawmakers have trouble funding water infrastructure with such tight budgetsKosik, business correspondent for CNN, 11(Alison, 1/21/11, CNN,http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/20/water.main.infrastructure/index.html,

But as they say, timing is everything. The aging infrastructure threat also comes in the wake of a

recession, when politicians are struggling to maintain state and federal budgets. Also, watersystems must compete with needs for other underground systems, such as communications networks.

Other priorities will tradeoffGibbs, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment 12 [Bob Gibbs, is a Senatorfrom Ohio and the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment A hearing on A Review

of innovative Financing Approaches for Community Water Infrastructure Projects 2/24/12http://republicans.transportation.house.gov/Media/file/112th/Water/2012-02-28-Briefing_Memo.pdf] crk

The projected total cost to larger municipalities ofimplementing the terms of each of these

settlements could end up being as much as $1-5 billion per city, or even more in some instances.There are well over 700 communities, located in 31 States and the District of Columbia, with combined sewer systems

and CSO issues potentially facing these sorts of costs. Many more communities have SSO issues. EPA estimates thatthere are at least 23-75 thousand SSOs per year (not including sewage backups into buildings), amounting to an

estimated three to ten billion gallons per year of untreated releases. In recent years, other regulatory issues have

also become national priorities, which is placing a further demand for resources on

municipalities utilities. For example, while the nations wastewater utilities have already removed the vastmajority of conventional pollutants from municipal wastewater, looking forward, they face significantly higher costs to

remove the next increment plus control pollutants from urban runoff.

Collapsing water infrastructure would drive up costs and taxes for American familiesHiltzik, columnist for LA Times, 12(Michael, 3/18/12, LA Times, Water's costly trip to your tap, LexisNexis, AM)
http://republicans.transportation.house.gov/Media/file/112th/Water/2012-02-28-Briefing_Memo.pdfhttp://republicans.transportation.house.gov/Media/file/112th/Water/2012-02-28-Briefing_Memo.pdf


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The water service bill of the average Southern California family of four will include about $34 a

month in MWD charges, not including add-on fees charged by its local water district; of that, about $7 is

the cost of the water itself. "The repair and replacement of our aging infrastructure is probably the

No. 1 driver of our rates," says MWD General Manager Jeffrey Kightlinger, who had invited me and Times

photographer Al Seib along on his inspection visit to the work at Hinds . In the 1990s, the MWD says, the hugewater district's annual average capital budget of about $500 million included perhaps $30

million for maintenance. The rest went to expanding facilities to manage growth and provide storage, including

the construction of Diamond Valley Lake reservoir near Hemet. Over the next two years, the capital budget

will average about $275 million a year, but as much as 60% will cover maintenance and

repair of infrastructure that includes the Colorado aqueduct, begun in 1933, and the MWD's share of similar costs

incurred by the State Water Project, which carries water from Northern California. The bill for all this is already

in the mail. From 1995 through 2003, the MWD went without a rate increase; then rates

began climbing, with a cumulative increase of nearly 70% from 2008 through this year . Next

month the district's board will consider a proposal to raise rates about 12% over the nexttwo years. Some of that will cover the costs of an entirely unexpected development, theappearance after 2007 of the dreaded quagga mussel in the Colorado River system. The tiny pest, an ineradicable

interloper that probably made its way to the river from the Great Lakes by hitching rides on recreational boats, can clog

channels, pipes and other waterworks if not regularly blasted away or scraped off. The MWD has spent $30 million over

the last five years to fight the quagga and might be spending $8 million to $10 million a year on it into the unfathomable

future. As it is in so many other respects, when it comes to facing the challenges of maintaining such an indispensable

infrastructure, California is a bellwether for the country. That's despite the relative youth of water systems in the West

compared with other regions: More than 60% of the Northeast's large-scale water infrastructure but less than 10% of

the West's dates to the 1920s or earlier, according to the American Water Works Assn., which represents water utilities

and consultants. The group estimates the nationwide bill for maintaining and expanding existing

water treatment and delivery systems will come to $1 trillion over the next 25 years.


