It is a philosophical task

[August]

What really is needed here is a brand new way of thinking about energy, and that is something that ought to happen all over the planet. As concerned adults, from all over the earth, we should come to realize that fossil-fuels are old-fashioned and out-dated, and ought to be replaced with renewable energy systems. It is a philosophical task I am talking about here. And one that can only lead to wiser policy making as concerns industrial judgement; and that would be in the long run.

I think Al Gore’s energy speech from July, 2008, still makes for a valid read. - “We need a new start,” Al Gore said, after pointing out that “scientists have confirmed that enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world’s energy needs for a full year.”

This is the kind of thinking that needs to be injected into every goddamn political culture on this planet, including the Japanese, the Chinese, the Indian, the French, the Russian, the Kenyan, the Brazilian, and the American political culture. And make no mistake about this: I am talking about each and every country on the face of this earth. We need to make the switch to renewable energy systems, and we need to do that everywhere.

http://www.theenvironmentsite.org/fo...new-start.html

[LMagic007]

Indeed quite philosophical. We have (Climate, Energy, and Financial) Credit. All of which have been pushed to the limits of sustainable affordability and the planets are all lining up, so to speak. They are saying tighter lending regulations might help fix some credit issues and I suspect in turn, that might slow growth and energy demand and in turn that might help us deal with some Climate issues. This in addition to developing what I might in concept, pragmatically term as net energy surplus technologies, rather than net energy deficit technologies. Thus shifting long term focus from fossils to renewables, linked to sustainable growth etc... Using the power of the sun in the broadest possible terms meteorologically and climatologically.

However, I think man has woven a nasty web of debt on many levels ( financial, fuel resources and environment ) that's having flow through effects. When I talk about fuel resources debt I talk philosophically in that we have built a complex world on limited fuel resources at affordable cost. A house of cards, just as with credit finance and just as with climate. I think we might have a global financial / economic / ecological pyramid scheme system in the making, borrowing from the future to pay for the present. We can not keep borrowing indefinitely and I think we might be seeing the signs of that, in more ways than one.

[Besoeker]

Originally Posted by August

What really is needed here is a brand new way of thinking about energy, and that is something that ought to happen all over the planet. As concerned adults, from all over the earth, we should come to realize that fossil-fuels are old-fashioned and out-dated, and ought to be replaced with renewable energy systems. It is a philosophical task I am talking about here. And one that can only lead to wiser policy making as concerns industrial judgement; and that would be in the long run.

I think Al Gore’s energy speech from July, 2008, still makes for a valid read. - “We need a new start,” Al Gore said, after pointing out that “scientists have confirmed that enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world’s energy needs for a full year.”

This is the kind of thinking that needs to be injected into every goddamn political culture on this planet, including the Japanese, the Chinese, the Indian, the French, the Russian, the Kenyan, the Brazilian, and the American political culture. And make no mistake about this: I am talking about each and every country on the face of this earth. We need to make the switch to renewable energy systems, and we need to do that everywhere.

That's fair enough.
But the practicalities also need consideration.
To make use of insolation you need to collect, convert, store, re-convert, transform, distribute, and transform. As a minimum.
Looking further at the collection aspect much, probably most, of the best areas for insolation are in seas or deserts - not actually where energy is mostly used. So you have the further challenge of getting it to where it is used. That's not to say that it can't be done.
Costs will determine whether/when it is done.

[August]

The "fossil-fuels vs renewables" realization is only one important aspect here, but it is indeed a vital one.

Now, how about deforestation? And how about desertification? How about the unintended but extremely polluting side-effects of industrial agriculture? How about ocean dead-zones? How about the abysmal state of the global fish resources? How about the human population explosion? How about the fact that it feels as if I've not really said anything yet, and that I know, too damn well, that such a list of areas of environmental concern could go on and on and on, almost indefinitely?

I mean: as the state of things in the whole wide world is reported to be deteriorating more and more (information and analysis of this multi-faceted crises being spread across the world from within this all-consuming world wide web), I wonder what will be the most common psychological effect? Now, I'm not saying that everyone is panicking (many, many people are, much rather, in a state of complete and impenetrable denial), but there ought to be no reason to wonder why the financial markets are reacting. There are a lot of people out there (me included) who have been seeing this credit crunch coming, and done so for years. Now, it is my sincere hope that a new economic system - one that will be fair both on the people and the natural environments - will be in the making here, after the crash. And it is also my sincere hope that the family of humanity is not going to allow the military-industrial complex to ruin everything for everyone, by simply coming up with reasons to lock the world up in an era of bloody war. I mean: there are too many reasons to fear the decision making of the military-industrial complex, now that it is time for what so many market analysts and business commentators choose to call financial apocalypse.

[LMagic007]

Yes August I agree its a far broader issue than mere perception about practicalities. To a certain degree, what's practical is a state of belief. A state of values, individually and collectively. It's about self evaluation and revaluation on every level imaginable. A state of mind. It's a philosophical task, as the thread you started suggests. I'm hearing your voice and as much as I don't yet have tremendous faith in the powers that be, I do sense your point. The one thing that amazes me about the human species, is that no matter how much we produce, we consume it all and demand more. Even if we solve our energy problems, beyond that lies more deeper issues about the human condition, that dictate our actions, and yet sadly may be our achillis heel in the end. Indeed it's a philosophical task. We can only hope that one day perhaps we might be up to that task. Only hope. One day.

[August]

We must somehow reach the shared conclusion that the burning of fossil-fuels is a thing that ought to belong to the past; and urgently so. - Apart from that point, which has to do with the fact that I do not think the only solution to the current ecological crisis is one of going back to the stone age but that we will indeed be in need of clean supply of electricity, my philosophy, in general, is one of reduction, recycling, and reusing. There's something about the good, old greed thing that is weighing down both on us and the landscapes we are inhabiting. And there is something about our willingness to kill. I'm all for giving peace a chance, but it certainly is my honest belief that the present social, cultural, political, economic, military, and industrial elite of ours is all for reducing the number of humans; even if it is scientifically proven to be possible only by means of mass murder. I believe we live in the age that a combination read of Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 can describe for us; the only problem being that he did not see a future of ecological degradation, as is on our books right now, and which can only be solved by means of mass co-operation. And I'm thinking: what if this could ever be the conclusion that the majority of humankind could come to arrive at: that peace, co-operation, renewable energy systems, anti-consumerism, anti-materialism, and general civility can even prove to be the only way forward, for all of us?

But okay. You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one. Ha ha ha. - And yes: I do believe in The Beatles.

[August]

Caroline Lucas: Can Ed Miliband deliver? | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Certainly, early indications suggest he faces exactly the same problem as former, non-cabinet, climate change ministers – he has a room full of colleagues who do not believe it is practical to care about the environment in which we live, and he is stuck with the job of green-washing their half-hearted stabs at the issue.