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Consult China block

(U) China has fallen behind in alternative energy – they wouldn’t want to say yes to the
plan
Alternativeenergy.com 2008
(http://www.alternativeenergy.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1066929%3ABlogPost%3A21650,
Feb. 29, 2008)
It was a different story in China, the report found. The region, which saw record
cleantech investment totaling $424 million in 2006, only saw six deals completed and
$129 million invested in 2007, accounting for just 4% of global cleantech investment.
However, China did see four venture-backed cleantech complete initial public offerings in 2007, generating some $821 million in
liquidity.
"What's really encouraging is that the cleantech industry is still in its infancy in the U.S.," said Ms. Canning. "In fact, our data shows
that 59% of all U.S. investment in the sector is going toward companies in the product development phase, which suggests that funding
for clean technologies is likely to continue as these companies continue to develop and start generating revenues."
In the U.S., the median deal size for a cleantech company stands at $8 million, up from $7.5 million in 2006. By comparison, the median
deal size for all industries in the U.S. in 2007 was $7.6 million.
For European cleantech companies, the report showed that the median deal size rose from $2.3 million in 2006 to $3.3 million in 2007.
The median round size for a cleantech deal in China in 2007 was $11.8 million, down
from $15 million in 2006.
Our entering into a war with China is not contingent on whether or not we consult its
government on our CAFÉ standards.
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Consult China
(U) Chinese energy policy causes China to disregard human rights and security – this
makes war inevitable.
Guoguang 06
(Wu, University of Victoria, The Peaceful Emergence of a Great Power? Spring 2006,
http://socialresearch.metapress.com/media/d48072ee7p4rvp4faeeq/contributions/k/4/1/5/k41571
1301284610.pdf)
China’s energy diplomacy has other negative effects in world politics that go beyond
traditional understandings of security and peace and are more and more concerned
with international society in terms of maintaining peace. The cooperative projects
between China and Sudan on energy development in this resource-rich eastern
African country exemplify this. Notoriously, in order to gain energy investment
opportunities in Sudan, China provided weapons to that country’s fierce government,
which carried out mass killings of its citizens in Darfur, refusing to support
international efforts to stop the inhuman actions in this very poor country (Vatikiotis, 2004;
Butt, 2004). In addition, Chinese companies have poor records for labor rights and
environmental protections when they develop energy resources at home and abroad. As the
contemporary understanding of the term of “peace” is broadened beyond the scope of
armed war, some of China’s efforts to obtain energy pose imminent threats to human
security and peace. As space is limited, this section cannot cover every aspect of China’s
intensive quest for energy security and its international implications. But it is clear that this
quest directly challenges a fundamental assumption of the peaceful rise thesis. China
is rapidly becoming a major player in global energy markets, and, more important,
an aggressive force in energy geopolitics. It is unwilling to compromise on mari- time
territories where it has disputes with some neighboring countries, and worldwide it
reaches far to compete with major industrial powers for a presence in and influence
on resource-rich regions. It is more concerned than ever with a build-up of military
power to protect its own energy security, and it tends to sacrifice international
standards in human rights and human security in favor of obtaining opportunities for
energy acquisition. All of these seriously challenge the status quo of energy geopolitics
and mainstream institutions of human security; they also create a major potential for
military and nonmilitary confrontations between China and other countries that are
involved into such competitions. No one can question China’s need to establish energy
security as part of its rise, and China of course is justified in seeking the resources
necessary to support its development. But the problem is with the claim of a peaceful rise:
should China meet intractable difficulties in the acquisition of energy sufficient to
support its development, the rise of China would not occur. The peace will be
challenged, tested, and undermined at the bilateral, regional, and even global levels
with China’s expansion into energy geopolitics.
We can perm: do counter-plan, as the conditions of the counter-plan are already plan+. But it is
not a good idea to enact the perm, or any plan that includes this counter plan, because it will help
Chinese growth; this will contribute to the spread of AIDs, the consequence of which may be
extinction.
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Consult China
US MARKETS KEY TO CHINESE GROWTH
YU 2000
(Peter K., “From Pirates To Partners: Protecting Intellectual Property In China In The Twenty-
First Century”, American University Law Review, October 2000, 50 Am. U.L. Rev. 131, LN)
The word "strategic" implies that "neither side will treat the relationship as merely a
bilateral one." n175 Rather, each country views the partnership as a combination that
provides strategic advantages for itself and enhances its global competitiveness. n176
Needless to say, being the only remaining superpower after the disintegration of the Soviet
Union, the United States is a very important player in both the global economy and
world politics. n177 The United States is also a very important trading partner to China,
absorbing a third of China's exports. n178 A healthy and harmonious relationship with
the United States is therefore very important and beneficial to China. If bilateral
relations deteriorated and trade wars took place, the confrontation would disrupt
China's modernization process and very likely would put an end to its continuous
economic growth. Not only would [*158] China fail to regain its past glory, n179 but it
might remain dominated by the West for the rest of the twenty-first century. n180
RAPID CHINESE GROWTH CONTRIBUTES TO THE SPREAD OF AIDS AND SEX

TRAFFICKING
Gill et al 2002
Bates Gill, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, Jennifer Chang, Research Assistant, Foreign
Policy Studies, Sarah Palmer, virologist at the HIV Drug Resistance Program, National Cancer
Institute, National Institutes of Health, “China's HIV Crisis” Foreign Affairs, March 1, 2002
http://www.brookings.edu/views/articles/gill/20020301.pdf accessed 10-1-05)
Although dramatic
socioeconomic transformation has exacerbated the spread
ofHIV/AIDS in China, the persistence of long-standing traditions and taboos is another contributing factor. Take, for
instance, the deeply ingrained cultural preference for male children. One of the most startling demographic trends in China is the
growing divide between the number of males and females born each year. The natural ratio of males to females born each year is about
105 to 100. However, according to Tyrene White, a scholar at Swarthmore College, China's ratio in 1995 was 117.4 boys for every 100
girls, and in 1997 it was skewed even further to 120 males for every 100 females. Figures compiled by the CIA show an imbalance that
is not as great, but still dramatic: in the Chinese population aged under 15, the ratio is about 110 to 100. Even this disparity means that
over the next decade some 15 million Chinese men will come of age with bleak prospects for finding female partners, let alone wives.
The rapid socioeconomic changes of the 1980s and 1990s, combined with the one-child policy, have
tended to reinforce this traditional preference for male heirs who carry on the family name, are expected
to take care of aging parents, and tend to bring in more income. Now that ultrasound technology allows parents to identify
the gender of their child before birth, sex-selective abortions, although illegal, are further altering the makeup of Chinese society. The
consequent dearth of available brides fuels demand for commercial sex workers, helps
accelerate male migration into cities, and increases the numbers of women who are kidnapped and
sold into prostitution or as "unwilling brides."
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AIDS RISKS EXTINCTION
Michael Kibaara Muchiri, Kenyan Ministry of Education, “Will Annan Finally Put Out Africa’s
Fires,” JAKARTA POST, March 6, 2000, LN.
There is no doubt that AIDS is the most serious threat to humankind, more serious than
hurricanes, earthquakes, economic crises, capital crashes or floods. It has no cure yet. We are watching a whole continent degenerate into
ghostly skeletons that finally succumb to a most excruciating, dehumanizing death. Gore said that his new initiative, if approved by the
U.S. Congress, would bring U.S. contributions to fighting AIDS and other infectious diseases to $ 325 million.
Does this mean that the UN Security Council and the U.S. in particular have at last decided to remember Africa? Suddenly, AIDS was
seen as threat to world peace, and Gore would ask the congress to set up millions of dollars on this case. The hope is that Gore does not
intend to make political capital out of this by painting the usually disagreeable Republican-controlled Congress as the bad guy and hope
the buck stops on the whole of current and future U.S. governments' conscience.
Maybe there is nothing left to salvage in Africa after all and this talk is about the African-American vote in November's U.S. presidential
vote.
Although the UN and the Security Council cannot solve all African problems, the AIDS challenge is a fundamental one in that it
threatens to wipe out man. The challenge is not one of a single continent alone because Africa cannot be quarantined.
Once sub-Saharan
The trouble is that AIDS has no cure -- and thus even the West has stakes in the AIDS challenge.
Africa is wiped out, it shall not be long before another continent is on the brink of
extinction. Sure as death, Africa's time has run out, signaling the beginning of the end
of the black race and maybe the human race.
WNDI 2008 8
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Business confidence
No Consumer Confidence
Forbes.com 6-24-2008 Ahead of the Bell: Consumer Confidence
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/06/24/ap5146354.html
WASHINGTON - Wall Street expects data due out Tuesday to show that consumer
confidence in June continued to erode amid rising inflation, tight credit and falling
home prices. The Conference Board, a private business research group, releases its
monthly survey of consumer confidence at 10 a.m. EDT. The consensus estimate of Wall
Street economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR is 56.5, slipping from May's 57.2 reading.
The survey, based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households, measures
consumer sentiment on current economic conditions and the spending outlook for the
next six months. In 1985, the consumer confidence index stood at 100, according to the
board. Fluctuations of 5 points or more in the index are considered significant.
Consumer Confidence is at all-time lows despite falling economy

Forbes.com 6-24-2008 Ahead of the Bell: Consumer Confidence
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/06/24/ap5146354.html
Consumer confidence in May fell to its lowest level since October 1992 when the
economy was coming out of a recession. It is likely to deteriorate further in June amid
falling home prices, soaring energy costs, rising unemployment and a sell-off in the
stock market, Michael Hanson, an analyst for Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEH - news -
people ), wrote in a note to clients. He expects the index to fall to 55. Investors closely
monitor the sentiment of consumers because their spending represents about 70
percent of U.S. gross domestic product. GDP measures the value of final goods and
services produced. Record high gasoline prices and food costs have continued to thwart
most shoppers' urge to splurge at many of the nation's retailers.
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No Business Confidence
Fox Business July 17, 2008 Dismal Consumer Confidence Undermines 'Immunity' of Luxury
Retail, Says Veteran Retail Analyst http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/dismal-consumer-
confidence-undermines-immunity-luxury-retail-says-veteran/
AGOURA HILLS, Calif., July 17, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----Luxury
retailers' immunity to the economic slump has been an article of faith on Wall Street,
but that faith was shaken this month by pallid sales reports from several upscale
chains. The erosion of this last bastion of certitude speaks volumes about consumer
confidence in the United States, says Stevan Buxbaum, executive vice president of
Agoura Hills, Calif.-based Buxbaum Group. "The only thing we can count on is, we
can't count on anything," Buxbaum observes. "Uncertainty is the watchword of the
day." And both Wall Street and Main Street abhor uncertainty, he notes. "Consumers are
going to be extremely careful with their purchases," says the veteran retail consultant
and analyst. "They want name brands or quality merchandise at a value price, and so
chains that can offer them this -- examples include Target, Kohl's, TJX Cos., Aeropostale
and Ross Dress For Less -- will be clear winners moving forward."
Business Confidence is low—Flooding and Auto industry

