Scary alternet article...

[conuly]

It's about oil.

I don't know the accuracy of the article. It doesn't especially matter, we know and have known for years that fossil fuels are nonrenewable. Furthermore, we know, or should know, that the United States has the highest per capita consumption rate in the world. And if we don't know this, we should figure it out soon, our dependency on foreign oil is crippling us.

What pisses me off is that there are so many ways to reduce our dependancy on oil. I could retrofit my house to be fairly self-sustained (okay, it'd be hard, especially as solar power is none to reliable this far north, but I could do it) and it wouldn't even kill the piggy bank. So it can't be that inconceivable for us to do something larger!

Let's see what we've got:

1. Look into alternative energy sources
a. solar
b. wind
c. natural gas/methane (which is actually renewable)
d. hydroelectric (okay, so it is hell to the fishies)
e. nuclear (eventually, we'll lack fissionable material and there is the meltdown risk, this is a last resort)

2. Reduce consumption on the main grid
a. make products more energy efficient
a1. make appliances that less energy while in use
a2. make appliances that use less energy while turned off... or simply unplug them. Most appliances use energy just by being plugged in.
b. for smaller appliances like radios, there are some which you can wind up, mostly used for camping or disasters... or you could convert gyms so that every time somebody runs on the treadmill or the bike, it produces some output :)

3. Reduce non-electric oil use in cars
a. electric cars, anyone? Or at least hybrids? Or at least NON-SUVS?
b. two words: public transportation. This also reduces traffic
c. two more words: BIKING and WALKING. This also reduces weight.

4. Reduce oil use for plastics
a. theoretically, one can make plastics (biodegradable!) from plants... but they stopped research into that
b. recycle?

This is all off the top of my head, of course. Any more ideas?

Based on that article, I think I want to start a commune to await the fall of civilization as we know it. Query. Do non-religious communes get tax breaks, or would I have to start a cult?

Comments

[rachelkachel]

I think my point was that supply and demand will take care of the alternatives. I'm a great believer in the free market. So as soon as oil is expensive enough that it makes economic sense to research alternatives, it will happen. It might be prudent to start now; it might be a waste of money. If people (not the government, preferably) want to spend the money to explore alternate fuel sources, more power to them (no pun intended). I think eventually it will happen on its own; until then, I don't think it's a big concern. For me anyway.

[conuly]

I'm not a believer in the free market. I can see it's benefits, but I think that it has some serious flaws. Mostly because the way things work now, most people are tragically apathic and/or ignorant. They may honestly believe that we're spending more money in that than we are.

I do believe that, as we'll have to switch some day, the sooner we spend the money, the better. In the long run, it's cheaper.

But then, I don't think we'll ever agree on this :) You can certainly keep debating, that's what makes life interesting.