On 13 Dec 2006 10:27:31 -0800, "Chuck Gould"
wrote:


Varis wrote:
Chuck Gould wrote:

In the final analysis; nobody with a motorized pleasure boat has any
license, at all, to seriously complain about the global consumption of
fossil fuel. (Sort of like Al Gore travelling around in a big SUV). A
true believer would need to sink his or her boat, junk out his or her
car (not just sell it, and transfer the problem to another person), and
take up walking, rowing, and bicycling instead.

Maybe he is demotivated by the thought that the million guys next to
him will not let go of their SUVs anyway? And... how do you know how
much gas _his_ boat consumes? :-)

Risto

All very probably true. However, nobody should call upon others to make
sacrifices that they are personally unwilling to endure. Matters not
whether it's the fundie preacher having gay sex with his meth pusher on
Saturdays and then screaming that all gays are going to hell from his
pulpit on Sunday, Al Gore traveling around in a 12 MPG SUV while
railing against mankind's acceleration of global warming, or some guy
who owns a boat suggesting that others should not do the same because
it is a frivolous use of fossil fuel.

Anything burning less fuel than my boat (about 2 gph) is probably under
sail; but darned if I would assume some moral soap box to insist that
others conserve fuel that I am personally unwilling to conserve. Every
drop of fuel burned in a pleasure boat, every drop of fuel burned in a
motor vehicle for a pleasure trip, and nearly every drop of fuel burned
in any private passenger vehicle larger or more comfortable than a
Mini-Cooper is a discretionary waste.
Show me the guy who uses nothing but solar or wind energy, walks, bikes
or rows everywhere he goes, eats no commercially grown, processed, or
transported food, buys nothing made of plastic or imported from a
country with few meaningful environmental laws (China), and that will
be the guy who has earned the right to tell the rest of us we need to
change our living standards to forestall global warming.

There's a chance that we're no more than a generation or two from the
next Dark Age.
When radiation poisoning, famine, warfare, and disease reduce the
population to a small fraction of what it is today, the survivors will
get a chance to evaluate whether suspending the use of fossil fuels,
allowing the forests to once again cover the continents, etc will have
any effect on global warming. Most of us will be long gone, and perhaps
primarily by natural causes- but our grandkids or great grandkids will
need to be lucky as well as strong and resourceful to survive in a
future that it is *already too late* to salvage. Gawd that's
depressing- good reason to own a boat. :-)

(But if you own a boat, you have no creds in the "global warming"
discussion)

Chuck, do you have the URL for that 'doomsday' article which basically said
what you just did? Someone posted it here a few months back, and I've lost
it. Thanks.
--
John H

*Have a great Christmas and a spectacular New Year!*