A GREAT Rant! - And truthful too!

[LeoinSA]

http://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2010/06/running-out-of-luck.html

Put yourself in the place of the average post-industrial, suburban, environmentalist/sentimentalist: she looks at pictures of distraught pelicans on her giant TV screen on the other side of her great room, say, 30 feet in length. Her 3500 square foot Garage Mahal (subsidized by the US taxpayer) is climate-controlled 340 days per year. She drives one of the three family SUVs or pickup trucks to drop her kid off at school everyday, instead of telling the little chubbo to walk or ride his bike. She couldn't survive one day without the petroleum industry.

The reaction to the oil spill shows that a large part of the American economy -- and virtually all of its Media -- lives in a post-industrial dream world, where sentimentality and emotion trump engineering and economics, and where hypocrisy and escapism trump rational, adult thinking. They take all of their modern comforts for granted and prefer to moon and swoon over a pelican. A major oil spill like this is almost a blessing in disguise if it encourages the American people to reconnect to physical reality.

Yep.  'Nuff said.

[glenn kangiser]

Leo, you made me think of this music video - thanks to Daddymem of our forum...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQeRG72E3OM

[MushCreek]

I don't think people realize how much of what we do is tied to oil. They figure if we all stopped driving fossil-fueled vehicles, the problem would be solved. "We'll all just drive electric cars!" They don't know where electricity comes from. They don't realize that very nearly every facet of our lives uses oil, and lots of it. Try manufacturing anything without directly or indirectly using fossil fuels. Try transporting goods in any reasonable quantity without using fossil fuels. Try growing food without using fossil fuels. Other than Mother Nature itself, everything has ties to oil, whether we like it or not. Mankind would have to live off of their own land, and manufacture all of their own goods (forget plastics) to even come close to not using oil. Most places on earth lack sufficient acreage for people to live like that anymore. Looking around my house, I can't see anything that didn't involve oil in some way, even if it was only to transport it TO my house. Go to the 'greenest' person you know, and challenge them to show you one item in their house that never used any oil to be where it is today. Other than maybe some wormy organically grown vegetables (how did the seeds get to their house?) I bet they can't do it.

[Don_P]

Good points.
Just one example, The reason I live in a forest is entirely due to fossil fuel. This forest was originally cut for energy to smelt iron, the tractive force of that time required acres of pasture to feed. The only reason we have forest now is because we are burning stored sunshine. TR predicted a famine of timber if we didn't change our ways. Close the tap and we will be there very soon again. Most people don't realize how fortunate we have been to be given this respite to regrow our forest and find another way. At no other time has this opportunity been given. We are taking the opportunity and having a party. The carrying capacity of this planet down through history has been under 2 billion humans without digging up yesterday's sunshine and burning it, we are now at something like 6 billion. Shut off that tap and look on both sides of you, they won't survive. We're in pretty deep and dumb as bunnies.