Subject: Re: [Homestead] The answer, my friend, may not be blowing in the wind.
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:24:02 -0400
I live in upstate NY and have been subscribed to this list for at
least a year, maybe a couple years- sometimes I forget which list is
which. I'm quite sure that I have posted here before.
What am I trying to say? I'm saying that we've overshot the resource
and renewable energy carrying capacity of the planet as far as human
population and the highly consumptive 'western' lifestyle as we know
it. We are headed for a much lower energy future and the descent can
be gradual or precipitous. Likely the latter if we keep squandering
energy and resources on science-fiction fantasies (that will in the
short term make a few people rich but ultimately have little
effect). I'm saying that there is no answer, or even a combination
of answers that comes anywhere close to allowing us collectively to
maintain the energy-intensive lifestyles we're used to. The longer
we put off confronting this reality and grasping at science-fiction
'alternative' fantasies the harsher descent will be.
Technically there isn't anything wrong with discontinued turbine
models, just that they are not at the cutting edge of efficiency and
buying them from Denmark or wherever certainly doesn't help
unemployed americans. If tax funds that I contribute to are used to
subsidize these projects I'd like to see real benefits from them
beyond an upward wealth transfer to corporate entities and it seems
like the turbines ought to be the most up-to-date and efficient ones
available.
The controversy around upstate NY industrial wind development seems
to have calmed down in the last year- maybe the easy pickings for the
energy corps have all been taken or opposition has become more
sophisticated and the companies are targeting other locations. A lot
of the information I read was in local papers, from locals, etc.
Probably online too, but I'll have to search it out.
That the 'oil age will not end because we ran out of oil' follows
'the stone age did not end because we ran out of stones' is a non
sequitur to which I'd respond that world history has more
civilizations that have failed due to over-extention and over
exploitation of resources than civilizations that have survived. I'm
sure the Mayans believed 'We'll come up with something!' (or the
priests will or the gods will save us, etc.) as they were running out
of trees for fuel and their limited soil was eroding away. Are we
different?
Homestead related? First of all, I didn't start the thread.
Secondly, it seems to me that 'homesteading' as an endeavor is at
least partly about striving for self-sufficiency, living with some
understanding of and direct relationship to one's environment and its
cycles, etc., and I would argue that a degree of skepticism toward,
and even rejection of large-scale, centralized corporate schemes is a
natural outgrowth of the ethos. Homesteaders are probably better
positioned to deal with what lies ahead than most. And while I agree
that the medical 'study' regarding living in proximity to an
industrial-scale turbine cited in the original, thread-starting post
seems dubious, the industrial wind development racket is equally
dubious. Just look at the history and track record of the energy
industry from Carnegie and his coal, through Standard Oil, to Enron,
Exxon, BP and all the rest. It is a history of deceit, manipulation
and exploitation and personally I don't see any reason to expect that
trend to cease because they are adding renewables to the portfolio.
Tom
Re: [Homestead] The answer, my friend, may not be blowing in the wind.,
Tom, 08/15/2008