>>peak oil will occur, but when.Oil is a finite commodity, so it's not a question of if
This is a terrible remark : it actually means that the search for alternate (and hopefully clean) energy sources will start seriously ONLY when peak oil will be reached... when ecologists started to ring the bell about pollution and related topics more than 30 years ago...
This is why I risk the bandwidth to encourage people to read about it, draw their own conclusions, and advise their government employees accordingly.
Looking at the bright side and hopefully bringing this a little more on-topic, a lot of the necessary research has been done.
Buckminster Fuller coined the phrase "Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science" to describe the practice of identifying problems and finding solutions before the mainstream is ever affected. So if a problem is ignored long enough to become a sobering slap in the face, some researchers and designers will have already done enough groundwork to get at least a running start toward a solution.
Once you start looking you may be pleasantly surprised to find how much has already been done; all that remains is a policy to put it into action to start saving money today. If $2 per gallon seems high, remember that's only the price you pay at the pump -- once you consider total costs in subsidies, environmental cleanup, securing oil supplies, etc., most Americans have been paying an aggregate of around $10 per gallon for many years (some say $8, some say $15, but everyone agrees the pump price is just a fraction of total consumer cost).
This is where I try to bring it back on topic: a lot of what can be done with Rev facilitates telecommuting. Not only does telecommuting save enormously in fuel costs, but also in peace of mind, greater productivity, and lower health care and infrastructure costs from not dealing with rush-hour traffic every day.
True, computer manufacturing is almost as toxic as hospital waste, but if you donate old computers when you upgrade you keep them out of the landfills longer while doing a good deed for a local non-profit who could use them, and getting a tax deduction on top of it -- a win-win-win solution.
When you build something for a client with libURL or other Internet library you're contributing, however modestly, to what Fuller would call "a design science revolution", in which you deliver immediate economic benefit to your client while reducing the per-capita resource footprint for the task at hand, which ultimately benefits everyone.
I've exceeded my quota of off-topic posts for the month with this thread. I appreciate the patience of the readers here, and I promise to post briefly and on-topic for at least through the end of the month.
If energy issues are of interest to you check my Web site on 4/4/04 when I'll be adding my company's Energy Policy page to compliment the existing Privacy Policy; hopefully one day every company will post their energy policy.
-- Richard Gaskin Fourth World Media Corporation ___________________________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.FourthWorld.com _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
