Revi wrote:I am not as worried about the whole world system crashing. I am a bit concerned about the US. We don't seem to have much of a plan for living with less fossil fuel. We have gigantic cars, electricity use is crazy, and we don't want to consider living like the rest of the world (or even western Europe, where they live just fine). I think we may be brought down to their standard, and it's not going to be fun. Driving around in trucks that get about the same mileage as school busses can't be sustainable. I think we're going to be in trouble with just a little bump in interest rates, or the price of gas in this country. Imagine if there is an actual supply problem.
I agree that this is absolute MADNESS. Not just economically, but as far as AGW, it's just galactically stupid. Here we are, with much of the real world very concerned about dealing with and paying for climate change issues in coming decades (and beyond), -- and yet accelerating the affects like mad by driving the WORST VEHICLES IMAGINABLE in the millions. Oh, and re the SUV craze, driving very BAD vehicle designs for fuel efficiency, in the mainstream. Can anyone say "stupider than bacteria?
A steadily rising gas tax, to lessen such madness and to speed up the transition to EV's (or at least efficient ICE's) is a blindingly obvious good thing to do. And yet, TPTB, whether left or right, do little to nothing re real world efforts, toward this at a national level.
And I know, there will be bleating here about "freedom", but we should NOT be free to mindlessly destroy the biosphere. And again, every additional dollar raised for higher fuel taxes can be offset with lower income taxes. And there can be provisions made for the poor -- at least for those who can't bike, walk, take the bus, etc.
We Americans, as a society, richly deserve the consequences of our actions.