A Carbon Tax?
It is a myth, and one that destroys the credibility of many "environmentalists", that there is any other significant source of "power", other than nuclear, besides the carbon fossil fuels that we have been using for less than three hundred years and are now on the downside of peak production. We have also come face to face with the blatant disregard of Capitalist Oil Companies, whose only interest is to maximize profits in the short run, with the BP/TransOceanic Gulf Oil Blowout.
A "carbon tax" is the wrong idea. People use carbon products for heating their homes and workplaces, cooking their food, and generating most of their electricity.
The major squanderer of fossil fuels is the personal automobile. USAers use over 15 MILLION BARRELS A DAY for personal transportation. We need to commit to rebuilding our neighborhoods and reallocating goods and services so that people can get what they need, including employment, within walking distance of their homes.
Setting a demand side management goal of reducing personal automobile usage by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years would go a long way towards assuring that more essential uses of carbon fuels will be a part of a viable future. It would also send a strong message to the rest of the world regarding the commitment of the USA to strongly curb their gluttonous behavior. Such a commitment could significantly assuage current geo-political tensions and hostilities.
A large tax on gasoline, maybe phased in over a period of ten years, is what is in order. Revenues from such taxes could help pay for the community redevelopment and reallocation of goods and services that needs to be a paramount goal of the USA. It would also significantly, discourage driving, while the people were educated to the reality that the automobile is a freak of the human race, and that the quality of community and domestic life would be substantially enhanced by encouraging a more sedentary lifestyle.
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,
Mike Morin
Showing posts with label geo-politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label geo-politics. Show all posts
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Resource Planning
>Quote:Originally posted by TerraSapient
>Well said, and I agree with you on most of your >points. However, what we need to do and >
>what people are willing to do rarely align (coming >from the historical perspective)..
Mike Morin replies:
People are like lemmings, they are easily led. Look at the way they ran headlong into war in World War 2 and all the other cataclysms of our irrational history. The survival instinct is so fierce as to be extinguishing. The question is, are people now sufficiently knowledgeable and sentient enough to understand and reject the four hundred years of Capitalist/Industrial Revolution/Fossil-fueled/Colonialist Military and Economic Hegemony and accept the conscious and deliberate evolution that will be necessary to adjust to the resource scarce, over-populated future?
Given the consumerist/Corporatist driven realities of the Communications Media and the politicians of the USA and their allies (increasingly few), and the widely entrenched economic interests of much (many (with resources), if not most) of the population are the people reachable with these important messages and will they, can they, understand and recognize the historical exceptionalism of their lifestyles, and be persuaded to accept a rational, planned future for the benefit of the youth and children, and succeeding generations, without despairing about how it upsets their current routines?
Can leaders/educators be found to greatly assist in such an effort when most educators are the result of a Corporatist linear trajectory and a longstanding involvement in a progression of adaptation to one sort of conformism or another that has served to advance their selfish careers?
>Quote:Originally posted by TerraSapient:
> It isn't just about planners laying out guidelines for more appropriately designed urban fabrics >based on a resource scarcity, but about a cultural shift where people want to live in these kinds >of places, want to stop driving their cars, want to walk..
MM:
How do we go about affecting such a "cultural (r)evolution"?
>Quote:Originally posted by TerraSapient:
>the desire to drive everywhere will not change by simply running low on oil.
MM:
Yes, but the ability to drive will change if the price of oil spikes and then plateaus or continues to rise and/or the recession continues to deepen and fundamentally disrupts the effective demand of the middle and ownership "classes".We don't want an oil crisis because fossil fuels are a much too important resource/opportunity cost for more precious applications such as home heating, cooking, hot water, and electricity generation.
Perhaps a good policy to accompany a long-standing demand side plan implementation of rebuilding and retrofitting neighborhoods/villages and changing the fundamental ways and means by which goods and services are allocated to and within communities (to make them walkable, sustainable) would be to slowly but discernibly (and explained) raise the relative price of gasoline relative to oil's more important applications (a selective carbon tax, if you will, but it also could involve a quasi-public orientation of the oil companies (I suppose that we could nationalize them, though this would not be the optimal approach to advocate)).
