Betray The Age

Windows That Power

2011-04-22T06:36:00.000-04:00

http://nyti.ms/gKVevb

The Future Is Here

2011-04-06T20:44:00.002-04:00

April 6, 2011

I dreamed of this future some time ago.
Back in Pittsburgh 1971
At Dusquesne University
We had a visitor from Ma Bell to talk about "the future"
He said that everyone would have their own TV channel
That media would dominate and be dispersed
Who was he, where is he now?
Where are we now?

Dr. Keyes taught us philosophy.
He was a minister.
He said that he would take the furry Yeeeck from under the bed
and show it to us.
He did.
One day he had a bandaid on his wrist, what was that?

Carnegie Mellon was down the road from us.
We went to dances and loved the band that played
the Steely Dan Song "Never Going Back To My Old School."
Steely Dan is hard to play; we asked them to play it again
They did.
CMU changed the world in ways I didn't know
what else will come out of their computer laboratories?

I used to bike to work every day
I shared a car with my wife
I used to hang my laundry to dry in the country air
I used to hang my laundry in the basement in the winter time
She didn't
She left
I didn't
I left

I burn pellets
I burn less oil than ever
I have low energy bulbs
I think I am doing something
I'm not

I'm happy at other people's and things expense
My therapist said that I should be happy for the money I spent
in New Orleans when I was in "the hole."
" It gives them jobs."
Instead of listening to jazz music I wanted to tear out the inside of damaged buildings
My heart was damaged on the inside and I couldn't

I turned my back on the future
I fell in love and am hopelessly, joyfully, in bliss.......

What now?

Macy said the Great Turning is happening.
I have not watched TV since June 2009
The Great Turning has not showed it face in the pages of the NY Times

Math Lessons For Locavores

2010-08-22T12:01:00.003-04:00

Here is a thought provoking piece from today's Times. Having been active in the locavore movement where I live, I have experience with the issues expressed in this piece. I like the message that the writer poses and that is " let's not ignore some of the larger problems" and does a good job of putting the energy used in agriculture into perspective. What are your thoughts?

"But the local food movement now threatens to devolve into another one of those self-indulgent — and self-defeating — do-gooder dogmas. Arbitrary rules, without any real scientific basis, are repeated as gospel by “locavores,” celebrity chefs and mainstream environmental organizations. Words like “sustainability” and “food-miles” are thrown around without any clear understanding of the larger picture of energy and land use.

The result has been all kinds of absurdities. For instance, it is sinful in New York City to buy a tomato grown in a California field because of the energy spent to truck it across the country; it is virtuous to buy one grown in a lavishly heated greenhouse in, say, the Hudson Valley."

Mike

The Future Always Comes

2010-07-29T20:08:00.001-04:00

The Future Alway Comes

How many times did we stand in front of the
black polished marble heart
and think about
when Mack would arrive here?

And today he gets ready
for tomorrow

Tonight the moon shined ever so handsomely
framed by clouds that never existed before
until I adored them tonight

I also saw a face in the moon as I drove that
ribbon of empty highway from
Castleton to West Rutland

This earliest of projective tests still toys with us
despite our smartness
We see what we want

Isn't it a bit unsettling? The weather?
It still feels like the middle of July as I remember it
Though no lightning bugs, they visited and left in June

For those who listen and watch
there is a change all around us

I think it came to me in a dream at Kathy's
While the wind came suddenly
with a pounding rain
and whipping trees

I was confused at first

But then it became recognizable
to those who listen and watch
My dream was that it had started

You know that when you strip away all of the distractions
When you calm yourself
and empty your mind of the clutter
there is a knowing
that our journey is so far out of step
that it must end

however, we see what we want...........

The future always comes.

Push To Eat Local Is Hampered by Shortage

2010-03-30T20:19:00.002-04:00

EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. — Erica Zimmerman and her husband spent months pasture-raising pigs on their farm here, but when the time came to take them to slaughter, an overbooked facility canceled their appointment.

With the herd in prime condition, and the couple lacking food and space to keep them, they frantically called slaughterhouses throughout the state. After several days they found an opening, but their experience highlights a growing problem for small farmers here and across the nation: too few slaughterhouses to meet the growing demand for locally raised meat.

It's Good To Be Back

2010-03-30T19:42:00.005-04:00

It's been an interesting year.

