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We've got a nasty cultural addiction to energy, pretty much the whole world that is. I'm referencing the "western" world here - people who already have access to 2 vehicles per person, refridgeration, air conditioning, etc. Trying to kick these addictions let alone mentioning them as solutions as opposed to "problems" are a hard pill to swallow. Many feel so entitled to such creature comforts that the idea of not having one or any of them is simply out of the question, and the level of energy production/consumption right now needs to remain the same or increase from now on. This inevitably leads to discussion on nuclear power generation. I see a few people (I won't mention any names because this is getting to be a such a long-winded thread that we could probably fit it with a turbine to supplim... hehe anyway) talking about how "renewable" energy will never fulfill "our" needs, our demands. I think we should speak for ourselves - ECOMOD our lives and not just our vehicles. Do an A/C delete here and there, Drive your energy consumption With Load. There are many mentions and subsequent write-offs of things that only make a tiny difference (like the big icy turbine wing thing) yet we talk about aero mods every day on this forum. Oh, a 3% from your grill block? big deal. I think we of all people should have a different attitude toward this, think outside the box, and do a bunch of little things that end up in BIG savings. I forsee a big shift to local everything. Transmission/transportation of goods, of electricity, of anything is a big energy bottleneck. If you can manage to grow all of your own food for instance, or even half of it, you just saved a crapload of energy, and probably a couple years added on to your life btw. In general we need to slow processes down to get them working more efficiently, just like we slow down in our vehicles. Slow it down and the quality improves, slow it down and the efficiency improves. Let's talk about what we can do ourselves or with our local community as opposed to what "they" should do or what "they" are doing with nuclear plants etc. For the record, I guess I'm okay with nuclear for a while, but as DCB keeps chiming in, it's just going to perpetuate our addiction to the use of incredibly large amounts of energy that we could live without and be more in touch with and appreciate what energy is worth. I think we should think more about things we as individuals, or groups of individuals can do to become independent of nonrenewable energy - I think it's much easier than we think, we're just thinking about the wrong things, thinking about how the rest of society will never conform. Build it any they will come. If we depend on big corporations ("they") to make decisions on what is most energy efficient, they are going to do what is most profitable, NOT what is in our best interest. If there are two or more companies "competing" and "driving innovation" to insure that we're getting the best, that's just two or more companies that have managed to dupe us into thinking they're competing for our best interest when they are both just profiting. Just look at what auto companies are pumping out right now. THIS NEW PIECE OF **** GETS 34MPG! WOW! We know there has been and is better stuff out there, and I wouldn't put it past energy companies with nuclear plants, wind farms, solar farms, etc. to do the same kind of thing - make an artificial efficiency barrier and profit as long as they can before we figure out things just got 4% more efficient and they make money hand over fist for another 20 years just like the auto industry. Sure, not all corporations are the same... but if you sleep with dogs, you get fleas if you know what I'm saying. We need to approach this issue like the independent skeptics we are because automobiles aren't the only things that need to get ecomodded.
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