Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Mechanic
The amount of recoverable oil left on the planet is not the real issue.
The real issue is our pitiful designs that allow us to continue to waste 80% of the energy content of each gallon of fuel we consume. It's especially pitiful when we have the capability to decrease that waste to 60% fairly easily and in a short period of time. Even as poor as 60% waste would double our average MPG, something demonstrated by many here daily.
While the successful implementation of truly revolutionary vehicle designs seems to be far in the future, the reality is there are many who will resist any dramatic change, out of fear that they would loose their economic security. Such short sightedness is always very harmful, and in the long run the "if man was meant to fly he would have wings" mentality will possibly destroy this planet.
I am not a "Greenatic" by the longest stretch of the imagination you could ever imagine.
I just despise waste.
regards
Mech
|
I too despise waste. So I do what serves me well on a personal level, which is a personal policy of not being wasteful.
And so, I have no guilt about being wasteful. However I don't do so out of "saving the planet", patriotic duty, or any other possible contrived, platitudinous, politically correct reasons that amount to BS that won't really change anything. I do it out of purely economic self-interest.
OTOH, governments (ALL of them, including yours, in no matter whatever country on this planet you happen to live) also act in their own self-interest. That interest is fortified and protected by accumulating as much power and wealth as can be gotten, preferably as rapidly as possible, including from a desirable, marketable commodity (read: oil). Power also flows to established political parties from money given in support to those desiring to be powerful. Votes may be needed as a formality, but votes are bought, either directly through $$$ or through influencing your mind.
So let's give Chairman Mao his due: ultimately, all power grows from the barrel of a gun. A market can also be dominated by an established clique or gang, AKA a cartel (read: OPEC) or a corporation that has reached monopoly status or as being part of a group with mutual interests. Corruption and collusion are actually forms of cooperation, implemented on a collective level, usually by tacit agreement. Again, it is self-interest - but that of a clique.
It is interesting that there is such a sudden and intense promotion of crying out against monetary greed blamed on capitalism and business recently. If you want to see REAL greed and lust for power on a much higher level which transcends any accumulation of monetary assets, think about world politics. All governments have lots of soldiers with lots of weaponry. And
every government prints the money in your pocket that you think is somehow "yours".
Maybe we should instead be asking "What is peak politics?"
