Do You suppose the push for alternate energy and against fossil fuel is rather
By suspenseful
@suspenseful (40193)
Canada
May 2, 2008 4:42pm CST
done to punish the Western world for its affluence, than really to make our fuel go a little further? The reason I bring it up is that farmers are converting more of their corn fields for ethanol, therefore bringing up the price of corn. Many oil fields and gas fields are being blocked because the environmentalists want to protect the wild life. Yet there are not as many wind farms (a natural in places like the Prairies) as I would expect and few places for manufacturing solar panels and using geothermo energy.
Now if you take this as a means of punishing the West and making them pay more for food, one way to do this is to take more land out of food production, one way to make them pay more for oil, is to block oil production in places set aside for wild life.
Therefore instead of the reason for alternate fuel is more based on the need to punish us, the people in North America, instead of offering alternate means of heating our homes. Do you suppose that if the need to punish the west were not pushed as much, we would find better and more economical means of alternate energy that would not ensure taking land out of food production?
2 people like this
11 responses
@nova1945 (1612)
• United States
3 May 08
Actually, no, I don't think we would put forth the effort and expense required to develop more ways to use alternate energy. We know what they are, but we are so spoiled (me included) that we tend to procrastinate. We can do this in the future, there is plenty of time is our attitude on this. So now we are forced to start doing something about it. I don't think it is a punishment, but rather an incentive that we just can't afford to ignore any longer.
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
3 May 08
I consider solar paneling, wind power, and geothermo energy as incentives, but taking corn fields out of food production into ethanol is not exactly a way to make people happy. I think how would you feel if you found that it would cost you more at the grocers, and you might even have to go without, because some farmers decided it was better to make ethanol than food?
I do not think I am spoiled. We got this way by being careful, and saving and looking to the future. Now the wheat prices and rice prices have gone up in price, because now they are probably taking fields out of food production into making ethanol and I read that it is not that good.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/victims-of-the-ethanol-rush-loss-of-the-native-prairie-397284.html
http://www.businessweek.com/autos/content/apr2006/bw20060427_493909.htm
http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/alternative-energy/ethanol/
http://www.cleantechblog.com/2006/01/is-ethanol-good-or-bad.html
@nova1945 (1612)
• United States
3 May 08
Sorry, I worded that poorly. I agree with you about the food staples. Did you know that instead of corn, they can actually use algae to make bio fuel? There is even a way to use garbage to produce energy.
What I meant was that we have never really had to think of alternate forms of energy and fuel as a necessity before now, and we seem to put the development of these things on the back burner so to speak until later. It is now a necessity that cannot be ignored and we had better get on with it.
People have learned how to do these things and are really using it in their homes. But these are individuals. We need to come together and make it a global project so we can all learn to live in a more effective environment without relying solely on fossil fuels.
1 person likes this
@nova1945 (1612)
• United States
3 May 08
Yes, I think that was Johnson & Johnson, makers of Windex, etc. That might even help solve the overcrowded landfill problems.
The poor and middle class seem to pay for almost everything in one way or another.
Thomas Jefferson said it best: A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have.
Things never change, do they?
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@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
3 May 08
I have said for years they need to develope the oil shell into oil where these great basins of oil shell lay there is nothing in the world out there but desert and it wouldnt hurt the senery much as they would probably make mines out of it. WE have enough oil shell that no one would ever have to worry about gas and food again ever
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@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
3 May 08
That's what i say. I think it is those environmentalists who care more for animals then people who are blocking the idea. They would rather see people freeze in winter and go without food than those precious little animals be put out. And they think that there is no way to get the oil out and if there were, they do not want to hear about it.
@Thoroughrob (11742)
• United States
5 May 08
I think that they better stop and think before taking our corn and making fuel. Do they think we can supply enough corn for this? I do think we are going to end up in trouble, no matter what we do.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
16 Jun 08
That is what I thought when we drove on the interstate and I saw all those corn fields and the signs that America will not use foreign oil, it will use ethanol, and then I thought how are those people going to eat? And if there is no corn left for food, and wheat goes sky high, what can they substitute and what if someone with big pockets offer them money to convert this field of ancient grains or whatever to ethanol production?
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
3 May 08
I don't think that at all, when you take from one side, to fix another you upset the balance, just like a seesaw and that is what is happening now. The situation will either even out or they will start going back to other forms. This is all experimental this new fuel shortage and supply thing.
1 person likes this
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
4 May 08
well if you want to take a really broad approach it is our fault for running the earth, that is a collective we, meaning people in general.
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@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
3 May 08
You should have read our local weekly. The editor or who was it was of the opinion that it is all our fault and we should suffer. Of course this is in Winnipeg, where they say it is all right for the food prices and energy prices to go high because housing is cheap, but not anymore. Our house prices are going sky high and they have to build more houses because there are so many people wanting to buy and not enough houses.
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
16 Jun 08
Actually God gave man the mandate to be fruitful and replenish the earth and HE gave man a garden to work with first. HE did not say, "well you do not plow the land and cultivate the land, because the animals need all that habitant." HE wanted man to improve the land and not just let it stay as a wilderness.
So it is all right for us to travel, and heat our homes. But we cannot be wasteful and that does not mean, no more leaving Manitoba for a two week vacation to Saskatoon, it means we should not open the door and heat all of Winnipeg in January, or keep all the lights on in the house when we are just using the living room.
@mipen2006 (5528)
• Australia
5 May 08
Personally I blame the U.S, and other governemnts for not addressing these issues years ago. There are too many distractions - wars around that take the focus away from the really important issues facing us today. Too many decisions are made without enough discussion and thought for our planet. As for Bush subsidising American farmers to grow crops for fuel, well you can make your own mind up about that.
