So many ironies... here at the end of industrial civilization the USA is obsessed with the Michael Jackson trial. all that wealth, and we used it to make tossable aluminum cans of diet coke.
On the surface we have the Casandra problem -- some of us getting it, and the rest oblivious. Vesuvius rumbles and trickles gray smoke; but the populace sees only a sunny sky.
But is the problem that the populace is ignorant, too used to comfort, or is it willfully ignorant? How can anyone who remembers President Jimmy Carter not have a clue after hearing him on July 15, 1979, when he said:
> I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy
> of the United States. Beginning this moment, this
> Nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in
> 1977 - never. From now on, every new addition to our
> demand for energy will be met from our own production
> and our own conservation. The generation - long growth in
> our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its
> tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the
> 1980's, for I am tonight setting the further goal of
> cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by
> the end of the next decade - a saving of over 4 1/2
> million barrels of imported oil per day.
France "got it". It made changes then so now NONE of its electricity comes from fossil fuels (but only at the terrible risks of nuclear waste and breeder reactors).
Americans knew for awhile... now we all drive SUVS and have 3 televisions and the hall light stays on even when no one is there to see it (instead of only go ON when someone is there thanks to a movement sensor). Reagan ended Carter's energy initiatives, Clinton never reinstated them, and Al "ecological" Gore and John "liberal" Kerry never even acknowledged the issue. They helped keep the secrets that oil won't "run out" but it will be in decline, and natural gas will follow in ten years, and coal is a less adequate and much more temporary substitute than we were ever told. Ethanol and the "hydrogen economy" are an even bigger scandal -- for now, both use up more fossil fuels than they provide in alternative energy.
We deserve what we get. Our great grandchildren already hate us.
So what to do?
1. Buy the stocks of coal companies?
2. Fly airlines while any non-military ones are left?
3. meet-up oilawareness.meetup.com
4. Dream
Dreaming is the most important part.
Imagine if instead of blowing up Iraq we used the money to build a 400mph railroad from San Francisco to Chicago. Or (here's a crazy one!) instead of subsidizing highways we substidize railroads. Or let's say we spend a few hundred billion per year to accelerate the possibility of fusion energy (it's a long shot, but not crazy, and in theory it's provides the most net energy of any alternative, though still not quite as rich cheap oil). Or for every person willing to surrender their television give them an upright piano (we're going to have to entertain ourselve's somehow).
The are many possible bright sides to this. No one was very happy with the suburban dream anyway, the idea it's going to end might be an improvement. And serious people have been dreaming up better alternatives for years. newurbanism.org At least we won't have to hear about Michael Jackson anymore.
GW's answer is apparently to secure the Middle East for us, backed by advisors with apocalyptic visions. What would Al Gore have done?
Funny to think that old Supreme Court that gave the crown to GW may have decided the fate of so many, and for so long.
- northernspy1@aol.com |