Such a pricing/tax policy could also use additional revenues, if any, to subsidize and/or pay for the quasi-public/public works rebuilding efforts.
>Quote:Originally posted by TerraSapient:
> Not to mention that if we truly do have an oil crisis on our hands in the very near future
>(which I do believe is imminent) people are going to have a lot more to worry about than what >kind of energy source their personal automobiles will be running on, and therefore how far >their place of employment or the grocery store is from their home.
MM:
Yes, we may not have the time to implement such a long-term strategy. But, we should not abandon it, because as a geo-political overture to OPEC and contested fossil fuel reserves territories, it could go a long way toward making peace and thus helping to ensure a much longer lasting decline phase of the fossil fuel age.
>Quote:Originally posted by TerraSapient:
> Given the subject matter, I think we need to have an understanding of what kinds of >technologies are going to be influencing the built environment of the future before we can
> adequately plan for them. Planning for urban fabrics that are based on an expiring resource is >important, but if we truly want to plan for future generations, we cannot stop there and must >focus on what kinds of resources they will be utilizing as well.
MM:
There is little to nothing in the way of supply side solutions. The solutions will need to be relative to the long-term radical reduction of demand.
>Well said, and I agree with you on most of your >points. However, what we need to do and >
>what people are willing to do rarely align (coming >from the historical perspective)..
Mike Morin replies:
People are like lemmings, they are easily led. Look at the way they ran headlong into war in World War 2 and all the other cataclysms of our irrational history. The survival instinct is so fierce as to be extinguishing. The question is, are people now sufficiently knowledgeable and sentient enough to understand and reject the four hundred years of Capitalist/Industrial Revolution/Fossil-fueled/Colonialist Military and Economic Hegemony and accept the conscious and deliberate evolution that will be necessary to adjust to the resource scarce, over-populated future?
Given the consumerist/Corporatist driven realities of the Communications Media and the politicians of the USA and their allies (increasingly few), and the widely entrenched economic interests of much (many (with resources), if not most) of the population are the people reachable with these important messages and will they, can they, understand and recognize the historical exceptionalism of their lifestyles, and be persuaded to accept a rational, planned future for the benefit of the youth and children, and succeeding generations, without despairing about how it upsets their current routines?
Can leaders/educators be found to greatly assist in such an effort when most educators are the result of a Corporatist linear trajectory and a longstanding involvement in a progression of adaptation to one sort of conformism or another that has served to advance their selfish careers?
>Quote:Originally posted by TerraSapient:
> It isn't just about planners laying out guidelines for more appropriately designed urban fabrics >based on a resource scarcity, but about a cultural shift where people want to live in these kinds >of places, want to stop driving their cars, want to walk..
MM:
How do we go about affecting such a "cultural (r)evolution"?
>Quote:Originally posted by TerraSapient:
>the desire to drive everywhere will not change by simply running low on oil.
MM:
Yes, but the ability to drive will change if the price of oil spikes and then plateaus or continues to rise and/or the recession continues to deepen and fundamentally disrupts the effective demand of the middle and ownership "classes".We don't want an oil crisis because fossil fuels are a much too important resource/opportunity cost for more precious applications such as home heating, cooking, hot water, and electricity generation.
Perhaps a good policy to accompany a long-standing demand side plan implementation of rebuilding and retrofitting neighborhoods/villages and changing the fundamental ways and means by which goods and services are allocated to and within communities (to make them walkable, sustainable) would be to slowly but discernibly (and explained) raise the relative price of gasoline relative to oil's more important applications (a selective carbon tax, if you will, but it also could involve a quasi-public orientation of the oil companies (I suppose that we could nationalize them, though this would not be the optimal approach to advocate)).
Such a pricing/tax policy could also use additional revenues, if any, to subsidize and/or pay for the quasi-public/public works rebuilding efforts.
>Quote:Originally posted by TerraSapient:
> Not to mention that if we truly do have an oil crisis on our hands in the very near future
>(which I do believe is imminent) people are going to have a lot more to worry about than what >kind of energy source their personal automobiles will be running on, and therefore how far >their place of employment or the grocery store is from their home.
