harleyfrog

A very interesting read over at Market Watch.

TRaffic Jammer

..and while all this talk about conservation and hybrids goes on in the public eye, gov'ts the world over are pouring exploration over the North cap. It can't melt fast enough for them so they can start claiming bits of it to go a-drillin'. They'll never learn...just keep goin' until are no ppl left to consume anything at all.

derath

"pus of the earth"

Great line

-D

HoustonB

This writer, like all main-stream-media contributors is still largely in denial.
On the one hand, small economical cars would be good for us, but even smaller more economical cars for the rest of the world would be bad. Chris Pummer exemplifies the selfish and myopic view of the majority of people today. Americans have some very hard lessons on the near horizon - thanks to globalization, the middle class is about to compete economically with people at 75% below their GDP level. Years of "live for today" also known as short term thinking, has been going on for so long in the USA that it is now too late to attempt to change the way people think and the way business-as-usual works.

If we want to see a bigger living-car-free society, then the worst possible thing that can happen is for oil prices to climb slowly enough that chunks of society slowly fall away as others try to adapt. Much better, would be a sudden, short, sharp, shock, that switches the population into a completely different mind-set.

The principal problem with renewable energy source exploitation, for example wind and solar (both thermal and photo-voltaic) is that they are currently be rolled out to continue business-as-usual, i.e. they are adding to the current capacity, not replacing it.

If a whole bunch of wind and solar projects were built and turned on the same night that a big coal (or gas, or oil) power station was turned off - then we would have reason to breath a sigh of relief. Unfortunately this is not what is happening.

In short - the rate at which we (mostly the USA, UK, etc.) are raping this planet, is about to accelerate, global warming be damned. There are billions living on coastal plains that will likely be lost.

There should be little sympathy for those in the west that chose not to avail themselves of access to free education (libraries, the internet, even just being more circumspect in choice of friends). There are 6 million people living close enough to Mt. Vesuvius in Italy to be in real danger.

Ignorance is not bliss. The Tragedy of the Commons, is the path we are all on. Garrett Hardin's essay should be a must-read for everyone.

Feathers

if one likes gasoline at $8.00/gallon they must also like cereal that costs $10.00/box and vegetable soup priced at $5.00/can.

maddyfish

[QUOTE=HoustonB;6788325]This writer, like all main-stream-media contributors is still largely in denial.
On the one hand, small economical cars would be good for us, but even smaller more economical cars for the rest of the world would be bad.[/ QUOTE]

No. Small economical cars here are clean and efficeint. In India/China, small economical means nasty,filthy, oil belching 2 stroke engines that turn the cities into a wasteland. That is the difference.
Small, clean cars for everybody else is fine, but they won't do that.
We may not have much sense, but we have enough not to build 2 stroke street cars. They don't.

HoustonB

The situation is not about likes or dislikes. This is reality. The party is over, the end of the line has been reached. Like it or not, we are all about to witness the true cost of recklessly burning through the oil, coal and gas. The true cost of the Hummer, the Prius, the vacation, includes the acid rain that destroys forests and the pollution that exacerbates breathing conditions such as asthma and the big one, Global Climate Change.

You have had your cake, you have eaten it. Now get ready for repeated metaphorical kicks to the genitals, with no sympathy from the rest of the world.

HoustonB

There has been some very interesting and very recent developments with regard to 2 and 4 stroke engines. Sorry I do not have the link, but I read about work in the UK on an engine that can switch between the modes. Utilizing the 2 stroke cycle when extra power is needed and the 4 stroke cycle when cruising. This facilitates the use of much smaller engines, sub 1 liter becomes much more practicable. If it makes it to market, it would probably be the final incarnation of the internal combustion engine.

gerv 

I would add #9

9. Gives a large number of people a good excuse to walk or bike to work.

I had a discussion yesterday with a colleague about the high price of gas and how it is a good thing and folks should stop driving Hummers. Halfway through the conversation I discovered that my colleague a) owns and drive a Honda Accord to work (which I consider a fairly large car...) and 2) this colleague lives only 1.5 miles from work.

When I pointed out to him that walking would take him all of 30 minutes and that he could now truly claim to be solving rather than adding to the problem, he was sold.

I am amazed how car drivers are so spatially inept. They have no concept of how do-able walking is.

BarracksSi

The point is, we'd be replacing large, uneconomical cars & trucks with smaller cars, which is good; but the rest of the world would be replacing tiny, highly economical vehicles (already cheaper to run than anything on the mainstream US market) with larger, less-economical ones, which would be bad.

