Posted by
Robert Howard-2-3 on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/bigger-plans-bigger-little-mistakes-tp523782p523829.html
MARCUS: ?I'm not so sure it really requires everyone's cooperation.?
My argument was:
Case A: If it DOES require every USA citizen to cooperate, then it WILL
require every other country to cooperate. It?s a ?global? issue!
Case B: If it DOES NOT require every other country to cooperate, then it
WILL NOT require every USA citizen to cooperate.
(Case A) requires big USA government?s coercive power both foreign and
domestic with threats of fines, wars, and sanctions.
(Case B) requires neither. Only those USA citizens that cooperate are
required.
Regardless of how politics will eventually play out, the price of petroleum
is going to rise in the USA merely because China and other growing foreign
economies are now demanding more of (willing to pay higher prices for) this
global commodity. So the "pain" in the USA will occur regardless of whether
it?s "self-imposed". I can only assume that the ROI on solar cells and
other alternatives will drop in response.
Does
<
http://www.ecotality.com/blog/2007/does-solar-make-economic-sense-nyt-says-no-san-francisco-chronicle-says-yes/> Solar Make Economic Sense? NYT Says
No, San Francisco Chronicle Says Yes
Robert Howard
Phoenix, Arizona
-----Original Message-----
From:
[hidden email] [mailto:
[hidden email]] On Behalf
Of Marcus G. Daniels
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2007 4:36 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] bigger plans, bigger little mistakes - Electron
Symmetry
Robert Howard wrote:
> ?We have invented a game called Carbon Offsets. But to be effective,
> it really requires everyone?s cooperation. Unfortunately, we can?t get
> them to play.
What I think is that necessity is the mother of invention. Make some
self-imposed pain to, say, radically reduce the number of internal
combustion automobiles on the road, and get large scale solar, clean
coal, or even fusion working (e.g. which I believe requires little more
than having the governments of wealthy western nations stand up to their
petroleum lobbies), and then the rest of the world will run with it,
because it will be easy to do. Open source energy. Or if for some reason
it is not desirable to share some of this technology with iffy nations,
we can export the energy to them real cheap.
Also, I'm not so sure it really requires everyone's cooperation. For
example, the United States alone a large fraction of the worlds'
electrical and petroleum energy usage. If that were all clean power it
ought to help buy some time w.r.t. climate change.
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