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Rickshaws CP

Counter Plan: The USFG should mandate the use of private sector cycle rickshaws for

transportation within a three mile span from the origin to the destination.

Rickshaws are effective in areas where traffic is an issue similar to places that have busesAntonio Graceffo,The Rickshaws of New York CityBA, Dip Lic, is a motivational speaker, writer, actor, and Martial Arts expert. Originally from New York City, Antonio speaks Chinese, Khmer, French, German, Spanish,

Italian, and Thai. He holds diplomas from universities in the US, Germany, and England. He has studied and competed in martial arts and boxing for over twenty-five

years, and has studied at the Shaolin Temple, in Mainland China and a Muay Thai (boxing) temple, in Thailand. He works as a full time adventurer, writer, and film

star. Since returning to the USA in 2006, Antonio has become a much sought after motivational speaker. http://www.offbeatnewyork.com/rickshaw-pedicabs.html

There was a loud hollow thud, as I was violently thrown out of the saddle. Tomer expertly rode his bicycle out of the huge freight elevator. "Remember," he said, "the

pedi cab is much wider than a normal bicycle. So, so you have to allow more room when you're taking corners." I took my feet off the pedals, to get my composure

back, and stepped right in a fresh pile of horse manure. Two grooms, who were currying a carriage horse laughed at me. "What a clown," they said, in Spanish. Pedi

cabs, horses, Spanish grooms, manure, and carriages it was hard to believe I was in the middle of Hells Kitchen, New York City.Picture the busy

streets of midtown Manhattan jammed with rush hour traffic. A solid mass of frantic

pedestrians rushes past the paralyzed cars. They are busy New Yorkers in business clothes in

a hurry to catch the train, in a hurry to get to a meeting, in a hurry to get to dinner

reservations. New Yorkers are always in a hurry to get somewhere. But how can you get

across town fast when traffic is at a stand still and walking is just too slow?The surprising

answer is, take a bicycle taxi. Now, the city that never sleeps is finding a new use for an age-old concept. New York lives and dies by the stockmarket, and sets global trend for fashion, bagels, and pizza. It is the last place you would expect to find bicycle taxis, but currently, there are 400 of the innovative

vehicles operating in five or six major zones of Manhattan, with that number expected to more than double by the end of 2007. A bicycle taxi, also called a pedi cab,

is a three wheeled bicycle, with a large bench seat in the back, for up to three passengers. The driver sits up front, on a normal bicycle saddle, and earns his living,

pedaling customers to their destinations. The taxies have been winning recognition as an environmentally

friendly alternative to automobiles, which pollute the air and choke passersbyers. But for

New Yorkers, the most important advantage of the bicycle taxi is the speed. During rush

hour, when traffic grinds to a standstill, the nimble bicycles can create their own lanes,

slipping in between or beside cars, covering the distance in less than half the time. At other

times, when traffic is moving well, the big advantage of the bicycle taxi is that you can

actually get one. Every New York has had the experience of standing on a street corner, with

his arm up in the air to signal a yellow cab, which never comes. At times the entire city

seems to be a sea of yellow taxis with only one passenger. But the bicycle taxis are alwayswilling to stop.

Rickshaws are very effective in creating jobs, simply there is always a need for them and

they are very simple to operate, and the payout is better than the minimum wageAntonio Graceffo,The Rickshaws of New York CityBA, Dip Lic, is a motivational speaker, writer, actor, and Martial Arts expert. Originally from New York City, Antonio speaks Chinese, Khmer, French, German, Spanish,

http://www.offbeatnewyork.com/rickshaw-pedicabs.htmlhttp://www.offbeatnewyork.com/rickshaw-pedicabs.htmlhttp://www.offbeatnewyork.com/rickshaw-pedicabs.htmlhttp://www.offbeatnewyork.com/rickshaw-pedicabs.htmlhttp://www.offbeatnewyork.com/rickshaw-pedicabs.htmlhttp://www.offbeatnewyork.com/rickshaw-pedicabs.html


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I spent a day in New York, driving one of the taxis, pedaling around behind my friend