I have been completely distracted by my personal life during the past year or so. My partner of 32 years was unfaithful and we split in January of 2009. The first 6 months of 2009 were quite dark. The last 3 months of 2009 have been among the best of my life since meeting a new woman. The darkness pushed me into some interesting directions such as photography (I've become the house photographer for the local theatre) running,and some unintended adventures. Life can be quite the lesson.

I have pretty much neglected this blog as I have stepped back from interests in such worldly affairs. One can only keep their head in the sand for so long. I can't say that I regret terminating the local newspaper, firing the cable company, discharging netflix, and saying goodbye to Vonage. I have not become a recluse, however, I have removed much of the media clutter I suppose. Yoga has been a good trade I would say.

I started this blog in 2004; some things have changed. Who would have thought the corporate America would jump on the "green" bandwagon. It's everywhere you turn, some things with substance and some is just plain greenwash. Global economic contraction has delayed the wolves from the door as far as competition for energy. Perhaps it will buy us more time to "get it."

As for the future, lets surf the cosmic waves of insanity together and uncover a future worth living.

Best Regards

Mike

The Big Melt

2010-03-30T18:40:00.000-04:00

The gods must be furious.

It's the only explanation that makes sense to Jia Son, a Tibetan farmer surveying the catastrophe unfolding above his village in China's mountainous Yunnan Province. "We've upset the natural order," the devout, 52-year-old Buddhist says. "And now the gods are punishing us."

US headed for a massive decline in carbon emissions

2009-10-15T22:13:00.003-04:00

For years now, many members of Congress have insisted that cutting carbon emissions was difficult, if not impossible. It is not. During the two years since 2007, carbon emissions have dropped 9 percent. While part of this drop is from the recession, part of it is also from efficiency gains and from replacing coal with natural gas, wind, solar, and geothermal energy.

The U.S. has ended a century of rising carbon emissions and has now entered a new energy era, one of declining emissions. Peak carbon is now history. What had appeared to be hopelessly difficult is happening at amazing speed.

For a country where oil and coal use have been growing for more than a century, the fall since 2007 is startling. In 2008, oil use dropped 5 percent, coal 1 percent, and carbon emissions by 3 percent. Estimates for 2009, based on U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) data for the first nine months, show oil use down by another 5 percent. Coal is set to fall by 10 percent. Carbon emissions from burning all fossil fuels dropped 9 percent over the two years.

Read more

Seven Myths About Alternative Energy

2009-08-24T22:48:00.002-04:00

As the world looks around anxiously for an alternative to oil, energy sources such as biofuels, solar, and nuclear seem like they could be the magic ticket. They're not.

Read more....

Street Farmer

2009-07-06T21:51:00.002-04:00

"Like others in the so-called good-food movement, Allen, who is 60, asserts that our industrial food system is depleting soil, poisoning water, gobbling fossil fuels and stuffing us with bad calories. Like others, he advocates eating locally grown food. But to Allen, local doesn’t mean a rolling pasture or even a suburban garden: it means 14 greenhouses crammed onto two acres in a working-class neighborhood on Milwaukee’s northwest side, less than half a mile from the city’s largest public-housing project."

Read more....

Betraying the Planet

2009-06-30T06:31:00.003-04:00

So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill. In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement.

But 212 representatives voted no. A handful of these no votes came from representatives who considered the bill too weak, but most rejected the bill because they rejected the whole notion that we have to do something about greenhouse gases.

And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn’t help thinking that I was watching a form of treason — treason against the planet.

To fully appreciate the irresponsibility and immorality of climate-change denial, you need to know about the grim turn taken by the latest climate research.

The fact is that the planet is changing faster than even pessimists expected: ice caps are shrinking, arid zones spreading, at a terrifying rate. And according to a number of recent studies, catastrophe — a rise in temperature so large as to be almost unthinkable — can no longer be considered a mere possibility. It is, instead, the most likely outcome if we continue along our present course.

Read More....

Moving People Sustainably?

2009-06-17T21:17:00.000-04:00

This Woman is Redefining Public Transportation

2009-06-16T20:16:00.002-04:00

Ask a friend to name a shared transportation option and he’ll probably mention that bus that rumbles past on the avenue or the commuter train that all the office jockeys pile into each weekday morning. But Robin Chase thinks the phrase is about to undergo a radical evolution. Almost ten years ago she founded car-sharing service Zip Car, which has proven a smashing success in urban areas across the country and is rumored to be going public next year. Now she’s put her visionary zeal behind GoLoco, a social networking site that encourage people to catch rides with each other (they take a 10 percent a fee if you choose to let them manage the financial arrangements.)

