Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge:
Energy policy is embedded in a mode of technological thinking which reduces nature to a ‘standing reserve’ of resources always at hand for human consumption.  This perspective ignores the intrinsic meaning of nature and instead replaces it with the desire for unlimited control and domination of the natural world.  
Xuanmeng 3( Yu, “Heidegger on Technology, Alienation and Destiny,” The Humanization of Technology and Chinese Culture Chinese Philosophical Studies, XI, Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change, Series II, Asia, Vol 11, http://www.crvp.org/book/Series03/III-11/contents.htm)
First, "The revealing that rules in modern technology is a challenging (Herausfordern
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with "what modern technology is," but with a process or phenomenon.
Treating nature as a standing reserve ontologically conditions the way in which it reveals it self to us. Viewing the world always creates blindspots which makes ecological collapse and nuclear war inevitable.
McWhorter, Prof of Philosophy and Women, Gender and Sexuality studies @ Univ. of Richmond, 92
(Ladelle, “Guilt as Management Technology: A Call to Heideggerian Reflection” Heidegger and the Earth, pg. 4-5)
What is most illustrative is often also what is most common. Today, on
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is forgotten, and all traces of absence absent themselves from our world.

Text: the judge should vote negative to do nothing in reaction to the call of the affirmative.
Doing nothing de-activates managerial thinking by removing a clear pragmatic end for thought – this re-thinking of thinking produces a more reflective relationship to the earth that allows it to disclose itself based upon everyday materiality
McWhorter ‘92
Prof of Philosophy and Women, Gender and Sexuality studies @ Univ. of Richmond
(Ladelle, “Guilt as Management Technology: A Call to Heideggerian Reflection” Heidegger and the Earth, pg. 1-4)

Heidegger calls us to give thought to — or give ourselves over to thought of
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also ground the most basic patterns of our current ways of being human.

Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge:
Text: The fifty states and all relevant territories should...

States dominate energy policy now – especially true for renewables
Higgins 9-19
[Ben, Director of Government Affairs for REC Solar, http://energy.aol.com/2012/09/19/renewable-energy-policy-impacted-most-at-state-level/]

Since the Industrial Revolution, U.S. energy policy has been controlled at
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Texas, where efforts to grow renewable mandates were met with staunch opposition.
State incentives solve the aff
Rosner and Goldberg ‘11
[Robert, Stephen, University of Chicago, Energy Policy Institute, Small Modular Reactors – Key to Future Nuclear Power Generation in the U.S., http://epic.uchicago.edu/sites/epic.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/SMRWhite_Paper_Dec.14.2011copy.pdf]

For modeling purposes, the so-called “first-of-the-
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and private sector incentives. Some of these possibilities are discussed later in this

Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge:
Convention bounce is gone – Obama holds a tiny lead
Silver 9-19
[Nate, Sept. 18: Obama’s Bounce Erodes in Two Tracking Polls
, http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/sept-18-obamas-bounce-erodes-in-two-tracking-polls/]

President Obama has been on the decline in the FiveThirtyEight forecast. On Tuesday,
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since the spring, they represent highly important data series in this process.
Obama is walking an energy tightrope, plan ignites controversy – splitting the base and losing independent voters, causes the election
Schnur ‘12
[director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California; he served as the national communications director of Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2000. (Dan, April 9, "The President, Gas Prices and the Pipeline" http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/the-president-gas-prices-and-the-keystone-pipeline/-http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/the-president-gas-prices-and-the-keystone-pipeline/]

Like every president seeking re-election, Barack Obama walks the fine line every
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-election but also prioritizes the job-creation potential of the pipeline.
The public opposes new reactors
The Economist 12 (Nuclear power  The 30-year itch  America’s nuclear industry struggles to get off the floor  Feb 18th 2012 | ATLANTA | from the print edition  )

Still, nuclear power faces strong headwinds. A poll taken last year showed that
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failed to “consider the implications of Fukushima” before issuing its licences.
Romney will strike Iran
Daily Kos 12 [Daily Kos; “President Obama versus Romney on Iran”; 4/16/2012; http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/16/1083726/-President-Obama-versus-Romney-on-Iran]
Approach to foreign policy: Romney says he will “not apologize” for America
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, without bragging, and scaring the American people with needless terrorism alerts.
Intervention in Iran goes nuclear
Reuters 5-17
[“Russia says action on Syria, Iran may go nuclear” May 17, 2012 http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/us-g8-russia-idUSBRE84G18M20120517]

Hasty military operations in foreign states usually bring radicals to power," Medvedev, president
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such as Israel, Pakistan and India could get involved into a conflict.

