Re: Drilling ANWR!!

[quote=fishingnut][quote=Jenks]^ :lol:

necessity is the mother of invention. the market will dictate when it's time for alternative fuels.[/quote]

it's funny how the tree hugers feel like they know what's best.[/quote]

In this case, treehuggers won't be the ones running into the canyon at full speed. :D

Re: Drilling ANWR!!

While it's true that the market ultimately dictates whether or not certain energy sources will be feasible or not, that same market would dictate that dance music is virtually irrelevant; point being that the economy should not be the motivating force behind bettering society.

MJDub, I was referring more specifically to flywheel energy storage, but there are others. Automobiles using multiple flywheels for energy storage could have as much as 800HP, or even more. Still, the ultimate energy source for such flywheels would be electrical (from a house, for example). In order to complete the fossil fuel elimination one would have to derive their home power from solar or wind, etc., of which solar is slowly but surely becoming a widespread energy source. The gov't even subsidizes solar installations in some areas.

I love how anybody with any foresight on environmental matters is instantly labeled "treehugger". That's pretty damned ignorant. Whatever.

Re: Drilling ANWR!!

sorry didn't mean to offend, but when people start telling me i'm nuts for driving my big truck, then there a tree hugger in my eyes.

Re: Drilling ANWR!!

Well, no one should tell be telling you that you can't drive your truck- it's not like you have any equally affordable non-polluting alternative! In other words, how are you to blame? You're not- I guess we'd call people treehuggers if they're being unrealistic with their environmental demands of others. What the funny thing is is that there are ready alternatives to fossil fuel use that very well could be adopted with little economic stress; the main reason we don't explore them is not because we don't need to yet (I think we do), but because there wouldn't be as much money in renewable energy as there is in oil (because we'd have to work a little for it). However, when we think long term, the effort that we expend now on reducing oil will pay for itself in the future when we have far less pollution and still have energy to spare. We would like to avoid an energy crisis, if possible. Not to mention global warming and Mideast dependency, etc.

We're just putting off the inevitable by drilling in Alaska. I don't know about how much the environment (read: animals and vegetation) will be affected by the drilling, but for me that's not really the issue. The issue is oil dependency and getting rid of it.

Luxury SUVs, Hummers, and the like, are all nice cars, but many people (myself included) feel that they are exceedingly wasteful. Because of the free market system and advertising, they've become very popular, and no one can really say that others can't have them. It can't be denied, however, that they contribute heavily and increasingly to the U.S.'s oil dependency. I think of it this way:

Say everyone needs to buy bread to eat. We get most bread from the bad side of town, and when we discard the bags it comes in, they stinks up the air and heats up the place. We could start to farm our own rice right in our own backyards, but it would take some time to adapt to this process. The bread buyers make ridiculous amounts of money getting bread incredible cheaply from the bad side of town, and keep the rice growers out of business by paying them off. There's only so much bread to go around, and certain individuals use most of it, thereby contributing to the buyer's wealth which continues the cycle of nonadaptation to rice. The kingpins on the bad side of town get really rich from this, and every once in a while someone from their neighborhood comes over and blows up a couple of our houses using money gleaned from our bread dependency.

There's something else about SUVs that bugs me- the way people drive them. It's always some stupid prick on a cell phone, taligating, weaving in and out of traffic, over-reacting to every little traffic nuance, slamming on the brakes. If SUV drivers handled their vehicles better, maybe everyone else would be a little more forgiving of their low milage.

Re: Drilling ANWR!!

I can't agree with this "fuck the caribou" reasoning. Do you guys realize how many environmental regulations you are beneficiaries of? People act as if this stuff is no big deal as they breath clean air and drink clean water; You can't have it both ways. Alaska might seem real far away, but nobody likes black salmon.

And as ska astutely pointed out, thing only thing drilling up there will improve is the profit margin for the oil guys, you are in a dream world if you think this will reduce our ties with the mid east or prices at the pump.