TRaffic Jammer

Elsewhere in the world, cars and driving everywhere is within the realm of only those who can REALLY afford it. (ie. the rich) NA has enjoyed a false sense of the REAL cost of oil-based economies for far too long. We can't have our cake and eat it too forever.

rajman

LOL - I've had this experience several times while on vacation, asking for directions to nearby sights or restauraunts. I ask for directions, have to stop the attendant at the motel and say "I want to walk there", only to be greeted with incredulity. I usually end up with a short and pleasant walk.

maddyfish

Sure some good has been done. Evinrude has an outboard 2 stroke boat motor that is cleaner, gets better mileage, and needsw less maintainance than a comparable 4 stroke. But that is not the type of engine that will power the third world's cars. It will be the old smokey nasty oil burner.

TRaffic Jammer

https://www.revaindia.com not forever the case I hope. One thing for other parts of the world is that de-regulating the auto industry is easier.

OR the Zenn.. https://www.zenncars.com/ a Canadian maker of electric cars ... that aren't allowed on Canadian roads due to regulations. What's the hold up elected officials, the solution is staring us in the face. hmm not enough um.... lobbying? (read..$$$$$ in your pockets, not enough free vacations or front row shows?)

Artkansas 

North Pole heck. What are the odds of significant oil deposits under Antarctica? Like 100%. It's just hard to explore when the ground is below miles of ice. Melt that ice and people will be there. Not to mention hectares of fresh farmable land. Who says they aren't making new land.

TRaffic Jammer

I guess the North will be the Pole Test Looks like folks so far will be perfectly willing to goto war ...*sigh* once again to secure oil fields. Stay tuned for the next 20 years.

cerewa

I like real, effective economic incentives to buy local goods made from local materials with a life cycle involving minimal amounts of oil.

For too long we have been subsidizing oil-consuming industries by giving them our clean air and letting them give it back dirty.

bragi

How do you know that? Do you think that people in India and China like inhaling vehicle exhaust? A recent poll showed that a larger percentage of people in China regarded Global Warming as a serious threat than people in the US. China has more stringent gas-mileage requirements than we do. They even banned the use of plastic bags recently. Don't assume that people in other countries are a bunch of ignorant peasants who don't care about the larger environment.

(BTW, does Evinrude make that clean two-stroke in a 6 hp version?)

Tabor

Yea, China (and Asia in general) have very informed consumers. The Chinese consumers payed close attention to the lead scare with Chinese toys... the problem is that THEIR government doesn't give a rat's ass, so they have to watch our news to figure out about their toys.

kjohnnytarr

You need to start thinking outside of the [big] box [stores].

TuckertonRR

www.evinrude.com

doesn't look like it. Looks like their lowest hp is 40. I didn't check the whole site though.

https://www.johnson.com/en-US/Engines/Showroom/J99.htm

Johnson makes a 9.9 hp 4-stroke

murphstahoe

I would gladly pay double for everything I purchase if gas were to double today. My quality of life would be improved greatly. The two biggest things that impact my quality of life on a daily basis are ....

1) Cars almost hitting me on my bike
2) Cars almost hitting me as I walk across the street.

Call the premium I would have to pay for everything else "life insurance".

In reality, the things I spend my money on are not likely to double if gas were to double. I don't buy vegetable soup in a can and I don't buy boxed cereal. I buy locally grown organic produce. The transportation costs for these items are lower than for cans of vegetable soup produced halfway across the country. And if cans of soup and boxed cereal go up in price, locally grown crops (already more expensive) will become more competitive, luring more people with acreage into that business, lowering the price.

sprockets

When was the last time you saw a cheerio growing on a tree or a field full of free range soup cans? If we expect people to see our point of view of using a bicycle instead of a car, maybe we should take a look at the rest of our lives as well. How much energy goes into production of canned goods, processed foods that aren't as good for us as regular, unprocessed natural foods?

We also regularly buy food that has been shipped from the other side of the planet when we could be buying food from our own backyards. The same goes for the products we insist on consuming (including our bicycles in many cases!)

It's easy and cheaper to not think about all of our living and spending habits, but we have to factor in the long term costs of living the way we do.

mavimao

^^ But I will miss guacamole, oranges, bananas, etc etc...

murphstahoe

Move to California. We have Avos and Oranges in our yard in Healdsburg.

Bananas - that's a bigger problem