<DrumBeat: June 20, 2008 The Oil Drum Saudi Arabia - opening the tap?>

95 comments on Have we passed “Peak Travel?”

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CB on June 20, 2008 - 12:35pm Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

Native American males on the plains would paint themselves, run off their high spirits on horseback and then glorify it with song. That was sustainable. Our mistake was to "energize" the same need for release with machines and fuel that could not be sustainably used (still glorifying it with song). The challenge now is to come up with new ways of letting off steam that do not contract our future options.

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alphasigmookie on June 20, 2008 - 4:27pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Argueably it was even less sustainable than the automobile. Remember at the time that Henry Ford introduced the model T cities were having MAJOR polution (and disease) problems due to massive amounts of horse poop. Imagine if every car on the road left a steaming pile everyhwere it went...and you think diesel exhaust is dirty! In addition feeding the many millions of horses was putting a strain on food supplies.

"The normal city horse produced between fifteen and thirty-five pounds of manure a day and about a quart of urine, usually distributed along the course of its route or deposited in the stable. "

http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/578.html

http://www.all-creatures.org/nyca/ch-hist-19711000.html

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95 comments on Have we passed “Peak Travel?”

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