justdrew » Wed Dec 18, 2013 8:32 pm wrote:stillrobertpaulsen » 18 Dec 2013 18:23 wrote:I'd like to ask a practical question at this juncture, prefaced by an unpractical hypothetical:
Let's say, hypothetically speaking, we have found the solution here. Let's not even ask about EROEI, let's just hypothetically assume, since this is the solution to our energy problems, the EROEI is somewhere between 100 to 1 Texas Tea and Mr. Fusion infinity. Say this solution can be implemented in any private owner's garage or storage facility so that we can continue our Happy Motoring Society at affordable prices.
Now the practical question: once this algae becomes oil, and we refine this formerly algae/now crude oil into aviation fuel, gasoline or diesel fuel,
wouldn't burning this diesel fuel, aviation fuel or gasoline release the same amount of greenhouse gasses that burning crude oil that didn't start out as algae releases?! I mean, am I missing something here, or could we possibly have found the Ultimate Soma to make Humanity's collective suicide that much sweeter?
and the CO2 goes right back out of the air into growing more algae. It's net carbon neutral.
Thank you for answering my question, justdrew. It really made me think, not just about energy and the environment, but made me question myself, my ideological predilections, hell even the concept of ideology itself. I don't get much sleep on nights when my thoughts get that deep, but I think it's better for my psychological well-being in the long run.
Bottom line, I've come to the conclusion that where the Carbon Crisis is concerned, (I use that term to express the civilization-threatening calamity we face from both Peak Oil and Global Warming, which are flip sides of the same coin, the overconsumption of carbon) I'm probably not a liberal. But I'm certainly no conservative. Perhaps the greatest impediment that keeps people from waking up and realizing that having our lives dependent on an economic system predicated on growing infinitely on a finite planet is a recipe for slow-motion suicide is ideology. Ideology’s just a tool that political parties bought by moneyed interests use to get people to vote against their own interests. There really is no right or left – there’s those who rule and those who drool. Every single dollar you earn is your bid in a Ponzi scheme designed to kill you that we call: The System and Johnny Rotten calls: The Shit-Stem!
You know what the difference is between Republicans and Democrats? Both parties will fuck you in the ass to better serve their corporate masters. But the Democrats use lubrication. That’s the difference that explains why I’ve tended to vote for them in the past. Republicans will yank you by the scalp, rip your fucking ass open while blaming your pain on a dark-skinned foreigner, pound you deeper by using the blood of soldiers to ease the friction, then afterward light up a Marlboro and tell you they’re pro-life. Democrats will smooth talk you with promises, seduce you with the idea that they really support the people, then just before they penetrate your poop chute with their corporate cock, they crack open a bottle of Astroglide – paid for with your tax dollars! And the vast majority falls for whatever set of tactics they find appealing as long as lip service is paid to their particular social fetish.
I say fuck ideology period! It is a devious social construct, a divisive, archaic, bullshit paradigm created centuries ago by the French that we must evolve out of for both the common good and individual freedom. I have infinitely more respect for the wood cabin survivalists that the media labels “right-wing” and the organic hippie communes that the media labels “left-wing” than I do for the pious self-righteousness of your typical 21st century conservative or liberal. Both ideologues are by and large in denial of the total predicament. The typical conservative expression of denial is ignorance: some Ditto-head NASCAR dad always voting Republican to stop homosexual atheists from teaching his children about dinosaurs. “Why else would God give us all this oil if it warn’t to pop wheelies with our Hummers and smoke out those rag-head Mooslims?” That brand of stupid is really too easy to make fun of. It's a bit more slippery with liberals because, to paraphrase Phil Ochs, they're just shadier. "Ten degrees to the left of center in good times. Ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally."
As it pertains to the subject you broach, being net carbon neutral, (and I don't mean to single you out, justdrew, I don't know you personally, I don't know how you think, I'm just addressing the subject generally. If you can point out flaws in my logic, please do so.) the typical liberal expression of denial is delusion: they’re not ignorant of the situation, they just evade the inevitable with the delusion that we can
solve the Carbon Crisis Conundrum and still keep our high-tech Happy Motoring Society intact. “Just drive an electric car. No gas. Charge up in your solar-powered home. Problem solved.” Deluding themselves into believing they stand apart from our collective responsibility for our civilization’s suicide because they’ve reduced their “carbon footprint”. In a world riddled with bullshit rationalizations, the carbon footprint concept is bullshit with a whole lotta Splenda sprinkled on top. You calculate the amount of carbon dioxide emissions you’re responsible for – and then
you don’t eliminate them from your life! You
offset them by doing
nice things to make up for your part in planet-raping. Planting trees, buying solar panels, driving electric cars. All just to ease their conscience into thinking everything’s even-Steven because they can honestly calculate that they’re “net carbon neutral”.
The damage is already done! CO2 stays in the atmosphere for hundreds of thousands of years!
Try applying this same logic to your relationship: “Honey, I just fucked somebody else, BUT – I wore a condom the whole time, even during oral, and especially during anal, I pulled out before coming, so I haven’t shared my orgasm with anyone else, AND I
paid the bitch to go away and never do that to me again! Now, since I’ve already fucked you twice this week, I don’t think I’ve really made a dent in my fidelity footprint, have I? I mean, I’m at least net fidelity neutral, no big deal, right?” Is this why Tipper split up with Al Gore? Now, don’t get me wrong, Goddess bless Al Gore for doing more to raise awareness of the reality of Global Climate Change than any politician. And as far as conservative ignorance can make science “debatable”, it’s such a willful ignorance that it defies debate, like the Black Knight in
Monty Python and the Holy Grail deliberately ignoring all his lost limbs. “The polar ice caps are melting!”
“No they’re not!” “Look, you can sail a fucking boat through the North Pole!”
“It’s just a flesh wound!” “OK, that’s a partial admission. What are we gonna do?”
“Claim all the oil! Drill, baby, drill!” Shit, if Pat Fucking Robertson can’t reach these goalpost-shifting nimrods, nothing will. Yeah, he briefly saw the light before flip-flopping. But even if a miracle occurred, they saw the light and Al Gore and friends had all the political will they ever dreamed for, we would still be operating on the delusion that we can buy our way out of this predicament. That the same selfish mentality where we can all be greedy little consumers obediently sticking our snouts in the corporatist trough that got us
into this mess is going to save us because
this time, the corporate trough we’re slurping from is Green. A well-lubricated ass-fuck is
still an ass-fuck!
Now I've got to ask you directly justdrew: whether you burn algae-grown crude oil and grow more algae, or burn crude created over millions of years under the Earth's crust and grow a buttload of trees to be net carbon neutral, can you honestly guarantee a reduction in the
400 PPM of carbon dioxide given the exponential growth rate of carbon consumers? (Think Chindia) I submit that to reduce the PPM of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, perhaps the most environmentally conscious move would be not to consume carbon in the first place! Maybe that means a real global revolution to change the way money works. Not just changing the way wealth is distributed as various revolutionaries have in the past, but changing the nature of money
itself. Maybe that's too much to wish for. Perhaps the more practical route is addressing the elephant in the living room, that dirty C word no President since Carter has had the courage to tackle head on:
CONSERVATION!
"Huey Long once said, “Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism.” I'm afraid, based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security."
-Jim Garrison 1967