Thinking of your friends’ and neighbors’ cars as a personal transportation resource is the next wave in American mobility, Chase argues — an elegant response to rising costs, congestion and our existing road-heavy infrastructure.

Read More...

Vermonters Free to Air Their Clean Laundry

2009-06-15T20:13:00.003-04:00

Lyman Orton speaks on behalf of
the “Right to Dry” campaign at the
Statehouse in Montpelier, VT.

Middlebury, VT — Vermonters have long been known for their frugality, independence and common sense. More recently, residents have garnered a reputation for environmental consciousness and sustainability. All of these values have come to the fore in the “Right to Dry” provision recently passed by the Vermont legislature and spearheaded by Orton Family Foundation founder Lyman Orton.

Thanks to the new law, all residents in the State now have the right to dry their laundry on a clothesline—a right that, until last month, was prohibited by some condominium associations and housing complexes. Considering the significant energy consumption of a domestic dryer—which can account for more than 15 percent of a household’s energy bill—this simple measure has the potential to make a big impact.

Read More....

From a Failed Growth Economy to a Steady-State Economy

2009-06-05T00:46:00.002-04:00

USSEE lecture, June 1, 2009
Herman E. Daly
School of Public Policy
University of Maryland

"So—if we can’t grow our way out of all problems, then maybe we should reconsider the logic and virtues of non-growth, the steady-state economy. Why this refusal by neoclassical economists both to face common sense, and to reconsider the ideas of the early Classical Economists?

I think the answer is distressingly simple. Without growth the only way to cure poverty is by sharing. But redistribution is anathema. Without growth to push the hoped for demographic transition, the only way to cure overpopulation is by population control. A second anathema. Without growth the only way to increase funds to invest in environmental repair is by reducing current consumption. Anathema number three. Three anathemas and you are damned—go to hell!"

Read more...

Green Promise Seen in Switch to LED Lighting

2009-05-31T09:14:00.003-04:00

"..fast-growing trend that is redefining the century-old conception of lighting, replacing energy-wasting disposable bulbs with efficient fixtures that are often semi-permanent, like those used in plumbing.

Studies suggest that a complete conversion to the lights could decrease carbon dioxide emissions from electric power use for lighting by up to 50 percent in just over 20 years; in the United States, lighting accounts for about 6 percent of all energy use. A recent report by McKinsey & Company cited conversion to LED lighting as potentially the most cost effective of a number of simple approaches to tackling global warming using existing technology."

Read more...

Report: Carbon pollution to grow by 40 percent

2009-05-29T02:14:00.002-04:00

WASHINGTON - The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide seeping into the atmosphere will increase by nearly 40 percent worldwide by 2030 if ways are not found to require mandatory emission reductions, a U.S. government report said Wednesday.

The Energy Information Administration said world energy consumption is expected to grow by 44 percent over the next two decades as the global economy recovers and continues to expand. The biggest increases in energy use will come from economically developing countries such as China and India.

Read more...

Major Greenhouse Emitters and Solar Energy

2009-05-25T11:55:00.000-04:00

Obama in Health Insurance Industry Hip Pocket

2009-05-24T08:36:00.000-04:00

by Mike O'Brien

If I were to discontinue my TV cable, one show that I would miss would be Bill Moyers. He consistently hosts a program with thought provoking guests on a wide variety of current topics and often their voices are drowned out by the corporate media. This past week was one such time.

"....It's a Harris poll last fall. One out of 14 people think that the health insurance industry is honest and trustworthy. On the other hand, in Washington, they're in bed with the health insurance industry. Just as Wall Street and the banks have bought the Congress to get what they want in terms of the bailout, the health insurance industry has bought and influenced members of Congress and the President so much that they don't even consider the possibility of a plan that doesn't have a health insurance industry..."

The topic was concerning a single payer healthcare system and hosted the following guests:

Dr. David Himmelstein

Dr. David Himmelstein is associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and serves as the chief of the Division of Social and Community Medicine at Cambridge Hospital where he practices primary care internal medicine. He received his M.D. from Columbia University and completed internal medicine training at Highland Hospital/University of California San Francisco, and a fellowship in general internal medicine at Harvard.

Dr. Himmelstein was a founder of Physicians for a National Health Program and serves as co-director of the Center for National Health Program Studies at the Cambridge Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He co-edits PNHP's newsletter and is a principal author of PNHP articles published in the JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine in conjunction with Dr. Steffie Woolhandler.

