Homestead mailing list

[Marie McHarry <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 7:28 AM,  <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com> wrote:
>
> In fact, the prospects of, for example, there being no more oil is so
> horrifying that most people could deal with proof that their spouse was 
> cheating
> on them, their child had died, or that there is no god better than they
> could deal with proof that oil reserves are declining.
>
I don't think that people are wired to accept as real that which has
not happened. As a young person, I sketched out some ideas for novels:
one was about a virus that selectively killed young people (in the 18
to 20-something range) and one was about a world were oil was so
scarce that most people hadn't seen a private motor vehicle. Pity I
didn't write one or both; I'd either be considered a prophet or the
spawn of the Evil One.  :)

I think my parent's and grandparents' generations were conditioned to
expect that a technological fix really would appear to fix
contemporary problems. After all, they grew up with kerosene to light
the evening and lived for 30 or more years after the beginning of the
nuclear age.

I'm a lot more skeptical, especially considering that I don't see any
awareness that we ought to at least start conserving oil and
installing solar and wind power where we can, which would at least
keep us going for a few more years. Everyone from the President to
teenagers salivating over their new cars act like this won't end. Were
I Dictator in Chief, I'd put a $1 tax on gasoline and raise it every
year till it got up to, say $10, and dedicate the proceeds to
improving the conventional and alternate energy that's available.

It would take a dictator, though, to bring that off. Half the
CongressCritters would want to give new tax breaks, half would want to
fight a new war, and half would find some new program to fund. Yeah, I
know that there aren't three halves in a whole, but this is my
fantasy, dammit.

Marie, living in a 150-year-old house with two working fireplaces, one
of which already has a fireplace insert

PS: If global climate change is manmade, we can probably quit worrying
-- We'll probably run out of fossil fuels before we kill everything