Tomer, a young, motivated immigrant, who taught me the ropes of bicycle taxi driving."I

came to America eleven months ago," said the twenty-seven year old, Tomer. "The minimum wage is only $5.25 per hour. So, working at a McDonalds or something,you could earn about $900 per month. But a basic apartment cost over $1,000 a month. So, how can you live on that?" Tomer looked for an interesting job, which

would pay a livable wage. "This is New York. On TV in my country, we always see the horse drawn carriages in Central Park. So, I thought, my family would think I was

very American if I got that job." Tomer found his way to the horse stables, on 12th Avenue and 52nd St. "They said with the horses you could earn $45 for taking

people around Central Park once. But how many trips could you make in a day? And what about when it rains? And then, you had to pay rent on the coach, food for

the horse, and stable fees. It didn't look like a good deal." While he was in the stables, Tomer noticed the strange bicycle taxis. "They

kept them right there, next to the coaches," he said. "So, I [He] asked how it worked."Basically, the drivers rent the

bicycle taxis from one of about seven companies. The rents vary, but they generally run

about $200 per week. The bicycle is reserved for them all week. They are free to work as

much or as little as they want. Once the rent is paid, they can keep all the money they take

in. "Two hundred is for the rent for twenty four hours a day, seven days a week," explained

Tomer. "But I only work nights, so I split the rent with a guy who works days. Now we onlypay $100 a week, each."In general, bicycle taxis are more expensive than regular taxis.

Unlike taxis, which are strictly regulated in New York City, bicycle taxi drivers are free to

charge what they want. "Everyone does it a little different," he said. "I charge a dollar per

passenger, per block. But, if I think the people will pay more, I charge more. If they bargain,

sometimes I let them have it for less." On a good day, Tomer can earn $300 in fares and tips.

His average day is about $200, which is about what a McDonald's worker earns for an entire

week. Tomer's story was pretty typical of the other drivers I met, hanging around Central

Park. They came from all over the world, with a lot of Russians, Israelis and some Latinos.

Most of the American drivers were actors or models who liked the flexibility of the workinghours, which allowed them to go on auditions. No matter where they came from, the pedi

cab drivers had one thing in common, they saw driving a pedi cab as the first step toward

achieving the American Dream. Not so long ago, my relatives came over on the boat from Italy. They had to take the lowest jobs, workingtheir way up from the rags of the ethnic ghetto to the respectability of a house on Long Island. I loved everyone of these hardworking young people, who represented

the new wave of immigration to the USA, and who proved that the American Dream was still alive. Tomer took me along to show me how his night shift business

worked. "I pick up the bike around four o'clock. Then I start making circles from 57th street down to 42nd, from Broadway to Madison Avenue." This is an area in

New York City which has a lot of office buildings. Tomer would pick up a lot of business people, in suits and ties, and take them to the trains at Grand Central Station

or Penn Station. This area also includes Rockafeller Center, Saint Patrick's Cathedral, and Times Square. "So I get a lot of tourists as well." For tourists, riding the

bicycle taxi is excellent. During normal traffic conditions, the bicycle taxi moves slower than a car, and it is wide open. So the tourists can get a good look at the city,

and make excellent photos. From the back seat of a bicycle taxi, you can cock your head back and stare straight up at the mountainous skyscrapers. You feel as

though you are at the bottom of a deep canyon, peering up to the sky. Rush hour lasts till about six thirty or seven, when Tomer shifts his attention to Times Square,

where he picks up tourists and takes them sightseeing. Around eight or nine o'clock Tomer takes a break and eats dinner. He goes back to work at ten, when the

theaters let out. "After the shows end, it is hard to get a taxi," tomer explains. "Besides, after seeing a great show, the people don't want to go straight home. So theytake a ride on the bicycle taxi, and watch the lights of Manhattan." Like all real New Yorkers, I have always had a love affair with my city. I never owned a car in New

