Is it summer yet?

Posted on April 12, 2012 by RL CRABB

This entry was posted in Culture, Politics. Bookmark the permalink.

15 Responses to Is it summer yet?

Ben Emery says:

April 12, 2012 at 6:38 pm

Downsize, weatherize, reduce heat/ air use, more blankets, more trees for shade, and find out what standby/ vampire/ pirate power appliances and equipment you have and then unplug. Want to reduce our nation energy consumption numbers by 10%? http://standby.lbl.gov/faq.html
Ban equipment/ appliances that have the standby/ pirate energy sucking functions.

If we could market the hot air in our state and national capitals we would tap into the greatest renewable abundant energy source on the planet.

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TD Pittsford says:

April 13, 2012 at 12:57 am

Of course we could beat the high price of the modern age by going totally retro. We could use candles instead of electricity and sell our gas-guzzling vehicles in favor of horse-drawn wagons. We could toss away our precious cyber devices and actually speak to one another in person, or pick up a real book with real pages and everything. (There are still plenty of them left at Carol’s and Ames.) Our PC’s and MAC’s would make excellent boat anchors while actually fishing our local streams, lakes, and rivers for our food and there’s enough grapes, hops and other natural flora growing in our country to keep a silly smile on everyone’s faces. Of course it would mean a great deal of sacrifice for our corporations, unions and government but I’m certain they could all find other ways to make ends meet, perhaps by reducing the size of their already bloated ranks. You know, when you think of it, the Mennonites may have a pretty thing going for them.

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- Ryan Mount says:
  
  April 13, 2012 at 7:51 am
  
  Should we go back to eating fallen fruit and wearing rope shoes? Back to typhoid and cholera epidemics? Better be careful what you wish for. Frankly, I think people on the fringes of the political spectrum would love things reduced to near zero. And by zero*, the noun, pick one: population, energy consumption, McDonalds, abortions, OWN TV network. (I’ve be in favor of that last one)
  
  Who are the real Conservatives here now?
  
  Conserve-a-tive.
  
  *when I first typed that, I thought it was an overstatement. But after thinking about it, I’ve changed my mind. There’s a whole swath of people out there looking forward to, or at a minimum fearing, some kind of quasi-apocalypse.
  
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  - Ryan Mount says:
    
    April 13, 2012 at 7:51 am
    
    Sorry about the BOLD. Not sure what happened there.
    
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Ben Emery says:

April 13, 2012 at 10:09 am

TD,
I can only guess your comment is facetious. No where did I claim we need to go back to horse and buggy or live in caves. What I said is we need to reduce our lifestyles, which in turn would drastically reduce our energy consumption. The US is 3% of the worlds population but has the dubious honor of being the leader in the world with consuming 25-30% of the energy and its resources. At the same time we produce 25-30% of the worlds pollution.

Ryan,
I am not sure why the jump from the claim of being responsible to wanting to go back to pre-science. The lifestyle with the % I listed above is unsustainable and we have exported this throw away consumption lifestyle with the pro-transnational corporation Free Trade bs. So if 3% of the worlds population consumes that much energy and resources what is going to happen when that number starts approaching 20% of the world hits that lifestyle, it is not physically possible. As oil/ fossil fuels becomes more expensive there will be more wars, death, and destruction to secure it. Do you know how much oil products go into a lifespan a standard automotive tire? I have seen numbers at 10% of worlds oil consumption goes into making tires. This is one example of how the use of a finite energy source for thousands of essential aspects of our lives is a suicide pact.

I would make the claim in many areas of our lives I would be one of the most traditionally conservative people (decentralization of power both government and corporate, local government/ economies, anti-war, personal responsibility) on the local blogs. I would also make the claim I am one of the biggest progressives on the local blogs as well in certain areas. What is considered conservative by today’s political world is more corporatist (centralized power) than conservative. Definitely what is considered progressive in today’s US political world would be considered conservative among the rest of the world.

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- TD Pittsford says:
  
  April 13, 2012 at 7:58 pm
  
  Ben, “facetious” wasn’t exactly what I was going for; it’s more like Prophetic I’m thinking. These scenarios work together just fine when American becomes a third-world country, and the was things are going, it could be sooner than we would like. Pack in the Spam, man.
  
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- Ryan Mount says:
  
  April 14, 2012 at 10:08 am
  
  I have no plans to wear rope shoes and eat fallen fruit anytime in the near future. Nor contract dysentery. Admittedly, I exaggerated my points, so I beg your pardon.
  
