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Can one person make a difference?

How to save energy through both societal and individual actions.

Re: Can one person make a difference?

Unread postby Ibon » Fri 28 Apr 2017, 14:29:52

baha wrote:
Don't tell me one person can't make a difference.


It is very satisfying to be in an industry that represents a positive contribution. Congratulations. As important as one person is in the choice you made to go into this industry and also the choice you made to exit a lifestyle that was not fulfilling as you shared in another thread, what is most important here is the traction that an entire industry begins to have as we see with many alternative energies. We all know it will not replace fossil fuels in terms of energy density and output at the end of the day it wont really need to with the right combination of external consequences and internal lifestyle and cultural adaptations. Both external and internal are potentially synergistic. Who knows if this is not our trend line at the end. External feedbacks, some brutal and catastrophic coupled by internal cultural adaptation. We haven't yet had any significant external events and we are already beginning to see more and more folks internalizing the fundamental problem of human overshoot. You are a pioneer of sorts Baha.... good on you.
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Re: Can one person make a difference?

Unread postby Ibon » Fri 28 Apr 2017, 15:18:19

I fundamentally agree that at current population levels there is no real contribution an individual can make. On the other hand when consequences separate the wheat from the chaff and we fall back down to carrying capacity there will be scaled down industries like solar that may extend long into the future.

An individual can make an assessment as to their contribution if they understand this to be like a thread that can extend into the future at a point and time when our population is within carrying capacity. That is a rather nice way of saying when 4/5 of our current population is dead or negative birthrates through several generations take us down to whatever that number is.

It is important how we frame this. I don't disagree with Pstarr's post in its fundamentals in how it relates to today in a world attempting to make a contribution with 7 billion and depletion around the corner.That may not be the relevant point though for ultimately these turbulent times will plateau somewhere where ones contribution today may impact the future.

In any case there is nothing any of us can do to leapfrog over painful external consequences.

We can still influence the trend line though of where we eventually land.

Otherwise we might as well all write off everything and slit our throats. Or have orgies whichever better fits your inclination.
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Re: Can one person make a difference?

Unread postby Subjectivist » Fri 28 Apr 2017, 20:31:00

Sorry Baha, seems to me the credit goes to your customers, not you. They decided to spend their money to employ your services, but if you were not there they woukd have hired a different contractor.

You can take credit for what you did for your own property.
II Chronicles 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
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