Nuclear war would collapse civilization – extinction

Bostrum 2002 (Nick) — Prof of Philosophy @ Yale University
http://www.nickbostrom.com/existential/risks.html - last updated April 15, 2k2

The US and Russia still have huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons. But would an
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may or may not be more resilient to extinction than  other animal species.  

Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge:
Oil prices are high and key to Russia’s economy
Andrew Kramer, 2012 [New York Times writer and editor, “Higher Oil Prices to Pay for Campaign Promises” New York Times March 16, 2012 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/business/global/vladimir-putins-big-promises-need-fueling-by-high-oil-prices.html?_r=2?pagewanted=print Putin Needs ajones]
MOSCOW — In American presidential politics, high oil prices are a problem. For
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plan, though, was never part of Mr. Putin’s stump speech.
$80 a barrel oil causes a Russian recession
UK Trade and Investment, 2012 [June 19, Published by the British Embassy in Moscow, Russia: Oil and the Wider Economy – June 2012, http://www.ukti.gov.uk/export/howwehelp/overseasbusinessrisk/item/323740.html]
Nonetheless, the Russian economy is in a good place in the short term.
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months of this year alone $46.5 billion left the country.
Russian economic collapse causes extinction
Sheldon Filger, 2009 [Author for the Huffington Post, “Russian Economy Faces Disastrous Free Fall Contraction” http://www.globaleconomiccrisis.com/blog/archives/356]
In Russia, historically, economic health and political stability are intertwined to a degree
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the financial impact of the Global Economic Crisis is its least dangerous consequence.

Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge:
Growth is unsustainable – resource depletion, social breakdown and eco-collapse. 

Trainer, ’11 [Ted Trainer, Lecturer in Sociology at the University of New South Wales “The radical implications of a zero growth economy”, real-world economics review, issue no. 57, 6 September 2011, pp. 71-82, http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue57/Trainer57.pdf]

The planet is now racing into many massive problems, any one of which could
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important than this mindless obsession with accelerating the main factor causing the condition.

Decline doesn’t cause war – it’s the other way around
Bennett and Stam 2003
D. Scott Bennett is Professor of Political Science at the Pennsylvania State University.
Allan C. Stam is Associate Professor in the Government Department at Dartmouth College.  The Behavioral Origins of War http://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472098446-ch5.pdf   D.A. 7-15-10
Consistent with Goldstein’s arguments, we find periods of system wide economic growth associated with
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most) states, the incidence of war increases and rather dramatically so. 

Growth makes irreversible destruction and extinction inevitable. Collapsing the global economy is the only way out. Even if the collapse is destructive, it is better than continued growth.
Barry 08
(Dr. Glen, president and founder of Ecological Internet, “Economic Collapse and Global Ecology”, 1/14, Counter Currents, http://www.countercurrents.org/barry140108.htm, VR)
Humanity and the Earth are faced with an enormous conundrum -- sufficient climate policies enjoy
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ecosystem collapse would focus upon bringing down the Earth's industrial economy now. 

The transition would be quick and painless
Trainer 2 - Lecturer, School of Social Work, University of New South Wales (Ted, “Debating the Significance of the Global Eco-village Movement: A Reply to Takis Fotopoulos” Democracy and Nature, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2002) MGM
However I am not convinced the transition must inevitably involve overt conflict, let alone
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in a collapse of the present resource-expensive infrastructures and of legitimacy. 

Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge:
The natural gas industry is growing now – making other energies cheaper collapses the transition
McMahon ‘12
[John, Mar 29, Fracking Gas Is Writing America's Energy Policy
, http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2012/03/29/fracking-gas-is-writing-americas-energy-policy/]

“We are backing ourselves into rationality, but it’s only because of this incredible
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for nuclear power or wind or $15 to $20 for solar.

A strong domestic natural gas industry gets modeled by China
Andrew Revkin, 7/4/12, New York Times, "Can china follow US shift from coal to gas?" http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/a-greenhouse-gift-if-china-follows-u-s-shift-from-coal-to-gas/

Here’s an effort to look ahead from a promising American environmental trend to a prospect
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there’s lot of interest in shale gas in Europe, India and China.

Natural gas is key to Chinese economic growth
Wu  10 (Kang Wu, Senior Fellow, Research Program, East-West Center, Tuesday, March 16, 2010, “Natural Gas: A Clean Fuel to Meet China's Future Energy Needs,” http://www.eastwestcenter.org/events/seminar-natural-gas-clean-fuel-meet-china%E2%80%99s-future-energy-needs)
China has a huge energy market.  The world's most populous country and second-
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environmental problems and aid in the transition to a low-carbon world.

