Keith (Southend) wrote:
This may go slightly off topic in some aspects and I'll try to be brief
in my thoughts and concerns, but I don't know whether it's guilt or just
a case of not being able to make sense of it, that I can't get it out
of my head, hence the posting as I present myself on usw's couch for
therapy :-)

It appears to me "we" are saying one thing and doing another in the wide
scheme of things. On one hand we are getting a daily bashing about the
greenhouse emission we are all producing with our cars, homes and planes
etc, yet how ever much we as individuals can reduce our own levels, both
the increase in usage and global spread of industrialization turns the
ratio into a one step forward two steps back scenario. Only this week
the European Countries have been putting pressure on Putin (Russia)
about securing a free market and subsequent supplies of Gas from the
east. Have we now come to the point where the UK/Europe can no longer
support itself with the fossil fuels it requires and will depend more
and more on Countries further afield? Politically this is extremely
worrying and is the makings of wars in the big scheme of things if
things spiral out of control for whatever reason. The Iraq conflict
arguably fits into this scenario.

A big question in my mind is how many years has the planet got left of
fossil fuels (Gas/Oil in particular ?) What ever the figure, surely
assuming we burn the lot, we have then reached the maximum possible
emissions of Co2 output and the scientists nightmare scenario is far
worse than it is now.

What worries me is I can't see an answer, it will only stop when mankind
starts to wipe itself out, or more than likely the planet we have on
loan. I really don't see any viable alternative energy sources that
will seriously feel the gap for our needs and as for the greenhouse
tax's, what a joke, meaningless, it doesn't stop the emissions!

I'm sure someone (or two) will put me straight on some of my thoughts,
tell me i don't know what I'm talking about as far as a fuel crisis is
concerned or say I'm a fascist or something grin, but I just don't see
how "we" are going to stop this roller coaster ride of global warming.


It appears to me, that your flow of thought has only marginally
something to do with global warming problem or the problem the mankind
will face while running out of fossil energy.

I see the core of the problem you try to cope with in terms of global
warming and possible energy crisis in what people accept as motivation
and follow as guidelines for their lives.

I suppose, that maybe to your surprise you won't e.g. find many people
who really care about how long they will stay alive killing themselves
in small and tiny steps by getting satisfaction out of smoking, drinking
alcohol, taking drugs, eating so much, that they run into severe health
problems due to overweight, etc.

As long as there is no general solution to the problems of individuals
as described above in sight there will be also no solution to more
general problems which could be solved only at the level of adapting the
behavior of the individual to the needs of the entire mankind.

In this context I think it is worth to mention a dispute I had decades
ago with a colleague of mine about heavy environment pollution in the
area I have grown up where my own (weak) health suffered very much from
that pollution:
I suggested to stop the pollution by starting to consider all these
people contributing to the heavy pollution as dangerous criminals
belonging into jail by forcing usage of appropriate law. My idea was to
make others aware that polluting the environment is nothing else as
killing people by shortening their life expectation.
To my surprise the attitude of the (very intelligent and well educated)
colleague of mine was:
"It is much better to be happy and spend own life in accordance and
harmony with all the others than to start to force your fellows to
change their behavior making them unhappy not able to continue having
joy out of their lives in a way they like it."
in other words:
"I would better die with all of the others from pollution, than start to
force them by any possible means to stop it."

At least until now, the only way I found helping to cope with what I had
mentioned above without being a case for psychiatric therapy others will
force upon one
(as it happened some years ago to the guy trying to enlighten people not
to put their money into lottery games by demanding five minutes for his
appropriate message on TV ; after making him unable to force others to
fulfill his demand by frightening them with terror, he was forced to
undergo a psychiatric therapy ...)
is to start to see the mankind as it is and not as one would like it to
be. It's true, that this doesn't change anything, but at least it helps
to understand and this way prevents one from going mad giving in return
the time and the opportunity to look for better understanding and this
way maybe even a solution to the core of the problem.

Hope this helps.

Claudio