Business First 6-30-2008 National City: Business confidence declines
http://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/stories/2008/06/30/daily13.html
National City Corp. said Monday that its Business Confidence Index declined to an
all-time low of 57.8 as respondents expressed concerns about the ramifications of
Midwest flooding and the continued struggles of the U.S. automotive industry.
National City (NYSE: NCC) contacted business managers in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky,
Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and asked them two questions: * Would
you describe the current economic outlook for your specific business/industry as very poor,
poor, fair, good or very good; and * Do you plan to reduce, maintain or increase the size
of your work force in the coming 12 months? Business outlook and hiring plans indices
are calculated by adding the percentage of total positive responses and half of the neutral
responses. The composite index is calculated by averaging the outlook and hiring plans
indices. Respondents contacted in June said they feared ripple effects of recent
Midwestern flooding, including higher food prices. "Natural disasters seldom prove
as damaging to economic growth as their first impressions," National City chief
economist Richard DeKaser said in a news release. "The impact of flooding on
agriculture, however, is different as crop cycles, which are measured in years, are not
readily recouped."
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The economy is tanking on all fronts
IHT 7-19-2008 PETER S. GOODMAN Uncomfortable Answers to Questions on the
Economyhttp://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080719/ZNYT01/807190383/2104&title=Unco
mfortable_Answers_to_Questions_on_the_Economy
You have heard that Fannie and Freddie, their gentle names notwithstanding, may
cripple the financial system without a large infusion of taxpayer money. You have
gleaned that jobs are disappearing, housing prices are plummeting, and paychecks are
effectively shrinking as food and energy prices soar. You have noted the disturbing talk
of crisis hovering over Wall Street. Something has clearly gone wrong with the
economy. But how bad are things, really? And how bad might they get before better days
return? Even to many economists who recently thought the gloom was overblown, the
situation looks grim. The economy is in the midst of a very rough patch. The worst is
probably still ahead.
The US is headed towards a severe recession

CSM 7-16-2008 By Mark Trumbull Woes deepen for U.S. economy
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0716/p01s05-usec.html
Expectations that the current US economic downturn will be shallow are diminishing.
A severe recession in the United States still isn't the mainstream forecast, but economists
say it's a real possibility, especially as problems at American banks deepen amid a
continuing shakeout of the housing crisis. What makes forecasts challenging these days
is that the economy's problems involve the linkage of many moving parts. Crucially, a
healthy banking system is vital to the economy, and now an economic slowdown and a
plunge in bank stocks have raised the prospect of more bank failures and the need for
federal intervention. The rising uncertainty and risk were visible Tuesday, from auto
manufacturing to the value of the dollar. General Motors canceled dividends for
shareholders, something it hasn't done since 1922. The dollar fell to a new low against
the euro. Stocks fell worldwide. Everyone from CEOs to policymakers to ordinary
investors and depositors are grappling with the question: How bad is this crisis? How bad
could it get?
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All indicators point towards a larger downturn
CSM 7-16-2008 By Mark Trumbull Woes deepen for U.S. economy
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0716/p01s05-usec.html
Still, mortgage losses are now being joined by rising delinquencies for other types of
loans – cars and credit-card debt, for example – because of a cooling economy.
Availability of adequate capital is vital – and is at risk now. The higher loan losses
rise, the more they eat into banks' reserves and the more new capital they need to raise.
When share prices of financial firms fall, it becomes more expensive to get investors
to put up money. "If you are in a systematic downward cycle in your stock price, who's
going to invest in you?" says Brian Bethune, an economist at Global Insight, a forecasting
firm in Lexington, Mass. "If you had issued 1,000 Fannie Mae shares a year ago, you
would have gotten $50,000" in capital, he says. Now, by his rough calculation based
on Fannie's share price, you'd get $10,000. "That just is a crippling blow," Mr.
Bethune says. Few analysts talk of imminent bankruptcy at the largest institutions. But a
number of those companies have taken a big hit – losing two-thirds or more of their market
value in the
past year. "The financial system in general needs to raise capital," Bethune says. Some
private entities that were putting up money a few months ago have been less willing to do
so lately. By some measures, banks'
troubles haven't led to a major credit crunch so far. A recent survey of small-business
owners, by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, found businesses more
concerned with inflation than with access to credit from banks. By some estimates,
mortgage and other losses to financial firms in the current cycle could be $1 trillion.
But that depends on what happens in the housing market and the economy, where the
jobless rate will affect the performance of loans.
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Business confidence
CAFE standards are key to ensure future US auto industry competitiveness and economic
viability
John Adams, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, July 1, 1996, Insight on the
News,
While political leadership falters in the United States, there is considerable momentum
abroad to gain more efficient cars. German auto manufacturers voluntarily have
committed to reduce the fuel consumption of cars produced and sold in Germany to 25
percent below their 1990 levels by 2005. The European Union has been considering
standards of 5 liters per 100 kilometers (47 mpg) for standard cars and 4.5 liters per 100
kilometers (52 mpg) for diesel cars. Japan has a number of far-reaching strategies for
reducing its dependence on imported oil by developing cleaner cars. Clearly, improved
CAFE will be necessary to keep the United States competitive as other countries move
ahead: In their rush to block gains in fuel economy here at home, U.S. auto
manufacturers may find themselves lagging in the global race to develop the vehicles
of the 21st century. While U.S. automakers and the government are working
through the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles to build an 80-mpg prototype car
by 2003, it is quite another endeavor to get the car on the road. The automakers have made
no commitment to mass-produce these vehicles. Will any manufacturer risk the billions
of dollars that would be needed to tool up full production in the face of uncertain
costs and unknown consumer demand for a new type of car? Even in the case of
improving the efficiency of conventional vehicles, individuals rarely fully factor in fuel
costs over the life of a vehicle when they visit new-car showrooms. Research and
development may advance the technology, but performance standards move it into
the marketplace. As Henry Ford II asserted at the end of his career at the helm of Ford
Motor Co., "We could not have made all of the advances in safety and the environment
without government regulations."
Fuel efficiency would save consumers lots of money increasing jobs and overall economic
growth
Union of Concerned Scientists, 04.19.2004,
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/cars_and_suvs/page.cfm?pageID=1395
UCS’ practical solutions can lead to consumers saving tens of billions of dollars every year. In contrast, others call for everything from
drilling in sensitive areas—with only 2% of the world’s oil reserves we simply cannot drill our way out—to cutting federal gas taxes,
which will mean more potholes, unsafe roads, and less transit. With the price of gasoline averaging over $1.60 per gallon due to price
spikes during the last 12 months,3 UCS analysis finds that consumers who bought new cars and trucks last year would have saved over
$4 billion at the pump if automakers had put this existing technology to work.4 Looking at it another way, In March 2004, with
gas prices reaching “record” levels and averaging about $1.78 per gallon,3 SUV owners could have
saved more than $600 million if all SUVs on the road had been made to reach the fuel
economy of today’s average car.5 If all cars and trucks on the road last month had been made to
reach an average fuel economy of 32 mpg, consumers would have saved over $3.7
billion on fuel.5 That is $3.7 billion in the hands of the average consumer in March
that would have helped to create new jobs and improve the economy.
WNDI 2008 13
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Business confidence
Regulations boost business confidence by creating clarity
Speaker: U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman FDCH Political Transcripts January 8, 2003 “John
McCain holds a hearing on the proposal to create a mandatory greenhouse gas emission
reduction”
Not only will our environment be threatened by this neglect, but two other effects that have
been mentioned here will occur. And the first is on American business. It will suffer from
regulatory uncertainty, unwilling to make short-term investments in pollution
reduction technology because they'll be waiting to see what we in Washington are
going to do. Business always asks for certainty in taxes and regulation and the like. And
we can offer it with this proposal. Secondly, America's stature in the world will be
affected. But more practically and importantly, some of our most critical alliances,
particularly as we are at war against terrorism today -- and perhaps soon against Iraq
-- some of our most important alliances are affected by our unwillingness to join the rest
of the world in dealing with a problem that the people of some of our closest allies in
the world are very anxious about. Just in the last day or two, Prime Minister Blair, who is obviously our closest ally
in the current troubles with Iraq and close ally and supporter, of course, in the war against terrorism, said something to this effect, Mr.
Chairman: that "just as we in Britain and Europe have listened to the United States when it comes to matters such as the war on terrorism
and Iraq, we must ask our allies and friends in America to listen to us when it comes to other problems." And one he cited right at the top
was climate change and global warming. Mr. Chairman, you have already described, I think quite well, how the plan works with
characteristic clarity and by Senate standards, notwithstanding your own high personal standards, remarkable brevity. But let me
underscore briefly two points. First, the environmental results will achieve steady but measured progress in reducing harmful emissions
into the atmosphere if this proposal is adopted. And that contrasts sharply with the administration's prescription for business as usual.
LIEBERMAN: We do less than is explicitly called for under the Kyoto Agreement, but
we sure do a lot more than nothing here. This is real substantial progress, responsible
action.
Autoworkers perceive fuel efficiency standards as a way to generate jobs

