Election news from across the state
For the last few weeks we’ve been a coalition of 2 supporters in favor of Seattle’s Referendum 1 , a proposed 20-cent charge for consumers who want to bring home a disposable paper or plastic shopping bag from convenience, drug and grocery stores.
On Tuesday, that measure was overwhelmingly shot down by a count of 58% to 42%, with more than half of the expected votes counted. Meaning the ordinance that Seattle’s City Council voted in favor of last July won’t be enforced, and the average Seattle citizen will continue to use over 500 plastic bags a year, contributing to pollution, climate change, and peak oil.
We were anything but surprised when the vote shook down considering the intense opposition and amount of money spent on opposing the referendum. Nearly $1.4 million came from the American Chemistry Council, the lobby representing oil and plastics companies like Exxon and Dow Chemical, who were very pleased following the results.
Joining us in our disappointment was PacifCAD blogger, local journalist, and respected rabble rouser Paul Haeder who had this to say , “I wasn’t shocked, and, well, I wasn’t disappointed that the tax was voted down today. It’s more emblematic of a larger problem in the global warming, sustainability, ecological footprint movement. Representative of all the work we have to do to educate people on ecological footprints.”
Maybe it’s only a bag fee, and maybe in a brighter economy things would be different, but there’s always going to be a reason to not do something. And sure, citizens of Seattle should already be taking it upon themselves to reduce their carbon footprints, but if this is any indication of the overall attitudes and beliefs of citizens in Seattle, citizens in the state of Washington, and citizens globally, then we have a lot of work to do.
Watch the video of Bill McKibbon on the Colbert Report after the jump for why this should have passed, and for inspiration to act on climate change now.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | ||
| Bill McKibben | |||
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* This story was originally published as a post from the marketing blog "Down To Earth." Read all stories from this blog