Free At Last

6 Responses to Free At Last

1. george rebane says:

   February 18, 2015 at 6:14 pm

   Yep, that’s about right.

   Reply
2. Chris Peterson says:

   February 18, 2015 at 9:12 pm

   Pretty bleak choice: either support the status quo, or live in a dark cave.

   Reply
3. Greg Goodknight says:

   February 19, 2015 at 5:01 pm

   There’s nothing romantic about subsistence farming either. Die young and worn out at an early age.

   Big oil, big coal provide the cheap energy to thaw and light our homes, and enable efficient travel. Mining provides the raw materials to build machines powered by inexpensive energy, be it chemical or electric. We’ve been eating tasty animals (when we could) for the past 250 million years and many of them do their best to return the favor, though we’ve had an unfair advantage for 200k years or so.

   We’ve been genetically modifying plants for tens of thousands of years (you think wheat is natural?) and vaccines have meant millions of people have been spared agonizing deaths and disfigurement… just yesterday I talked with a local woman who is struggling with the remnants of polio as she contracted the disease as a child, just before the vaccine was invented. She beat the disease then, sort of, but now a sixty-something, she’s not quite able to move like she used to. The neural paths just aren’t as robust as they are for most older folk.

   Fearing wifi and smart meters is right up there with fearing the hideous daemons hiding under the bed.

   These are the good old days, at least until the next currency crash hits. Enjoy the good modern life, from the internet to the invention of penicillin and some time before that, the miracle that spares most of us what can be excruciating pain. I agree with the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the period in history I’d most want to live is after the invention of novocaine.

   Good toon.

   Reply
4. Chris Peterson says:

   February 23, 2015 at 10:23 am

   “Big oil, big coal provide the cheap energy…”

   Without a doubt, the biggest lie of modern American society. Please, take a few hours and do a little research on exactly what we actually pay for our “cheap” fossil fuel-based energy plan. Don’t forget to factor in taxes, subsidies, and military support of the industry, plus health hazards and treatment, environmental spill cleanup, lost time/wages, and all the commons being whittled down to continue the illusion of “cheap energy.” You’ll find that the actual cost is in the trillions!

   No doubt, you are one of those who will compare alternative sources of energy, (with their own subsidies and incentives), with the simple price per gallon of gas at the pump, leaving out the incredible costs to our economy, habitat, and life that the status quo of a fossil fuel-based energy plan involves.

   It is nothing short of a conflict between the intelligent, science-based future of energy vs the greed and power of those who profit from the continued use of an energy source that has become obscenely expensive and undeniably destructive.

   But the false-narrative of the oil and coal companies, (and their paid, political minions), won’t save them. In the long run, it is consumers like myself, who continue to buy ever-more efficient products, like my 53 MPG car, and wind and solar energy products, which will make them obsolete. Technology, (and society itself), will move on, and oil and coal will be irrelevant in the next generation or two.

   You run the risk of being like the last, angry guy in town that still rode his horse to work, flipping off every car that past him by.

   Reply
   • Greg Goodknight says:

     February 24, 2015 at 3:46 pm

     Chris, the figure of merit is how much energy it takes to get it compared to how much you get back out.

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_returned_on_energy_invested#mediaviewer/File:EROI_-_Ratio_of_Energy_Returned_on_Energy_Invested_-_USA.svg

     Hydro electric is by far the cheapest, followed closely by coal then oil. PV lags but is lots better than corn ethanol, a major waste of time but a favorite of ADM not to mention the farm states that get first crack at picking the President. The energy cost of wind and solar may or may not include the backup fossil fuel generation capacity that has to be online ready to kick in with a fraction of a second to spare lest the grid fai;/

     Reply
5. Robert Lovejoy says:

   February 23, 2015 at 8:54 pm

   Our forefathers ate only organic food and read books at night by their whale blubber oil lamps and the soft glow of candlelight. Look what happened to everyone of them. They are not looking too good right about now.

   Reply