This quote took my breath away!
By youdontsay
@youdontsay (3497)
United States
March 3, 2008 1:49am CST
". . . how do you describe an American administration that will spend $1 trillion on winning a war for Irqaqi oil while refusing to allocate any funds to reduce dependency on oil? For $1 trillion, the United States could have catalized the replacement of its entire autombile fleet with plug-in hybrid-electrics getting 500 mpg {cars running on batteries 90 percent of the time), powered by renewable energy and biodiesel."
from Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken
I'd never thought of it from that perspective. Imagine.
2 people like this
6 responses
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
4 Mar 08
Funny, you forgot to mention the trillions spent on education, welfare, and all the money thrown at other countries that curse us and act like we don't do enough for them. 1 trillion sounds like a lot, but it doesn't compare to what is spent on all the other programs in this country. FYI, only 11% of our oil comes from the middle east. If we were starting wars over oil we would have went to war with Canada and Mexico. That's where most of our oil imports come from.
2 people like this
@youdontsay (3497)
• United States
6 Mar 08
Maybe if we weren't spending so much money on fossil fuels and became energy independent we could more easily create a healthier economy and take care of a lot of those problems.
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
6 Mar 08
What do you mean by "energy independent"? Do you mean we should no longer trade with other nations? Do you think it would be good for us to just blow off other countries with goods to trade? Trade is what makes nations powerful. We could produce all our oil here, but there is no need to deplete so much of our resources when there are other places in the world with a surplus. It's all about give and take. If countries just hoarded their own resources we'd get nowhere.
1 person likes this
@youdontsay (3497)
• United States
8 Mar 08
We can be independent without being isolationists. If the oil producing countries decided to put us under an oil embargo because they don't like the way we are treating them, we need to be able to continue to run our country without them.
But more importantly we need to develop renewable energy sources that do less damage to the environment. No easy task.
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
3 Mar 08
It could have done something even more useful like developing a health service that is free at the point of delivery. Or helping cities deal with their homeless or even giving the tax payer a small refund. Why is it that there is always money for bombs, but never for betterment.
2 people like this
@youdontsay (3497)
• United States
6 Mar 08
Perhaps because their is more money in manufacturing weapons. The big bucks of the manufacturers have strong lobbies. Who do you think benefits from war? Check out some of the politicians buddies.
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
6 Mar 08
I understand all that. But I thought that the great thing about the democratic societies that we live in is that what is done here is best for our people. Yet we seem to spend all our time these days posturing at the World, to the point that we spend trillions bombing them, while our citizens (particularly US ones) have a harder and harder time putting roofs over their heads and food on their tables. You only have to look at some of the posts on myLot to see that going on.
1 person likes this
@youdontsay (3497)
• United States
8 Mar 08
Follow the money. We are more controlled by money than by morality.
Government has gotten too big to manage I guess. "We the people" get lost in the shuffle.
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
4 Mar 08
The question was "How do you describe an American administration...etc..."
Greedy, arrogant, corrupt, crooked, idiotic, war mongering, dictatorial, above the law, sneaky, and - along with their party - GONE in 10 months and 16 days!!
Annie
1 person likes this
@morethanamolehill (1586)
• United States
7 Mar 08
If we spent a trillion dollars on plug in hybrids or even straight electrics, Number 1 our electrical grid would collapse in ten seconds. Number 2 Electricity doesn't come from MAgiC! It comes from coal and oil. God forbid we should build a Nuclear Power plant. And if we ever do switch to electrics then we just transfer the power that oil companies have over to the electric utilities(I say "if" bcuz I really don't think it will happen) Biodiesel is already driving up the price of food for the poorest of countries. Don't hold your breath for solar, It is one of the only technologies that has IncReasEd in price over the last 40 years. And it still takes HUGE amounts of energy to make solar cells. Does anyone know of a solar cell Manufacturing facility that is completely Solar Powered? didn't think so. Solar supplies LesS than 1/10 of 1% of energy production today. I am still planning to put a solar Batch water heater on my roof to supplement my grid power. But if I wanted to go the expense of PV solar panels I would have to cuT down Two very large trees. Which is better?? I am not saying that we should forgo new power technologies. I am designing a wind generator for my apartment (if the city will allow it) but again it will be only a supplement to my grid power. There are some situations where wind and solar are advisable, but for the most part Large windgens run on subsidies, not wind.