York, always preferring to ride a bicycle or walk. On a bike, you aren't driving through the city, you are driving with it. You are tapping into the never-ending

heartbeat, driving along with the circulation of blood and money that keeps the city alive. Ridding a bicycle in New York, you get to know the city intimately, which is

something most tourists will miss out on, if they are always taking taxis.
http://www.offbeatnewyork.com/rickshaw-pedicabs.htmlhttp://www.offbeatnewyork.com/rickshaw-pedicabs.htmlhttp://www.offbeatnewyork.com/rickshaw-pedicabs.htmlhttp://www.offbeatnewyork.com/rickshaw-pedicabs.html


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Rickshaws can compete with other forms of transportation and in most cases exceed in

some areas where other methods failAntonio Graceffo,The Rickshaws of New York CityBA, Dip Lic, is a motivational speaker, writer, actor, and Martial Arts expert. Originally from New York City, Antonio speaks Chinese, Khmer, French, German, Spanish,




Bicycle taxis, or pedicabs, operate all year long. When it is raining or snowing, they put up

the top, just like on a horse drawn coach, to keep the guests dry. "I actually make more in

bad weather," explained Tomer. "New Yorkers are impatient anyway. But when it is raining

or snowing, no one wants to stand on the corner and wait for a bus or a taxi. So, they ride

with me."Cruising down Fifth Avenue, Tomer picked up his first fare of the night, two businessmen, in a hurry to get to Grand Central Station. "You are onyour own now." Tomer told me, as he pedaled off to the East Side. Now, it was my turn to actually drive and try to make money on the streets I had hustled for most

of my life. I had always ridden and raced bicycles on the streets of New York. In fact, when I was younger, I had competed on the Central Park bicycle team. But

driving a pedi cab was a new experience for me. The three-wheeled bicycle looked similar to the Chinese rickshaw I had once driven across the Taklamakan Desert, so

I expected to do well. But reality doesn't always meet expectations. First off, the bike was very hard to steer. The heavy bench seat in the back felt like I was driving a

bicycle, pulling a gymnasium. I was used to putting my feet down, when I stopped a normal bicycle, but when driving a pedi cab your feet shouldn't touch the ground

at all. For one thing, the bike weighs 150 LBS. Add to that my own body weight of 211 LBS, plus the weight of two customers, and suddenly, I realized I would be

pulling somewhere on the order of six or seven hundred pounds. I had to remind myself, no Fred Flintstone stops here. Always use the brakes. As much as I have

chosen to live a life of experience, my pride still felt a twinge as I rode past my old office. On the bike, I could hear the conversations of the suits who walked along

the avenue, doing deals. For good or for ill, that was once me. At the next corner a severely over-weight couple from Italy waved me down. Gingerly, I pulled to the

curb. The bike groaned, as I helped them mount. The woman blocked the sun and stressed the seat to the breaking point. The man looked like he could really put

away the pasta. "Dove?" I asked. "Jolly Hotel," said the smiling woman, who in spite of taxing my legs to the point of cardiac arrest, had a warm, pleasant smile.

One of my many fears in driving the taxi was that, although I had once known every inch of the city by heart, I had been away for nearly five years. Fortunately, the

Jolly hotel was a place I knew well. Once, when I had formed my own corporation, we had used a suite at Jolly Hotel as our headquarters. On the bike, it became

even more apparent to me just how much I loved and missed the greatest city on earth. At the same time, I realized that every address, every location, every nook

and cranny held some ghosts from my past, which I would have to deal with. The lady chatted away with me in Italian, as I struggled to maintain some speed faster

than a snail's pace. I couldn't decide if I was Alex Reiger or Tony Danza, as I forced myself to be pleasant, in spite of the sweat dripping down my face. The lady asked

me where in Italy I was from. When I told her I was Sicilian, she nodded knowingly. "When you first come to America you have to do whatever job you can get," she

said. At the next traffic light, I couldn't get the bike rolling again. In a panic, I wound up knocking off the chain. While I struggled to fix it, the woman and her husband

decided to walk. Given how overweight they were, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for them to walk all the time. After I fixed the chain, and my hands and clothes

were completely covered in thick black grease, I decided that maybe I should practice alone for a while, before taking more customers. So, I began riding big circles,up Sixth Avenue, almost to Central Park, then down Madison, almost to Grand Central Station. After two hours, I was completely done-in. Even ridding the empty

bike, with no passengers, was exhausting. Once again, I felt a deep stirring of respect for Tomer and his friends who did this, eight hours per day, six days per week.

