I have now penned two Simple Solution books, one on Planet Earth and the second on Humanity (see icons below). Let me draw from the first one and provide just one simple solution to solve our energy/environment problem. But first, some background.
The current issue of Time (July 5, 2010) reports on Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Jeffrey Immelt (GE), representing a group of corporate titans, just last week beseeching Congress to triple U.S. spending on energy research. They underscored that energy gets less than $5 billion/year, but $80 billion goes for military R&D. Said Immelt:
"This is about innovation. This is about competition. This is about energy security."
Never have industrial leaders collectively made this kind of plea about sustainable resources over defense. If we can spend $3,000 billion (also known as $3 trillion) on just the Iraq War, supposedly to neutralize Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, but, more to protect oil and bring peace to the Middle East, hindsight argues that if this sum had been applied to spur our private sector to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, we might not today be at the precipice awaiting the dual hammer of Peak Oil and Global Warming.
My second Huffington Post article of two years ago blamed the lack of will on part of the people for our current predicament. This aloof attitude remains, for our masses are now accustomed to $3/gallon gasoline (remember, Europe is double to triple this price), plus, they can't appreciate hardly detectable global temperature increase and sea level rise. It hurts that the disinformation campaign from oil/coal interests and their academic supporters, who a recent survey found to be less credible scientists, are easier to believe than the rantings of a bunch of scientists accused of a possible hoax. But what do you expect from a nation attracted to vampires and the afterlife?
Swine flu and oil spills bring out the personal concern and general ire on the part of our populace, but energy and carbon dioxide policies are somewhere between ho hum and who cares. The fact that many Democrats in the Senate from fossil fuel states are preventing the Obama Administration from pushing along the Waxman-Markey Clean Energy Bill, which was approved by the House more than a year ago, is just another symptom of how much our decision-makers care about any national energy policy, something we have never had.
As I have underscored in my HuffPost postings, I actually don't blame the Republicans, George W. Bush, oil companies or OPEC. They were maximizing their interests, and in a free enterprise system, that's fine. Well, I did have a gripe about President Ronald Reagan when he came into office in 1981, for he decimated the solar budget. However, the real reason why our sustainable resources were never commercialized was the price of oil, an essentially unpredictable commodity. Very few can actually remember that petroleum in terms of 1998 dollars was the cheapest, EVER, that year. Just trace the red line until you hit the bottom, and see that you're in 1998. Yes, less expensive than just before the First Energy Crisis in 1973. This fickleness will continue to bedevil renewable energy investments.
What responsible financial institution would take the risk of loaning a hundred million dollars for a solar energy project during those days? While the Chicago Mercantile Exchange today predicts a light crude oil future price of $91.65/barrel in December of 2018, would you stake the destiny of our country on that investment figure? Remember, it was only two years ago this month that oil peaked at $147/barrel. But who knows where the current $70-$80/barrel range will go. $150/barrel if Israel bombs Iran? $35/barrel if there is a more serious double dip grand recession?
We thus need to take extraordinary action, and Gates/Immel's proclamation was an excellent start. Here they are, industry barons, actually asking government to spend more money on something not directly related to their profit margin (well, GE does sell wind turbines). The marketplace cannot determine the fate of our world, for it takes a full generation (25 years), and longer, to shift energy sources. We need to start today. So, here is my simple solution:
1. Immediately enact a 5 cents/pound carbon dioxide credit. Okay, this is the same as a tax, but read my HuffPost article on this subject. This credit will only increase gasoline by a buck a gallon and double the price of coal electricity. Congress needs to pass this measure, which President Obama should sign, and he further needs to have the G8 nations, China and India comply. Ah, but you say, easy to suggest, but impossible to do. Sure. Simple solutions can be difficult to accomplish. So, what next?
2. Ask Mother Nature to raise the temperature of the atmosphere so high this summer that tens, if not hundreds, of millions perish. On my contention that we have a fatal flaw in our society -- that we cannot make important decisions until it is too late -- we then need a cataclysmic event, the more horrible the more effective. Yes, this is terrible, but, save for those who actually die, this would be like taking some bitter medicine to cure your ailment. Then you say, but we have no influence over Mother Nature.
3. Not true! This is all a matter of time. A kind of doomsday will occur if we largely continue on our current consumption pathway, for more species will become extinct, weather will go haywire, and humanity will interminably suffer before action is finally taken. Clearly, our decision-makers will not have the courage to just do it, and the American people just do not riot in the streets for this sort of cause. I was kind of hoping that this world wide web mechanism would more directly replace marching protests, but, I haven't yet figured out how to catalyze response.
4. So what then? Await The Venus Syndrome, or at least the upcoming novel of that title. Three degrees F rise? Try an increase of 800 degrees and the end of life on Planet Earth. Waiting might not be a viable option.
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Humans cannot play God for a well balanced world. We only work for our own interests and eventually for some optimal survival but the 6 billion people have some very different priorities
And military research might be the best place for energy research.
Every time you recharge it, the power will come, in some form, from fossil fuel. Range between charges? Up to 100 miles some arcane EPA methodolog
One assumes they will include a warning system to advise you that you have 18 miles left on your charge and home is 18 miles and a block. Oops. Or you forgot something and have to backtrack a couple of miles. Or you have to make an unplanned diversion or go to the store or detour around a major incident..
OK, I am Dr. Doom and I admit it. But whenever I don't, it happens. It doesn't matter. If I have not specifical
I have a 40 mile daily mileage rates on HIGH mileage days. The range problem is not a problem for my daily use.