@cdparazo (5765)
• Philippines
3 May 08
I think we are losing focus on what is important if we would think of punishing anybody for its affluence or over usage. Fuel/oil is not unlimited. That is fact and a BIG REALITY. It is a surce of energy that is bound to run out sometime. So what we should focus on is the alternative rather than punishment and pointing a finger on whose fault that there is short supply. Somewhere there is a better solution and I have faith that we will find it and keep the balance.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
3 May 08
However are we really in short supply? I know there is oil in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and there are the oil sands in Alberta as well as oil in Alaska, but by saying the West is greedy, there is no incentive to open them up. So they keep them closed and also those in the wild life preserves to punish us. And they forget that here in the prairies and the great plains, it gets very cold in winter. Why it actually snows. And they forget that in some areas, we cannot burn wood outside.
And they should use alternative fuels that will not cause people to have to choose between food and heat.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
16 Jun 08
There should be an alternative fuel that we can use, but why do the environmentalist lobbyists not allow America to go in to the protected lands and get the oil from there, until as such time as a cheap alternative is found? Surely with all the technical knowledge, there are ways of removing oil or gas from underneath the ground without disturbing the animal habitant. You can run a pipeline underneath and pump it through rather than use the geyser method. Then we can gradually introduce the new alternative and still have land left for food production and those cute rare animals.
@cdparazo (5765)
• Philippines
27 May 08
That is a point for pondering indeed that you have there. If there in no short supply, then its capitalism at its worst because by curtailing or limiting production/extraction of oil, people will have to pay more and end up choosing between keeping warm and having food on their table. What a very disturbing thought because that could be a reality to some people in some parts of the world. I hope that in the not so distant future, we could find solutions to our multitude of problems.
1 person likes this
@Lindalinda (4111)
• Canada
2 May 08
I don't think it is a question of punishment. We in the West have known since the sixties that fossil fuel is not a finite resaource. It will run out one day. We also have democratic governments and we could have as many wind farms on the prairies as we wanted by electing people who support this. The same goes for solar panels, if people would buy solar panesl, if the provincial governments would offer incentives to install them the market and manufacturing would increase. We ourselves in the West have to come up with solutions that makes us independent of foreign oil.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
3 May 08
I know when we went to P.E.I there was a wind farm, and here in Manitoba, we have geothermo energy as well as wind farms. In fact, in one of the new developments, geothermo is what they are using. It is just that I do not like the idea of us being regarded as spoiled brats. Not all of us grew up rich, and had money to throw away. And some of the rich people got that way by being frugal.
So when someone proposes taking corn fields out of food production and putting them into ethanol, I really see them as wanting people to pay higher prices and I consider that a punishment. If you cannot grow much food naturally, I can understand, but to make sure there is less food is unconscionable.
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
3 May 08
I certainly agree there should be more solar panels and wind farms, at least it seems to me that there should be. I don't think anyone is out to "punish" anyone but I think it's a shame nobody started thinking about the need for alternate energy decades ago when some people were already warning of the problems we're facing right now. Everyone seems to want to drill in Alaska but I just heard today on the news that even members of Bush's Administration say it would take up to twenty years to get any gasoline from there and it would result in a savings of less than a penny per gallon of gas. Other nations have come up with successful alternate energy plans so I don't understand why we can't.
Annie
1 person likes this
@whittby (3072)
• United States
3 May 08
Interesting idea isn't it? I'd hate to think so. I also wonder what it's going to take to get a higher sense of urgency to convert to alternative energy on a more widespread basis. Here in Nevada, solar is being used more and more. Not enough, but the power companies are at least exploring and utilizing alternative sources of energy.
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@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
3 May 08
Here in Manitoba, we have wind farms and geothermo energy because of the heat going into the earth and because well, it gets very windy here. They might have some solar energy here as well. I know they had some in Saskatchewan where we used to live, because they have a lot of daylight hours. It is just the type of alternative energy they use. Does it cause food shortages or not? If it causes food shortages or raises the price of food, then they should look for another venture.
@barehugs (8973)
• Canada
3 May 08
This energy and food crises is world wide and has come upon us for several reasons. The energy crunch in North America is a direct result of, the rising numbers of automobiles world wide, increasing numbers of mouths to feed world-wide, The greed of Big Oil and APEC and North America's cheap food policy which has driven the family farmer to the city, and the remaining Farmer to ethanol crops! This has nothing to do with "Punishment" but rather is a recurring balancing act which was long over due. We in North America, may be down but we are not out! In a couple of years we will look back on this (so called Crises) and wonder why we got so upset.
1 person likes this
@bramimond (21)
• Canada
3 May 08
Gas and oil prices are crazy. But its not just that food prices and the natural style of living has risen to incredible prices and inflation of food and drought all around the world has caused an international crisis. :(
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@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
16 Jun 08
I do think that switching corn, rice, and wheat fields to ethanol production from food production is the wrong way to go about it. I mean we do expect droughts and famines and if what people do is to aggravate the situation and make it even worse, well God does listen and HE might decide to allow a drought to happen where it does not before to show people the error of their ways.
The same with the Global Warmers, when there is no global warming but global cooling, but no one notices that the temperature in the Prairies went down 1 degree Celcius one year, maybe the only way people will notice is only when the temperature goes down 5 degrees the next. So it takes a big shock for people to realize what they are doing by switching to using the wheat and corn fields to ethanol, that they are hurting themselves.