Dr. Sidney Wolfe

Sidney Wolfe, MD is acting President of Public Citizen and director of it's Health Research Group. In 1966 he began working at the National Institutes of Health where he did research on aspects of blood-clotting and on alcoholism. Dr. Wolfe met Ralph Nader in Washington, D.C. at a meeting of the American Patients Association, began advising Mr. Nader on health problems in America and helped in the recruitment of medical student volunteers who worked for Mr. Nader.

Since 1995 he has been an adjunct professor of Internal Medicine at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. His medical degree is from Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio and his internship and residency were in internal medicine. He is currently a member of the Society for General Internal Medicine. His awards include receiving the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1990.

There appears nothing more diagnostic about the problems American's face in regards to the downside of our capitalist system. Clearly, corporate insurance companies have the power to dominate the political structure of America, insuring that dollars are funneled into the insurance industry coffers and not into providing healthcare to the American people.

The program can be streamed from here...

A Cautionary Video About America’s ‘Stuff’

2009-05-13T21:13:00.000-04:00

The thick-lined drawings of the Earth, a factory and a house, meant to convey the cycle of human consumption, are straightforward and child-friendly. So are the pictures of dark puffs of factory smoke and an outlined skull and crossbones, representing polluting chemicals floating in the air.Which is one reason “The Story of Stuff,” a 20-minute video about the effects of human consumption, has become a sleeper hit in classrooms across the nation.

The video is a cheerful but brutal assessment of how much Americans waste, and it has its detractors. But it has been embraced by teachers eager to supplement textbooks that lag behind scientific findings on climate change and pollution. And many children who watch it take it to heart: riding in the car one day with his parents in Tacoma, Wash., Rafael de la Torre Batker, 9, was worried about whether it would be bad for the planet if he got a new set of Legos.

Read more and view video..

Don't Worry, Be Happy

2009-04-21T21:57:00.000-04:00

What attracted me to Transition, as the movement is called, was the word resilience, with its implications of being skilled, being ready, being confident, and therefore being optimistic about The Day After Tomorrow. The word is all over Transition’s literature, all over its YouTube clips. It seemed such a superior word to green and sustainable and eco—once hot, now almost clichés, and subject to corruption by the market. But resilience, you can’t fake. A resilient person is who I want to be. And if I’m not inherently resilient, can I learn to be?

Read More.....

Guerilla Gardening: Eating The Suburbs

2008-12-27T16:15:00.001-05:00

I can not think a better article to represent this blog........Mike

The Age recently had an article on the emerging practice of "guerilla gardening", taking a look at the "Gardening guerillas in our midst". This concept seems to have steadily increased in popularity in recent years (admittedly from a very low base) as the permaculture movement's ideas have been propagated through the community.

Unlike the usual approach taken when trying to grow food in the suburbs - converting spare land on your own property (as discussed by aeldric previously and, more recently, in Jeff Vail's series on A Resilient Suburbia) - guerilla gardening involves cultivating any spare patch of urban land that isn't being used for another purpose, which could provide a substantial addition to the food growing potential of suburbia

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Transportation Renaissance Won't Happen With Detroit Bailout

2008-11-30T08:08:00.000-05:00

This morning I begin my Sunday morning like most other mornings by reading the New York Times and scanning the news. Today I read about the worsening US auto industry illustrated by a dealer in Quincy Florida and his struggle to stay open.Bruce Thomas has spent his life working and building his dealership to the point where he is the second largest employer in his hometown and where he has over the years support numerous charitable organizations. The future looks bleak for Bruce, the mayor of Quincy is worried about the impact of Bruce going out of business and people are scratching their heads wondering what happened.

For those of us who have been unhappy with the Big 3 since the oil embargo of the 70's (yes I am that old!), this downturn is hardly unexpected. It reminds me of the phrase "what do you do when you are climbing the ladder of success only to find out you are on the wrong wall?" This is where we find ourselves, and I have to admit that we told you so. So, now that I have a milisecond of satisfaction based on years of protest against Detroit, we are at a crossroads. What is the future for us? What path we take? Have we really woken up from this slumber, or are we still rubbing our eyes thinking about staying in the consensus trance?

I remember reading John Delorean's book "On a Clear Day You Can See Detroit" . This book was interesting reading in the late 1970's as it described an insiders view of General Motors. Unfortunately John's credibility took a big hit when he later failed in his car company building in Ireland, however, my memory of his book helped me understand the problems lurking in GM and in general the automotive industry.

