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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 21, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, June 21, 2016 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Carbon choices are climate choices While many economists and energy regulators remain convinced that the best approach to controlling greenhouse gases is to tax carbon emissions, it nevertheless is good to see that Oregon is continuing to closely examine an alternative approach: an economy-wide carbon cap-and-trade system in partnership with other governments around North America. Under cap-and-trade, agencies assign individual carbon emitters a “cap” based on emissions history and future targets. Emitters can then use, buy and sell their rights to produce carbon dioxide pollution. By providing a monetary incentive to emit less — either to preserve emission rights to use or sell for a proit or to avoid having to buy those rights from someone else — advocates believe CO2 will cease to be so easily discharged into the atmosphere, where it becomes everyone’s problem. Detractors of cap-and-trade believe it is needlessly complicated, essentially creating a new proit center for corporations that will require an unwieldy private/ public bureaucracy to maintain. In contrast, a direct tax could be crafted to speciically discourage emissions, with the revenues going to offset impacts on needy residents, to conduct research and for other purposes. These are, however, early days in what will surely be a long process of iguring out how best to wean industrial society off its addiction to fossil fuels, a dependency that permits carbon dioxide to warp our climate. Just this year, CO2 levels are stuck above 400 parts per million in the atmosphere, after starting out at 280 ppm before the industrial era. Levels will continue going up, possibly for decades. We probably will need to explore an array of regulatory and technological solutions before we arrive at a satisfactory set of answers. Climatewire, a publication of Environment & Energy Publishing (www.eenews.net), recently reported a helpful summary of Oregon’s cap-and-trade steps. Read it at www. tinyurl.com/OR-cap-and-trade. Decisions on these matters will have a pervasive impact on citizens and society. It is worthwhile for all of us to try to understand our options and participate in deciding what to do. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. Culture Corner A dd Paul Tremblay’s new horror novel “A Head Full of Ghosts” to your summer reading list. The taut, disturbing work comes under 300 pages and is just the thing to add chills as the temp rises. Marjorie Barrett, 14, starts acting a little mean, a little creepy, her behavior worsens (maybe it’s a disease or psychological), the family suffers under the stress, and by the end it sure seems like something vile has moved in and kicked Marjorie to the basement. Writing that kind of scary novel is tough work. William Peter Blatty’s “The Exorcist,” after all, remains an imposing monolith in horror iction even after 45 years (and if you have not read it, do. It’s better — and more ambiguous — than the subsequent ilm, itself a horror classic). But the familiar road stops and this tale takes on new tones because most of it is told from the point of view of Marjorie’s little sister, Merry, just 8. Tremblay then adds the most postmodern of elements to the mix — a reality TV show to air the whole sinister unraveling and a blogger’s comments on that show. I’m not a fan of popular iction, and I don’t read much of it. The English major in me is too much of a snob. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” was often a slog through list-making and weak characterizations. I couldn’t even inish the irst 25 pages of “A Game of Thrones,” and I’ve read “Moby-Dick” about a dozen times. Tremblay’s not weaving the “great American novel” here but telling a good story well. His dialogue sometimes is forced, but he builds tension in steady steps, sprinkles in plot twists that make sense, and adheres to Edgar Allen Poe’s rule of keeping horror short. And he uses literary devices to ine effect. The best writing doesn’t tell us how something is, it shows us. Demonic possession stories are at their dark heart rape stories: a malevolent spirit forces its way into a victim, usually young and female, and she and everyone else seem helpless to stop the violation. “A Head Full of Ghosts” shows us that well enough. — Phil Wright, senior reporter YOUR VIEWS City could deed ball ield to BMCC if they wanted to It appears that the mayor and city council have been less than candid about the agreement signed with the state of Oregon concerning the property that hosts the Blue Mountain Community College baseball ield. At the May 3 city council meeting. Chuck Wood stated that as per the agreement with the state of Oregon, if they deeded the property to the city, they would only use it for economic development and they wouldn’t consider asking the state for approval to deed the property to BMCC because of the lengthy period of time it took to negotiate the transfer of the property to the city. A request to the state through Representative Greg Barreto and forwarded to Scott Fairley, Regional Solutions Coordinator, resulted in the following statement; “deeding the baseball ield to BMCC would not violate the city’s agreement with the state. The land was given to the city based on an argument of the economic development, however, the city is not required to use the land for industrial development.” I submit that the construction of the baseball ield in itself has provided the city of Pendleton with a measure of economic development as students are drawn to the city and contribute both rent and, of course, they must eat, buy gas and clothing, and entertain themselves. The words of the city ring hollow when it’s a tangible show of support that is needed. Rick Rohde Pendleton LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com. OTHER VIEWS Is the internet living up to its potential? ccess to the internet brings constantly suring just the headlines such amazing promise. It offers also change the way that we process access to specialized health information. care, regardless of location; easier Abuse of digital technologies can lead to other, more serious access to government at every level; things as well. Internet addiction is access to the global economy; the a real problem. A St. Bonaventure opportunity to get an education, even if University study, “Internet Addiction: you can’t physically attend a particular A New Clinical Phenomenon and Its campus; and the ability to connect with Joseph friends and family in real time over Franell Consequences,” compares internet addiction with an addiction to great distances. But, is the internet Comment gambling in that both are impulse- living up to its potential, and are we control disorders. The study highlights using it appropriately? some signs of internet addiction which include: I remember when we irst started using online affairs (I was surprised that this made email in the Army. I was a captain serving it into a clinical paper, so it must be a bigger as an administrative oficer for a year. My problem than I imagined.), changes in