Jack Doyle, founder & director of Corporate Sources and its principal investigator 2000, Taken
for a Ride, p268
Yet at the time, when other jobs-environment clashes were also paramount in the campaign
—including the Spotted Owl vs. logging jobs in the Pacific Northwest— voters weren’t
automatically concluding that tougher environmental provisions meant job loss. Even in
Michigan, some of those on the front lines of economic development were more open to
how tougher standards might mean improved economic conditions. “It’s seen as a
competitiveness issue,” said Janice Karcher, program manager of the Genesee Economic
Area Revitalization project. “More fuel efficiency means better cars and could mean
more jobs.” Some Michigan autoworkers as well, like Dave Yettaw, president of the
UAW local 599 in Flint, supported Clinton’s position. “Stricter mileage standards will
produce a whole new industry for new methods, new equipment, new techniques, and
new technologies,” he said. “Too often, we think about the immediate problems and not
the long term... . [T]hat’s what got us in our predicament in the auto industry. I think
Clinton is right on this. He says we can have higher mileage cars and more jobs.”
WNDI 2008 14
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Saudi Oil
US-Saudi Relations Already Strained Because of Oil Prices
Associated Press, Dallas Morning News, June 30th 2008, "State Editorial Roundup,
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D91KFSBO1.html, online
Last week's oil conference in Saudi Arabia marked a turning point in U.S.-Saudi
relations, raising doubts about whether the oil-for-security formula still guides this
longtime alliance. With skyrocketing oil prices endangering U.S. economic stability,
Saudi Arabia refused to increase production beyond a token amount. Saudi and U.S.
officials bickered about whether the current price spike is because of market speculation or
producers' greed. The brusque departure of U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman from
the conference underscored the growing frustrations on both sides. If oil pricing and
production were the only considerations, this squabbling wouldn't be so troublesome. But
it culminates years of roller-coaster relations strained by the 9/11 attacks and the 2003
invasion of Iraq, which the kingdom opposed. Ongoing talk about a U.S. attack on
Iranian nuclear facilities has prompted the kingdom to distance itself further from
Washington. The U.S. has failed to deliver what the Saudis value most: security and
stability. Iran's power and influence is growing, and the Saudis increasingly see
Washington as part of the problem, not the solution
Saudi Oil Production is Already Declining
Robin Pagnamenta, Energy and Environment Editor, June 30th 2008, The Times (London),
"Former Bush Advisor Says Globalization is Over and Oil is Running Out", Lexis
Matt Simmons, chief executive of Simmons & Company, a Houston energy consultancy,
said that global oil production had peaked in 2005 and was set for a steep decline from
present levels of about 85million barrels per day. "By 2015, I think we would be lucky
to be producing 60million barrels and we should worry about producing only 40
million," he told The Times. His controversial views, rejected by many mainstream
experts, suggest that some of the world's biggest oilfields, particularly in Kuwait and
those of Saudi Arabia, the world's leading producer, are in decline. "It's just the law
of numbers," he said. "A lot of these oilfields are 40 years old. Once they roll over,
they roll over very fast."
Our relations card is more recent, therefore making it a more reliable source, especially in the
context of U.S. relations, and our oil production non-uniqueness is more specific giving a
number of barrels compared to the D/A which isn’t as specific.
WNDI 2008 15
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Saudi Oil
Saudi Arabia is Not Threatened by Alternative Energy
James Bourne, columnist, April 11th 2008, Oil Daily, “Saudi Oil Minister Naimi Says World is
Well Supplied With Oil”, Lexis
"For the past quarter-century, Saudi Arabia has maintained significant spare production
capacity, which reached a height of 5 million b/d at some points in the 1980s and stands at
more than 2 million b/d today," al-Muhanna told the conference. Echoing comments he has
made before, Naimi said in his speech that pushing for biofuels and ethanol as alternative
energy sources -- with a view to protecting the environment and enhancing energy security
-- is an example of "weak economic and scientific logic." Biofuels "appear to fall well
short of the mark" when judged against these objectives, he said. "We in Saudi Arabia , and
I believe within the majority of oil producing and exporting countries, have no prejudice
against such types of energy. Nor do we feel threatened by such sources."
Regime Change is Inevitable in Saudi Arabia
Marvin J. Cetron, Owen Davies, March-April 2005, The Futurist, "Trends Now Shaping the
Future: Economic, Societal and Environmental Trends", Questia
There is reason to wonder whether OPEC oil will be available to the United States. Saudi
Arabia is likely to be taken over by a fundamentalist Islamic government similar to
that of Iran; if, upon the death of King Fahd, Osama bin Laden or one of his deputies
seizes power, the new regime could be reluctant to provide oil to the United States.
No Threat Posed From Saudi Regime Collapse
Doug Bandow, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, July 2002, "Befriending Saudi Princes: a
High Price for a Dubious Alliance", USA Today, Questia
Should the House of Saud fall or be overrun, Washington would finally be relieved of
the moral dead weight of defending that regime. Consumers almost certainly would
continue to purchase sufficient oil, if not directly from a hostile Saudi regime, then
from other producers in a marketplace that would remain global. Americans would
adjust to any higher prices by finding new supplies, developing alternative energy
forms, and reducing consumption.
WNDI 2008 16
CAFE Aff 2ACs
Saudi Oil
Cutting Off Saudi Oil Revenues Solves Terrorism
Tsvi Bisk, The Futurist, January 1st 2007, "The Energy Project: Independence by 2020; Breaking
Free From Oil Imports is Critical for World Peace. Here's How it Will be Done", Lexis
Iran could not finance its nuclear program if it did not have the revenues of two and a
half million barrels of oil a day available for export. Individuals in Saudi Arabia
could not spend billions of dollars a year in distributing anti-American, anti-Western,
and anti-Semitic literature worldwide, nor would they be able to finance radical
madrassas (Muslim schools) throughout the Islamic world if not for their revenues of 8
million barrels of oil a day available for export. Hezbollah and Hamas could not have
achieved such organizational vigor without the support of Iran or Wahhabi clerics
and wealthy laymen from Saudi Arabia. The radicalization of growing segments of
European and American Muslims is also supported by Persian Gulf petrodollars.
The D/A says that if we sever ourselves from Saudi Arabian oil dependencies it will cause
economic recession for the Saudis and cause nuclear war, but we turn this with our more recent
card that proves that if we are no longer dependant on Saudi oil we will be harming terrorist
groups and preventing war.
WNDI 2008 17
CAFE Aff 2ACs
Kyoto CP
Kyoto has been an utter failure- international agreements are fundamentally just posturing
Professor Warwick McKibbin works for the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis in the
ANU College of Business and Economics and The Brookings Institution and The Lowy Institute
for International Policy- and Peter J. Wilcoxen works for The Maxwell School, Syracuse
University and The Brookings Institution. July 2008. “Building on Kyoto: Towards a realistic
global climate agreement” Working papers in international economics.
http://www.lowyinstitute.org/Publication.asp?pid=842
As a mechanism for controlling climate change, the Kyoto Protocol has not been a
success. Over the decade from its signing in 1997 to the beginning of its first
commitment period in 2008, greenhouse gas emissions in the industrial countries
subject to targets under the protocol did not fall as the protocol intended. Instead,
emissions in many countries rose rapidly. It is now abundantly clear that as a group, the
countries bound by the protocol have little chance of achieving their Kyoto targets by
the end of the first commitment period in 2012. Moreover, emissions have increased
substantially as well in countries such as China, which were not bound by the
protocol but which will eventually have to be part of any serious climate change
regime.
A new Kyoto wont solve- no modeling

