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Technical feasibility, need to save the planet, blah blah blah aside, how will the switch-over make the rich and powerful (who call ALL the shots) more rich and more powerful?  You don't think that the uberwealthy are going to voluntarily release their stranglehold on the rest of the species, do you?  Extreme privilege is VERY addictive.

In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
by THE Twank (yatta blah blah @ blah.com) on Fri Jul 18th, 2008 at 06:58:11 AM EST
Perhaps you have heard of Mr. Pickens?

http://www.pickensplan.com/

The fact is that the oil companies have (exception: ExxonMobil) rebranded themselves as "energy" companies, and are using their tremendous and growing cash to buy their way into the alternative energy businesses. The rich will continue to get richer, as before.

The interesting test will be to see whether the regions controlled by "leftists" in the U.S., namely the coasts, will be as flexible in allowing alternative energy sources. So far, places like Texas and Colorado have shown more willingness to adopt real industrial-scale alternatives than the Northeast...

by asdf on Sat Jul 19th, 2008 at 10:12:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Actually I have seen the Pickens' ads on TV and have noticed the "new brand" sported by companies like BP.

Pickens aside, who I assume is a patriot along the lines of H Ross Perot (who I voted for), I thought that all of the talk by the oil companies about alternative energy sources was just that, a boat-load of talk.

I don't feel sorry for Joe Blow American.  This whole energy mess was obvious back in the early '70s but it took 4 1/2 buck gas PLUS global warming PLUS the loss of the polar caps to get people to start cutting back on wasting hydrocarbons.  Let the rich get richer if that's what it takes to get the job done.  Ah, the headlines.  "Paris Hilton saves planet Earth!".  Who'd a thought.

In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.

by THE Twank (yatta blah blah @ blah.com) on Sun Jul 20th, 2008 at 08:07:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]
kicking and screaming every step, but they will go down.

floods, wildfires and hurricanes make powerful cases for change, the heavy lifting, as it were...

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sun Jul 20th, 2008 at 08:32:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Who are the "they" you refer to?  Ordinary SUV driving Joe/Josephine Blow, the uberwealthy, or both?

In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
by THE Twank (yatta blah blah @ blah.com) on Sun Jul 20th, 2008 at 09:25:24 AM EST
[ Parent ]
no, not joe blow, the energy consortiums that are resisting change.

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sun Jul 20th, 2008 at 11:18:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
When you perceive yourself as being on top of the heap, you resist change at all costs because you are terrified of having to do with less, having done very little productively to warrant your privileged status.

In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
by THE Twank (yatta blah blah @ blah.com) on Sun Jul 20th, 2008 at 02:14:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
no matter how much money you throw at it.

it makes me think of those lab rats that keep jerking the pleasure button even if they starve to death.

some can be gentled out of it, others...

(working on it)

:)

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sun Jul 20th, 2008 at 06:11:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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