  My main point, which frequently gets lots in my sarcasm, was that often what we think of a “Liberal” is a “Conservative,” and vise-versa. Words matter, IMO. That’s why I prefer the term “Neo-Liberal” in place of the “Neo-Conservative.”
  
  Anyhow, all that said, I think there is ripe common ground here between factions (in Madison’s sense of the word) to decentralization. And again, I don’t want my argument to be misconstrued, as I tend to take a moderate position on this. We can start slow and return control back to our communities. Energy production seems like an interesting place to start, which is a simpler proposition for us crazies up here in the foothills than your city dweller.
  
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Ben Emery says:

April 13, 2012 at 10:17 am

For the record the Obama administration has promoted the expansion of our fossil fuel industry. The US has more active wells/ rigs than the rest of the world combined.
http://www.wtrg.com/rotaryrigs.html

“Year-over-year oil exploration in the U.S. is up 50.0 percent. Gas exploration is down 27.2 percent. The weekly average of crude oil spot prices is 5.6 percent lower than last year and natural gas spot prices are 52.3 percent lower.”

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Greg Goodknight says:

April 13, 2012 at 11:00 am

For the record, oil production has been increasing on private and state controlled areas, but decreasing from Federal oil leases, down about 14% in the past year, as prices soar.

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- Ben Emery says:
  
  April 13, 2012 at 10:50 pm
  
  Greg,
  Use it or loose it.
  http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/29/results-are-drilling-down-unused-leases
  
  When banks speculating control nearly 2/3 of futures market the price skyrockets and when the halfway sell out democratic party tries to slow or end speculation the 100% sell out republican party blocks it.
  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-29/u-s-was-net-oil-product-exporter-in-2011.html
  
  We have the best government money can buy. Unfortunately for 99% of us we don’t have enough money to buy a significant chunk so we are screwed.
  
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  - Greg Goodknight says:
    
    April 16, 2012 at 1:18 pm
    
    “Greg,
    Use it or loose [sic] it.”
    
    If it’s loose, tighten it up.
    
    “Heather Zichal is Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change”
    
    She got her start, after getting her degree in Environmental Studies at Ruters, by interning at the Sierra Club.
    
    It takes a loose nut to think a Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change wants those nasty oil companies to actually produce oil, or that those environmental rapists would choose to only increase production from private or state controlled wells, while letting the oil from Federal leases stay in the ground only because they were too lazy to pump it out.
    
    We’re barely exporting more finished refined products because at the current price of the raw materials, we’re not using as much as we used to. To get the price of the raw material, crude oil and other fossil fuel stocks, down, more needs to be produced. Otherwise, if refineries can’t sell the gas, they just shut down the refinery rather than sell at a loss. The 2nd article even makes that clear, but you apparently missed it.
    
    Reply
    - Douglas Keachie says:
      
      April 17, 2012 at 9:58 am
      
      Greg Goodknight got his start quoting 7 year old material and falsely representing Steven Chu’s present stand on solar energy. When called on it, he just ignores, instead of apologizing. Typical Gregistic behavior.
      
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      - Greg Goodknight says:
        
        April 17, 2012 at 11:05 am
        
        Keach, you’ve got the wrong thread. You should be over at the “Equal Rights for Idiots” discussion.
        
        I made an accurate quote of Chu’s view on the viability of solar on purely economic grounds, and I believe he now thinks it’s be something like 15 years before PV is competitive; how much his crystal ball is forecasting PV improvements and how high the price of carbon fuels arei forced up to is unclear.
        
        Right now, the price of natural gas is plummeting due to efficient production; do the Keachie’s of the world think this is a good turn of events, or a bad thing?
Michael Anderson says:

April 13, 2012 at 11:55 am

Tomorrow is NCLL’s Opening Day at Pioneer Park.

Anyone know a good Anti Rain Dance? I’m ready to let my feet do the talkin’!

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Ben Emery says:

April 13, 2012 at 10:21 pm

Michael,
Good chance of the rain stopping but have fun in the mud and swamp. We cancelled 2 games this week and 5 games in a tournament this weekend due to the rain and the condition of the fields. Double header spring is what the SFL is going to call this last month of the season. Good luck and maybe this year I will get down to Pioneer park to watch one of your games. Are you the Giants?

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