Michael A. Levi is the David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and Environment and Director of the
Program on Energy Security and Climate Change at the Council on Foreign Relations. 06-13-2008. “Climate
Control Should Be Important Component of U.S. Foreign Policy”
http://www.cfr.org/publication/16522/climate_and_foreign_policy.html?breadcrumb=%2F
U.S. domestic action is essential but the rest of the world isn't going to simply move into action because of what
the United States does. We're going to have to move on a variety of fronts. Just like scientists tell us that no one
technology is going to solve the problem, there's no one diplomatic solution that's going to solve it. It's not just
going to be a big deal between the United States and China. It's not going to be Kyoto 2 that's going to solve it.
We need a few different prongs to our approach. First, we do need to try and get a new global agreement that
involves commitments from all the major countries. And that's going to be very difficult to get. Because China
and India wouldn't be interested? It's important to pursue a variety of efforts to steer countries cooperatively in a
constructive direction. The centerpiece of our recommendation is for what we call Partnership for Climate
Cooperation that would bring together the world's biggest emitters to focus on specific actions to reduce emissions.
Countries would make somewhat less formal commitments to either take actions at home to reduce emissions or to
provide incentives to others to reduce emissions. The idea is to really free countries up to enter into uncharted
territory in transforming the world's energy systems. And it's difficult to sign up for this part of a global
agreement to do dramatic things where you don't necessarily have confidence that you can do them. In a less
formal setting you may be able to get countries to step up and make much more ambitious commitments to do
things. We talk a lot about the different tools you can bring to the table in doing that, whether there are different
mechanisms for financial support for emissions reductions [and] cooperation in research development demonstration
projects.
WNDI 2008 18
CAFE Aff 2ACs
Kyoto CP
Market based approaches fail- philosophical outlook and profit drive doom the
environment
The Guardian (Australia). 7-13-08. “Stop emissions: don’t trade them”.
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/7103/
Environmentalists started to warn of the dangers of climate change 30 years or more
ago. Ignoring warnings, corporations and their equally irresponsible governments continued to aggravate the crisis by a callous and
reckless disregard for the predictable consequences of their activities. The situation has now become urgent. The entire planet
has become an ecological time bomb. The most important problems are not technical – they are economic, political
and philosophical. Governments of all persuasions ignored the warnings from many scientific reports. The corporations continued to
savagely exploit the natural resources of the planet in their criminal chase after profits irrespective of the consequences. They made huge
The
profits out of the earth’s natural resources while the same earth was treated as a sewer for the often-toxic wastes produced.
Garnaut Report on Climate Change recognises this reality. It has weakened the climate change
skeptics who have road-blocked the necessary steps to meet the challenge and the possibility of devastating climate changes for many
years. But they are already attacking the Report and will do nothing as in the past. In 1994 the CPA joined the scientists and warned that
some environmental changes had already reached “the point of no return.” Others have referred to the situation as a “tipping point.”
Our society will change fundamentally, either through our efforts to save our
environment or because environmental destruction finally overwhelms us. Difficult choices
will have to be made and we cannot stand aside from these issues. The question is, who will make those choices, and how? Will working
people be the victims of change, or will they help control that change for the benefit of ourselves and our children? But what is to be
done? Ross Garnaut’s report proposing an urgent Carbon Emission Trading Scheme is one
alternative but it is a typically capitalist solution to a crisis which has been created by
the very same forces that the report is relying on to solve it. The crisis is a
consequence of the capitalist philosophical outlook, the use of unrestrained “market
forces” and the profit hungry drive of capitalism itself. How would a trading scheme work? Firstly the
government will decide on a cap on permitted emissions for a number of production sectors.
Permits or certificates will be sold by the government to enterprises in the various
sectors. It has already been estimated that the Federal government will reap an income of $4 billion from the sale of these
certificates. The certificates can be bought and sold on a “market” through a bank which
it is claimed would be “independent.” The obligations of high emitters can be traded
off by offsets from sectors with low emissions. In effect these certificates enable
corporations and other institutions to continue to pollute. Garnaut’s Report says: “An emissions
permit represents a tradable instrument with inherent value that can be exchanged between sellers and buyers in an emissions permit
market.” It goes on: “The singular objective of the scheme is to provide a transactional space that enables the transmission of permits to
parties for whom they represent the greatest economic value” and that, “A reduction or removal of emissions from activities in one area
of the economy can be used to … offset emissions in another sector … The use of these offset credits should be unlimited.” In sounding
a warning that the issue should be left to the private sector, not the government or to publicly owned institution, the Report warns that
“markets can quickly collapse if their credibility is shaken. This is all the more pertinent for markets that owe their existence solely to
government decree … market participants will be alert for any signs of shifts in policy.” Even this limited explanation of the trading
scheme is sufficient to reveal that an emissions trading scheme is nothing more than an attempt to
use “market economics” to solve a problem that has been produced by the
irresponsibility of governments and the private sector – wrong policies, a wrong
philosophy and a predatory approach to nature. They cannot even contemplate that
there is another and a better way. No less than 14 years ago a CPA statement said that: “The carbon tax is a
wildly off course and non-attempt at a solution.” It does not change established economic, social and
political practices. An emissions trading scheme will not control profiteering which is
at the root of the capitalist system. It will lead to massive corruption and
manipulation and will actually do little to meet the challenge of climate change.
WNDI 2008 19
CAFE Aff 2ACs
Kyoto CP
Plan is uniquely necessary to alleviate a global oil and climate change crisis – strong action
by the United States on car and light truck gasoline consumption will spill over into global
energy policy.
Mark N. Cooper, Ph. D., Director of Research, Consumer Federation of America, “Comments
on National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,” 7/1/08,
http://www.consumerfed.org/pdfs/nhtsa_comments.pdf
The United States and the world are facing an increasingly severe oil supply and price
crisis at the same moment that concerns about the serious negative impacts of global warming are
escalating. Domestically and globally, U.S. policy to reduce gasoline and oil
consumption is one of the most important factors that will affect how the energy, economic
and climate change challenge is dealt with. The U.S. is by far the world’s largest consumer
of oil and oil products, particularly gasoline, accounting for approximately one-quarter of the total oil
consumption3 and over one-third of all global gasoline consumption.4 Virtually all gasoline
consumed in the U.S. is consumed by cars and light trucks – the light duty vehicle fleet, with the
overwhelming majority consumed by household vehicles.5 The passage of the Energy Independence and
Security Act of 2007 (EISA) and the increases in fuel economy of the vehicle fleet that it
mandates are the cornerstone of the national response. Due to EISA, we have a policy in place
that can address the most important aspect of the U.S. role in the global oil market: the
amount of gasoline the U.S. consumes. Under the law, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) is required to set fuel economy standards at the maximum feasible level.
Unfortunately, through a series of analytical flaws and unreasonable economic assumptions, NHTSA has done a gross
disservice to the American people, choosing to set standards that are far too low for far too long.
NHTSA’s proposed rule does not reflect the severity of the current crisis or Congress’ intent to deal
with it. NHTSA has vastly underestimated the value of conservation and set fuel economy
standards that are far too low. The flaws in the analysis that led NHTSA to set a standard that is unreasonably low are
legion and diverse, but there are two broad categories of flaws in the analysis. The economic assumptions applied
fail to reflect the energy crisis that the U.S. faces and the analytic framework is biased
against requiring automakers to produce more fuel efficient vehicles.
WNDI 2008 20
CAFE Aff 2ACs
Japan DA
Unique: Japan cannot assert environmental leadership anymore – its CO2 emissions are
rising and the tech is too expensive
Hindustan Times, G-8 summit goes green in Japan, 7-6-2008,
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=fe550411-081e-42bc-9628-
127b560234f0&ParentID=76e2b769-66ba-4078-8763-a0476e852a80&&Headline=G-
8+summit+goes+green+in+Japan
And even Japan, which is challenging the European Union (EU)'s role as the world's
leader on climate change, has seen its carbon dioxide emissions rise rather than fall in
recent years. Moreover, the current slowdown in the global economy risks making
costly emission-reducing schemes even less popular. As the display in Toyako proved
once again, it is not only a matter of lacking political will. Another problem is that the
technology behind some the boldest environmentally friendly projects is still either
untested or too expensive.
Japan is trying to play up the G8, its not enough to garner the leadership Japan needs
The Economic Times, With G8 Japan relishes chance as Asia’s good guy, 6 July 2008,
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/International_Business/With_G8_Japan_relishes_ch
ance_as_Asias_good_guy/articleshow/3202318.cms
"I think Japan still takes the G8 a bit more seriously than everyone else," said Robert
Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Japanese Studies at Temple University's
Tokyo campus. "This is an idea that goes back in Japan to the 19th century, the
notion that they have become a country of the first rank," he said. "They want to be
seen as the only respectable Asian country." The summit comes one month before the
Beijing Olympics, which China hoped would showcase the country's rising clout, but
which has become a lightning rod for foreign criticism over China's human rights record,
particularly in Tibet. The G8 meeting "at least reminds the world of the other Asia
giant," said Ralph Cossa, head of the Pacific Forum of the Washington-based Center for
Strategic and International Studies. "The comparison between Japan and China can be a
good one for Tokyo, when it comes to showcasing democracy and values," Cossa said.
Japan has uneasy ties with China and South Korea owing to the legacy of Japanese
aggression and occupation of several Asian nations.
WNDI 2008 21
CAFE Aff 2ACs
Japan DA
Internal link turn: environmental issues are not the only methods through which Japan can
garner soft power
ASEAN Focus Group, Asian Analysis, October 2007,
http://www.aseanfocus.com/asiananalysis/article.cfm?articleID=1070
For what it is worth, Japan does have impressive soft power in the technical, scientific,
environmental, cultural and other fronts. But increasingly, these soft power have little
or nothing to do with the Japanese government, or even think tanks and research
foundations close to it. The Japanese ability to produce various forms of soft power,
strangely but amazingly, is due to the ability and spirit of the Japanese people to
penetrate Asian societies that have otherwise been Westernised or colonised first. It is
this second wave of Japanese penetration that makes Japanese soft power so dominant; as
fine Japanese techniques do create better Japanese services and products to which Asian
population can buy and consume in large quantities and repeatedly. But there is a danger.
Just as Western colonialism and market expansion allowed Japan to benefit from the
"grand opening of Asia", Japan's current efforts to peddle and sell different things to the
mass market in East Asia writ large can also allow Chinese, Korean, and subsequently
Indian,
manufacturers and producers to follow up with the third, fourth and fifth wDave as well. In
fact, it is already happening. Hence, it is not abnormal anymore to speak of Chinese,
Indian, or Korean soft power in the same mould. WATCHPOINT: The lesson for Japan?
Soft power can be gained, and lost. To ensure Japan can keep its soft power, Japan
must be a country that is capable of sustainable reforms in its economic, political, and
social sectors - without which Japan will one day find itself unable to compete in the
subsequent waves of soft power products and services.
Link turn: Japanese US cooperation is the best method to solve environmental issues
Richard L. Armitage and Joseph S. Nye, The U.S.-Japan Alliance, Getting Asia Right Through
2020, 2007,
http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/070216_asia2020.pdf
First, the United States must view itself as an Asia-Pacific power and decide to take part in all aspects of life in Asia. At the best of
times, the United States is seen by many Asians as a capricious power, too often driven by narrow domestic interests and ideological
imperatives. But even worse in the minds of many is a tendency for prolonged inattention to Asia. Arguably, the
United States
presently suffers
from a strategic preoccupation with another region of the world. If
engagement in Asia remains episodic, or lacks sufficient senior-level involvement on
the part of U.S. officials, a transition in the region’s power hierarchy is possible. Even
absent precipitous events, a gradual erosion of U.S. influence could occur if China continues to extend its reach and if the region as a
whole loses confidence in the staying power of the United States. The United States and Japan should
strengthen energy cooperation. The dialogue of major energy consumers (the United States, Japan, China, India, and
the Republic of Korea) should build an agenda based on shared interests as oil importers in support of market forces, energy efficiency,
and technology, rather than territorial claims and resource competition that cannot meet the individual energy security requirements of
any nation. The principle should be that energy security is not a zero-sum game. The
appointment of a Japanese to head the International Energy Agency underscores the importance of integrating China and India fully into
that agency, whose responsibility for coordinating energy security policies will grow in the future. The
U.S.-Japan alliance
is well suited to strengthen and integrate national and regional efforts to address
climate change, acting as a bridge between industrialized and developing countries in
Asia and across the globe.
WNDI 2008 22
CAFE Aff 2ACs
Japan DA
Impact: No risk of an arms race – economic linkages between countries prevent
Correspondents Report, Asian arms race overstated: thinktank, 6 July , 2008,
http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2008/s2295364.htm
Asia though is getting richer. Asia is spending more on military hardware. What do you see
as the difference between modernisation and an arms race? ANDREW DAVIES: Well
modernisation, think of it this way - that the countries of Western Europe routinely buy
very sophisticated tanks, aircraft, ships and submarines. And no one bats an eyelid. They've
been doing it for decades and decades and decades. It's almost seen as just what
sophisticated nations do, they spend a proportion of their money on that sort of
equipment. And to some extent we're seeing that in Asia as well, particularly in South
East Asia. I think what's going on there is that the countries are starting to do what
countries elsewhere have been doing for generations. What are your military fears then
for Asia? If it isn't an arms race, what should the region be worrying about? ANDREW
DAVIES: I think the region should be worrying about a number of things. We're entering a
period that we've never been in before, where all of the historic great powers of Asia are
simultaneously strong. We'll have Russia, China, India, Japan and South Korea all wealthy
and strong at the same time. And we have no experience of that. And then you add the
United States into the mix and these are uncharted waters. We've literally never been here
before. And it will take some careful diplomacy and shared understandings to thrash
out a cooperative future. GRAEME DOBELL: Do you see a cooperative future?
ANDREW DAVIES: I think there's plenty of scope for a cooperative future because the
degree of economic linkage between the countries of the world today is much greater
than it was in the past. And it's not a matter of a couple of colonial powers fighting over
regional assets. It's a matter of countries that are going to be enduring powers having to
find a way to live with one another, without coming to blows which would do
enormous damage to both the stability and the economics of the region.
Impact: Even without the alliance Japan would not rearm- the culture is too anti-
militaristic.
Anthony DiFilippo, Prof. Sociology at Lincoln University, 2002, The Challenges of the U.S.-
Japan Military Arrangement: Competing Security Transitions in a Changing International
Environment, pg. 103
The problem here is not with the conclusion, but rather that it is drawn from faulty
assumptions. To assume that the dissolution of the existing U.S.-Japan security alliance
can lead only to Japanese rearmament is faulty, for there is clearly another viable
alternative. Since the end of the Pacific War Japan has maintained a culture of
antimilitarism. Specifically, in addition to renouncing war, Japan has repeatedly stressed
the need for the realization of global disarmament, the total elimination of all nuclear
weapons, and the strengthening of the United Nations. Because the revisionist
perspective completely ignores the emergence of multilateral security systems, both global
and regional, its focus is entirely on shifting military responsibility to Japan to replace the
end of the security alliance with the United States.
WNDI 2008 23
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Command and Control CP

Uniqueness: No crunch is coming
Bjorn Lomborg, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Aarhus,
2001, The Skeptical Environmentalist, p. 4
In presenting this description I will need to challenge our usual conception of the collapse
of ecosystems, because this conception is simply not in keeping with reality. We are not
running out of energy or natural resources.’4 There will be more and more food per
head of the world’s population. Fewer and fewer people are starving. In 1900 we lived
for an average of 30 years; today we live for 67. According to the UN we have reduced
poverty more in the last 50 years than we did in the preceding 500, and it has been
reduced in practically every country. Global warming, though its size and future
projections are rather unrealistically pessimistic, is almost certainly taking place, but the
typical cure of early and radical fossil fuel cutbacks is way worse than the original
affliction, and moreover its total impact will not pose a devastating problem for our
future. Nor will we lose 25—50 percent of all species in our lifetime — in fact we are
losing probably 0.7 percent. Acid rain does not kill the forests, and the air and water
around us are becoming less and less polluted. Mankind’s lot has actually improved in
terms of practically every measurable indicator. But note carefully what I am saying here:
that by far the majority of indicators show that mankind’s lot has vastly improved. This
does not, however, mean that everything is good enough. The first statement refers to what
the world looks like whereas the second refers to what it ought to look like.
Uniqueness/Link take out: No risk of resource shortages—no scenario for their impact
Bjorn Lomborg, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Aarhus,
2001, Environmental Conflict, p. 151-152
Often, the discussion of the environment seems similarly to be based on this bleak belief (extensively discussed and documented in
Lomborg, 1998/ 2001). This chapter has focused on some of the important areas singled out by environmentalist writers to see whether
the environmental stresses indeed are getting worse or not. When looking at the food supply, it is evident that not only
has stress lessened, in that more people are better fed than ever before, but the evidence also seems to
indicate that this trend will continue into the future, making food even more accessible. Likewise,
the threat of erosion is largely based on anecdotal evidence, and when we look at the best available, global data, it seems
that its effect over the next century will be negligible. When discussing energy and raw materials, there has always been a ten-
dency to expect a Malthusian exhaustion scenario. However, when we look at the data for oil, coal, gas, and the four most
important raw materials (aluminum, iron, copper, and zinc), they exhibit increasing years of
consumption, despite the enormous increases in annual consumption and the amounts already
consumed. Contrary to common sense, there are good reasons to expect that these resources will not get more scarce but rather more
abundant with time. Looking at water it is clear that what used to be an essentially free resource now has an established cost. In this
sense, it has become more scarce. But this need not lead to any significant increase in conflict. Partly, water
is by no means
a very limited resource and through the pricing of water, great efficiencies can be
achieved at fairly low cost. Partly, since desalination sets a clear upper boundary on the benefits reaped from access to free
water, it is doubtful that water could be a major objective in the acquisition of foreign resources through war. Finally, the discussion of
increasing inequality, at least as based on national data, seems erroneous. When measuring the purchasing power, inequality has
not increased over the last fifty years—rather, perhaps, we have witnessed a slight
decrease. Consequently, although the discussion of an environmental stresses and their connection to conflict is clearly an important
area of research it is important to realize that on the main issue areas, resources have not been becoming
increasingly scarce but rather more abundant.
WNDI 2008 24
CAFE Aff 2ACs