Chinese economic collapse China-Russia nuclear war and extinction
Alexander Sharavin, Director of the Institute of Military and Political Analysis, WHAT THE PAPERS SAY, October 3, 2001, p. online
China's economy is among the fastest-growing economies in the world. It remains
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both, and even against the first frost of a possible nuclear winter. 

Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge:
Text: The United States federal government should increase the federal gas tax by $1 per gallon, phased in by 10 cents per year over the next decade. 

Raising the gas tax reduces warming, boost the economy and solves oil dependence
Mankiw ’06
(Professor of Economics at Harvard> “Raise the Gas Tax” Greg Mankiw October 2006 http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/10/pigou-club-manifesto.html)
With the midterm election around the corner, here's a wacky idea you won't often
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that while higher gas taxes are unattractive, the alternatives are even worse.

More drilling accelerates warming, creates multiple scenarios for war
Deborah Gordon and Steven Anderson, 5/4/12, (Gordon is a senior associate with Carnegie and Anderson is the chief marketing officer with Relyant), "insecurity in unconventional oil," The Hill, http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-a-environment/230783-insecurity-in-unconventional-oil

The deeper we drill down, the more apparent it becomes that new domestic oil
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of new oil, the higher the cost in terms of global security.

Oil production produces lots of pollution
O’Rourke and Connolly 2003 (Dara O’Rourke, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley, and Sarah Connolly, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003, “JUST OIL? THE DISTRIBUTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACTS OF OIL PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION,” Annual Review of Environmental Resources, http://nature.berkeley.edu/orourke/PDF/JustOil-final.pdf)
In addition to operational leaks, oil spills also occur during extraction. In 2002
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, and emissions from support vehicles can degrade local air quality (41).

Air pollution causes extinction
David Driesen, Law Prof @ Syracuse, Fall/Spring 2003, Buffalo Environmental Law Journal, p ln
Air pollution can make life unsustainable by harming the ecosystem upon which all life depends
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health and the environment, air quality implicates both of these concerns. n5

ANWR development collapses key species causing extinction
EarthyCynic, Ashford University Student earning a BA in Psychology and Environmental Studies, 12
(March 7, “Why We Should NOT Drill In ANWR,” http://earthycynic.hubpages.com/hub/Why-We-Should-NOT-Drill-In-ANWR, d/a 8-4-12, ads)

The continental shelf near ANWR provides the coastal waters with a rich nutrient base,
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that have existed for thousands of years (defenders.org, 2009).

Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge:
The supply of rare earth minerals is tight now – expanding wind/solar production causes a short-term shortage – that turns hegemony, the economy, global warming and short circuits the affs ability to solve
UNEP, January 2011, (United Nations Environment Program Global Environmental Alert Service), "Green economy vulnerable to rare earth minerals shortage?" http://na.unep.net/geas/getUNEPPageWithArticleIDScript.php?article_id=55
Rare earth elements (REE) include the 17 elements on the periodic table of
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in helping create jobs, promoting economic growth, and fighting climate change.

REM supply shock will trigger trade wars – treated as an energy security issue
Layy O'Hanlon, 10/2/10, Discovery News, "rare earth metals may trigger trade wars," http://news.discovery.com/earth/rare-earth-metals-trade-wars.html
There is a long list of elements, mostly rare metals, that are currently
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and if they are not mined domestically, there are energy security issues.

Trade wars escalate and go nuclear
Miller and Elwood 88 (Vincent, Founder and President of the International Society for Individual Liberty, and James, Vice-President, “Free trade or protectionism? The Case Against Trade Restrictions,” http://www.isil.org/resources/lit/free-trade-protectionism.html)
When Goods Don't Cross Borders, Armies Often Do History is not lacking in examples
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? Can we afford to allow this to happen in the nuclear age?

