On April 13, 2007 at 19:22, ejfiii said...
Quit hugging the trees Rick.
I put a geotherm system in my house last summer with an
expected 10 year payback on the 2.5 times the cost of
a super efficient heat pump system. But i did it to save
moola, not to save the red eyed tree frog.
Want to help the environment? Go slow down the deforestation
in the amazon. But let me guess, corporate america and
Haliburton are behind that too?
Burger King and others used to buy meat from Brazilian cattle ranches that were created by deforestation... except that the topsoil quickly eroded and the grazing lands could no longer support the tall grasses for grazing... oh well, doze another 1,000 acres... The reason that BK and others bought their meat from Amazon ranches?? It was significantly cheaper because of the economics of our currency vs. theirs (like the current Chinese trade arrangement).
All of the major resteraunt chains in the US have stopped buying from the Amazon ranchers after pressure from the real tree-huggers, but they are still selling this beef all over the World to areas less concerned with the ecological impact...
Speaking of China, they and India have had the most rapid increase in pollution and global impact due to their rapid push into the modern era.
As I said before, humans are pushing the time line of noticeable changes into decades, whereas the natural timeline has historically been multiple centuries to multiple millenia.
Yes Jay, 30 years we had serious air problems, but 100 years ago we did not...
We (humans, not just the U.S) have had an impact in the past half-century... I don't see how anyone can say otherwise...
50 years ago, hardly anyone had central air... more than one car... a home larger than 6 rooms... and most were heated by boilers & radiators and people actually shut off unused rooms (novel idea).
Today, most families in the US have larger homes, with single zone forced-air heating and cooling, multiple cars (and due to everyone driving SUVs, the fuel mileage averages aren't too much better than the sedans of the 60s and 70s)
Today, China and India are where we were 40-50 years ago from an industrial and civilization standpoint (because they are making the products for the World economy that we would have made 40-50 years ago, except x100 volume)...
Nice post Jay (that will fall on deaf ears).
PS - this is the fifth coldest April in the history of
record keeping in the US, and we are only 13 days into
it. If it warms up for the rest of the month it will
STILL be the 12 coldest April in the history of the US.
I wonder where algore is? Must be keeping warm by burning
his $2500/month gas bill heating his 25,000 sq/ft house.
Or maybe he has the heater on full blast in the private
jet. Or is the SUV? I just can't keep them all straight.
Al Gore's utility companies (and many others) supply carbon neutral energy sourced from wind and solar at a higher rate, which is part of the reason why the cost is so high... He bought his way to carbon neutral without making many actual changes to his home. As for the car and jet, he is a former VP of the country with a security detail for the remainder of his life... Secret Service is not exactly going to sign off on flying coach on Southwest Airlines, and I doubt that you can get a Passat TDI or a Toyota Prius with executive armor and room for his Secret Service agent(s) and his family...
Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those who think that a pocketbook fix is the solution... Since Gore decided to take on this topic and really become the spokesman for the entire public awareness push, I would like to have seen him install systems like geothermal and solar before GWB did. Specifying a biodiesel powered SUV in place of the gasoline model would be a nice step as well...
EJ, I don't think that any tree huggers would consider me to be their peer...
I drive over 30K per year (primarily as the sole occupant), and I like the creature comforts like my air conditioning in the car and at home.
Then there is my appetite for audio/video... Given the preference, my appetites run toward massive class-A amplifiers and power-hungry front projectors... I can just see that meter spinning like crazy when I am in charge of the volume setting.
Just like yours, my quest to investigate alternative heating and cooling and biofuels comes from my being extremely cheap and feeling an intense level of disgust every time I send money to the utility companies. IMO, only "association" dues are a worse racket to extort money from homeowners. I don't plan to pay any of those either...
I am investigating a plan to build a home like this,
[Link: enertia.com] , although I am still a few years away from starting that plan...
I want to be able to keep some of the money that the taxman lets me keep so that I can afford to buy rounds when I hang out with you guys.
I bought a 2.5L Camry that gets 30+ mpg, but even then my fuel expenses are over $300/mo. at current prices ($2.90+ on the last fill up)
Last edited by 3rd Rick
on April 14, 2007 00:48.