Back on electric cars, If you knew the destruction of environment and lives that is involved with mining the metals that go into batteries you might rethink this idea. And then there is another material that MUST be recycled. only a very small percentage of batteries get recycled and what do Governments do about it?? They ban plastic shopping bags. Typical. And what do you do with your CFL's when they burn out?? They contain mercury.
While I respect Paul Hawken and everything he does and stands for, I think he shows an astounding (willful?)ignorance of what this War(battle actually)is about, what this administration is about and what this country is about. Does anyOne remember that Prez Bush was the FIRST American president to allocate money for hYdrogen research. He is also the first president to put up money for Stem cell Research, Liberals called it a ban. Can we cut this us/them mentality that has crippled this country for the last 5 or so years and start to actually think with our minds and work together to solve the problems we have. Stop picketing, blocking and blowing up recruiting stations. All that will accomplish is a reason for more security and possibly even martial law. If not for Divisive and obstrucive Democrats in the House and Senate, We could have cleaned up the mess in Iraq a long time ago.
2 people like this
@youdontsay (3497)
• United States
8 Mar 08
You make some excellent points. It reminds me that we must also look beyond automobiles/oil users for solutions. While we are terrible dependent on gasoline in our country, it isn't just oil for energy that creates pollution. Coal, another fossil fuel, is a really big CO2 producer. And just because we don't see coal being shoveled into our homes like half a century ago we mustn't forget that it is used to produce energy that we use all the time.
My hope is that the focus now will be on developing renewable energy sources that will be kinder on the environment. I'm just now hearing about thermal energy, even though it apparently has been around for decades. And of course there is the solar, wind, and atomic energies we've used for some time. We need to keep improving the ways we use these resources to be safer and "greener".
Wonder how that would progress if it was encouraged by a unified nation rather than special interest groups playing tug-o-war with it. We seem to be a nation of us/them these days. How do we get from contentious to cooperative? Isn't it time?
@augusteen (14)
•
4 Mar 08
An alternative to oil would free the world of dictatorship in the middle east and Africa and it would make the poppulations like Nigeria(140 million) to use their brains to develop the country rather than oil which is currently fuelling corrruption.Its a great pity the waste on Iraq.
1 person likes this
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
5 Mar 08
I never said nor implied any holiness. Nobody alive in America today owned slaves. My ancestors weren't in this country when that happened and I'm not going to take any blame for it. As for the Cold War, plenty of African countries took sides, some with Russia, others with the US, it was no different than any other national conflict where sides are chosen. I won't claim to be wiser than Bill Clinton, he's making a minimum of $300K per speech, I make $15 per hour. I don't care if he supposedly raised $10 billion for Africa. I'm much more concerned with the $15 Billion missing and unaccounted for from the Education Department under his presidency.
I do enjoy your made up statistic that only 1% of Nigerians are scam artists. That's obviously BS as there's no definitive way to verify such information. Each scammer uses a variety of different names and often funnels money through UK boxes to make their trails harder to find. These scams have been going on since the 1920's. I can assure you that for many, it's simply the family business. The Nigerian government of course, does nothing to stop this.
1 person likes this
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
4 Mar 08
Why is it our responsibility to fix Nigeria? What does Nigeria do for us? We buy oil from them and they scam our population with claims of inheritances and lottery winnings. Regardless of that, I just don't see why so many people think that it's America's responsibility to fix every screwed up country, and yet they get pissy when the US actually does go into a country to remove a repressive government.
1 person likes this
@augusteen (14)
•
5 Mar 08
Task do not adopt a holier than thou attitude.Americans have committed their own crimes in the past with slavery and the cold war in Africa. They had used african leaders as pawns in a political chess game. well you can not claim to be wiser than bill Clinton who has raised more than Ten Billion dollars for African related causes. Less than one per cent of Nigerians are into scams.
1 person likes this
@nubsnovets (72)
• United States
4 Mar 08
The thing is, Bush, Cheney and others all have their hands in the oil business. The Bush family has made a living off oil. They don't want cars that don't depend on oil. Even when they promote ethanol, it still has oil in it and on top of it all, the trucks delivering the ethanol use a lot of oil. There is a good documentary out there. I think that it is called who killed the electric car. It explains why we still are so dependent on oil.
Every time the gas prices go up or the price of a barrel goes up I say to my friends, "Bush must be saving up for his retirement."
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