14th May 2008, 11:29 AM
Want a couple of reasons why higher gas prices aren't bad?
1) People will NOT change without financial incentive. "They will change, just give them time"? That just is not true. Without incentive, people won't change. Leave gas prices low, and people will buy huge, gas-guzzling vehicles for as long as they can. Financial incentives are required to push people to care. Higher gas prices do that like few other things could.
2) Hybrids aren't the only answer. Simply buying small cars instead of huge ones is another answer. Even more important than that, though, we need to build, and rebuild, our public transportation infrastructure. Why don't we have high-speed trains like the Shinkaisen or TGV in America? It's absolutely crazy. Why don't we have local commuter trains nationwide, so that people can get from their town to the city they work in without driving? Why do most American cities have no public transportation worth mentioning beyond a city bus system? It makes absolutely no sense, when you think about it! The best a town of 40,000, largest town in over an hours' drive, can manage is a bus system that runs hourly and doesn't run on Sundays? When in the early 1900s there were trains and trollies in the area, running frequently and carrying many people? But we ripped up all the trolley tracks. Great move... a massive expansion of public transportation is a key part of this.
3) Global warming. We're talking about this in the other thread.
4) Peak Oil. See, for instance, the new article on this in the most recent National Geographic. Pessimistic predictions say that we are currently AT peak oil (85 million barrels a day production). Moderate predictions say that we'll hit it by 2015. Unrealistic ones put it farther off, on the assumption that there are massive deposits we haven't found yet. As the article points out, though, in the past huge oil price spikes have caused huge jumps in new oil finds. Companies have reacted to the high prices and limited supply by going out there and finding lots of new oil. This happened in 1980, for example. This is not happening now, and there is no precedent for that. Why isn't it happening? Do they know that there isn't as much left as the more optimistic predictions say?
Realistically, peak oil is either already here or will be in under a decade. With the massive growth of demand in China and India, due to the people in those nations deciding that they want to be like us and improve their lives, oil demand keeps reaching record highs. But there simply isn't enough oil for everyone in China and India to live like we are now. So what can we do? It's a huge, huge problem, and hiding under the bed and pretending that the way Americans lived in the 20th century can indefinitely continue is just not realistic.
1) People will NOT change without financial incentive. "They will change, just give them time"? That just is not true. Without incentive, people won't change. Leave gas prices low, and people will buy huge, gas-guzzling vehicles for as long as they can. Financial incentives are required to push people to care. Higher gas prices do that like few other things could.
2) Hybrids aren't the only answer. Simply buying small cars instead of huge ones is another answer. Even more important than that, though, we need to build, and rebuild, our public transportation infrastructure. Why don't we have high-speed trains like the Shinkaisen or TGV in America? It's absolutely crazy. Why don't we have local commuter trains nationwide, so that people can get from their town to the city they work in without driving? Why do most American cities have no public transportation worth mentioning beyond a city bus system? It makes absolutely no sense, when you think about it! The best a town of 40,000, largest town in over an hours' drive, can manage is a bus system that runs hourly and doesn't run on Sundays? When in the early 1900s there were trains and trollies in the area, running frequently and carrying many people? But we ripped up all the trolley tracks. Great move... a massive expansion of public transportation is a key part of this.
3) Global warming. We're talking about this in the other thread.
4) Peak Oil. See, for instance, the new article on this in the most recent National Geographic. Pessimistic predictions say that we are currently AT peak oil (85 million barrels a day production). Moderate predictions say that we'll hit it by 2015. Unrealistic ones put it farther off, on the assumption that there are massive deposits we haven't found yet. As the article points out, though, in the past huge oil price spikes have caused huge jumps in new oil finds. Companies have reacted to the high prices and limited supply by going out there and finding lots of new oil. This happened in 1980, for example. This is not happening now, and there is no precedent for that. Why isn't it happening? Do they know that there isn't as much left as the more optimistic predictions say?
Realistically, peak oil is either already here or will be in under a decade. With the massive growth of demand in China and India, due to the people in those nations deciding that they want to be like us and improve their lives, oil demand keeps reaching record highs. But there simply isn't enough oil for everyone in China and India to live like we are now. So what can we do? It's a huge, huge problem, and hiding under the bed and pretending that the way Americans lived in the 20th century can indefinitely continue is just not realistic.
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