With recent arguments in USA about immigration, I would like to publicly state, anyone hardworking enough to get up and

drive a pedi cab everyday will be an asset to our country.As my exhaustion overtook me, I began to drive carelessly.The police used their loud speaker to yell at me, when I careened into the bus lane. Next, I broad-sided a limousine. It was actually the second car I had hit, but no

one saw me hit the first one, so I had run off. This time, the driver got out to confront me. Luckily, there was no damage done. "What are you, some kind of retard?"

he asked. Anywhere else, that would have been an insult, but I got all choked up, because after nearly five years in Asia, he might as well have been saying "Welcome

home." "Be careful next time," he said. Hoping to escape without getting arrested, sued or killing myself or others, I decided to take the bike back to the stables,

and call it a night. I had lasted two hours. It was the second shortest career I had ever had.

Rickshaws are safe for the environment and whole fun for the entire family. Simply they are

awesome and symbolize the American dreamAntonio Graceffo,The Rickshaws of New York CityBA, Dip Lic, is a motivational speaker, writer, actor, and Martial Arts expert. Originally from New York City, Antonio speaks Chinese, Khmer, French, German, Spanish,



http://www.offbeatnewyork.com/rickshaw-pedicabs.htmlhttp://www.offbeatnewyork.com/rickshaw-pedicabs.htmlhttp://www.offbeatnewyork.com/rickshaw-pedicabs.htmlhttp://www.offbeatnewyork.com/rickshaw-pedicabs.html


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If you visit New York, give the pedi cab a chance. The ride will be fun and exciting. You'll be

doing a good deed for the environment. But most importantly, you will be helping to

preserve the American ideal that anyone can make here, who is willing to pull himself up by

his boot straps. If your driver is an out of work actor, make sure to get his autograph. If he gets

famous, you could sell it on Ebay. Who knows, one of those pedi cab drivers might go on to be thenext Antonio Graceffo.


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Consult States

The United States federal government should enter into a process of prior and binding

consultation with the 50 states and relevant territories and propose to increase investment

in HFCs in public buses. The United States federal government will continuously advocate

the plan but will allow the states propose specific changes to implementation. All state

proposals on implementation will be accepted.

States want prior binding implementation consultation and cooperation from the USFG

Dunlop 5Becky Norton, Vice President of External Relations at the Heritage foundation, specializing in Federalism, environmental

regulation, and property rights, Improve the Environment Leave it to the states and the people, speech given

4/20/05, http://www.heritage.org/Press/Improve-Environment.cfm, accessed 6/28/09

What are some of the environmental challenges that we are looking at today and what do we see happening in Washington D.C.? One of the good

things is that the EPA has devolved more authority to the states on environmental

issues. They have recognizedthe fact thatthere is no race to the bottom of the

environmental barrelin the states. In every state, people want to have clean air andcleanwater.

So EPA has turned over increasing amounts of authority to state officials. There is another side tothe devolution coin, however.

Oftentimes, EPA is simply making state officials administrative agents of the federal

government. The job ofstate environmental officials is to look out for their own citizens,

to improve the quality of the environment for their particular stateor locality. You dont

want them to become the agent of some other entity, which has a point of view withwhich they disagree. So there are two sides to that coin of sending more responsibility to the states. We need to keep working to

make certain that Congress takes action to return not only more enforcement

responsibility but also more program authority.

Courts deferring to cooperative federalism and avoiding preemptionplan engages in

preemption but the can counterplan maintain itBarrington 2

Copyright (c) 2002 Whittier Law Review Whittier Law Review Summer, 2002 23 Whittier L. Rev. 1127 LENGTH:

25708 words NOTE AND COMMENT: PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH AND MANUFACTURERS OF AMERICA V.