One point that remains with me until this day is just how insular the top decision makers were at GM. John pointed out the president of GM surrounded himself with VP's who would never question the top dog, and in fact were "yes men." The Delorean book well illustrates how this management style and culture prevented GM from innovating and really adequately understanding the business environment in which they operated.
My gosh, does that ever apply today? It seems that nothing has changed since then.

Of course one could successfully argue that Detroit has made great strides in improving safety and quality because of Japanese competition. The dirty little secret here is that American management academic W. Edwards Deming taught the Japanese how to succeed after being ignored by US business interests after World War II. Perhaps that is where our current problem really started.

It seems that for the past several decades our auto manufacturers have built auto with short term profits in mind. In America, ain't it hard looking past the next quarter? Deming saw this mindset as poison for innovation and saw it as a deadly sin. We have become a victim of our own making it seems.

So now Detroit wants a bailout. My suggest is that we stop paying for the ladder upon which we climb. We must climb down and invest our dwindling resources and find a new wall upon which to climb. There are some big questions we must address. Will a system based upon individual transportation vehicles solve our current transportation and environmental problems? How can we most efficiently spend very limited public funds? What expenditure of public and/or private funds will provide the greatest job creation and employment?

As we look to a change with our new president there will be continued pressures to maintain the Detroit culture from the past. Will there be meaningful change requiring a serious reality check or will we continue to prop up an aging, outdated industry? If ever there was an opportunity for American to come to grips with our future it is now. Which ladder will Obama and Congress have us climb?

Climate Confusion: Who Wins?

2008-02-04T21:29:00.000-05:00

by Michael O'Brien

Climate change is the biggest challenge we face as a humans. Any serious student who analyses the information recognizes that the overwhelming consensus from scientists is that we have a very small period of time in which our efforts will have a positive impact for our planet and our children's future. For the past 10 years or so, there has been rigorous debate both by the scientific community and in the press about climate change. The debate is over, the issues have been discussed and now is the time for us to take responsibility for our future.

It is fascinating to watch the media feel the need to present the “other side” of this issue when there is discourse about climate change. My guess is that they feel vulnerable from the vocal skeptics or right wing talk show hosts so they include a dwindling number of scientists or spokespeople who argue against human causation. It seems there is an inordinate amount of air time devoted to this topic in proportion to the actual amount of credible evidence against human contribution towards climate change. This creates a real problems from a public perception perspective as the general public is falsely led to believe that human contributions are inconclusive. The result is that it leads to confusion about the nature of climate change and delays the necessary changes that we must make so that we do not rob a future away from our children. Unfortunately, confusion is a strategy that Exxon-Mobil has embraced as a public policy strategy. Confusion is thought to keep people from making change and therefore maintain the status quo. We saw the same tactics from the cigarette companies. When the truth came out about the “research” they sponsored it became apparent that it was entirely self serving. With climate change its deja vu all over again.

Open debate and dialogue is the stuff of democracy. As a witness to the debate between John McClaughry and Bill Mckibben in Manchester some months ago, I marveled at just how one sided the debate of climate change has become. As a regularly reader of John's postings in the Rutland Herald I seek to challenge my own assumptions and have looked to John to help me see myself and my world from a different perspective. As John Stuart Mill wrote in On Will, one must listen attentively to those that criticize our positions as we must assume that we are susceptible to make mistakes. Only then can we move forward with a certainty and conviction that the road we take is the right one. John has at times opened my eyes to a different and sometimes important perspective and I have developed a broader appreciation of some issues as a result. I was dismayed that John did not do that at the debate in Manchester. John's arguments were feeble attempts at throwing stones at the burgeoning data and information coming out of the scientific community. His paper tiger arguments did not stand up to the light of scrutiny. John clung to his arguments refusing to accept the evidence seemingly because it did not fit into his world view. I was saddened by the fact that John's motives were so transparent. In the course of the discussion, John's self interest in perpetuating his narrow free market agenda (his bread and butter) trumped any recognition of human survival or the threat to the human species. It is hard to take John seriously when he describes himself as being interested in the common good or wanting to maximize wealth and happiness. What is especially disappointing is that John touts his scientific background in an attempt to add validity to his message, yet betrayed that training for the sake of public relations. Good gracious, even Newt Gingrich has written that environmentalism knows no party and recognizes the need to not plunder our natural resources. I think that John could find comfort in entrepreneurial environmentalism from a philosophical point of view and for an area for business growth.

