American oil

I think publiic transportation is impractical.

Another example of the sort of American wrongheadedness that is continuing these problems.

Of course public transportation is practical. More people in the world use it than private vehicles. Driving to work everyday alone in a car is actually kind of a perversion, in world terms, not to mention destructive.

It's been MANY years since I owned a car. I lived 3 years without one in SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. A place like Seattle or Boston, there is no reason whatsoever to have a car just to get to work.

Nobody waits 10 hours to catch a bus.

See what's happening: people DEFEND wasting gas. Can't see any alternative. Exaggerate reasons not to change from suicidal consumption.

And not only won't listen to good advice on the subject, but distort it and ignore it.

Nobody else said anything about alternative energy--just use less of the energy on hand. Something everybody can do, every day. And be healthier for it.

One thing I used to notice back during periods when I'd drive to work (working as a freelance reporter/photographer, for instance) instead of bicycling was that it not only made me physically soft, but made me stupid. And irritable.

There was a weirder one than Lava. The outdoor catalog I wrote and ran was selling a soap made from Mt. St. Helens ash for awhile.

MS Reynolds wrote:

I think publiic transportation is impractical...you're not being realistic.

In order to change the way that we consider and use fuel you have to want to change, not wait for "someone" like "the government" to do it for you. There may never be anything as convenient to you personally as oil and gas unless you look at and seriously consider alternatives.

Like Ghandi said...Be the change that you wish to see in the world.

.

lin wrote:

One thing I used to notice back during periods when I'd drive to work (working as a freelance reporter/photographer, for instance) instead of bicycling was that it not only made me physically soft, but made me stupid. And irritable.

Do you take car journeys before you post on the forum?

If we really wanted to make the investment as a nation, we could have significant alternative energy sources up and running in a few years, not decades. Look at how fast the space program evolved in the 1960's We went from the first American satilite in 1958 to landing men on the moon in 1969. That's a span of only eleven years. If America did something on the scale of the Apollo moon program with regards to alternative energy, we could get a lot done in a relatively short period of time. Spending the money on developing and inplimenting alternative energy sources as quickly as possible would be far better than flushing the money down the golden Baghdad toilet. We need to break our addiction to oil and fossil fuels as quickly as possible. We need to invest in the future. At best, we might have 100 years of ever more expensive oil left and mayby 500 years of coal and natural gas, which are also bound to get much more expensive as time goes on. On the other hand, we have over five billion years of sunlight and wind left and many thousands of years of uranium availible.

And if they diverted some of the money from the space program into a national energy plan, they could probably do it pretty darned quick Gordon.
PS. I love your expression about money going down the golden Baghdad toilet.

Gordon,
man can accomplish anything when he/she puts the mind to it. The problem is the will/desire to do it. People with vision take those steps. People who want a free ride, not willing to give in order to get, will always be around dragging their feet, crying about how inconvenient/tough things are. They are like the person sitting in front of a stove, saying: "Stove, give me heat and then I'll give you wood."
There's a price to be paid for things of value. Many are simply not willing to pay that price and live as parasites with those who do.

Abe, I"m not srue how to take this post - Are you saying that I'm a parasite and complaining about things being tough?

Since this is on my thread, and the comment is ambiguous, I don't know who you're talking about.

My husband works 16 hour days at a job he loves. He's on call for 24/7 not only because of EPA, he's a First Responder and Chief. I'm not going into what I do. I resent the implication that I complain and therefore, a 'parasite'.

I seem to have very little in common with members of this site.

--Melinda

Pam wrote:

And if they diverted some of the money from the space program into a national energy plan, they could probably do it pretty darned quick Gordon.
PS. I love your expression about money going down the golden Baghdad toilet.

And if we developed new alternative energy technologies, prehapse those technologies could one day give us an even better space program!

Alt energy may be closer than you think...

BUG POOP fuel!!!!!!!!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece

And we're back to Israel again...weren't the chillen of Iz saved by manna from heaven...which some scientists theorize might have been insect excreta?

I'm still waiting for Pam to tell us what she said to get her mouth washed out with Lifebuoy.

Dick I said what at the time would have been considered a string of very bad words...although now they would not be much worse than saying something like "yer ugly and yer mother's got ya wearing poopy drawers" I think.

Speaking of poop, Lin do we have to resort to bug poop? My Dad used fish poop (or maybe they were dead fish) on the garden one year as fertilizer (he's a hippy--no chemicals allowed) and the stink was unreal. The flies actually moved from the local dump to our yard for the entire summer, it was that bad.

Maybe the off gases could be stored to fuel the revolutionized space program we're designing...hmm, now that's fuel for thought.

You could take all the poop and use it to make methane gas, which could be burned to generate electricity and heat buildings. Compressed methane could be used to power cars, barbecue grills, stoves, portable generators, and even airplanes. Liquid methane when combined with liquid oxygen could be used as rocket fuel. That's right, we could fly to the moon on a rocket powered by methane made form poop!

Now that's poop with a mission! Vroom Vroom Vroom!!

Quote :

Speaking of poop, Lin do we have to resort to bug poop?

Well, if those bugs insist on pooping, we may as well make it useful.

Pam,
don't forget that poop happens in various forms. Consider diarrhea of the mouth.

Not all that bad unless it occurs at the same time as constipation of the brain.

You guys kill me! Well actually you haven't killed me. I am still here and in fine form, and fortunately not suffering from verbal diarrhea nor constipation. And since it's been ages, I think it's time for a little bit of chocolate...

You've got the right idea, Pam! More chocolate, all around!!

You're right Zada. It's been ages since we had conversations turn to food...not that the absence of food conversations is a bad thing, but I find that if I am writing about food then I am not eating, which is much better for my girlish figure...

About six or seven years ago I was put on a diet which I have completely ignored except for one thing: I can eat all the chocolate I want.
So put my candy bar back, Pam.

For you Dick, anything.

The rising price of fuel has had an impact with a significant drop in consumption. That is/was a positive step. Less consumption means less pollution as well. Now we hear that Saudi Arabia has agreed to increase production and that implies that prices will come down. How many will continue to conserve with lower prices or do we only do what is right when we are hurting?

Good point, Abe. Most folks only go to the dentist when they are in pain, and I think conserving will be the same way. When it hits the pocketbook, folks back off. When prices come down it goes back to business as usual.