Horace Heffner wrote:
In other words, the failure here is in the scientific community,
not in the national political leadership.
I suspect this is not entirely true. Some of the failure may be due
to lobbyists and political dogma.
True. There is plenty of blame to go around. I should have said "the
failure is mainly in the scientific community . . ."
My solution to this old problem was to get it permanently as far out
of the hands of politics as possible:
http://mtaonline.net/~hheffner/LegacyPlan.pdf
Honestly, I disagree with this policy. I do not think that any part
of government can or should be removed from the hand of politics.
We may find the political process distasteful, but politics are an
inescapable part of human nature. All institutions and all groups of
people and other primates are political. A standalone, separate
"Renewable Energy Agency" would be as political as the Democratic
National Committee, the IBM Board of Directors or Huizenga's ERAB committee.
Furthermore, the U.S. is a democracy, however flawed, and ultimately
the voters are responsible for all policy and all political outcomes.
Yes, of course special interests run deceptive advertising. The
ethanol policy, for example, is an ecological and economic disaster
foisted upon us by greedy industry flacks and ignorant politicians.
But the voters fell for it, so it is their fault. I have seen many
articles about the problems with ethanol in newspapers and magazines.
The information is out there, and voters have the responsibility to
keep themselves informed about such important issues. If enough
people write to their representatives demanding an end to the ethanol
program, they will end it. If we demand they raise CAFE standards and
promote the use of hybrids, they will do that, too. And if enough
people demand cold fusion research I am certain it will be funded.
Some people feel I am an idealist because I express such faith in
ordinary folks and democracy. This is a misunderstanding. I have no
more "faith" than any other cynical newspaper reader does. What I
have is good evidence that ordinary people and social institutions
USUALLY work. This evidence is grounded in Darwinian evolution and
history. As I said in the book (chapter 19):
"Our ancestors often choose wisely and accomplished many wonderful
things, after all. They improved life for everyone, and abolished
inhuman institutions such as slavery and child labor in the U.S. . .
. I believe the majority of people favor scientific research and the
responsible use of new technology. Most people will do the right
thing, once the issues are clearly explained by the media and by
moderate political leaders.
Most people are sensible and right-minded. Our species would not have
survived otherwise. Democracy and the free market system would never
have worked. . . ."
I know as well as anyone that social institutions sometimes fail
drastically. Groups of people sometimes destroy their environment and
go extinct. See Jared Diamond's book "Collapse." Entire nations go
insane and cause appalling harm, the way Germany and Japan did in the
1930s and '40s, and the U.S. Confederacy did in the Civil War.
I have no doubt that we can fix the energy crisis. The technical
means are at hand, with or without cold fusion. Our society has fixed
equally difficult problems in the past. Human nature has not changed;
Americans are as smart and capable as they ever were; our political
institutions have not changed much, and they are no more corrupt or
run by special interests than they ever were. So there is no reason
to think we cannot solve this problem. But failure is always an
option. I am certain that we are capable of making terrible mistakes
and destroying the continent.
- Jed
