Monday, December 10, 2007

Missing From the Political Debate

It's always frustrating when something you predict doesn't happen. But it's worse when it's something that really matters. And global warming is just not as big of an issue as it should be. I thought it would out drive everything by now, even the war (which should still be the second biggest issue), and I'm not seeing it. Immigration seems to be higher, and why does that feel like a bait and switch? We need to focus on the life or death of the planet issues.
Maybe it's because on immigration there's an enemy that's not us (the struggling immigrants) and in global warming it's becoming more and more clear we are the problem.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

The Clean, Green Economy

“Peak Oil” is the time when half of the oil in the world has been harvested, and all harvests thereafter will be harder, slower, and more expensive. It’s a place where the price of oil has nowhere to go but up. Many people think we’re there. A few think we’re past it. Only a very few think we’ve a long way to go (and they’re probably the same people that think the current warming trend is just plain normal, and Elvis was kidnapped by aliens).

Peak oil is the beginning of the inevitable fall of the oil-driven economy. What I want to know is when is the inevitable rise of the alternate-energy economy? Are we there yet? Will peak oil by itself drive us there?

I’d say no, since of course we have the collapsing economy and world-war-three-over-energy-resources scenario to avoid first (and we're on our way to that, maybe as close as we are to peak oil). But assuming we have the political delicacy to avoid the worst case, what do we need to start the upwelling of the right moves to free us of oil? There are some nice roadmaps being developed. The IPCC report has some specific ideas. I’m reading a book called “Apollo’s Fire” by Congressman Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks. It has a series of action items in it. There are other sources of good ideas out there, too. So we’re becoming rich with reasonable plans, and need to pick and choose and move forward to the clean, green economy.

That's what I want for Christmas: the see the inevitable rise of the clean, green economy.

Scarcity

We had as much trouble finding LED lights as we had finding a Wii. Being tenacious people, we found both, but I was really happy to see the climate change friendly lights be in such demand. The small signs of fundamental change in thinking are nice to see.