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Wounded Bear

(58,647 posts)
Mon Jun 2, 2014, 07:11 AM Jun 2014

On burning fossil fuels...

If you really think about it, 'modern' use of fossil fuels is really just the same old thing people have been doing for thousands of years, burning something to release the chemical energy it contains, while releasing all manner of toxic fumes and pollutants. From that perspective, we haven't improved much from when the first cave men ran over and grabbed the burning shards of a tree struck by lightning.

The technology of how we do the burning has changed, and the choice of fuels has changed, but really it's the same old shit. Most of the 'improvements' have been more for economic reasons, and thus have usually been the simplest and least expensive of changes, not the most efficient and certainly not the most creative.

We need to get on renewables, and quickly. Frankly, there is technology out there that would do most of that, but we don't for 'economic' reasons, which is to say, that the large powerful interests in fossil fuels won't let us do anything on a meaningful basis.

http://sutz12.blogspot.com/

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On burning fossil fuels... (Original Post) Wounded Bear Jun 2014 OP
we do not need to riverbendviewgal Jun 2014 #1
Excellent anaylsis greatlaurel Jun 2014 #2

riverbendviewgal

(4,252 posts)
1. we do not need to
Mon Jun 2, 2014, 09:04 AM
Jun 2014

I watched Cosmos last night. Wind and sun energy is now cheaper and will never run out. The reason oil, gas and coal are persued is it makes money for the few and also the military is needed to go into countries to obtain those countries fuel energies. Hopefully this curtain of deceit and greed will be torn down.

greatlaurel

(2,004 posts)
2. Excellent anaylsis
Mon Jun 2, 2014, 10:11 AM
Jun 2014

I am amazed at how the fossil fuel industry used propaganda to convince Americans that renewable energy was bad and their polluting and dangerous products were good. The American public reviled the oil industry in the late 1970's, but switched attitudes in the 1980's. It was so shocking to see people fall for the propaganda.

Workers in these industries are classic Stockholm Syndrome victims. The industries they work for, kill and injure them in accidents and filling their lungs with silica and coal dust, yet they refuse to support switching to renewable energy where the working conditions would be vastly better, because they would rather work in these horrendous conditions rather than retrain for a new and healthier career.

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