John F. Kerry

wouldnt it be cool if the world really moves towards sustainable energy and sustainable living now ?


someday in the future people might call the new era After Oil Spill ....


and if thats the case, this is year 1 AOS



despite how awful the oil spill is, its kinda hopeful for several reasons -

1. if this had happened anywhere but america, the government would have tried to cover it up, the response wouldnt have been as bad (by people complaining), and it wouldnt have had such a huge effect on the world as only shit that happens to america does


2. this spill is terrible for somwhat intangilble reasons - yes its sad for the fisherman who lost their income, but for most people its sad in an abstract kinda way- the ocean and the ecosystem are ruined, a place that many americans intrinsicaly loved has been destroyed by oil and our addiction to it.


3. even rich ceos and hardhearted businesspeople can look at the pictures of their beautiful gulf- the place they might have planned on retiring too, and see its totally fucked because of our addition to oil.


.... so these higher ups in america now have a non- government forced down your throats reason to be against fossil fuels and oil .... ford ceos and dupont ceos are looking today and saying damn man, this has been comming for 30 years now, maybe now really is the time to get the fuck onto something new.



....and , it also came at a good time technologically - in 1980 we didnt have the tech to even dream about getting off oil.


today, we do.



electric vehicles are comming on the market this year, some analysts predicts widespread adoption of evs by 2030....

....this could end up working out way better than if some administration had tried to force cap and trade down our throats.... the chance is really here now both from a motivation and a technology standpoint, and from a recognition that , fuck, this burning oil shit is so last century..... i have a good feeling about the future in this area.


technology and popular motivation are much better at getting it done than politicians pontificating to us.... this is the best chance we've ever had to show the world a new way. and i predict we will.


ps sorry for all the mispellings im typing with a band aid on my finger and its hard to press the right keys when i type fast

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Nasa under Obama

OldMan&TheWeed

Dude, the oil companies, the richest corporations in the world, they OWN congress. The change over will not begin until

We should not be burning the last of our fossil fuels to produce. Instead they should be be reserved for the manufacture of materials. Petro based materials will be needed to build the alternative energy infrastructure.

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Nintey-three percent of what I say is brilliant, factual information and seven percent is complete bullshit. Have fun deciding which is which.

John F. Kerry

cool graphic, but man that doesnt make any sense about the oil companies.


they are rich, they have lots of influence, but even they realize that oil is finite and almost gone, and also that it ruins our environment when shit like this happens, im saying even oil execs know in the back of their minds, just like saudi arabian sheiks do - that the oil era has got to end eventually....

im saying this event could be enough to make them say damn, this is watershed moment, most oil companies are already investing in r and d for new energy sources.... many are invested heavily, some oil companies bought a bunch of lithium battery companies when they started to look like they had good promise...


why do u think of oil companies as evil? i think of them as interested in doing whats best for society and whats best for themselves.... society, in terms of , keeping it going so that they can still have customers and an economy to sell their products to 20-30 years from now.... they dont have an interest in the world being destoyred as we squeeze the last drops of oil out of some 10 mile deep cave.... even bp knows its gotta become a non-oil , energy company, in 30-40 years or else it will be going after a resource that no longer exists anywhere.....


im really curious why u are so negative minded about the oil companies? look how much better society got after earth day and the new environmental regulations of hte early 1970s- the clean air act, clean water act, etc... those made the lakes and streams of america nice again, and made our air far cleaner and nowadays there is a "rust belt" in the north east because all that old time shit is collapsing and becomming much nicer and more natural again.... and the new industries and tech that comes in isnt nearly as polluting and bad....not because the ceos are nice, but because the technology makes it better, smarter , and more economical to have better cleaner tech.

the main thing for the oil companies and others is to have an event that shocks us and makes us realize we gotta change our ways now, or soon, .... i think this was such an event.


i think even chevrons ceo and exxons ceo are thinking about these issues different today then they were 5 months ago.... dont u ?


