<DrumBeat: July 2, 2009 The Oil Drum DrumBeat: July 3, 2009>

290 comments on Risk Assessments: Playing the "What If?" Game

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SailDog on July 2, 2009 - 7:02pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

This is a great response; and it would be nice if it could be broadcast several times a day for a week to everybody on the planet.

But it won't be; and we will continue to burn coal (oil and gas are almost irrelevant in this debate). Here in Australia we dig a lot of coal out of the ground. Trainloads of it pass within 200m of my house every day on its way to the docks to be burnt in China. And that is the real problem. Coal is a huge part of our economy and the government is promoting it and building new facilities to increase exports even as it is trying to pass our very own cap and trade system in parliament. The coal lobby even has offices in government departments and writes energy policy. Huge money changes hands between the government and the industry in taxes that are the paid back as subsidies of one sort or another. Australians, already the fourth worst carbon emitters on a per capita basis (UAE, Kuwait and Saudi are ahead of us) would be the worst by a long way if the CO2 impact of our coal exports were added in. I see no chance that coal will be left in the ground. Sequestration is nonsense; and so I am afraid we are doomed to destroy the viability of human life on this planet.

We could build an economy based on renewables, but it would require a new social order and the dismantling of the coal lobby.

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Mamba on July 2, 2009 - 9:16pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The consequences of a statement like this one above, when the truth of it sinks into everyone —not just us pointyheads— is that blood will flow. The stakes have never been higher in the history of humankind. If ever there were a reason to become a terrorist, to hunt down and kill lobbyists, industrialists and politicians, this is surely it. I am a mild person who would never do such things, but I foresee the day when others, less timid, will regard their bleak future in rage and turn to thoughts of retribution.

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Termoil on July 3, 2009 - 12:33am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Careful, Big Brother is watching don't you know.

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Neil1947 on July 3, 2009 - 1:37am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Saildog,
"We could build an economy based on renewables, but it would require a new social order and the dismantling of the coal lobby.
That's no excuse for not doing something on a personnel level then again, some prefer to grumble and do nothing. The Liberal's solution; do nothing. The Greens solution; block something being done by the government, because its not perfect or doesn't go far enough in other words ; joint the Liberals and do nothing.

Lot's of positive steps can be taken now without a new social order or dismantling the coal industry although long term this industry is doomed.

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SailDog on July 3, 2009 - 3:34am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hi Neil1947

I agree with everything you say. One minute I am hopeful and full of energy and commitment to go out and change the world, the next I think about the enormity of it all and get very despondent. Lately I have become more convinced than ever that humans are in deep overshoot and that a significant die back is inevitable. Maybe this will sort out global warming and a CPRS will not be needed.

I am a Green Party member and support their opposition to CPRS as espoused by Labour. My view is that the coal lobby have hijacked Labour's good intentions and the current bill is little more than an expensive smokescreen designed to obscure Labour's obsequious kow-towing to the coal lobby. It is shameful yet I have to admit that I admire Rudd's political ability. He is uncannily like Tony Blair in that regard, he just has more of the apparatchik about him.

Actually I hope that CPRS is not implemented, though I suspect it will in an even weaker form. A carbon tax would be much better.

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jokuhl on July 3, 2009 - 1:15pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

"The Greens solution; block something being done by the government, because its not perfect or doesn't go far enough in other words ; joint the Liberals and do nothing."

Give it a break. There are volumes of Greens pushing this stuff with all they've got, and no small number of Liberals, too.. along with a handful of fine and stalwart conservatives.

If you want to say something useful, make a pie chart, find out the real numbers of who is lobbying for new visions in Transportation and Energy, and we can get a view of who's getting ignored and ridiculed because their corporate and reactionary opponents have all-too-successfully blocked any change that criticizes 'Homo-Consumpticus'

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290 comments on Risk Assessments: Playing the "What If?" Game

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