Tournament: UNT | Round: 5 | Opponent: KCK | Judge:
Hagel will be confirmed and it comes before the debt ceiling, but it’s a huge fight—-requires all of Obama’s political capital
Wong and Raju 1-6 Scott and Manu, 2013, "Hagel takes fire from Hill," http://www.nj.com/us-politics/index.ssf/2013/01/hagel_takes_fire_from_hill.html
Senate Democrats and Republicans are far from sold on President Barack Obama’s expected nomination of
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Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said in mid-December.
Plan is a flip flop for Obama – he’s pushing stricter regulations
Ngai, Huffington Post Contributor, 12
(Catherine, May 5, "Obama -http://www.lexisnexis.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/lnacui2api/search/XMLCrossLinkSearch.do?bct=A%26risb=21_T15171602866%26returnToId=20_T15171612367%26csi=334941%26A=0.05990522921649877%26sourceCSI=9369%26indexTerm=%23PE000A0BO%23%26searchTerm=Obama %26indexType=Pproposes public land fracking rules," Lexis, d/a 7-20-12, ads)
The Obama administration -http://www.lexisnexis.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/lnacui2api/search/XMLCrossLinkSearch.do?bct=A%26risb=21_T15171602866%26returnToId=20_T15171612367%26csi=334941%26A=0.05990522921649877%26sourceCSI=9369%26indexTerm=%23PE000A0BO%23%26searchTerm=Obama administration %26indexType=Preleased draft rules Friday that would require companies to publicly disclose what chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing operations on public lands. Currently, operators are not required to disclose the chemicals they use on federal land, where approximately 90 percent of the wells drilled use hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," techniques. The proposed rules would require public disclosure of chemicals used after fracturing operations have been completed.
Hagel’s key to foreign policy restraint that prevents unsustainable squandering of U.S. power—-the alternative is Flournoy who would lock in a neocon foreign policy  
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos 12-25, longtime political reporter for FoxNews.com and a contributing editor at The American Conservative, Washington correspondent for Homeland Security Today magazine, 12/25/12, "Give Us Chuck Hagel for Christmas," http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2012/12/24/give-us-hagel-for-christmas/-http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2012/12/24/give-us-hagel-for-christmas/
Now a Democratic President is reportedly mulling him for defense secretary and the same Republican
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Hamas in hopes of reanimating the corpse of the Middle East pace process.
Furthermore, Hagel’s flagrant disdain for the runaway MIC (military industrial complex), preemptive
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, rather than putting their rear-ends in harm’s way over there.
The War Against Hagel has hardly been decisive, however, at least as we
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that Hagel’s independence would be a help not a hindrance where it counts:
What we need are American officials who will speak with disconcerting bluntness to Israel about
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is not bound to old models, could be useful in this regard.
Many of us see Hagel’s impact in much broader terms than just the Israel question
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by Americans conditioned to accept there is a military solution for every problem.
"In a town dominated by often-unexamined conventional wisdom, the appointment of
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a liberal hawk, he thinks there should be limits on American power."
Although President Obama has, so far, not said a word about Hagel, the former senator who quietly spent the last four years chairing the moderate Atlantic Council, is enjoying an enthusiastic defense from myriad commentators across the mainstream, including Andrew Sullivan, Steve Clemons, Peter Beinart — even Jim Judis at The New Republic. Several ambassadors — including Bush-era Nick Burns and Ryan Crocker and three Israel representatives — signed on to a letter encouraging his nomination.
Meanwhile, The National Journal and The Washington Post have published biographical sketches emphasizing Hagel’s
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astutely swatting away the haters at every turn of this increasingly torrid offensive.
Michele Flournoy
But while many of us here at Antiwar would like a Hagel nomination for Christmas
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who see a kindred soul where Hagel is just heartburn ready to happen.
So buttressed is Flournoy by the Washington elite that people like Paul Wolfowitz, who
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casualty count was much lower then —- 117 in 2007 to be exact.
When liberal flak Eleanor Clift wrote about the prospects of the "first female defense
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today’s accounts of continuing bloat, waste and mission creep are any indication.
Frankly, one hears a lot about Flournoy the "team player" but very
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pushing it in a more realist direction than we have in the past."
Perhaps that is why so many of us here are excited about the prospect.
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or personality of one man, even if he is at the apex."
Still, if a Flournoy pick would signal an endorsement of the status quo,
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who ended up running, and losing, in the last two elections).

Foreign policy restraint’s key to the legitimacy of U.S. power and global liberal norms—-avoids great power war and builds coalitions to ensure China rises peacefully
Kevin Fujimoto 12, Lt. Colonel, U.S. Army, January 11, 2012, "Preserving U.S. National Security Interests Through a Liberal World Construct," online: http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/index.cfm/articles/Preserving-US-National-Security-Interests-Liberal-World-Construct/2012/1/11-http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/index.cfm/articles/Preserving-US-National-Security-Interests-Liberal-World-Construct/2012/1/11
With a credible threat to its leading position in a unipolar global order, the
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protect its interests later when we are no longer the world’s only superpower.

Unchecked Chinese rise risks global nuclear war
C. Dale Walton 7, Lecturer in International Relations and Strategic Studies at the University of Reading, 2007, Geopolitics and the Great Powers in the 21st Century, p. 49
Obviously, it is of vital importance to the United States that the PRC does
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a healthy multipolar system that is not marked by close great power alliances.