sleep group effectively illed the role of a human patterns, personality changes, ignoring other resources department for the 500-man unit I responsibilities, evidence of lying, and a was assigned to. We had computers when I declining investment in relationship. Further, irst got that job, but we used them mostly as the paper states that college students are the gloriied word processors. They were not even most at-risk population to develop an addiction connected to a network. to the internet because of the following Then the Army rolled out email. There contributing factors: was great hope that it would streamline • Free and unlimited internet access communications and reduce paperwork. • Huge blocks of unstructured time Sadly, it soon became apparent that it had the • Newly experienced freedom from parental opposite effect. Since it was suddenly so easy to communicate, the volume of memorandums, control • No monitoring of what they do or say letters, and notes exploded. Instead of reducing online. paperwork, electronic communications made This is not just a problem for college it easy to transmit even the most mundane students. In a survey by Vault.com, an online thought — and so people did. analyst irm, 37 percent of employees admitted The commercialization of the internet has had a similar impact on the rest of society. The to suring the Web constantly while at work. International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates The implications for lost productivity are staggering. According to a survey done by that by 2020, the global population will be Salary.com and AOL, employee non-work- creating 40 zettabytes (40 trillion gigabytes) related online suring costs employers in the of data every year. Let me help put that into U.S. $282 billion in lost productivity every perspective. A pickup truck full of books is year! the equivalent of about one gigabyte of data. Several years ago, I had the privilege of So, in just a few years, we’ll be collectively hearing Amber Case, a cyber-anthropologist, generating enough new data on the internet speak. She is a very bright young lady from to ill 40 trillion pickup trucks (if that data Portland who studies the impact of technology were printed in book form). Since our global on society. I was impressed by her passion for population is now about 7.4 billion people, leveraging technology to enhance our lives. each person on the globe would have to have Her vision for how we can use smart phone 5,405 pickup trucks full of printed books to apps to connect and enable ourselves to be equal the amount of new data that will be better was inspiring. She also recognized generated in 2020. That’s a bunch of data. the negative impacts of hyper-connectivity Obviously, creation and availability of that on individuals and community. She talked much new data beg the question of reliability. about how social media connects us and Is it fact, opinion, or fabrication? The fact isolates us at the same time and how civility in that it looks authentic does not necessarily communication has been eroded because of the mean that it is. Or perhaps it is authentic, but incomplete. I remember reading an incomplete anonymity of electronic communications. The sad reality is that the internet is not at copy of the Maylower Compact online. There fault. The questions I posed at the beginning of was no mention that it had been abridged, this article were, “Is the internet living up to its but the meaning and purpose had been potential and are we using it appropriately?” signiicantly altered. In the days of physically published materials, you could generally judge The internet is like any other inanimate object. It is neither good nor bad; it is how the reliability of the data by the reputation of we use it that matters. Coffee is good for you the publishing house. It is much more dificult if used in moderation. If abused, it can have to judge what you ind on the internet. And serious consequences to your well-being. The yet, people form opinions and make decisions based on generally unsubstantiated data, rarely problems we are experiencing with the internet are our fault. We have become so enamored even considering the need to validate the with our ability to connect, we have become information. This is disturbing. When I was a second lieutenant in the Army obsessed as a society. Putting boundaries in place can help correct the problem. back in the late ’80s, I received instruction on Dell suggests these healthy internet habits: how to develop training for soldiers. One of the • Set rules for internet use. A good set of core premises I learned was the need to train in 20-minute blocks of time, because that was the rules should include things like the amount of time kids are allowed to be online, what types average attention span of an adult. According of content are appropriate and whom it’s okay to “An Empirical Study of Web Use,” by to chat with, as well as proper online conduct Weinreich, Obendorf, Herde, and Mayer, published in 2015, the average attention span is and good internet citizenship. • Balance time online. Model a healthy now 8.25 seconds. This makes me wonder how balance between your online and ofline a person who struggles to focus for more than activities. a few seconds at a time can effectively reason • Distinguish between fact and opinion. through complex problems or situations. Similarly, a recent Pew online survey, which Teach your family how the internet works, and encourage critical thinking. Train them to polled 2,462 middle and high school teachers, use a variety of online resources and to always indicates that 87 percent believe that digital check, question and verify what they see technologies are creating “an easily distracted online. generation with short attention spans.” Sixty- • Keep personal facts private. Ensure that four percent of those surveyed believe digital technologies “do more to distract students than you understand the risks involved in making private or personal information public online. to help them academically.” What happened? Discuss and evaluate online relationships as What has caused this erosion of our ability to you would any other relationship in your life. focus? Ms. Case predicted that we would either DOMO’s Data Never Sleeps 3.0 report learn to put healthy limits on our use of the tells us that every minute of every day, users internet, or we would not survive as a society. like 4,166,667 posts on Facebook; users Since it is my business to connect people to the like 1,736,111 Instagram photos; Netlix internet, I am hopeful that we apply a healthy, subscribers stream 77,160 hours of video; responsible, and measured approach to its Apple users download 51,000 apps; and use and realize the incredible beneits that it Twitter users send 347,222 tweets. Why is this a problem? A University of Gothenburg report, promises. ■ “Intensive mobile phone use affects young Joseph Franell is the CEO of Eastern Oregon people’s sleep,” tells us that intensive use of mobile phones, tablets, and computers is linked Telecom, an internet and phone company based in Hermiston. His column typically appears on to stress, sleep disorders, and depression. the Business & Technology page. Receiving information in “sound bites” and A