Heavy crude tankers gave way to Ultra Heavies, burning barrels of bunker fuel per hour. [See the article on container shipping and pollution; consider the quantity of oil burned to import more oil.]

We had a gas crisis, we imported more foreign cars. The gas crisis went away, diesel cars in the US went away, and even the foreign cars got bigger. Remember the CVCC,the CRX and the Geo Metro? I know the new cars are more efficient, but if they had remained that small WITH modern efficiency gains, imagine what we could have.

You are screaming at the sky to suggest that people in the US stop buying vehicles designed to intimidate other drivers. The very violence of your passion on this issue shows why we buy them. Forceful, convinced of your own superiority [everyone else is wrong] and angry about it. Shove those idiots out of your way in your three-ton Diesel Silverado!

Might as well suggest bringing back the 55mph speed limit and enforcing it strictly. It could have worked the first time, but everybody broke the law and got away with it.

I grew up in cattle country, we always ate range-fed beef from cattle that wandered the semi-arid [almost desert] grasslands of eastern Montana and generally took care of themselves. Feedlot finishing cows is stupid, so is raising hogs, investigate how that’s done. Might as well look up all factory farming.

At one time, we could [before zoning took our rights from us] raise our own chickens, ducks, and rabbits for meat in our backyards, right next to the garden.

While we’re on the anti-corn kick, the average US citizen consumes 70 pounds of corn syrup a year. Once we get all those cows and people off corn, we have freed up a lot of farm land to build mini-malls and used car lots and new housing subdivisions …oops, I meant we’ve freed up that land to grow green fuel crops.

Of course, you probably don’t like that idea either, do you?

“We are the most slothful squandering wasteful slovenly slobs on the planet”

Really? Visit China and South Africa sometime, do some in-depth studying on how some of these other nations work, come back in a couple of years.

Think all-military, all-the-time governments. Think regimes that expend more energy to control their people’s activities than any thing else. Think governments that would militarize their populace to wage war and capture another nation’s riches rather than allow it’s own people to produce for themselves.

“Uncle”, if you’ve been around as long as you sound like you have, then you should know, a good portion of the world will always be convinced tomorrow is the last day we will eat, tomorrow is the last day we will see the sun, tomorrow is the last day we will breathe free, or breathe at all, everything always ends tomorrow. In 1974, I was told, with all seriousness and certainty, by a Ph. D. candidate, that the world would be void of human life by 1980.

The person who made that prediction is dead. During their life, they made many dire statements, and produced absolutely nothing of any intrinsic, tangible value.

With all of our voices in the air, screaming that this and that need to be done, OR ELSE, and blaming everybody for the coming End, some few people are working on ideas. Let them. Sure, burning ice is dumb, now. The EV-1 electric car was dumb when GM built and tried to sell it. The hybrid was dumb in 1977. Today’s stupid idea is tomorrows salvation.

Heavy crude tankers gave way to Ultra Heavies, burning barrels of bunker fuel per hour. [See the article on container shipping and pollution; consider the quantity of oil burned to import more oil.]

We had a gas crisis, we imported more foreign cars. The gas crisis went away, diesel cars in the US went away, and even the foreign cars got bigger. Remember the CVCC,the CRX and the Geo Metro? I know the new cars are more efficient, but if they had remained that small WITH modern efficiency gains, imagine what we could have.

You are screaming at the sky to suggest that people in the US stop buying vehicles designed to intimidate other drivers. The very violence of your passion on this issue shows why we buy them. Forceful, convinced of your own superiority [everyone else is wrong] and angry about it. Shove those idiots out of your way in your three-ton Diesel Silverado!

Might as well suggest bringing back the 55mph speed limit and enforcing it strictly. It could have worked the first time, but everybody broke the law and got away with it.

I grew up in cattle country, we always ate range-fed beef from cattle that wandered the semi-arid [almost desert] grasslands of eastern Montana and generally took care of themselves. Feedlot finishing cows is stupid, so is raising hogs, investigate how that’s done. Might as well look up all factory farming.

At one time, we could [before zoning took our rights from us] raise our own chickens, ducks, and rabbits for meat in our backyards, right next to the garden.

While we’re on the anti-corn kick, the average US citizen consumes 70 pounds of corn syrup a year. Once we get all those cows and people off corn, we have freed up a lot of farm land to build mini-malls and used car lots and new housing subdivisions …oops, I meant we’ve freed up that land to grow green fuel crops.

Of course, you probably don’t like that idea either, do you?

“We are the most slothful squandering wasteful slovenly slobs on the planet”

Really? Visit China and South Africa sometime, do some in-depth studying on how some of these other nations work, come back in a couple of years.

Think all-military, all-the-time governments. Think regimes that expend more energy to control their people’s activities than any thing else. Think governments that would militarize their populace to wage war and capture another nation’s riches rather than allow it’s own people to produce for themselves.

“Uncle”, if you’ve been around as long as you sound like you have, then you should know, a good portion of the world will always be convinced tomorrow is the last day we will eat, tomorrow is the last day we will see the sun, tomorrow is the last day we will breathe free, or breathe at all, everything always ends tomorrow. In 1974, I was told, with all seriousness and certainty, by a Ph. D. candidate, that the world would be void of human life by 1980.

The person who made that prediction is dead. During their life, they made many dire statements, and produced absolutely nothing of any intrinsic, tangible value.

With all of our voices in the air, screaming that this and that need to be done, OR ELSE, and blaming everybody for the coming End, some few people are working on ideas. Let them. Sure, burning ice is dumb, now. The EV-1 electric car was dumb when GM built and tried to sell it. The hybrid was dumb in 1977. Today’s stupid idea is tomorrows salvation.

“Cattle are fed prodigious quantities of corn. At a feedlot of a mere 37,000 cows, 25 tons of corn are dumped every hour. It takes 1.2 gallons of oil to make the fertilizer used for each bushel of that corn. Before a cow is slaughtered, she will eat 25 pounds of corn a day; by the time she is slaughtered she will weigh more than 1,200 pounds. In her lifetime she will have consumed, in effect, 284 gallons of oil. Today’s factory-raised cow is not a solar-powered ruminant but another fossil fuel machine.” SEE: http://www.earthsave.org/environment/foodchoices.htm

Then ask about ice-gas!

“Cattle are fed prodigious quantities of corn. At a feedlot of a mere 37,000 cows, 25 tons of corn are dumped every hour. It takes 1.2 gallons of oil to make the fertilizer used for each bushel of that corn. Before a cow is slaughtered, she will eat 25 pounds of corn a day; by the time she is slaughtered she will weigh more than 1,200 pounds. In her lifetime she will have consumed, in effect, 284 gallons of oil. Today’s factory-raised cow is not a solar-powered ruminant but another fossil fuel machine.” SEE: http://www.earthsave.org/environment/foodchoices.htm

Then ask about ice-gas!