"we live under the foot of the dinosaur"

Originally posted by Cowboy
Where I live - it's a free-market economy; folks don't like being told
what they can or can't buy as if it were a command economy. Go bych to
the auto manufacturers to improve efficiency, cause I sure as hell
won't argue with you in that I'd love to get 40+ mpg instead of the 12
or so I see with my truck. See; you're directing your anti-SUV rant at
the wrong crowd. Consumers will buy what they need or want, but
manufacturers can do better with pressure in the right places.

#1: I drive a truck that has the same engine as a Ford Expedition, so
what's the freakin' difference? Are you going to tell me and all the
other millions of truck owners that we should go out and buy hybrids??
Try hauling a load full of grain in a shyt can Honda. The FORD F-150
is the world's best selling consumer vehicle; trucks get the work done
in my town.

#2: If you live in a city or don't have kids; shyt, a Mini Cooper or
Camry might do you good. That stuff won't work for me where I live and
what I deal with.

Like Montgomery Gentry say: I ain't trading in my family's safety just
to save on a little gas ................ YOU DO YOUR THING, I'll DO
MINE!!!! [fuqing bad-azz song and it's how millions roll].

Like I said - you go voice it to the auto manufacturers and tell them
I want the same truck, but with 40 mpg. You think I like paying $300
per month in gas??? Hell no, but I ain't about to drive no fuqing Jap
car and a Ford Focus or Chevy Cobalt just don't cut it for me.

Cowboy, I don't have a rationing in mind, but the current level of
happy-go-around waste is UNSUSTAINABLE.

But you know what is f*** wrong with the world (aka the jungle)? Not
that you personally drive a truck, particularly if you need it, but
that WASTING GAS IS GLAMORIZED. If you drive an SUV in the city
(hardly a need for it) it signals "hey, I'm the king of the world, and
f*** the world." Another thing is wrong with the world (or should I
say America?) is that YOU DON'T HAVE CHOICES, but to pollute. I got 3
spanking new bicycles in my apartment that go nowhere. Why? Because
it's a jungle out there. And being small gets you in trouble. Not even
in a small car you are safe, let alone in a bicycle, on the chaotic
American roads, where SIZE MATTERS. We need BIKE LANES but that's too
much to ask in the land of super roads.

So sure we can put pressure on Ford Corportation to produce hybrids
and complain all you want, and they should be doing much more by now,
but in the meantime, I'm saying WE LIVE UNDER THE FOOT OF THE
DINOSAUR. And the STUPID HUNGRY DINOSAUR, instead of coming up with
something creative, demands to be fed at whatever cost.

(hey, you can sign something here)

Climate Change Petition Online
Sign the online Emissions Petition. Urge America's political leaders
to take...
iw.rtm.com

If the beast were smart, it could notice things like this...


Wind industry bids to win over doubters
Friday, November 26, 2004 Posted: 9:30 AM EST (1430 GMT)

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- The European wind energy industry,
thriving as climate change tops the global agenda, says it could
eventually supply all the continent's electricity, but must first
overcome public resistance over eyesore turbines.

The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), which held its annual
meeting in London this week, projected that offshore "wind farms"
covering an area the size of Greece could meet Europe's electricity
needs with no greenhouse gas emissions.

But sceptics cite pollution of another kind with giant wind turbines
scarring the landscape, or blighting the sea horizon, deterring
tourists and killing birds with their whirling vanes.

"The argument is reaching ridiculous proportions. Most people don't
understand climate change and they don't understand wind turbines,"
Alison Hill of the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) told an
international meeting in London.

She said her organization was mounting a major publicity campaign in
newspapers, with billboard posters and a photographic exhibition
extolling what she called the beauty of turbines to inform and win
over people.

"It is a long standing case of Not In My Back Yard. Where people have
knowledge they give support. In this case familiarity breeds content,"
she said.

With the Kyoto treaty on cutting carbon dioxide emissions about to
come into force, signatory governments must seek clean and renewable
sources of energy.

Wind farms are sprouting in fields, on hilltops and out of the seas
around Europe with major projects either under construction or in
planning.

The EWEA says it can hit the target of generating 75 gigawatts (GW) of
electricity -- or 5.5 percent of demand -- by 2010, of which 10 GW
could be offshore.

With initiative and government intervention to remove long term
support for the carbon dioxide emitting fossil fuel power industry,
this could rise to 12 percent by 2020.

"In the longer term, a sea area of 150,000 square kilometers ... could
provide enough power to satisfy all of Europe's electricity demand,"
an EWEA statement said. He gave no timeframe.

But Rowena Langston of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
-- which says global warming must be stopped -- said development was
being pushed ahead with scant reference to the impact on the local
environment and in particular bird life.

"Until there is more robust information, we are not going to overstep
our conservation brief and say a project should go ahead regardless,"
she told the meeting.

But renewabale energy specialist Bryony Worthington of pressure group
Friends of the Earth countered that the climate crisis was now so
grave that birds had to take second place to saving the planet.

"The bottom line is that climate change is happening, endangering us
all. It is extremely scary," she told Reuters.