A shift

There has come apparent recently a certain and dire necessity for immediate action in moving towards energy efficiency and environmental awareness. For those who know, considering the prospect of a peak oil induced cataclysm most undoubtedly evokes urgency that refuses to be quashed. Most unfortunately, if not unsurprising, is that the entire issue has been sugarcoated by the unknown fundamental forces of information dissemination. And such a description is apt, as the instead phrased issue as one of global warming is a consequence maybe not lacking in capacity to devastate, but certainly unequivocally void of the sense of extreme urgency of its counterpart. Personally I don't find this sugarcoating in any way surprising given the utterly failed state of that media delivered in technicolor to masses of unwitting bystanders that passes as modern journalism. It surprises me every time I see Wolf Blitzer or Larry King, just the same with Bill O'Reily, that they aren't wearing big red noses that squeak. How can anyone expect to be informed when the news is irrelevant and somehow massively uninformed? And it is depressing on a spiritual level to know that the popular misinformed have been largely corralled into falling for cheap gimmicks, behaving antagonistically to our own cause by being tricked into thinking it is our cause (oh, it's so green, it's all natural, a hybrid), a cut and dry case of being bamboozled by that force that wants to take our money. This gives rise to, in particular for today, the idea that our news is interpreted as sugar coated because it lacks any and all science, instead giving the impression that they know what they're talking about by using jargon-turned-buzzwords. Strange, this lack of science, given that it is such a particularly scientific problem. I can tell you, as a preview, that the energy situation is pretty rough. But at the same time, every so often there comes somebody who really seems to know what they're talking about, who has some remarkably keen insight and a lot of pretty good things to say, things good to hear. Even better, his name is Amory Lovins! Notice that this was filmed in 2005, it seems to me that if Big Auto were listening to this guy whole heartedly back then their situation might be at least a little bit better now.





PS, the new Prius's solar panel will maybe, after a full sunny day, run your headlights for an hour, maybe. After watching that video you may realize this as self evident, but putting two engines in a car is a stupendously poor step forward. While I don't like the continuation of fossil fuel nor the suggestion of bio-fuel or wind turbines, none of that really matters, because he's run the numbers and it is at least a viable solution, one that we might be able to imagine easier than other of the more radical shifts proposed.

Update: I took a quick glance at the Prius article on wikipedia and it turns out that the new solar panel can't even run the headlights. All the extra weight and expense of the large panel is done so that a small fan can circulate air while the car is off, which is the ONLY thing it can do. I implore anyone who reads this: please, don't purchase/sell an image of environmental friendliness, work for the real thing. It's really not that difficult.