they key is for the measures we take to be common sense and good but also not too radical and liberal and destroy our economy in the process- technoloy, not cap and trade and taxes , is whats gonna fix this- we need to incentivise solar and renewables the same way we subsidize oil and corn and other staple things- we need to give some of that huge government power to the new industries and to the people who are gonna make this new world- then let the new tech that is better compete with oil companies tech- and watch the oil companies adopt, copy, borrow , and buy the renewable tech. - maybe in time russias new "silicon valley" that medvedev is trying to set up can be run by guys outside moscow who produce the best most environmentally friendly and also the most efficient solar technology and sell it to us and china.... who knows . there is so much potential there.... its like cars in 1900-or computers in 1985- everyone is gonna need this stuff, and the people and nations that provide it will get goodwill and awe (see microsoft, or ford in 1901)..... that comes with changing the world in a good way-


then we can have huge new industries building a huge new generation of green tech, across all sectors, and a new generation of american and european and other blue collar workers making things they can be proud of that arent dirty and greasy- this new tech will not deplete finite resources or make the air worse so theres no need to tax and tax to destruction, the old will simply fall away because people with common sense (whether poor folks, or ceos,) will come around to the new common sense. think about T boone pickens and his renewable energy policy....hes a former oil man !

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Nasa under Obama

The Rev

I doubt that this oil spill will stand out in history to the degree necessary to be called a major turning point. It's a big deal NOW because we're in the middle of it, but as they get it under control, some other big deal with grab the world's attention and it will be relegated to its place among many events like Exxon Valdez, Saddam firing the Iraq Oil Fields, Bhopal, etc.

As for worries about our addiction to oil, and it's predicted production peak, I smell a Y2K. With all the warning we have, and with efforts already underway to seek alternatives, I highly doubt that we will see any kind of major meltdown. Prices will rise as supplies become more expensive to produce, and this will make other energy sources more appealing, spurring more research, etc.

Personally, I'm more worried about things we don't see coming, or don't understand well enough to handle properly.



The Rev

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zerodown

I just want to propose a different name, Oil Age, you know, the stone age, the bronze age, the oil age.

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"I've seen people so poor all they got is money."

We have to learn to unlearn
Its not contradiction, its amendment
Not everything we see is reality
Not everything we hear is the truth
Not everything we're taught helps us grow
~Cultura Profetica

"La locura se lleva en la cabeza y las drogas en los bolsillos"
~Roberto Iniesta

farmergiles

I'm ready for the apocalypse, bring it on

Attached Images

 

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Cultivate a stoic calmness

OldMan&TheWeed

Or as Donald Rumsfeld said in a Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing:


There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

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Nintey-three percent of what I say is brilliant, factual information and seven percent is complete bullshit. Have fun deciding which is which.

Mafoo

that was the first thing a professor of philosophy said to the class in my intro to philosophy class.

things we know
things we dont know
things we dont know we dont know

im fairly optomistic about the AOS world. we all have seen the surge of green ideas and the increase in public awareness about the health of the environment.

check out this popsci article and all the other ones that are linked at the end of the article. really interesting ideas about how technology and science may be able to deal with oil
popular science| environmental visionaries

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PLUR
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return

zerodown

You guys think an oil spill is going to change mankind? Thats only true in that the coasts that will inevitably be fucked along with the marine life will change the way of life of a lot of people who depend on those waters.

__________________
"I've seen people so poor all they got is money."

We have to learn to unlearn
Its not contradiction, its amendment
Not everything we see is reality
Not everything we hear is the truth
Not everything we're taught helps us grow
~Cultura Profetica

"La locura se lleva en la cabeza y las drogas en los bolsillos"
~Roberto Iniesta

farmergiles

We don't know the wider implications of ecological damage to the oceans, it could have more effect than you think.

Organisms in the ocean may pay a great role in carbon fixing. Emiliania huxleyi - Wikipedia

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Cultivate a stoic calmness

Ego Tripping

This is a shift in a sense that we will never be able to fully move on from the oil age until this leak is fixed. Once it is, the image (or rather, the undersea live video cam image) has been burned into peoples minds. The fear people feel right now will lead to anger which will lead to frustration and subsequently hopefulness of a better way. The journey away from oil begins with a thousand steps, and this is most certainly the catalyst we've needed to take that initial step.

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zerodown

Thats just wishful thinking. But lets hope it becomes true.

__________________
"I've seen people so poor all they got is money."

We have to learn to unlearn
Its not contradiction, its amendment
Not everything we see is reality
Not everything we hear is the truth
Not everything we're taught helps us grow
~Cultura Profetica

"La locura se lleva en la cabeza y las drogas en los bolsillos"
~Roberto Iniesta