CONCANNON AND MAINE'S PRESCRIPTION DRUG REBATE STATUTE: A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY SOLUTION TO THE

MEDICAID CRISIS NAME: Conrad J. Barrington* BIO: * Whittier Law School, Class of 2003.

The court began its analysis by stating that courts are traditionally reluctant to exercise federal preemption of a

state law, and that such action is to be considered "strong medicine." n283 In passing, the court also mentioned

that this is even more true when the federal program is one of "cooperative federalism,"

where " "coordinated state and federal efforts exist within a complementary ... framework.


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" n284 Though the court delved no further into the idea of "cooperative federalism," the United States Supreme Court case of New York

Department of Social Services v. Dublino n285 offers interesting parallels to the Concannon case. In Dublino

a group of public assistance recipients filed suit against New York's welfare department,

challenging the constitutionality of a New York Social Welfare Law under the Supremacy

Clause. n286 The plaintiffs claimed that the federal law (encompassed within the work incentive program provisions of the 1967 amendments to the Social

Security Act) preempted the New York statute. n287 Both statutes benefits provisions for families with dependent children, provided that the parents were

employable. n288 The New York law, however, had more stringent work requirements than the federal law, providing the impetus for the lawsuit. n289 [*1160]

Under the terms of the federal law, states were given broad discretion in dispersing their

Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) resources. n290 As in the federal Medicaid program, the states were expected to set their own eligibilityrequirements and to determine the different levels of benefits. n291 Despite this discretion granted to the states, the plaintiffs argued that New York had

nonetheless stepped beyond the boundaries of the federal statute. n292 The Court held that in this sort of "cooperative

federalism" relationship between the state and federal government, the standard for a

facial challenge to a statute is a high one . n293 According to the Court, "Congress "has given the States broad discretion' [under theAFDC program] ... and "(s)o long as the State's actions are not in violation of any specific provision of the Constitution or the Social Security Act,' the courts may not

void them." n294 The Court also stated that "[it] has repeatedly refused to void state statutory programs, absent congressional intent to pre-empt them." n295 It

took special note of the fact that New York's intentions were admirable, and that the statewas attempting to correct the major societal problems of rampant unemployment and

need. n296 The Court stated that "the problems confronting our society in these areas are

severe, and state governments, in cooperation with the Federal Government, must be

allowed considerable latitude in attempting their resolution." n297

India and models us cooperative federalismStarobin, 6-13-09.

Author, Divided We Stand.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204482304574219813708759806.htmlThe most hopeful prospect for the USA, should the decentralization impulse prove irresistible,is for Americans

to draw on their natural inventiveness and democratic tradition by patenting a formula for getting the job done in

a gradual and cooperative way. In so doing, geopolitical history, and perhaps even a path for

others, might be made, for the problem of bigness vexes political leviathans everywhere . In

India, with its 1.2 billion people, there is an active discussion of whether things might work

better if the nation-state was chopped up into 10 or so large city-states with broad writs of

autonomy from New Delhi. Devolution may likewise be the future for the European continentthinkCataloniaand for the British Isles. Scotland, a leading source of Enlightenment ideas for Americas founding fathers, now has its own flourishing independence

movement. Even China, held together by an aging autocracy, may not be able to resist the drift towards the smaller.

Cooperative federalism key to solve kashmir conflictDevra 2k

Kashmir calls Delhi's bluff on decentralization By Ranjit Devra, June 28, Asia TimesPolitical analysts noted that Abdullah ignored a last minute appeal by Vajpayee to tone down the autonomy demand in order to regain popularity in the state.

''The people of J&K are unhappy with Farooq Abdullah's performance over the past four years. There has hardly been

any development and joblessness, collapsed health and educational infrastructure remain

huge problems,'' commented The Times of India on Tuesday. ''This is the only way in which Farooq Abdullah feels he can woo back the disenchanted


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people. But will this really solve the state's problems? The real issues are still unemployment and lack of

development and autonomy does not automatically guarantee solutions.'' However, Abdullah

has insisted that these problems cannot be solved without autonomy. ''We did not promise them (the people)

employment or anything, just the restoration of autonomy . . . we are bound to fulfil that promise,'' he told the assembly before the

autonomy vote.

