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April 18, 2006
A Desultory Swipe
In 1970, Paul Ehrlich said this... I'm scared. I have a 14 year old daughter whom I love very much. I know a lot of young people, and their world is being destroyed. My world is being destroyed. I'm 37 and I'd kind of like to live to be 67 in a reasonably pleasant world, and not die in some kind of holocaust in the next decade. And so he did. But while doing so, back in 1974 he said this... There are, indeed, "hard times a-coming." Even if there is no final boom and bust, the economic world of the near future will be a very different place from that of today... In 1980, Jeremy Rifkin said this... Because of escalating energy and resource costs, industry will reverse its historical trend and convert back from energy- and capital-intensive production modes to labor-intensive ones... My mom once knit me an MRI machine. But it didn't work so good... Many industries will not be able to withstand the transition to a low energy flow. Unable to adapt to the new economic environment, the automotive, aerospace, petrochemical, and other industries will slide into extinction. In 2005, James Kunstler said this... America today has a railroad system that the Bulgarians would be ashamed of...if we don't refurbish our rail system, then there may be no long-range travel or transport of goods at all a few decades from now. The commercial aviation industry, already on its knees financially, is likely to vanish. And predicted the following tribulations... famine; war; epidemics of deadly disease; governments releasing viruses into their own populations to cull the weak...a return to local, even pre-industrial, economies; and...Asian pirates plundering California... William Stanton agreed with him... ...the vast majority of the general public assumes that what the future holds is “more of the same”. They argue...that the expertise inherited by post-fossil-fuel scientists and engineers will allow a smooth transition into a new kind of energy-rich world... Nobody likes airplanes anymore. But don't abandon hope just yet. A synthetic jet fuel comparable to Jet A or military JP 8, but derived from at least 50% bituminous coal, has successfully powered a helicopter jet engine, according to a Penn State fuel scientist. We're saved! If there's one thing this country has got plenty of, it's coal. Boy, are those Asian pirates going to be surprised. Death from above! Unleash the Raptors!
posted by Justin on 04.18.06 at 12:19 PM
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Justin at Classical Values … well … points out that recent petro-doomsayers have recent historical antecedents likely who as they bet against human ingenuity. Jet fuel from coal. While it may be that higher gas prices, by say an order of ma... [Read More] Tracked on April 18, 2006 09:43 PM
Comments
Good thing there are people in this world with more imagination and faith than Ehrlich/Rifkin/Kunstler/Stanton etc. pikkumatti · April 18, 2006 06:07 PM Not that I'd recommend it, but there are alternatives to fossil-fueled aircraft. (That'd really surprise them Asian pirates...) Mheh. Moriarty · April 18, 2006 11:33 PM Of course, the problem that these modern prophets of doom have is that they have lost the skills of the ancient prophets of doom: don't be timeframe-specific, don't be target-specific, and do focus on imagery over recitation. For example, if you want to put out the doomsday scenario for the next thousand years, you have to write like this: 12And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; 13And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. 14And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? Jeff Medcalf · April 20, 2006 01:06 PM Moriarty? I like it! Perhaps DOD could re-start the program. Change the engine name from Tory to Whig. The entire missile could be re-branded as "The Long Emergency". J. Case · April 22, 2006 11:36 AM |
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