In speaking to the global energy question
Morgaan Sinclair writes that the
Middle East Forum had a Middle East Briefing in New York with Jim Woolsey in November 2005. Woolsey explained the situation this way:
Every time in the past that America has started making noises about environmentalism and getting off oil, the Saudis have flooded the short-term light sweet crude market, which then lulls Americans into a false sense of security about prices, and all the investment capital for alternative energies dries up.
Now that the 4AR IPCC reports have come out—and climate science is no longer based on (really sage) models, but data, the Keeling Curve is absolutely incontrovertible in its implications. There is no longer any serious debate (except among those on the payroll of Big Oil and Coal) about what is going on. There is only debate about whether or not the bullet has left the gun or whether we have a little bit of time to top the Type Climate changes from hitting us hard.
Hansen says the bullet has left the chamber; Holdren, McCarthy et al. claim that we have 5-10 years to reverse course.
Now the Saudis know that the worldwide community is onto the global climate change problem ("global warming" is a very unfortunate misnomer, because it's about climate extremes of both hot and cold triggered by an overly warm general atmospheric condition). So now they're not bothering with playing around with short-term resources.
THEY ARE TRYING TO BANKRUPT THE WEST WHILE SHARI'A COMPLIANT BANKS ARE FUNNELING THE MONEY OUT OF THE USUAL INTERNATIONAL MARKETS INTO ONES THEY CONTROL SO THEY CAN BECOME THE WORLD'S LENDERS.
GET OFF OIL. It's much more serious on both fronts than most people image. Coal is not the answer. Corn is a disaster. But back-end switch grass ethanol is a good solutio. Switch grass grew on the American prairie before the US was settled (except by Indians) and it is what we grow on agricultural fallow years to replenish the soil. So we MUST grow it, and with switch grass ethanol the farmers can make money off something that is usually not productive, and it doesn't interfere with the production of food.
Nix on coal. And liquid coal carbon sequestration is an outright LIE. It's bullshit.
If you feel you need more education on global climate change, click
here. This article is a couple of years old, but the situation looks even worse now than it did then. But this is a superlative article to get a TRUE overview of the problem. D. Holdren (immediate past pres of AAAS) explains it extremely well for the non-scientist.
To get a picture of why Woolsey says that Republicans who realize the war on terror is real, and Democrats who realize that the environmental problems are real SHOULD BE NATURAL ALLIES. So we must get off oil for a plethora of reasons:
(1) We are paying our enemies $1 billion a day for oil, and they are making bombs with it.
(2) That kind of balance of payments problem bleeds the jugular of the American economy.
(3) We don't dare tell 'em to shove it.
(4) The Chinese, who bear us no good will, are holding our paper on that debt, as well as selling us cheap goods, which also bleeds the economy of $1 billion a day.
(5) This situation makes it impossible for us to really stop anything. We can't tell the Saudis and Chavez to shove it with any authority. We can't tell the Bangladeshis to take care of their population problems. We can't help the starving of Africa. We can't demand that bad governments and religions stop abusing women.
We invented the light bulb, the airplane, the radio, the television, and nuclear fission. We went to the moon. It's not a matter that we can't. It's a matter that we're too damned soft and lazy and arrogant to fix it.
"No civilization was ever conquered from without that did not first destroy itself from within."
—Will Durant
Labels: alternatives, environmentalists, Holdren, Hugo Chavez, oil, Saudis, Woosley
