And that would be the truly important discussion.The technologies I refer to are those necessary to sustainability; starting with massive heat energy from magma, limitless clean electricity, carbon capture and storage, desalination and irrigation, hydrogen fuel, and recycling technologies. — counterpunch
Isn't that what the new culture is about?As a signal of your virtue, that's very helpful. Thank you! As a means to secure a sustainable future, worse than useless, but at least we know that you are morally superior! — counterpunch
Can you define the actual US energy policy since the 70's to the present? — ssu
And that would be the truly important discussion. But have you noticed the absence of a down-to-Earth and realistic debate about long term energy policy? Can you define the actual US energy policy since the 70's to the present? — ssu
Granted, per counterpunch, geo, wind, and solar energy are all pretty green. I don't see a wholesale commitment to green energy outside of groups like Interfaith Power and Light (a faith-based renewable advocacy group) and smart people like Counterpunch. — Bitter Crank
I think that’s true of my favorite pop composers. But the issue isn’t just how much more you know now that 30 years ago, it’s how much younger generations have leapfrogged over your knowledge. — Joshs
Younger people ALWAYS believe they are living through the most prescient times in the history of mankind, — synthesis
Reality suggests that older people are like vampires: ogres, selfish, interconnected, and willing to hate. Young people are generous and open to love and friendship. — gikehef947
What has to happen for things to be "dire" for you? And we have been seeing for decades now.
— synthesis
Dire? There were people who lived through World War I, the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression, World War II, Smallpox (300 million dead), Korean War, polio epidemics, Vietnam War, Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis and other bull shit. People talk about how tough it was under certain governments, but war just sucks. I can't imagine what it would be like to be a non-combatant with war raging all around you. Our trials today are a cake walk. — James Riley
f you look at what's happened to the majority of people in the U.S. over the past 50 years, I would call it dire. If you had three or four kids and your $20./job was outsourced to China and all you could find to replace it was a $10./hour job (as happened to millions of Americans), you would probably think it was dire.
If you could no longer afford to provide decent health care for you family nor have any chance of sending your kids to college (without incurring life-destroying debt) nor have any retirement savings, you might consider it dire.
My life is a cake-walk (and maybe yours is too) but there are a lot of people whose lives are quite difficult. — synthesis
What do you mean by the elite giving room for wokeness?
— praxis
I mean that the elite is totally OK with the "woke" agenda and discourse being on the center stage of the public discourse. That corporations and organizations are keen embrace it and not dismiss it and especially not to be against it is what I had in mind when talking about "giving room". The reason is that the woke agenda doesn't actually threaten the corporations or the power elite. — ssu
There's no such thing as "more sustainable." There's sustainable, and there's not sustainable. — counterpunch
You are so strict! But "sustainable" is not an all or nothing term. — Bitter Crank
Go Geo! — Bitter Crank
but do you see it? — counterpunch
With all the electricity we could want, does it matter if the rain forests are cut down to grow food? — Bitter Crank
Thanks for the support, but do you see it? Do you see a world in which sustainability is a one, and not a zero. Not "more one"... but one by design; and achieved by intelligently directing the heat energy of mother earth to sustain life upon its surface. There's something spiritual about that... that completely passes me by because its the consequence of a scientific worldview! — counterpunch
The thing about the Amazon forest ... Even IF (very big IF) one could replace the surface area of the Amazon forest with forest some place else, there would still be the huge species loss (already in progress, as a result of steady on-going slash and burn practices). — Bitter Crank
Have you thought about just how much water one would need to irrigate the border region between the southern edge of the Sahara Desert and the wetter regions of sub-Saharan Africa (to stabilize and roll back some desertification)? Hearing Carl Sagan intoning "Billions and billions of gallons". — Bitter Crank
That's exactly so.Deep down the elites don't give a rat's ass about liberation, identity, fairness, equality, and so forth among the masses. — Bitter Crank
Geothermal power, to be viable, will rely on storage and transportation of energy on an unprecedented scale. You say hydrogen can meet that need; you might be right, but it is as yet unproven, and so remains in the realm of faith or hope. — Janus
Also if hydrogen proves viable. then a combination of wind, solar, geothermal and perhaps other technologies (wave power, for one example) can be envisaged. — Janus
The libertarian might be perhaps happy about this. Let's take the example of how suddenly US became again a major producer of oil.But SSU's point is that there has not been, and there is no sufficient / minimally adequate policy planning for future energy production. If there were, we would see radically different government, industry, and consumer behavior. Once one acknowledges the severity of our situation, one can see the world's elites (economic, political, social, etc.) busy doing pretty much nothing. — Bitter Crank
The basic fact is that if technological advancement will, as it has in history done, solve the problems of today, that won't happen in a World with less energy production. And that doesn't have to come from fossil fuels, but it has to come from somewhere.I don't believe wind and solar will ever be sufficient to meet our needs; and it's only a policy of diversification of energy sources since 1973, that's allowed wind and solar to even be considered worth building. Wind can take the edge off carbon emissions, produce some energy, but it's inefficient, insufficient to our current needs; and all thought of sequestering atmospheric carbon, desalinating water to irrigate land, hydrogen fuel and total recycling - is out of the question without sufficient clean energy to power them. — counterpunch
The basic fact is that if technological advancement will, as it has in history done, solve the problems of today, that won't happen in a World with less energy production. And that doesn't have to come from fossil fuels, but it has to come from somewhere. How many, and for how long, have we needed "Manhattan Projects" to do this? — ssu
Humanity will improve the day a virus kills everyone who turns 50. Until then, an amendment could greatly improve the country's government. — gikehef947
I am sixty-three years old and I know what old men are capable of. I am one of them. We must give way to the new generations. — gikehef947
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