As always, Karl is on the mark, even with the uncertainty he admits to about the "ugly" future. Are we brats?? Perhaps. Will higher prices be the paddle that wakes us up and to change? Stay tuned. I like to emphasize conservation & increased efficiencies in our technologies as the least painful way to ease the ascent into a higher civilization.
See in this week's Ithaca Times a letter by Harley Campbell entitled: Filthy Water Cannot Be Washed." It's based on an article in Scientific American, 8/27/09 on the destructive & toxic aftermath of extracting natural gas from below Wyoming. Campbell wrote: "While natural gas is a valuable commodity, it is not as valuable as clean water. We cannot survive without clean water. If the aquifiers are contaminated we will no longer have clean water, any of us." Maybe fracking is coming to the Southern Tier & northwards. Let's do whatever we can to stop "fracking" and other forms of energy addiction that could destroy the water supplies of the Finger Lakes. Tony Del Plato On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 1:36 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:23:02 -0400 Jon Bosak <[email protected]> writes: > > Here's an article that puts the fracking issue into a larger > > context: > > > > http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/KI24Dj02.html > > In this article Michael Klare makes a strong case for the likelyhood of > decades more of heavy dependence on fossil fuels. He says market forces - > rising global energy demand and shrinking supply causing rising energy > prices - will drive a race to extract ever more costly, lower quality > fossil fuels, of which fracked gas is only one. This will cause untold > environmental damage but will happen anyway in his view. I find his > scenario persuasive because for decades I have found Klare to be a > reliable source on the geopolitics of natural resource control. > > Klare has little to say about the question I find most interesting: How > will energy consumption patterns respond to rising energy price, and how > will that affect the quality of life of the average person? I have tended > to be pessimistic about this, but there are so many key variables to > consider, often pulling in different directions, and so few are trained > to study big picture dynamics, that a wide range of scenarios has > emerged, often reflecting a focus on just the variables a given > specialist can handle. > > For example, Klare says: > "So great is our demand for energy, and so well-entrenched the existing > systems for delivering the fuels we consume, that (barring a staggering > surprise) we will remain for years to come in a no-man's-land between the > Petroleum Age and an age that will see the great flowering of renewable > energy. Think of this interim period as -- to give it a label -- the Era > of Xtreme Energy, and in just about every sense imaginable from pricing > to climate change, it is bound to be an ugly time." > Maybe. He does make a good case for a long, bitter tail on the Petroleum > Age, and its environmental consequences. But why won't rising energy > costs drive people in the US to reduce energy use by reducing our energy > extravagance and waste that is enormous even compared to other highly > industrialized societies like Europe and Japan ? This argument just > applies to energy consumption the same market forces argument that Klare > applies to derive his energy production scenario. > > Today, per capita average energy consumption in France is still only a > fraction of ours. I lived in Europe at various times during the > 1950s-1970s before their recent expansion of auto use competing with > public transport, supermarkets encroaching on farmers markets, outbreaks > of suburban sprawl and other attempts to copy "the American dream". > European energy use during that period was even much lower than it is in > Europe today. Yet I did not feel like I was living in Third World > poverty. Actually I felt my quality of life to be higher than living in > the US. > > I get Klare's analysis that global conflict over dwindling supplies of > energy and other resources is likely to be ugly. But what is going to > stop us from converting our housing, transportation, food production, > etc. to forms that use far less energy, ways of living that worked in > Europe and still do today to an extent unknown in the US, as our present > way of life becomes increasingly expensive and unaffordable? Is Klare > counting on us remaining stuck like spoiled brats in the distorted values > of our "happy motoring" dream? > > Karl North > Northland Sheep Dairy, Freetown, New York USA > www.geocities.com/northsheep/ > "Pueblo que canta no morira" - Cuban saying > "They only call it class warfare when we fight back" - Anon. > > > ____________________________________________________________ > Best Weight Loss Program - Click Here! > > http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTFoYbfKtbpEJnFd12BIJjAhvwRJ15bISvr1fExkv7A1rxO0M0pYdi/ > _______________________________________________ > For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, > please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > Questions about the list? ask > [email protected] > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > -- No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets. - Edward Abbey _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