The neg counterplan text in the WNDI file doesn’t solve the net benefit of the counterplan.
Having the president pass plan executively gives him authority over the specific mandates of the
plan only, this doesn’t cause the transition to authoritarianism the Affirmative advocates and says
is necessary.
Link turn: Democracy is key to environmental protection
Martin Janicke, Professor of Comparative Policy and Head of the Research Unit for
Environmental Policy at the Free University of Berlin, 1996, Democracy and the Environment,
p. 71
That democracy in general is a better precondition for environmental policy than
authoritarian rule is extremely plausible. There seems to be no need for explanation.
From comparative research we are aware of the poor record on pollution control in
the former communist countries. The previous rightist dictatorships in southern
Europe (from Turkey to Portugal) have also shown similar records. It is also easy on
theoretical grounds to develop plausible hypotheses about the causal connection between
successful (or at least better) environmental policy and democracy. Environmental policy
goals are usually in direct opposition to current economic trends. Oppositional rights
are, therefore, an important resource for the successful formulation and
implementation of ‘green’ policy. Critical roles for science and the media can also, in
this respect, be as important as civil rights or a competitive party system.
Impact Turn: Democracy is necessary for the environment – Authoritarian rule has been
empirically bad for the environment.
Robert Paehlke, Professor of political science and environmental studies at Trent University,
1996, Democracy and the Environment, p. 19
Furthermore, events since the 1970s have cast additional doubts on the view that
environmental concerns, environmental organizations and/or environmental protection
initiatives might somehow pose a threat to the quality of democratic practice. First and
foremost, the collapse of communism throws grave doubts upon the ability of
authoritarian regimes to maintain themselves in general, particularly in the face of
economic (and environmental) difficulties. Further, there is now ample evidence that,
however ineffective democratic regimes have been regarding environmental
protection, they have been far more effective than were the authoritarian regimes of
the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (Jancar-Webster, 1995; Pryde, 1995).
Indeed, there is no evidence that any authoritarian regime anywhere has ever been
very effective as regards either environmental protection or the equitable distribution
of
scarcity.
WNDI 2008 25
CAFE Aff 2ACs

Impact Turn: Malthusian predictions of population explosions and crunches are and have
always been flawed. It is precisely this type of prophecy that allows oppressors to steal our
humanity and create a narrow vision of the future in which we do not have agency
Max Dublin, Research Fellow at the University of Toronto, masters at U Chicago and Ph.D.
from Harvard, 1991, “Futurehype: The Tyranny of Prophecy,” p.210-212
All of this was first brought home to me when I was a tutor in graduate school and the
faculty associated with my residence convened a special colloquium to discuss Robert
Heilbroner's book An Inquiry into the Human Prospect, which had just been serialized in
The New York Review of Books.' Heilbroner's book is a vision of doom and gloom in
the old tradition of Thomas Malthus and Stanley Jevons and in the more current genre
of the Club of Rome's Limits to Growth.8 t At this colloquium two of the three speakers
stood up and advised the audience not to worry about Hellbroner's thesis. One of them,
Daniel Bell, observed that although the prophets of doom have always been with us,
they have never been right. On the other hand, Roger Revell gave us a talk about the
earth's seemingly endless resources and the seemingly infinite ways we may
potentially be able to tap them. At that seminar the so-called optimists outnumbered the
so-called pessimists-and, in any case, if you did not probe into the matter any more deeply
than our speakers did, the optimistic and pessimistic prophecies seemed to cancel each
other out so we were still able to enjoy our after-dinner drinks. But if you did probe into
the matter more deeply this was hardly the case. Take, for example, the Club of Rome's
report, The Limits of Growth, and look at its fate. Looking back at that set of predictions
now most people who are not sympathetic with it will say that the model was all
wrong; those who are sympathetic will say the model was right but the variables were
wrong. This is the short of it-the longer critique of the report had a much more elaborate
form and its fallacies are worth recounting because they reflect much of what is
pathological in current thought about the future of the environment. For example, in the
March 1975 issue of Science Glenn Hueckel published a critical analysis of the limits-
to-growth thesis called "A Historical Approach to Future Economic Growth," which
illustrates two of three great myths that contemporary prophets have promoted to
sully our thinking about the environmental future.' One of these myths is that the
marketplace will solve our environmental problems as they develop, the other is that
technological innovation will always have the power to do the same thing.
Perm: You can both pass plan and have an authoritarian government which solves for the net
benefit of the CP. There is no mutual exclusivity to passing plan.
WNDI 2008 26
CAFE Aff 2ACs
Oil Prices DA Blocks

Uniqueness: Oil Prices are diving
AFP 07/16
Oil prices plunged five dollars on Wednesday, extending this week's spectacular losses
after a surprise jump in crude reserves in key energy consumer the United States. Prices had already tumbled on
Tuesday as US economic growth concerns sent New York crude tumbling by the
largest drop for 17 years. On Wednesday, New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for August delivery, shed
another 5.06 dollars to 133.86 dollars a barrel. It had dived Tuesday by 6.44 dollars in the sharpest daily decline since January 1991.
London's Brent North Sea oil for August plummeted 4.35 dollars to 134.40 dollars on Wednesday. Prices tumbled after the US Energy
Information Administration said US crude stocks rose by 3.0 million barrels to 296.9 million barrels in the week ending July 11 --
surprising a market that had expected a drop of about 2.2 million barrels. Oil hit record highs last Friday when the New York contract hit
147.27 dollars and Brent 147.50 dollars. The market had paused earlier Wednesday as traders caught their breath following severe losses
on Tuesday that were sparked by a gloomy economic outlook from US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke, dealers said. "Fed
Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments about the bleak economic outlook in the US was of particular significance as it raised concerns
about faltering demand in the world's largest oil consumer," said Barclays Capital analysts. "In his semi-annual testimony to the Senate,
he stressed that the outlook for economic growth and inflation was unusually uncertain, a gloomier assessment than the central bank
gave late last month when it said risks to economic growth had diminished somewhat." Bernanke said Tuesday the Fed had however,
raised its 2008 growth forecast to a range of 1.0 to 1.6 percent, up from an April projection of 0.3 to 1.2 percent. But he also warned of
numerous risks, including a potentially troublesome rise in inflation and stressed financial markets. Traders
fear that a
slowing economy in the United States will sap global demand for crude. At Wachovia
Securities, Al Goldman blamed the huge price fall on Bernanke's "gloomy assessment" as well as a cut in OPEC's demand forecast. The
Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Tuesday cut its forecast for growth of world oil demand this year to 1.20
percent from 1.28 percent, citing an economic slowdown and high fuel prices. OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia meanwhile on Wednesday
denounced speculative trade in oil and called for more dialogue between producing and consuming nations. "Oil has become ...
practically like a currency (that) has attracted speculative interest among some companies and people," said Saudi Arabian King
Abdullah in an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica. "We don't want the price to be so high. It is not in our interest because it is
not in the interest of the rest of the world." Saudi Arabia has warned repeatedly that speculation is leading cause of soaring oil prices
along with rising demand and the taxation of oil products in consumer countries. Many Western nations, led by the United States, have
consistently argued that runaway prices are a result of tightening global oil supplies
Link: Reducing US consumption has no effect on global prices

Darmstadter and Parry 2004 (Joel and Ian , Seniors Fellows @ RFF, “How should
policymakers respond”, Feb 6)
But again, the ability of the United States to counteract the abuses of market power by
OPEC is limited. Most likely a reduction in US oil imports would have only a
moderate effect on the world prices and it is difficult to reduce oil imports, as opposed
to total US oil consumption, or to favor imports from secure suppliers (such as
Canada) without running afoul of WTO trading rules. Moreover, many analysts argue
that a modest reduction in US oil imports would not produce much of a dividend in
terms of reduced military spending, in part because Middle East military expenditures
serve numerous objectives (for example, the security of Israel), in addition to oil security.
Don’t read this if they have a low oil prices advantage.

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Impact turn: McKillop’s claims that high oil prices boost the global economy are wrong
Don Egginton, June 14, 2004, Oil and Gas Journal
McKillop makes a number of assertions and observations that are repeated below. There are a number of other,
extraneous comments in McKillop's article, but these are not dealt with. Observations lead McKillop to conclude that
sharply rising oil and gas prices increase economic growth rates. For example, during 1975-79,
with oil prices in today's prices at $ 38-55/bbl, most countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development achieved
growth rates of about 3.75%/year.McKillop's view starts from the observation that high oil prices
and rapid gross domestic product growth can coincide. He attributes this to high oil prices causing high
growth. Yet correlation does not indicate causation. It is more plausible to believe that oil prices are
high because a fast-growing world economy (or expectations thereof) raises the world demand
for oil. In this situation, the depressing effects of high oil prices -- falling GDP and rising inflation and
unemployment -- are masked by growth, and inflation is exacerbated by it. Causation flows
from strong demand to high oil prices, and therefore, inferring that high prices can
boost world activity is wrong. What McKillop would have to do is distinguish between high prices caused by strong
demand and high prices caused by supply constraints. McKillop makes little attempt to do this. Although McKillop points out that the
OECD achieved growth during 1975-79 of 3.75%/year, it should be noted that this is well below the growth rates achieved in 1961-73 of
5.5%/year. In fact, 1974 and 1975 recorded the lowest consecutive annual growth rates since figures began in 1961, with an average
growth rate of just 0.9% year-on-year. The
slow growth after the 1973-74 oil price shock is
consistent with the standard view, not McKillop's.
High prices destroy the Mexican economy

BBC 2004
The economy’s growth in the second quarter, which exceeded the expectations of experts,
is a sign of the strengthening of a “virtuous circle” for the country in the second half
of the year, according to the Private Sector Centre for Economic Studies (CEESP). It
warns, however, that given that the rebound in the Mexican economy is the result of
the strengthening of the US economy, we must pay attention to the effect that high
international oil prices could have on that nation. The constant rise in crude oil prices
in recent weeks has already led to greater caution among consumers in the powerful
neighboring nation, who have reduced their spending as they await signs of recovery
without higher prices because of the cost of energy. On this matter, the CEESP
mentions the advisability of accelerating the internal strengthening of the Mexican
economy in order ot prevent negative effects from an external shock.
Mexican economic collapse spreads worldwide

