Comments on: Energy Policy Straight Talk From Elizabeth Kolbert

By: gecko

gecko — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:18:48 +0000

Insight into what Kolbert may be driving at might come from her 6/9/08 New Yorker article “Dymaxion Man” on Buckminster Fuller describing him as “also deeply pessimistic about people’s capacity for change, which was why, he said, he had become an inventor in the first place.”

New York City represents 8 million people. The New York Metropolitan Region represents 16 million as the center of the Northeast United States: the world’s third largest economy.

Change will come from the top down by people in charge running big government, public, and private institutions grappling with the big picture of a crisis unfolding.

By: Niccolo Machiavelli

Niccolo Machiavelli — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:27:56 +0000

Is smoothing the political process a problem or a solution? I’m confused.

By: Max Rockatansky

Max Rockatansky — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:48:29 +0000

As much as I hated Obama’s statement on drilling at least he acknowledged that the impact would be neglibible. The sole purpose would be to smooth the political process.

By: meagen

meagen — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:12:22 +0000

Fair enough. But why doesn’t Streetsblog equally criticize Obama’s flip on drilling as well?

By: gecko

gecko — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:46:26 +0000

Scale-appropriate change has to take place at the city-state level or higher. Bloomberg took the initiative but, just a baby step with PlanNYC and it’s clear he knows it.

On the level of Al Gore’s most recent fossil-free electric energy initiative would be conversion to urban hybrid human-electric transport and transit and a built environment retrofit to near net-zero energy use both totally achievable with the immediate benefit that things would work a lot better at lower cost.

By: Mark Walker

Mark Walker — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:35:00 +0000

Spot shortages of gasoline and heating oil would change some minds, especially if accompanied by chaos and violence. Rolling blackouts would help too.

By: James

James — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:27:31 +0000

One of, if not THE biggest failure of those advocating for a sustainable energy policy is the belief that you can ask Americans to do the right thing and they will respond. The list of token energy-saving measures at the end of the film “An Inconvenient Truth” is a perfect example of this flawed idea. Experience is in this decade is showing us that’s not how things really tend to work – maybe it was the case once upon a time that this society could be asked to share in sacrifice toward a larger goal, but I think any possibility of this was dead by the end of the 1960s.

In 2008, “doing the right thing” when it comes to energy and the environment has to be regulated into place. However, mob rule would have us slash, drill, and burn our way straight to hell – just look at those drilling poll numbers. And so this is the predicament we find ourselves in today. I really wonder if there’s a way out of this given the massive level of public innumeracy and ignorance on these fundamental issues that these poll results are showing.