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Sunday
Mar162008

Funding for Environmental Protection

March 16, 2008
Categories: Q-and-A Club: Exploring Social and Political Issues
By Arlene Harder, MFT

environmental-protection.gifTAX-AND-SPEND GAME CATEGORY NINE

  • To understand what this topic is all about, read:

How Will the Election Change Our Taxes?

Rules of the Tax-and-Spend Game

  • You can see the same questions I raise today if you go to Funding for Environmental Protection in the Q-and-A Club section of the Support4Change website. There you will also be able to access all eleven categories of the game that I post on this blog every-other-day.
  • Play the Tax-and-Spend Game and enter a drawing. See form below.
  • Share the Tax-and-Spend Game with your family and friends so they can better decide what programs they want the government to fund and what programs they are willing to do without if they don’t want to their taxes raised.

How do you want your taxes to be spent in order to protect the environment?

Not much needs to be said in this introduction. You already know the score. The environment and global warming are topics at the forefront of many efforts to make a change in the world.

The question is: how much will you be willing to spend of your hard-earned money to clean up the environment, protect wildlife, set aside open spaces that keep some of the land out of commercial development, and take other actions that will leave a smaller footprint on the earth by our generation?

Will taking a day to clean the beaches and not using plastic bags be enough to prevent an acceleration of global warming? If scientists are right about the need to react strongly and quickly in order to reduce, at least somewhat, wide-spread disasters from climate change, the efforts will not come cheaply. Are you willing to part with more of your tax money to make this happen?

And once again, the basic question is whether we want to continue with “business as usual” in the way we live and leave the clean-up to our children and grandchildren.

If you are aware of other programs funded by local, state, and/or national taxes that help protect the environment that are not included in this list, please let me know. Use the Contact Us form.

  • Wildlife research and protection of wildlife habitat

  • Purchase and maintenance of national parks for recreation and protection of environment

  • Enforcement of clean air act

  • Regulation of pesticide use

  • Research ways to mitigate effects of global climate change

  • Protection and set-asides of land for buffers between cities and rural areas

  • Ensure clean water supply

  • Clean up oil spills and other contamination by industries

  • Enforcement of environmental protection laws

  • Well-run zoos for both enjoyment of wildlife and awareness of the fraility of the environment in which endangered animals life

Enter a drawing for “Ask Yourself Questions and Change Your Life” after you have finished this category of the Tax-and-Spend Game

Each week I will give away my latest book, Ask Yourself Questions and Change Your Life. All you have to do is to complete one of the eleven Tax-and-Spend Game categories and fill out this form.

NOTE #1: All fields are required.

NOTE #2: I will not share your name with anyone and I won’t put you on my newsletter list unless you subscribe yourself on the subscription form on Support4Change Newsletter or on the blog’s Welcome page. This is just information I need for this one drawing, but if you don’t give me your correct email address I won’t be able to contact you if you win.

NOTE #3: You can enter as often as you like, but each entry must be for a different Tax-and-Spend Game category

Name:
Email Address:
Verify Email Address:
Name of the tax-and-spend category to which your answer below applies
What government services and programs you now use are you willing to give up in order to help balance the budget? Why?
May I share your answer on the Support4Change blog or website? I will not give your name or email address.
Yes
No

Hope you enjoy the Tax-and-Spend Game and learn something in the process. I’d love to hear what you think about it. Add a comment to this page or use the Contact Us form on Support4Change to send me your comments or ask a question.

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