Oil is used to generate LESS than 1% (one percent) of the total supply of electricit
Fossil fuels are not the problem I am trying to address. I would happily substitute coal for oil where possible. There is some amount of petroleum used to manufactur
In sum, I understand your observatio
www.nybook
Grizzlies are invading polar bear turf, resulting in grolars - FERTILE crosses between grizzlies and polar bears. Click for photos.
www.mnn.co
en.wikiped
en.wikiped
White polar bears may get absorbed by hordes of darker grizzlies.
SO?
So, a little closer to home, DNA sequencing shows ~1 - 4% of human DNA may come from light-skin
www.scienc
en.wikiped
www.scienc
news.bbc.c
Maybe that phony GLOBAL WARMING is pressuring poleward migration of hordes of darker Latinos.
The hottest tropical air - the Hadley cell - is in Mexico's border states: Baja, Sonora, Chihuahua.
www.dailyp
www.dallas
How will hordes of Latinos escape all that phony heat?
Worse yet, the Hadley cell extends into southern Texas. So, hordes of Texans may already be migrating INTO OUR BLUE STATES!
Building 100's of new nuclear power plants would improve the economy, reduce dependence on foreign oil, create jobs, reduce pollution, and provide for future technologi
I have been working with nuclear power for 30 yrs, I would be glad to have a new Nuclear power plant or used fuel storage in my community. My family and I live within 10 miles of a nuclear power plant. I understand the risks involved and I’m completely comfortabl
Nuclear power has the smallest environmen
http://www
and have worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on laser fusion, but I truly worry about the convention
http://www
However, you have a valid point of view, as others who have criticized my narrow-min
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http://www
"A society without oil is impossible
I just want to say I'd loved the way Mr. Takahashi writes, and what he wrote on this article. I'll be definitely checking whatever he has written in the past and what he'll write in the future. Very concise, straight-f
And please, somebody let me know if/when the intertubes will finally be useful to start the revolution
The media, however, quickly dismissed and ignored what the populace had to say.
Then comes my question: How can we change the mind of the actual decision-m
If the media isn't on our side - and often it seems it's not - and we only have the intertubes and old-fashio
Of course, a community like HuffPo's could easily take over Twitter's TTs and knock out Justin Bieber anytime they want it, but how to convert this power into action?
People have used the web to turn the usual suspects on advertisin
Not sure... Let me try. Hey HuffPo! Intel is EVIL! Get rid of them and offer your ad space to AMD instead.
Let's see, Mr. Takahashi, how well that goes...
I dunno! I think that a body in the street is worth 10 times a virtual body in generating change or at least its possibilit
That more than anything should point the way, There's a lot of us out here who could make a difference but we are too diffuse. Any one of a dozen progressiv
Is there such an animal?
Dr. Albert Bartlett
Save money, cut the deficit, employ everyone, cut energy dependence
Immediatel
Rooftop PV Solar, Offshore wind, and Waste Bio char, can supply the worlds energy and fuel needs: cleanly, safely, Forever, within 12 years and cheaper in the long run 2-6 cents now, and 26$ per barrel bio oils.
http://www
about 1$ per Wp solar panels, new.
install solar plants for about $1.30 per watt, compared with an industry average of about $1.75, according to Hardy." http://www
Wind: “between two and six cents today, depending on location.1
http://www
http://www
26$ per barrel bio oil from waste bio char.
I don't know what we can do. Our government is bought and paid for. Green has 1% of the money to buy the republic as fossil and nukes do, so The fix is in. Chu also totally loves nukes, and still uses 4 year solar panel prices, even this years gov report doesn't even break solar wind and waste bio fuels out of the Hydro category, and none of the 4 year old green prices were actually footnoted nor referenced
We somehow outlaw all political contributi
Or we wait for the entire country/wo
See What to do (updated) at http://www
Ironically
A very thin film of oil on the surface in the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans threatens to raise temperatur
The White House must rapidly consider the possibilit
An adequate response might, ironically
Little known breakthrou
Future cars can become power plants when parked, wirelessly selling electricit
Within very few years, with 24/7 developmen
Cars and trucks would begin to cost-compe
We need far more sensible steps to massively attack the oil in the Gulf and urgently reduce the danger as it flows toward the Atlantic ocean.
Better understand
This catastroph
While that Gulf of Mexico spill, is, indeed, a tragedy with respect to the economy and local lifestyles
Regarding the promise of plug-in vehicles, I am generally supportive
http://www
provides details.
Magnetic generators are being developed by several firms. These convert energy that has never before been commercial
There and room temperatur
Water fueled cells are also being born. See Running on Water on the Aesop Institute site.
BlackLight Power calls theirs a CIHT. It is described in the Motive Power paper on their website www.blackl
However, these revolution
Magnetic generators are even more difficult to believe. However, one was demonstrat
Batteries and fuel cells will be superseded
The most obvious solution but one that would take political courage sorely lacking in our bribe driven government
How do you get anyone to take you seriously at all? Your solutions are neither simple, nor even logical.
What are you campaignin
IMO, we say to the bulk of the citizenry, "Pay the real price of energy, food and shelter, so that you are incentiviz
I can't speak for Patrick on the "mass culling of humanity," but I'm guessing that he is waiting for us to make the connection between this concept and what is happening right now in the Gulf.
Simple Solutions, not at all simple to either understand or to implement, but right now few are being honest about them. You have a truthsayer right here in front of your nose. Unwrinkle it and take a whiff.
I'm not getting how calling a scientist of considerab
In any case I will be happy to debate any point of contention you feel is 'magnified