Dallas Morning News, November 28, 1995
With the exception of 1982 - when Mexico defaulted on its foreign debt and a handful of giant New York banks worried they would lose
few people abroad ever cared about a weak peso. But now it's different,
billions of dollars in loans -
This time, the world is keeping a close eye on Mexico's unfolding financial crisis
experts say.
for one simple reason: Mexico is a major international player. If its economy were to
collapse, it would drag down a few other countries and thousands of foreign investors. If
recovery is prolonged, the world economy will feel the slowdown. "It took a peso
devaluation so that other countries could notice the key role that Mexico plays in today's
global economy," said economist Victor Lpez Villafane of the Monterrey Institute of Technology. "I hate to say it, but
if Mexico were to default on its debts, that would trigger an international financial
collapse" not seen since the Great Depression, said Dr. Lpez, who has conducted comparative studies of the
Mexican economy and the economies of some Asian and Latin American countries.
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Global war results from economic decline
Walter Russell Mead, Los Angeles Times, August 23, 1998
Think about the mother of all global meltdowns: the Great Depression that started in
1929. U.S. stocks began to collapse in October, staged a rally, then the market headed
south big time. At the bottom, the Dow Jones industrial average had lost 90% of its value.
Wages plummeted, thousands of banks and brokerages went bankrupt, millions of people
lost their jobs. There were similar horror stories worldwide. But the biggest impact of the
Depression on the United States--and on world history--wasn't money. It was blood:
World War II, to be exact. The Depression brought Adolf Hitler to power in Germany,
undermined the ability of moderates to oppose Joseph Stalin's power in Russia, and
convinced the Japanese military that the country had no choice but to build an Asian
empire, even if that meant war with the United States and Britain. That's the thing about
depressions. They aren't just bad for your 401(k). Let the world economy crash far enough,
and the rules change. We stop playing "The Price is Right" and start up a new round of
"Saving Private Ryan."
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Capitalism K
Continuing the competition fostered by capitalism is the only way to solve energy problems
Paul Roberts, energy expert and writer for Harpers,2004, The End of Oil, pg. 261
This is by no means just free-market folderol. When we talk about building a new energy
economy, consider the scale of our task: we need to take all our current energy assets — our
coal-fired power plants, our oil pipelines and refineries, our tanker ships, our trains, and planes,
and, of course, our automobiles — worth well over ten trillion dollars, and replace them all
with an equally colossal and interwoven system of technologies, processes, and networks
(many yet to be invented), which by 2050 must be efficiently producing enough energy for nine
billion people, their companies, and their lifestyles, all while emitting half the carbon per capita
than is currently the case. We are talking, in short, about something so vast and complex and
dynamic that it cannot be launched by a single technology but must be built, one
transaction at a time, by the same relentless economic engine, the same competition between
technologies and ideas, the same ruthless pursuit of profit, that built our old energy
economy. This is not to excuse the greed and shortsightedness of energy companies and their
political allies, who often view a new energy economy as either a threat to their profits and
power or an opportunity to sell old technology under a green label. It is, however, to recommend
that we no longer be shocked, shocked at such self-interested behavior. The competition that is
already shaping the next energy economy is occurring not only between rival technologies
and ideas, but between the people, companies, and countries that have staked their existence on
those innovations — and that will, quite reasonably, fight like hell to see their investments pay
off. For at the root of every political conflict over energy, and every political debate over the best
energy policy, is a conflict between economic propositions. I am not advocating that we simply
turn the task over to the market and cross our fingers. Our wonderfully efficient market has some
astonishing blind spots and will require innovative political action to ensure that the energy
economy we get is the one we truly want. I do, however, want to argue that until we gain a
clearer understanding of the economic risks and rewards in the energy economy, we — and our
policymakers — have very little hope of preventing the next energy economy from simply
repeating the mistakes of the last one.
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Capitalism K
Most recent examples prove what we already knew – Capitalism is the key to global
prosperity and there is no viable alternative
Lawrence Kudlow, former Reagan economic advisor, a syndicated columnist, and the host of
CNBC's Kudlow & Company, 1-25-2008, “Capitalism Doesn't Work, Mr. Gates?”
RealClearPolitics,
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/capitalism_doesnt_work_mr_gate.html
For all his do-good preaching, Gates is ignoring the global spread of free-market capitalism that has successfully
lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and into the middle class over the last decade.
Think China. Think India. Think Eastern Europe. (Maybe even think France under Nicolas Sarkozy.) Gates wants
business leaders to dedicate more time to fighting poverty. But the reality is that economic freedom is the best path
to prosperity. Period. The latest stats out of China are revealing. Here's a country that was a basket case not
so long ago and today is the world's fourth largest economy -- hot on the heels of Germany, the third largest
economy. China just reported 11.2 percent fourth-quarter GDP, its fastest growth rate in 13 years. Total output for China is now 24.7
trillion yuan, or $3.42 trillion at current exchange rates. At $14 trillion, the U.S. economy is still four times the size of China's. But
we've had free-market capitalism for more than 300 years. China's only had it for about 15. China is still an undemocratic, authoritarian
and repressive society that lacks the benefits of political freedom. But it was the late Milton Friedman who argued that the onset of free-
market capitalism was the precursor to full-fledged democratic capitalism. China's on the right track.Gates says he has
witnessed steep income and cultural inequities in his travels around the world, in particular to Africa. But for this he
should blame the absence of capitalist principles, not capitalism itself. Even the most compassionate
corporate executives are not going to bring prosperity to impoverished countries with statist economies. Until Africa's
nations undertake the market-oriented reforms that have boosted China and the other
Asian Tigers -- like South Korea and Taiwan -- they will continue to rank at the bottom of the world
prosperity scale. The Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal 2008 Index of Economic Freedom reveals how free-market
economics is spreading like wildfire, while state-run socialism is on the decline. And it's no wonder why. The
free-market countries are prospering mightily, while the least-free economies are
mired in poverty. We're talking North Korea, Cuba, Zimbabwe and Iran. Also noteworthy is Venezuela. As the neo-socialist
Hugo Chavez attempts to adopt Fidel Castro's failed economic model, he's sinking his nation toward Cuba-type poverty. Economist
Mark Perry, on his Carpe Diem blog site, reports that both the U.S. share of world GDP and its global stock market capitalization are
shrinking. But this isn't a bad thing at all. It doesn't mean that America is heading downward. On the contrary, it means that newly freed
economies are heading up. The reality here is that the
rising tide of global capitalism is lifting all boats
that employ it. Capitalism works. It's a good thing. It's the key to unlocking a nation's
prosperity. In fact, free-market capitalism is the greatest anti-poverty program ever
devised by man. Another billionaire, George Soros, the Davos partygoer who finances near every left-wing political-action
group on both sides of the Atlantic pond, recently wrote in the Financial Times that the era of capitalism is coming to an end. Soros, of
course, has been predicting this for at least 20 years -- through the greatest world boom in history. And how was it that Soros made his
money? Trading currencies in the technologically advanced world financial markets, the very same markets that were spawned by 20th
century free-market capitalism. So I just have to smile when billionaires like Bill Gates and George Soros turn cold shoulders to the
blessings capitalism bestows. Or when their buddy, Warren Buffett, broadcasts the importance of hiking tax rates on successful earners
the command-and-control, state-run economics experiment was
and investors. Look fellas,
tried. It was called the Soviet Union. If you hadn't noticed, it was a miserable failure.
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Environmental problems are global and require global cooperation
Jim Chen, Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School, Fordham International
Law Journal, November / December, 2000, 24 Fordham Int'l L.J. 217
The most serious environmental problems involve "the depletion and destruction of
the global commons." Climate change, ozone depletion, and the loss of species,
habitats, and biodiversity are today's top environmental priorities. None can be solved
without substantial economic development and intense international cooperation. The
systematic degradation of the biosphere respects no political boundaries. Worse, it is
exacerbated by poverty. Of the myriad environmental problems in this mutually dependent
world, "persistent poverty may turn out to be the most aggravating and destructive." We
must remember "above all else" that "human degradation and deprivation ... constitute the
greatest threat not only to national, regional, and world security, but to essential life-
supporting ecological systems."
Open markets result in more sustainable environments – statistics prove