The definition of delusion is: despite overwhelming information to the contrary, a person continues to cling to a belief. I don't think that John is delusional, I do think that his role is to serve as a mouthpiece for a radical free market approach to solving problems. In this instance he represents those who wish to create confusion in regards to climate change. As we look around the state there is evidence that this confusion is bearing fruit for those with a laisez-faire policy towards taking aggressive action. One has to question our local leaders and those in positions of power and authority in state government in regards to creating actionable responses to the mandate we have received from the world community. Typically, those in power are reticent to take bold action as it often increases the risk of criticism or disfavor. Inherent in these positions is a significant level of inertia in making change. We ask them now to be bold because as Goethe as said “ Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

To read more about the McClaughry-Mckibben debate..........

Our Automobile Future

2008-02-04T20:53:00.000-05:00

2008-Jan-18

by Michael O'Brien

Our Automobile Future

I write this letter as we come off the heels of the Bali Conference where world leaders met to discuss the issue of climate change. This important meeting did result in an agreement that has been described by Thomas Friedman as “incremental” change. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the prestigious United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that “If there's no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment." Friedman discusses in his opinion in a New York Times op-ed article that the change we need has to be transformational. A little tweaking here and a little tweaking there is not going to protect ourselves from the predictable calamity that scientists say will occur. A case in point is automobile usage worldwide.

According to Elizabeth Kobert who wrote a article titled “Running on Fumes” for the New Yorker, she says that there are about 9 personal cars per 1,000 eligible people in China. In India, there are about 11 cars per 1,000 eligible drivers. The comparison becomes interesting when you factor in cars in the United States. Kobert says that we have 1,114 automobiles per 1,000 eligible drivers. These figures help us understand why the United States is the top consumer of fossil fuels and emitter of carbon. The really frightening aspect of all of this is knowing that both China and India's economies are on a substantial growth track that will forever change the above automobile ratios. They are hungry for all of the amenities that are synonymous with a comfortable modern life and driving is one of them.

The urbanization of China has been dramatic over the past decade. Peasants have left the countryside for jobs in urban areas and the promise of a better life. As a result, urban areas have sprung up almost overnight to accommodate the boom in manufacturing. With a population if over 1 billion people, China has over 200 cities with at least 1 million people. As they increase their income, they will have expendable income that will allow them to purchase automobiles. The future looks bright for car sales in China and India. Kobert argues that if China and India were to reach car ownership at just half the numbers of American drivers, those two countries would burn through 100 million barrels of oil a day. If they were to match the number of United States drivers, they would need 200 million barrels of oil a day. To the average person these numbers appear quite meaningless until you understand that the current total world consumption a day is about 86 million barrels of oil. This level of oil production has plateaued since December of 2005 and many are worried that we have begun the inevitable decline in our ability to pump oil at these rates.

This would all be just an interesting academic discussion if it weren't for the fact that 35 billion dollars was just sucked out of our economy due to the increase in fuel prices as we were heading into the Christmas holiday. Money spent on fuel is not money spent on the holiday. A recent poll by by Gfk Roper Public Affairs and Media reports that 27 million Americans will need to borrow money to pay their fuel bills this winter, 20 million of them will use credit cards to pay for heat to stay warm. This comes at a time when utility companies are expanding the payment options for households and for many this includes credit cards.

As we look forward, a prudent person would understand that we are facing several enormous dilemmas. First of all, the world must drastically reduce the amount of carbon we are releasing into the air. An increasing reliance on the internal combustion engine will obviously seal our fate. If we were to develop an alternative car right now that does not emit carbon it would take years to replace the current stock of vehicles. The average car stays on the road for 7 years. The hundreds of millions of vehicles on the road right now will be with us for years to come. As China and India add to their vehicle stock, it is likely that these vehicles will live out their life cycle as well.

Lastly, it is clear that if we continue to burn fossil fuels we will all be competing for a dwindling supply. The laws of economics tell us that prices will increase as demand outstrips supply. The future appears stark. The implications for increased military conflict to secure our energy future has already begun and will worsen as supply tightens.

Leadership on this issue has been treasonous. We must demand a transformational response from our leaders and from ourselves. The governor's plan to capitalize on the carbon credits that our forest might provide for us is a timid response to the long emergency headed our way. Though the internal combustion engine has transformed our society over the past decades the writing is on the wall. We must either immediately transform the car or severely curtail its usage, we cannot wait.