bondo -
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Originally Posted by bondo
Interesting perspective, gallons per mile. The distance will always be there, it is the fuel that is the biggest variable. One thing we must overcome in America, and I have encountered this posting messages on sites like www.fordf150.net, is that some people think that by conserving we are giving up our prosperity, which has no logic at all. Too many SUV and pickup truck drivers drive like they are in a compact car. They accelerate fast, drive over the speed limit and then wonder why they make frequent stops at the gas pump.
The big three marketing has been SUV's and pickups for many profitable years but those days are over. As China and India increase the demand side of things, the overall supply will not be able to keep up. Just look at SUV and truck sales these days, way down. |
I *think* I understand this thought process when I look at changing societal attitudes toward obesity :
Fat once revered as sign of health, wealth
And being scrawny was viewed as a symbol of a struggling life
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/nation...oorthin09.html
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... Only the rich had access to enough food to gain large amounts of weight during most of human history, said Dr. David Cummings, an obesity researcher at the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Healthcare System and the University of Washington, who incorporated the slides into his talk. ...
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If you don't live long, pigging out makes sense :
Life expectancy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy
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Life expectancy at birth in the United States in 1900 was 47 years.
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In a way, they're right. I would agree with them and say that our prosperity *is* diminishing. The difference is, I think we can conserve today on the road to a new era of prosperity :
A Solar Grand Plan
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-grand-plan
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By 2050 solar power could end U.S. dependence on foreign oil and slash greenhouse gas emissions ... High prices for gasoline and home heating oil are here to stay. The U.S. is at war in the Middle East at least in part to protect its foreign oil interests. And as China, India and other nations rapidly increase their demand for fossil fuels, future fighting over energy looms large. In the meantime, power plants that burn coal, oil and natural gas, as well as vehicles everywhere, continue to pour millions of tons of pollutants and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere annually, threatening the planet.
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The above article may be pie-in-the-sky on some levels, but I think there are solutions "out there" to be (re?)discovered and applied.
CarloSW2