Ana Eiras, Economic Policy Analyst for Latin America, and Brett Schaefer, Fellow in
International Regulatory Affairs in the Center for International Trade and Economics at Heritage,
September 27 2001, Trade: The Best Way to Protect the Environment,
http://www.heritage.org/Research/TradeandForeignAid/BG1480.cfm, accessed 8/24/03
Moreover, the United States is an example of the elasticity of spending for environmental protection. As incomes have risen over the
past three decades, America has increased "real spending by government and business on the environment and natural resource
protection has doubled." 6 Economically free countries typically have a more sustainable environmental policy. In January 2001, the
World Economic Forum, the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), and the Yale Center for
Environmental Law and Policy published an Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI). 7 The Index assigns the health of a country's
environment a single number ranging from 0 to 100, in which zero means low sustainability and 100 means high sustainability. This
number represents a country's success in coping with environmental challenges and cooperating with other countries in the management
and improvement of common environmental problems. Chart 1 illustrates the relationship between The Heritage Foundation/Wall Street
Journal 2001 Index of Economic Freedom scores and the ESI. The chart shows a strong relationship between economic freedom and
environmental sustainability. The freer the economy, the greater the level of environmental sustainability. The United States is a classic
example of economic freedom's beneficial impact on the environment. America has been a champion of economic freedom for decades
while simultaneously maintaining one of the world's cleanest environments. Countries with more open trade and investment policies
generally have higher levels of environmental sustainability. Free trade and the investment that typically follows it are two important
sources of economic growth. Therefore, an open trade policy and a business-friendly environment will not only increase growth, but also
provide the means to protect the environment. TheHeritage Foundation calculated a "Trade Openness
Index" based on the 2001 Index of Economic Freedom by averaging the score for the
trade policy, property rights, capital flows and foreign investment, and regulation
factors. Consider the relationship between the Trade Openness Index and the Environmental Sustainability Index illustrated in Chart
2. In countries with an open economy, the average environmental sustainability score
is more than 30 percent higher than the scores of countries with moderately open
economies, and almost twice as high as those of countries with closed economies.
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Capitalism K
Kovel’s alternative misunderstands production as external to capitals exploitation of labor,
this means that ecosocism may sound good but will inevitably fail
Workers Liberty, Review of Joel Kovel - the limits of eco-socialism, 17 November, 2007,
http://www.workersliberty.org/node/9574
Kovel starts by arguing that capital is the cause of the ecological crisis; “The ecological crisis is the name for the
global eco-stabilisation accompanying global accumulation… Capital cannot recuperate the ecological crisis
because its essential being, manifest in the ‘grow or die’ syndrome, is to produce such a crisis and the only thing it
really knows how to do, which is to produce according to exchange value, is exactly the source of the crisis” (p.89).
This is fine, but Kovel subscribes to the formulation of the ecological crisis associated with James O’Connor,
that it is principally a crisis of the conditions of production (p.15). In Natural Causes (1998) and in earlier
essays, O’Connor argued that previous discussions of capitalist crisis focused on what he called the “first
contradiction”, namely accumulation crises due to the failure to realise the surplus value objectified in
commodities through commodity sales. O’Connor then argued that capital accumulation suffers from a second
contradiction that is manifested in profitability problems due to rising costs. In this view, the second contradiction
more directly involves the natural and social conditions of production. Paul Burkett has written extensively on
the problems with O’Connor’s conception of crisis. In his book Marx and Nature, Burkett argued that by
treating the conditions of production as “external” to capital’s exploitation of labour, O’Connor’s “two
contradictions” dichotomy tends to soften the distinction between the conditions required by capitalist
production and the conditions required for human development. The effect of this softening is to artificially
divide labour and ecological struggles – with the latter still basically defined as “non-class” struggles. (1999
p.197) A similar objection would apply to Kovel’s book. Having removed the dualism between nature and
humanity and having understood the common root of human exploitation and ecological destruction under
capitalism in the cell-form of the commodity – namely the distinction between use value and exchange value,
Kovel reintroduces it at the level of capitalist crisis. A second problem lies with Kovel’s appreciation of the
nature of the threat posed by dangerous climate change. Although he is not a complete catastrophist, i.e.
arguing that global warming will not bring about human extinction, he nevertheless says that “global
warming is an objective reminder that it is either the end of capitalism or the end of the world” (p.24, p.48)
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A return to the land would lead to terrible pollution and the extinction of every large
animal on the planet
Martin Lewis professor in the School of the Environment and the Center for International
Studies at Duke University. Green Delusions, 1992 p 8-9
Finally, the radical green movement threatens nature by advocating a return to the
land, seeking to immerse the human community even more fully within the intricate webs
of the natural world. Given the present human population, this is hardly possible, and
even if it were to occur it would result only in accelerated destruction. Ecological
philosophers may argue that we could follow the paths of the primal peoples who live
in intrinsic harmony with nature, but they are mistaken. Tribal groups usually do live
lightly on the earth, but often only because their population densities are low. To
return to preindustrial “harmony” would necessarily entail much more than merely
decimating the human population. Yet unless our numbers could be reduced to a small
fraction of present levels, any return to nature would be an environmental
catastrophe. The more the human presence is placed directly on the land and the
more immediately it is provisioned from nature, the fewer resources will be available
for nonhuman species. If all Americans were to flee from metropolitan areas, rural
populations would soar and wildlife habitat would necessarily diminish. An instructive
example of the deadly implications of returning to nature may be found when one
considers the issue of fuel. Although more common in the 19705 than the 1990s, “split
wood not atoms” is still one of the green radicals’ favored credos. To hold such a view one
must remain oblivious to the clearly devastating consequences of wood burning, including
suffocating winter air pollution in the enclosed basins of the American West, widespread
indoor carbon monoxide poisoning, and the ongoing destruction of the oak woodlands and
savannahs of California. If we were all to split wood, the United States would be a
deforested, soot-choked wasteland within a few decades. To be sure, the pollution threat of
wood stoves can be mitigated by the use of catalytic converters, but note that these are
technologically sophisticated devices developed by capitalist firms. If the most extreme
version of the radical green agenda were to be fully enacted without a truly massive
human die-off first, forests would be stripped clean of wood and all large animals
would be hunted to extinction by hordes of neo-primitives desperate for food and
warmth.
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Total rejection of capitalism fragments resistance – the perm solves best
J.K. Gibson-Graham, feminist economist, 1996, End of Capitalism
One of our goals as Marxists has been to produce a knowledge of capitalism. Yet as “that
which is known,” Capitalism has become the intimate enemy. We have uncloaked the
ideologically-clothed, obscure monster, but we have installed a naked and visible
monster in its place. In return for our labors of creation, the monster has robbed us
of all force. We hear – and find it easy to believe – that the left is in disarray. Part of what
produces the disarray of the left is the vision of what the left is arrayed against. When
capitalism is represented as a unified system coextensive with the nation or even the
world, when it is portrayed as crowding out all other economic forms, when it is
allowed to define entire societies, it becomes something that can only be defeated and
replaced by a mass collective movement (or by a process of systemic dissolution that
such a movement might assist). The revolutionary task of replacing capitalism now
seems outmoded and unrealistic, yet we do not seem to have an alternative conception
of class transformation to take its place. The old political economic “systems” and
“structures” that call forth a vision of revolution as systemic replacement still seem to be
dominant in the Marxist political imagination. The New World Order is often represented
as political fragmentation founded upon economic unification. In this vision the economy
appears as the last stronghold of unity and singularity in a world of diversity and plurality.
But why can’t the economy be fragmented too? If we theorized it as fragmented in the
United States, we could being to see a huge state sector (incorporating a variety of forms of
appropriation of surplus labor), a very large sector of self-employed and family-based
producers (most noncapitalist), a huge household sector (again, quite various in terms of
forms of exploitation, with some households moving towards communal or collective
appropriation and others operating in a traditional mode in which one adult appropriates
surplus labor from another). None of these things is easy to see. If capitalism takes up
the available social space, there’s no room for anything else. If capitalism cannot
coexist, there’s no possibility of anything else. If capitalism functions as a unity, it
cannot be partially or locally replaced. My intent is to help create the discursive
conception under which socialist or other noncapitalist construction becomes
“realistic” present activity rather than a ludicrous or utopian goal. To achieve this I
must smash Capitalism and see it in a thousand pieces. I must make its unity a fantasy,
visible as a denial of diversity and change.
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Biopower K
Biopower good: We must use the institutions that exercise power to change them
Lawrence Grossburg, University of Illinois, We Gotta Get Outta This Place, 1992, p. 391-393
The Left needs institutions which can operate within the systems of governance,
understanding that such institutions are the mediating structures by which power is
actively realized. It is often by directing opposition against specific institutions that power
can be challenged. The Left has assumed from some time now that, since it has so little access to the apparatuses of agency,
its only alternative is to seek a public voice in the media through tactical protests. The Left does in fact need more visibility, but it
also needs greater access to the entire range of apparatuses of decision making and
power. Otherwise, the Left has nothing but its own self-righteousness. It is not individuals who have
produced starvation and the other social disgraces of our world, although it is individuals who must
take responsibility for eliminating them. But to do so, they must act within
organizations, and within the system of organizations which in fact have the capacity
(as well as the moral responsibility) to fight them. Without such organizations, the only models of political commitment are self-
interest and charity. Charity suggests that we act on behalf of others who cannot act on their own behalf. But we are all precariously
caught in the circuits of global capitalism, and everyone’s position is increasingly precarious and uncertain. It will not take much to
change the position of any individual in the United States, as the experience of many of the homeless, the elderly and the “fallen” middle
class demonstrates. Nor are there any guarantees about the future of any single nation. We can imagine ourselves involved in a politics
where acting for another is always acting for oneself as well, a politics in which everyone struggles with the resources they have to make
their lives (and the world) better, since the two are so intimately tied together! For example, we need to think of affirmation action as in
everyone’s best interests, because of the possibilities it opens. We need to think with what Axelos has described as a “planetary thought”
which “would be a coherent thought—but not a rationalizing and ‘rationalist’ inflection; it would be a fragmentary thought of the open
totality—for what we can grasp are fragments unveiled on the horizon of the totality. Such
a politics will not begin by
distinguishing between the local and the global (and certainly not by valorizing one over the other) for
the ways in which the former are incorporated into the latter preclude the luxury of
such choices. Resistance is always a local struggle, even when (as in parts of the ecology movement)
it is imagined to connect into its global structures of articulation: Think globally, act locally.
Opposition is predicated precisely on locating the points of articulation between them, the points at which the global becomes local, and
the local opens up onto the global. Since the meaning of these terms has to be understood in the context of any particular struggle, one is
always acting both globally and locally: Think globally, act appropriately! Fight
locally because that is the scene
of action, but aim for the global because that is the scene of agency. “Local struggles directly
target national and international axioms, at the precise point of their insertion into the field of immanence. This requires the imagination
and construction of forms of unity, commonality and social agency which do not deny differences. Without such commonality, politics is
too easily reduced to a question of individual rights (i.e., in the terms of classical utility theory); difference ends up “trumping” politics,
bringing it to an end. The struggle against the disciplined mobilization of everyday life can only be built on affective commonalities, a
shared “responsible yearning: a yearning out towards something more and something better than this and this place now.” The Left, after
all, is defined by its common commitment to principles of justice, equality and democracy (although these might conflict) in economic,
political and cultural life. It is based on the hope, perhaps even the illusion, that such things are possible. The
construction of
an affective commonality attempts to mobilize people in a common struggle, despite
the fact that they have no common identity or character, recognizing that they are the
only force capable of providing a new historical and oppositional agency. It strives to
organize minorities into a new majority.
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Biopower K
Impact turn: Agamben’s conception of the biopolitical destroys chance for critical thought
and only serves to entrench violent labor-power and close mindedness
Paolo Virno, “General intellect, exodus, multitude,” in Archipelago number 54, June, 2002
Agamben is a thinker of great value but also, in my opinion, a thinker with no political vocation. Then,
when Agamben speaks of the biopolitical he has the tendency to transform it into an
ontological category with value already since the archaic Roman right. And, in this, in my opinion, he is very
wrong-headed. The problem is, I believe, that the biopolitical is only an effect derived from the
concept of labor-power. When there is a commodity that is called labor-power it is
already implicitly government over life. Agamben says, on the other hand, that labor-power is only one of the
aspects of the biopolitical; I say the contrary: over all because labor power is a paradoxical commodity,
because it is not a real commodity like a book or a bottle of water, but rather is simply
the potential to produce. As soon as this potential is transformed into a commodity,
then, it is necessary to govern the living body that maintains this potential, that
contains this potential. Toni (Negri) and Michael (Hardt), on the other hand, use biopolitics in a historically determined
sense, basing it on Foucault, but Foucault spoke in few pages of the biopolitical - in relation to the birth of liberalism - that
Foucault is not a sufficient base for founding a discourse over the biopolitical and my
apprehension, my fear, is that the biopolitical can be transformed into a word that
hides, covers problems instead of being an instrument for confronting them. A fetish
word, an "open doors" word, a word with an exclamation point, a word that carries
the risk of blocking critical thought instead of helping it. Then, my fear is of fetish
words in politics because it seems like the cries of a child that is afraid of the dark...,
the child that says "mama, mama!", "biopolitics, biopolitics!". I don't negate that
there can be a serious content in the term, however I see that the use of the term
biopolitics sometimes is a consolatory use, like the cry of a child, when what serves us
are, in all cases, instruments of work and not propaganda words.
Alt fails: Foucault paints himself into a corner – political engagement is better
Todd Gitlin, Professor of Journalism and Sociology at Columbia University, 2006, The
Intellectuals And The Flag, p. 68-69.
All this is to say that the left has been imprisoned in the closed world of outsider politics.
Instead of a vigorous quest for testable propositions that could actually culminate in
reform, the academic left in particular has nourished what has come to be called
“theory”: a body of writing (one can scarcely say its content consists of propositions) that is, in the main,
distracting, vague, self-referential, and wrong-headed. “Theory” is chiefly about
itself: “thought to the second power,” as Fredric Jameson defined dialectical thinking in an early, dazzling American exemplar of the
new theoretical style. Even when “theory” tries to reconnect from language and mind to the larger social world, language remains the
preoccupation. Michel Foucault became a rock star of theory in the United States precisely because he
demoted knowledge to a reflex of power, merely the denominator of the couplet
“power/knowledge,” yet his preoccupation was with the knowledge side, not actual
social structures. His famous illustration of the power of “theory” was built on Jeremy
Bentham’s design of an ideal prison, the Panopticon—a model never built. The “linguistic turn” in the social
sciences turns out to be its own prison house, equipped with funhouse mirrors but no exit.
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Biopower K
Perm: Only a combination of micro and macro politics can solve oppression
Steven Best, Assoc. Prof Phil. And Human. U Texas and Douglas Kellner, Phil. Of Ed. Chair,
2001, “Postmodern Politics and the Battle for the Future,” Illuminations,
www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell28.htm
The emphasis on local struggles and micropower, cultural politics which redefine the
political, and attempts to develop political forms relevant to the problems and
developments of the contemporary age is extremely valuable, but there are also certain
limitations to the dominant forms of postmodern politics. While an emphasis on
micropolitics and local struggles can be a healthy substitute for excessively utopian and
ambitious political projects, one should not lose sight that key sources of political power
and oppression are precisely the big targets aimed at by modern theory, including capital,
the state, imperialism, and patriarchy. Taking on such major targets involves coalitions
and multi-front struggle, often requiring a politics of alliance and solidarity that cuts
across group identifications to mobilize sufficient power to struggle against, say, the evils
of capitalism or the state. Thus, while today we need the expansion of localized cultural
practices, they attain their real significance only within the struggle for the transformation
of society as a whole. Without this systemic emphasis, cultural and identity politics
remain confined to the margins of society and are in danger of degenerating into
narcissism, hedonism, aestheticism, or personal therapy, where they pose no danger and
are immediately coopted by the culture industries. In such cases, the political is merely
the personal, and the original intentions of the 1960s goal to broaden the political field are
inverted and perverted. Just as economic and political demands have their referent in
subjectivity in everyday life, so these cultural and existential issues find their ultimate
meaning in the demand for a new society and mode of production. Yet we would insist
that it is not a question of micro vs macropolitics, as if it were an either/or proposition, but
rather both dimensions are important for the struggles of the present and future.[15]
Likewise, we would argue that we need to combine the most affirmative and negative
perspectives, embodying Marcuse's declaration that critical social theory should be both
more negative and utopian in reference to the status quo.[16] There are certainly many
things to be depressed about is in the negative and cynical postmodernism of a Baudrillard,
yet without a positive political vision merely citing the negative might lead to apathy
and depression that only benefits the existing order. For a dialectical politics, however,
positive vision of what could be is articulated in conjunction with critical analysis of
what is in a multioptic perspective that focuses on the forces of domination as well as
possibilities of emancipation.
WNDI 2008 38
CAFE Aff 2ACs
States CP
State fiat is bad, they should lose:
Justifies fiating out of disad links. During the Civil War, we would call for the
Emancipation Proclamation, but they’d just counterplan to have the states free the slaves
No policy-maker in the world has the power to choose between federal and 50 state
simultaneous action, destroying our ability to attack the cp
Reciprocity. They only get to fiat the same actor we do, which forces counterplans to be
germane to the resolutional question and prevents infinite regression
Trivializes debate. They just alter the parameters of the status quo which renders policy
comparisons pointless
It's private fiat b/c you have to fiat referendums don't roll back the plan.
Destroys the value of topic rotation. The states counterplan is run on every topic.
Their abuse justifies crazy fiat in the 1AR
It’s object fiat which isn’t reciprocal – this counterplan is the equivalent of the affirmative
team passing plan and fiating that the congress people don’t get upset enough to generate a
politics link – all of their arguments are justifications for us fiating out of their disad links.
It’s a voting issue: They lose for begging the question and skewing time
WNDI 2008 39
CAFE Aff 2ACs
States CP
If the CP is uniform, it doesn’t solve
John D. Donahue, JFK School of Government, 1997, Disunited States, p. 42
Even when states vary, of course, there are arguments for uniformity. Institutions and
individuals who live or do business in several states face the expense, bother, and
confusion of coping with different (and sometimes conflicting) rules. Inconsistencies
among state laws and regulations can lead to disputes of great complexity and to
resolutions of limited appeal. After taking its case all the way to the Supreme Court, for
example, a cruise ship operator won the right to be sued only in Florida by aggrieved
passengers who had been on a trip between Washington State and Mexico.
Uniform fiat takes out their competition and experimentation arguments