A serious debate on the question of a truly federal structure for India is also ademand of regional parties that have played a key role in forming four Indian

governments, including Vajpayee's, in the last four years. ''Autonomy must not be viewed as a dirty word and

an autonomous Kashmir could become a model of cooperative federalism,'' said political analyst and

Kashmir expert Amitabh Mattoo of the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University. Former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral too said that after half-a-

century of independence from British colonial rule, it was time for India to adopt the

principle of cooperative federalism.

Deterrence Will FailOnly Resolving Kashmir Crisis Can Permanently Build CBMs and

Prevent War Nuclear Between India and Pakistan

Kapur 05S. Paul Kapur is a Visiting Scholar at Stanford Universitys Center for International Security and Cooperation and AssistantProfessor of Government at Claremont McKenna College.India and Pakistans Unstable Peace. International Security, 127, Fall//souders

Just as important as these strategic and technical measures, however, will be energetic diplomatic attempts toameliorate ongoing territorial disputes. Such efforts can help to reduce a key incentive for

aggression by new nuclear states, thereby lowering the potential costs of future nuclear proliferation. In the South Asian case,international political and economic support for the Musharraf government's recent efforts to rein in the Kashmirinsurgency, and to forge a more cooperative relationship with India, could be useful . While suchsupport cannot ensure increased regional stability, it can help to reduce the Pakistan government's desire to alter theKashmiri status quo, and thus may lower the likelihood of Indo-Pakistani conflict despite their nuclearweapons' potentially destabilizing effects. An important means of avoiding nuclear danger may thus have more todo with diplomacy than with nuclear weapons themselves.


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Foucault - Virilio

First, freedom of mobility is a ruse.

Transportation infrastructure produces docile bodies who do not possess the potential formobility but are compelled to never stop moving in order to perform quotidian functions.

Frictionless movement becomes a death march of mobility.Sager 2006 [Tore, Department of Civil and Transport Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and

Technology, Freedom as Mobility: Implications of the Distinction between Actual and Potential Travelling,

Mobilities, Vol. 1, No. 3]

Bauman (2000) emphasises that mobility and power are intertwined. Partly for this reason, mobility is not a good that tends to be equally distributed

among people; rather, it tends to reflect power differences. According to Bauman, people who move and act faster are now the

people who rule (2000, p.119). If this is so, it is not an unambiguous tendency, however. Albertsen and Diken (2001) note that whereas mobility is a

matter of choice for some, for others it is a fate. Some people are constantly forced to moveon and are denied the right to settle down in a suitable place. Do we dare assume that their

mobility, their border-crossing is liberating?, Pritchard (2000, p.59) asks rhetorically. Compelled movement creates problems for an ideologythat associates mobility with freedom. It would seem that these displaced people, always being passed on to another territory and another authority, are forced to be free in the sense of

being mobile. However, this counterintuitive result is problematic only when mobility is defined as revealed transport. In this essay mobility is defined as potential

transport, and it is stressed that freedom of movement implies the right not to move. It is thus clear that the potentialityaspect of mobility prevents an awkward problem concerning mobilitys relationship to freedom. The possibility that individual s might be forced to be free was discussed by JeanJaques

Rousseau as part of his work on participative democracy. The aim here is to reformulate the dilemma in a mobility context. The collective decision-making body might provide mobility to the

population, but in order to succeed the decisionmakers might have to organise society so as to ensure a high

volume of transport (or person-kilometres). Private investment in transport infrastructure and vehicles will

not be generated without anticipated demand. A break-even point for the established

supply might require more travelling than most people are comfortable with. Focusing on freedom as

mobility, one could say that the mobile population is in this case forced to be free. However, it seems to be a

contradiction in terms that freedom can be forced on the citizens (Simhony, 1991). In general, this paradoxicalsituation might arise in a market

society where freedom is associated with a high and diversified transport supply, which gives ample

