eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Hi all,

Thought that this post might as well start off with an upbeat picture... As you can probably guess by the title, the rest ain't gonna be so cheery. (For those new here, we spend about 98% of the resources here on backyard birds... But every so often, we take a promised "Coffee-Table Break" and talk about non-bird stuff... This is one of those times... All are welcome to chime in politely.)

And here we go... Two cents from the "Peanut Gallery..."

If you want to get the real story concerning short and long-term national energy concerns, don't turn to a shiny politician or a sparkling talking head... Ask an actual, honest-to-god engineer who's been studying this stuff since he was a kid and has no political investment. Ummm... That would be me and my calculus-soaked ilk. Here's the energy deal as it really is...

We're in deep trouble. (Don't you wish that our elected officials were so abrupt and honest?) No really - we're fouled. We'll continue to pay $4.00/gal for gas in the short term, and given China's and India's stunning yearly GDP growth (over 10% and 9% respectively) and their concomitant unquenchable thirst for oil, (environment and cheap humanity being insignificant) things ain't gonna get seriously better at the gas pump in most of our lifetimes. But mark these words... There come three tipping points for Americans:

1. $4.00/gal for gas: Obviously we've hit that point and folks are getting rattled
2. $4.50/gal for home heating oil this winter: Over the years I've donated my Thanksgivings' time to delivering dinners to once-affluent Cape Cod seniors and have seen way too many old women camped out by the open stove door for heat. Just wait until heating oil jumps 50% this winter.
3. $6.00/gal of gas: People are going to scream bloody murder, and just wait until it hits $7.00/gal on the Left Coast...

Nope... The third and final tipping point will justify the engineers' three-decades-long predictions... (And no drivel from the agenda-driven, stuffed-shirt, vote-mongering, power-drunk, narcissists in front of or behind the cameras will change the facts). When that third point comes, we're going to have to start conserving ASAP. We're going to have to invest in nuclear, coal, develop American oil, and all the alternative energy sources. Beyond the obvious, we're going to have to act on the blatantly obvious, like starting to enforce (and reduce) speed limits. We're going to have to enforce measures like carpooling and telecommuting. There will be luxury taxes placed on large non-commercial vehicles... And on and on and on...

To wrap this up... In the long term, we'll eventually shift over to solar, but for the next 50 years, it ain't gonna be pretty... So there you go... That's the real story from an engineer, and not one of those "politician/media Devo wannabes" who got us into this mess in the first place...

Mark these words... Get ready...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan

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