thatmosis
My comment in regards to cars makes complete sense when applied to theme of this thread. We are discussing climate change, and as per my previous posts I would like to reiterate:
-Rudolf Diesel's engine originally operated on vegetable oil, there was no fossil "diesel" fuel yet, diesel fuels were named after the engine, not the engine after the fuel.
- Nikolaus Otto 4 stroke "petrol" engine ran on ethanol as there was also no fossil "petrol" fuel yet either
Given these were the first effective car propulsion devices (apart from EV) at the time, we would have been better off sticking to biodiesel and ethanol, as renewable fuels they would have had no impact on the climate. It would seem that since these combustion engines inception, they have "devolved" into fossil fuel spewing, completely overpowered, mobile fossil to CO2 conversion devices, designed to satisfy proud rev-heads bent on trying to prove something, but completely lacking any feeling in their lives, apart from the feeling of acceleration they get, when they mash the pedal down on their way to nowhere.
BTW please read this interesting definition on our current money system and social split personality towards climate change : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
The "Franklin effect" is a interesting concept.
I think it might help in forming a opinion on the perceived cost on changing to RE.
@ everyone
On the point that a global effort is required to combat climate change, I agree to this with the following provision:
Climate change is a locally produced global problem.
In order to remove the problem we must fix it locally, in our own "backyards".
Third world nations are still predominately RE. Why? Because they can't "afford" fossils. So lets take the next logical step and introduce to developing nations a fossil free economy like RE. That way at least we won't have them following our footsteps into climate doom, because they aspire to obtain our quality of life.
As leaders in the development of all technology, especially RE tech, the industrialized nations have the obligation to provide this technology to every person on this planet.
"These technological capabilities are given to us via the tools we create from resources, tools conceived from human ideas (as the fallacy "economic growth"), these magnify our natural abilities, and extend the control of individuals over the environment and even human activity itself." (JB original quote!)
We have the capability and therefore we have the response-ability...
The difference between slavery and climate change is that one wouldn't necessarily bring about the demise of mankind, the other could. A "fair" comparison would be subjective, if however you incorporate droughts, hunger and economically imbalanced "slavery" caused by climate change, the moral objectives would be nearly identical. The "upside" is that the enslavers (us) will get another chance to devise a scheme for world domination though a all encompassing global carbon tax on life!
I believe the solution lies in a localized community system that can predominately support a minimum quality of life from local resources, as opposed to centralized industrialization. All of this unnecessary and ineffective trade, that is driven by countries with cheap (slave) labor like China needs to stop. When was the last time anyone saw a piece of electronics gear with (entirely) "Made in Australia"? We already have the technology to construct devices that can outlive generations, and I think if we became more focused on product recycleability, quality and overall lifecycle cost and effectiveness, rather than cheap, nasty and useless after the first use, our resource demand will become much more sustainable. I think we simply throw to many resources away in a hole, while others have none. It might just be possible that when we stop behaving like locusts, we might just start behaving all together, like humans.
Maybe we should take the opportunity to fix the climate problem, as an opportunity to fix a few other problems as well.
Posted Friday 27 Aug 2010 @ 5:24:06 am from IP
#