Kansas Law Review, November 1999, p. 1322
If all of the states pursued identical regulatory strategies, or were prevented from
instituting meaningful agendas altogether, these values, as a logical matter, could not be
promoted. Obviously there would be no regulatory diversity, because all of the states
would structure the lives of their citizens in the same way. Moreover, this uniformity
would prevent state competition and experimentation: people would have no
incentive to "vote with their feet" if each state provided the same package of public
goods, and experimentation by definition requires that different states attempt different
solutions to the same social problems.
Against their Deirkers ’04 card tagged “The States can employ any alternative energy
incentives successfully-
This card only mentions Texas and Florida, not all the states. The word before “state
officials” (who are supposedly supporting alternative energy is “their”- referring, again, to
only those two states. Do not make assumptions based on only two examples- after all,
there are 48 other states with different environments and different needs that we need to
consider.
Against the funding cards (Dierkers ’07 and Kheterpal ’08)-

The phrase “In some cases” preceding the description of what states are doing does not
refer to all the states. In fact, it could refer to multiple instances in the SAME state! It’s
impossible to evaluate their position based on such a vague card. One successful state does
not prove success. As we said before, more proof is needed. It is impossible to make a
decision when the only example you have is one state. Prefer our solvency deficit cards
which give examples of and refer to all the states. You should scratch both of these cards
from your flow.
WNDI 2008 40
CAFE Aff 2ACs
States CP
Perm – do both
The perm solves best

Thomas D. Peterson, Senior Research Associate at the Penn State Department of Geography and Adjunct Professor
at the Dickinson-Penn State Law School, Robert B. McKinstry, Jr., Maurice K. Goddard Professor of Forestry and
Environmental Resources Conservation, The Pennsylvania State University and John C. Dernbach, Professor of
Law, Widener University, 2008, DEVELOPING A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO CLIMATE CHANGE
POLICY IN THE UNITED STATES THAT FULLY INTEGRATES LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT AND
ECONOMIC SECTORS, Virginia Environmental Law Journal,
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1020740
The urgent need for comprehensive action, the opportunities presented by state and local actions, and the
difficulties associated with governing such a complex environmental issue all suggest that the conventional
approach of federal legislation is unlikely to adequately address the climate issue without substantial
augmentation by state learning and example. Many other difficult national and international policy
problems in the United States are resolved by combining policy guidance from the states with national
government expertise. States develop clear and well-tested programs for climate change mitigation
through the use of transparent, stakeholder-driven processes guided by expert facilitators and advanced
technical analysts. These lessons learned, combined with expertise related to national governance, are
likely to result in a more effective national strategy than conventional “top-down” federal thinking. Such
a process is critical given the salience of the climate change issue today and the realities of governance in the
United States.
The perm ensures federalist redundancy

Erwin Chemerinsky ( Legion Lex Professor of Law and Political Science University of
Southern California) Florida Law Review September 1995
From this perspective, federalism should not be seen as a basis for limiting the powers of either Congress
or the federal courts. Rather it should be seen as en empowerment; it is desirable to have multiple levels
of government all with the capability of dealing with the countless social problems that face the United
States as it enters the 21st century.
Federalist redundancy is key to solvency

Erwin Chemerinsky( Legion Lex Prof of Law and Political Science, Univ. of S. Cal., Florida L.
Rev.), Sept. 1995
I Finally, federalism needs to be reconceptualized as being primarily about empowering varying levels
of government and much less about limiting government.
A key advantage of having multiple levels of government is the availability of
alternative actors to solve important problems. If the federal government fails
to act, state and local government action is still possible. If states fail to
deal with an issue. Federal or local action is possible. In other words, the greatest beauty of federalism is
its redundancy, multiple levels of government over the same territory and population, each with the ability
to act.
WNDI 2008 41
CAFE Aff 2ACs
States CP
The CP is illegal – only the federal government can set CAFE standards
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 1, 2004
Since virtually all greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles are carbon dioxide, the only
way to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to reduce the number of
automobiles on the road, reduce the number of miles driven or improve fuel economy. AB
1493, the state law behind these regulations, prohibits the first two options. Federal law
clearly prohibits states from adopting their own fuel economy programs. Federal law
grants sole authority to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to set
fuel economy standards so that a uniform, national standard can be set that balances,
for example, fuel economy with vehicle safety concerns.
The perm solves best

Michael Porter, prof. of business administration at Harvard, and Claas van der Linde, on
faculty at International Management Research Institute of St. Gallen Univ., 2002, Economic
Costs and Consequences of Environmental Regulation, ed. Wayne Gray, pg. 429
Different parts and levels of government must coordinate and organize themselves so
that companies are not forced to deal with multiple parties with inconsistent desires
and approaches. As a matter of regulatory structure, the EPA’s proposed new Innovative
Technology Council, being set up to advocate the development of new technology in every
field of environmental policy, is a step in the right direcnon. Another unit in the EPA
should be responsible for continued reengineering of the process of regulation to reduce
uncertainty and minimize costs. Also, an explicit strategy is needed to coordinate and
harmonize federal and state activities.
California proves that automakers will prevent enforcement

Ward's Dealer Business, September 1, 2004
Driving conditions in the U.S. are vastly different from those in Europe and Asia. Driving
distances in America are much greater. Streets are wider. Parking spaces are bigger. We use
our cars to do everything, and we use them all the time because public transportation is
insufficient in all but a few major cities. More importantly, our fuel prices are half of what
they are in Europe or Japan. But political developments in the U.S. could completely
change the American market. The State of California just proposed new regulations to be
phased in from 2009 to 2014 to reduce carbon dioxide CO2 emissions by 33%. In effect,
California is telling auto makers they'll have to boost fuel economy by that amount
because burning less fuel is the only way to reduce carbon dioxide. Auto makers have
vowed to fight these emissions regulations in court, claiming they are fuel - economy
regulations, which only the federal government can dictate.

Aff 2ac Cafe 39

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WNDI 2008 1

CAFE Aff 2ACs

CAFE Aff 2ACs

Consult China block

RAPID CHINESE GROWTH CONTRIBUTES TO THE SPREAD OF AIDS AND SEX

Consumer Confidence is at all-time lows despite falling economy

Business Confidence is low—Flooding and Auto industry

The US is headed towards a severe recession

Autoworkers perceive fuel efficiency standards as a way to generate jobs

Saudi Oil Production is Already Declining

Regime Change is Inevitable in Saudi Arabia

No Threat Posed From Saudi Regime Collapse

A new Kyoto wont solve- no modeling

Command and Control CP

Command and Control CP

Command and Control CP

Oil Prices DA Blocks

Link: Reducing US consumption has no effect on global prices

Don’t read this if they have a low oil prices advantage.

High prices destroy the Mexican economy

Mexican economic collapse spreads worldwide

Open markets result in more sustainable environments – statistics prove

Their abuse justifies crazy fiat in the 1AR

Uniform fiat takes out their competition and experimentation arguments

Against the funding cards (Dierkers ’07 and Kheterpal ’08)-

The perm solves best

The perm ensures federalist redundancy

Federalist redundancy is key to solvency

The perm solves best

California proves that automakers will prevent enforcement

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