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221 comments on Thursday open thread

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SRSrocco on April 7, 2006 - 10:11am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Typhoon, we are heading into uncharted waters.  This society of ours...and I have to steal Matt Savinar's expression, WE ARE DRIVING OUR CARS FULL SPEED OFF THE BRIDGE.  Americans on the most part..have good hearts and intentions...but the brain stems have been dislodged some generations ago.  It is certainly something to worry about in the future.  The Hurricanes and their effects on the price of gas and the lines at the pump was a RED LIGHT to the American Public.  But, instead of this waking us up,  we went out and kept buying and filling up large SUV's.

The logistics of replacing MTBE with Ethanol is going to be a difficult one at best.  This will be apparent by price volatility on the open market.  One's biggest concern, should not be what will gas prices be this summer or next, but what will they be by 2009-2010.  Most people that I know plan on living more than a few years.  And, it is in the future where the real damage of energy shortages will be felt.

I don't believe people....even many bloggers on this website have a good grasp of just how difficult the future will be.  Now, to me, it will be a blessing.  People are working to hard and dieing too soon from disease from stress and junk food diets.  Going back to more of a simple life, might just be what the doctor ordered.  But of course, many people will fight tooth and nail to keep what they think is important...their Mc Mansions and Mc Suvs.  I believe the biggest area of opportunity in the future will be in recycling of large commercial buildings and infrastructure of our large cities into goods that can be used in a more sustainable lifestyle.

If one really thinks about it, all technology has done if you take it to its simplest denominator, is allowed us to use recources quicker and faster.  Walking is healthy.  All a car does, is speed up walking....get you there quicker and faster.  Not really better.  Cell phones, they just allow one to communicate over a long distance.  When people lived closer...no one needed cell phones..all you had to do was open you Cave Door and yell.  Jeeesh, that was better for ya...you won't get brain tumors from yelling.

Secondly, people tend to drive long distances to love ones and are strangers in their own neighborhoods.  If you think about it...that's quite silly.  I could go on and on, but in the end....we are going to have to live much more local.....just like Kunstler says.  So those whose brain stems are still attached...you have time to sell your house in the Burbs, move to the country...buy gold and silver and grow your own fruits and vegetables.  Then you won't have to worry about future events..you can just watch them unfold on the evening news.

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odograph on April 7, 2006 - 10:25am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Actually, the changes have begun.  The fact that the government lets us feel a pinch as we go from MTBE to ethanol is probably part of it.  It's a wide program of E10 and biofuel, right?  And of course SUV sales are down, bigtime.  Hybrid sales are up.  I'm too lazy to make an exhaustive list, but this past winter was a big time for change.  There are certainly laggards, folks who buy SUVs in the spring of '06, and the laggard companies who try to sell them ... but that's going to happen in any population response.  Fortunately the laggards do not define the trend.

(Geez, the GM "yellow gascap" campaign is a sad, rearguard, action when you think about it.  The fact that they push a non-oil reason to buy SUVs means that the game has seriously changed.)

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221 comments on Thursday open thread

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