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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed
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To: Ilaine who wrote (102258)5/15/2001 5:23:05 PM
From: Art Bechhoefer  Read Replies (2) of 436258
 
Cobalt, I'm not so audacious to think I know what's best for the nation as a whole. However, I, like others, can easily calculate how long it will take to use up all reasonably priced fossil fuel sources in the world. And it will take a lot less time once China and India improve their standard of living, as is happening now.

The people who argue that all we need to do is find more oil and gas supplies fail to recognize that (1) the supplies are finite, at least over the next 1000 years, and (2) the cost of finding and retrieving the supplies keeps going up as supplies get used up. The model for understanding where the present energy policy ends up is known as "the tragedy of the commons." It is simply that when a lot of people try to make use of a finite resource (e.g., the commons area in old medieval villages, used as a common grazing area), it is to each individual's best interest to make maximum use of the common area, but eventually such overuse makes the whole resource more expensive for everyone, and even may render the resource useless in the end.

The proper public policy for energy (as for commercial fishing and numerous other activities that make use of a common resource) is to strike a balance between individual needs and the needs of the whole community. Simply looking for more supplies does NOT constitute intelligent public policy.

Art Bechhoefer
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