[Homestead] Observations from my State Convention
eureka at hctc.net
eureka at hctc.net
Tue Jun 10 18:49:10 EDT 2008
Yes, there actually was discussion on the need to reduce
consumption, although we all know it would be difficult to
legislate something like this. It was clear that the
attendees are or are ready to personally reduce
consumption. There were several groups with booths in the
exhibition hall that are dedicated to educating the public
about ways to reduce consumption, but I suspect (although
I haven't read all the literature I picked up yet) it is
the usual, flourescent lights, caulking windows, etc. At
least the need for local food was brought up in the
meeting.
I listened to 10 speakers on their respective energy
fields. The fossil fuel experts (straight out of Houston's
oil district) there agreed the U.S. has less than 12 years
of oil left in the ground, which would put us more
beholden to outside sources (and the war machine that
secures it) if we don't urgently put our efforts into
wind, solar, and geothermal. One expert spoke for nuclear
power, but the overall response (even from the other
experts) was they didn't trust storage of nuclear waste
and that every aspect of nuclear power produced more CO2.
There was a very nice set of illustrations someone made
that looked like stools, where the seat part was labeled
"the environement" and the various energy solutions were
the legs. The current "stool" showed the oil leg so large
and the rest of the legs so spindly by comparison that the
seat would obviously not be sustainable. The proposed
"stool" showed a balanced approach where oil was greatly
reduced, so that wind, solar, geothermal, etc. were of
equal size.
I also enjoyed meeting several of the top Texas Dem
politicians who seem very aware of the direction we need
to go with energy. I don't think Rick Noriega-D for U.S.
Senate will have trouble getting elected, as the encumbant
Republican was one of the legislators who voted against
Iraq vets getting full benefits.
--Sage
On Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:39:02 EDT
Clansgian at wmconnect.com wrote:
>
>
>> >Mostly, I enjoyed attending the meeting on energy,
>>where
>> peak oil was discussed and the need to quickly develop
>> wind and solar alternatives.
>
> Sage, any talk about, not alternatives, but changes in
>society and lifestyle
> (and infrastrcture) to simply use less energy and not
>move around so much?
>
> I've talked about this with our legislators, face to
>face, (easy to do as the
> show up at any and all photo-ops, up for reelection this
>fall, don't you
> know) and I just get a headache.
>
> That's where some leadership would come in handy, but
>alas, I'm seeing none
> of it.
>
> James </HTML>
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