MM:
Yes, we may not have the time to implement such a long-term strategy. But, we should not abandon it, because as a geo-political overture to OPEC and contested fossil fuel reserves territories, it could go a long way toward making peace and thus helping to ensure a much longer lasting decline phase of the fossil fuel age.
>Quote:Originally posted by TerraSapient:
> Given the subject matter, I think we need to have an understanding of what kinds of >technologies are going to be influencing the built environment of the future before we can
> adequately plan for them. Planning for urban fabrics that are based on an expiring resource is >important, but if we truly want to plan for future generations, we cannot stop there and must >focus on what kinds of resources they will be utilizing as well.
MM:
There is little to nothing in the way of supply side solutions. The solutions will need to be relative to the long-term radical reduction of demand.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Why are "we" in Afghanistan?
Let me straighten you out as to why "we" are in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is a strategic location for oil and gas pipelines that the US and allies want to build to what is perhaps the last frontier of oil and gas deposits in the more northern "Stans" (Kazhakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, etc.?), all former members of the USSR, for which the Soviet Union has done all the leg and ground work (geological survey) to find such resources.
Since pipelines through and across Iran are relatively out of the question, and Pakistan was/is? considered an ally then pipelines through Afghanistan and lower Pakistan geopolitically seems to be the more feasible route to get those precious resources, to feed the USAs gluttonous appetite, to the Arabian Sea and under "Western" control.
Don't be fooled by any other propaganda. Tell O'Bomber to go "fly al quaeda".
That's the truth of the matter. It is almost amazing (they murdered (medical-industrial complex) my Friend, Karl Davies, a brilliant geo-politicist for spreading the truth widely back in the early days after 9/11) that it is not common knowledge in AmeriKar. Then again, the AmeriKarnageians prefer to remain ignorant and their "leaders" certainly prefer them that way.
Now, they are uncovering "terrorist plots" (in the media), thus rallying the paranoia of the AmeriKarnageian pigs so that they will allocate more of our endless resources to "homeland security", surveillance, "defense" spending, locally opening up more jail cells in Lane County (don't buy it, but if you have access to the Register for the Guard, read the ongoing drama about how the "Prison-Industrial Complex is lobbying a gullible public about dangerous criminals on the street, all with the real intentions of increasing work for pigs with Gestapo mentalities and increasing the number of political prisoners.
Anyway, I thought that you all would like to know.
Afghanistan is a strategic location for oil and gas pipelines that the US and allies want to build to what is perhaps the last frontier of oil and gas deposits in the more northern "Stans" (Kazhakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, etc.?), all former members of the USSR, for which the Soviet Union has done all the leg and ground work (geological survey) to find such resources.
Since pipelines through and across Iran are relatively out of the question, and Pakistan was/is? considered an ally then pipelines through Afghanistan and lower Pakistan geopolitically seems to be the more feasible route to get those precious resources, to feed the USAs gluttonous appetite, to the Arabian Sea and under "Western" control.
Don't be fooled by any other propaganda. Tell O'Bomber to go "fly al quaeda".
That's the truth of the matter. It is almost amazing (they murdered (medical-industrial complex) my Friend, Karl Davies, a brilliant geo-politicist for spreading the truth widely back in the early days after 9/11) that it is not common knowledge in AmeriKar. Then again, the AmeriKarnageians prefer to remain ignorant and their "leaders" certainly prefer them that way.
Now, they are uncovering "terrorist plots" (in the media), thus rallying the paranoia of the AmeriKarnageian pigs so that they will allocate more of our endless resources to "homeland security", surveillance, "defense" spending, locally opening up more jail cells in Lane County (don't buy it, but if you have access to the Register for the Guard, read the ongoing drama about how the "Prison-Industrial Complex is lobbying a gullible public about dangerous criminals on the street, all with the real intentions of increasing work for pigs with Gestapo mentalities and increasing the number of political prisoners.
Anyway, I thought that you all would like to know.
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