hamburger wrote:cyclo wrote :
Quote:We went from a non-viable space program to standing on the moon in a decade through governmental involvement, leadership, and desire. We can do the same for cleaner and better transportation - if we have the leadership. What's the downside?
no downside imo , but i'm sure there are plenty of people that have to be dragged shouting and screaming to accept those new technologies .
Who said anyone was against new technology. The fact is there is no technology currently available to make oil out of date. Your debate points are based on ignorance of reality. The reality is that even with new technologies, oil usage will not decrease anytime in the near future. Yes, that includes hybrid and electric cars. They will not make much of a dent in oil consumption anytime soon. Your arguments are hollow and not based in reality.
Quote:you know the old saying : " why change , it was good enough for my dad , grand-dad , me (fill in as required ) ".
as scientists are apt to say : "there is only one constant and it is CHANGE ! " .
accept it or perish !
hbg
Agreed, but the kind of change you are talking about is not happening on a big scale and won't anytime soon so that oil consumption will be reduced in any significant way. We will be lucky to hold consumption to a lower rate of growth or cause it to plateau out in the next 10 to 20 years.
When you actually have pertinent facts to back up your arguments, I would be interested, but so far I,ve seen nothing, except just talk.
This discussion proves one thing again, liberal energy solutions are based in idealism, not reality. Idealism is fine, but we really need to temper it with a big dose of reality and do things that are practical and applicable to help ourselves instead of shooting ourselves in the foot.
One last note, mass transit is not worth alot in terms of doing much of anything to save energy in this country. I have a long time ago on another thread proven that at least in one big city, Denver, the bus system consumes more fuel than if everybody that rides the bus would simply drive their own car that would get 30 to 35 mpg. I realize cars don't average that yet, but some will do better than that now, and future efficiencies will improve, and certainly a motorcycle would be close to twice as efficient. Mass transit is only a convenience, but not much of an energy saver.