are you joking?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Electric Utilities and Y2K : One Thread

cl...It doesn't....but you might be a little more prepared than if you believed the crap from the govt/press that recent wild weather trends are not part of a warming trend, right? If I had your objects for our latest 2 week ice storm I would have been able to have saved my freezer contents, stay in my nice warm house, and have something to eat. So would the folks in France, North Carolina, Venezuela when the weather turned ugly.....do you think this is a joke?

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2000

Answers

Nancy,

No, it's no joke, and we all know that. Sometimes a bit of humor when faced with an extraordinary problem is helpful to clear our senses.

What you are concerned about is a monumental problem that can not be dealt with in our current social system. Our society, and most of the world in fact, is trying their individual best to make life easy, pleasant, secure, fun, whatever. And we use anything and everything we can get our hands on to do that, without regard for long term environmental impacts. That's the way it is, wouldn't you say?

To change that means to change our whole social system. Like the original settlers did when they emigrated to this land. A lot died in the process of making the voyage, and then more died in the original settlements. But they were trying to change their lives. Later, during the hard move westward in the wagons, a lot died along the route, and then more died in their new settlements. But, again, they were trying to change their lives. This is the way it will be, don't you think?

The massive change of attitude that will be required to accomplish the change in social/ecological thinking would be similar to that exodus from Europe. It will be painful, dangerous, life threatening, the same as it was back then. We are not going to do these things out of a mutual sense of concern for the environment. We *may* do these things when there is no other choice. When we are picking ourselves up from the ashes. At least that is the way I see it.

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2000


Nancy,

1. Actually, it was an attempt at a little humor (enter Rodney Dangerfield ("little humor, VERY little").

2. My only source for "global warming" news is the media. They have not presented me with compelling evidence to assert a stance one way or another. Even if they did, why would they be any more credible to you, me, or anyone else regarding global warning than when they told you Y2k was no biggie?

3. Might want to ask Drew Parkhill, but I believe that scientists in Virginia recently released a study that concluded that there was no measurable rise in temperature over the last century. (Caveat - see #2. I didn't read the actual study so I rely on media.)

4. Try dry ice if spoilage is a problem during an extended outage.

Best wishes,

-- Anonymous, January 18, 2000


Moderation questions? read the FAQ