opportunities for choice. The problem is that high supply will not be offered in the market in the absence of high

demand. Hence, the ability to enjoy the services of the producers is conditional on high

willingness to pay among the consumers. They have to reveal their high demand. If they choose not to travel,

they will lose the opportunity to travel. Actual transport is a prerequisite for mobility.Consumers do not escape the constraining have

to if they want to enjoy the freedom of having the opportunity to. They have to make a lot of trips in order to be mobile even in the senseof being potentially able to travel. In this lies the parallel to Rousseaus forcedtobe-free dilemma. Because of the 1/n effect, the single individual is not likely to feel that the requirement for asufficient overall volume of trips limits his or her freedom. Each individual relies on the others to do the travelling and feels no personal responsibility to pay for the supply that essentially

provides mobility. The favourable view of freedom as mobility, freedom as potential transport, depends on the

majoritys belief that they could actually travel far less and still maintain their existing level

of mobility. However, if too many individuals were to enjoy merely the potentiality of transport,

the system would break down. In many cases, planners counteract this breakdown, although not necessarily

consciously. The more transport they plan for, the more society is designed in ways making people


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dependent on transport, and the less opportunity remains to enjoy mobility in the sense of potential transport. A threat to the idea of freedom as mobility comes

from the behavioural principle of maximising a notion of utility made up entirely from the consumption of goods and se rvices, as is standard procedure in economics. Freedom as

mobility, as potential transport, has no explicit value in this maximisation process. The difference between

potential and actually implemented transport is of no significance to human action with this idea of utility. Theintrinsic value of any potential

travelling would be offset by the slightest increase of utility stemming from the commodity bundle that might be acquired onan extra trip. When everything is connected to everything else in physical space in a vast and

seamless web, when distance is dead and zero friction has brought cause and effect into an

intimate embrace, nothing can be controlled unless everything is controlled. Then the

prediction paradigm of planners (Sager, 2005) makes them enemies of freedom.Predictability

comes at the expense of flexibility. To the degree that transport planners successfully

control ever more variables that might possibly be obstacles to prediction, utility maximisation and

transport in search of better bargains, freedom as mobility is lost.8 What from the perspective of transport planners

appears as the fatal flaw in their art their inability to eliminate friction, the Herculean task of turning physical

space into an integrated and fine-woven structure of premium circulation networks is instead the condition of freedom. Where the circulationsystems become indeterminate, in the gaps between them, the high-friction interstices and transfer points, we might exercise the independent choice of keeping further movement as apotentiality. We can stop to think, exit the system if we so wish, and in this respect we are autonomous (compare Friedmann, 1979, p.38). In the quest for freedom, the main point is not

necessarily to cross borders, but to exploit the ambiguity of the border zone. Crossing borders is often to move from one system, one solid structure, and one firmly cemented tangle of

power relations to another. Escape means to exploit the possibilities, weaknesses, and uncoordinated control found in the gaps between the systems. Sometimes it is a question of rejecti ng

the either/or, breaking with the regimentation of code/space-formatted premier circulation systems, and playfully exploring the scope for hybrid movement, using low-tech modes on part

of the journey. Escape for some groups in some settings is as incredibly easy as walking out a door. For others, formal restrictions, deep-seated

habits, or internalised conventions raise almost insurmountable barriers in matters of

mobility (Gerzina, 2001). When transport becomes too easy, excess travel proliferates (Handy et al., 2005), and

the domain of potentiality is shrinking. Paradoxically, when distance is dead, so is freedom as

mobility. The self-destructive capacity of omnipotence, Hegels vivid description of the lord destroying himself as master the moment he destroys the slave, is also recognised in this

ambivalence (Bernstein, 1971, pp.2627). Just when the planners seem to have succeeded completely, when control is gained over

the last variable that could possibly interfere with movement, transport planning has demolished its own rationale

of freedom as mobility. There is no longer any reason not to travel. Potential transport becomes

an oxymoron, and no one rests in peace .

Second, transportation infrastructure individuates consumption through social diffusion,

ramping up demand, locking in mobility

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