Morning Ecology 21 July 2008: Oil Addiction Edition

Emily Gertz
July 21, 2008 11:59 AM

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Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part must either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside. This is such a moment. The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more -- if more should be required -- the future of human civilization is at stake. (((At least we can't say we weren't warned.)))

...Of course the greatest obstacle to meeting the challenge of 100 percent renewable electricity in 10 years may be the deep dysfunction of our politics (((yes))) and our self-governing system as it exists today. In recent years, our politics has tended toward incremental proposals made up of small policies designed to avoid offending special interests, alternating with occasional baby steps in the right direction. Our democracy has become sclerotic at a time when these crises require boldness. (((Yes.)))

It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more oil ten years from now. (((Yes.)))

Am I the only one who finds it strange that our government so often adopts a so-called solution that has absolutely nothing to do with the problem it is supposed to address? (((No.))) When people rightly complain about higher gasoline prices, we propose to give more money to the oil companies and pretend that they're going to bring gasoline prices down. It will do nothing of the sort, and everyone knows it. (((Yes they do. The tower of lies here... how high do they tower? They tower about 147 dollars high, at the moment.)))

-- Bruce Sterling's annotated Al Gore Energy Speech (Beyond the Beyond)

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