blacksheep’s Recent Comments

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  hellooo batteries

  i always feel like such a bad environmentalist when i fess up to this, but I am not in favor of electric vehicles....

  this is a massive toxic waste problem in waiting...eventually, the toxic substances in all these huge batteries will need to be disposed of....

  i could also state my opinion about hydrogen vehicles (which is a little more optimistic), but I don't want to distract from the real solutions: density where it counts, getting people to live closer to their jobs via good planning, planning for pedestrian and bicycle commuting, amazing mass transit... a world where the personal automobile is pretty much a thing of the past, except for emergency vehicles, rental vehicles, cooperatively owned vehicles - none of which need to be used for that daily commute or to go buy groceries. we need to focus not on automobile solutions but on planning and transportation solutions....On Electric-car visionary would overhaul the way we get around posted 1 year, 3 months ago 12 Responses

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  Forget Nuclear

  if you haven't already read this, you should:
  http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid467.php
  On Obama campaign targets McCain's support of dumping nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain posted 1 year, 3 months ago 7 Responses

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  Viva High Energy Prices!

  Personally, I am both unhappy and glad that gas prices are going up. On the one hand, this takes directly from my pocketbook, my ability to travel, etc. and it will most certainly hurt the poor and middle class more than it hurts those with more income (don't all things hurt the poor before the rich feel the pinch? money insulates you somewhat from whatever is going on in the world...). On the other hand, I am happy because high energy costs almost certainly mean investments in energy efficiency and a movement toward the more compact, public transit-based, renewable energy society many of us enviros long for. Interestingly, it seems that high prices are in part the result of increased demand around the world (developing economies growing stronger) and in part the result of other factors that still have nothing to do with the true costs of their environmental impact, their long-term availability and increasingly higher costs of extraction, or the social injustices they cause  (i.e. the geographical separation of rich people from poor people through exurban development eventually led to the movement of jobs away from cities to places where the poor and lower middle class could not easily get to them - of course, a list of social injustices caused by cheap oil could be very long, as it is the poor in less developed countries who often live with the consequences of poor environmental regulation).

  Unfortunately, the environment vs the poor debate isn't going to go away any time soon, and the reason is simple. Having a healthy planet means consuming less, which means (given no change in population) having less in terms of goods, mobility, etc.. Will the rich of the world make sure it is they, and not the poor, who have less? Will the rich of the world protect the poor during the inevitably difficult transition to an economy that is light on the planet? The American middle class is, in comparitive terms, quite wealthy - will they, even as they feel the pinch in their own wallets, feel that it is their duty to promote equity and help bear some of the brunt of what the truly poor will suffer? And yet, the economic status and political clout of the poor in the world is rising, so perhaps they will, in their vast numbers, be able to force these concessions from the rich, more or less at gunpoint?

  To end on a happier note, I believe a blend of forward-thinking government action and cultural changes can help relieve the situation. What if our government decided to relieve some of the pressure by investing in better train, bus and bicycle systems - TODAY? What if States marked established cities and villages for growth, connected these with transit, and created policies to encourage desirable density (depending on city size) and discourage suburban sprawl? What if people began to see the merits of living closer to resources, having relationships with neighbors and doing more for themselves? All of these things are possible and more - and it is expensive energy that will generate this creative burst... necessity is the mother of invention. hopefully, then, my great grandchildren will be able to live in a world that uses a moderate amount of energy so efficiently that energy ends up being not so expensive after all....

  Of course all change means there will be winners and losers, and people with means will position themselves as well as they can to not be the losers. Therefore, it will be important to do a better job than we have in the past of helping the poor and increasing equity. It is also important for energy prices to increase somewhat gradually, so as to give us time to adjust, begin creating our new society and of course to avoid economic and humanitarian meltdown.

  all in all, I still say Viva High Energy Prices! On Protests erupt worldwide over fuel prices posted 1 year, 5 months ago 25 Responses

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  Did Grist Take a Jab at Enviros?

  I too noticed Grist's curious wording: "Skyrocketing fuel prices show no sign of flagging, and no one's happy about it (except the occasional holier-than-thou environmentalist)." and I wasn't perfectly sure how to read it. Perhaps they were including themselves in the 'holier-than-thou environmentalist' category? Or maybe it was an insult to those who are happy that gas prices are going up. Perhaps it was meant more for those who rejoice at the prospect of economic meltdown (as mentioned by an earlier comment), which of course would not be good for either people or the planet.On Protests erupt worldwide over fuel prices posted 1 year, 5 months ago 25 Responses

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  accountant farmers

  perhaps accountants could provide farm labor after the tax season On To create a truly sustainable food system, we'll have to confront the farm-labor crisis posted 1 year, 5 months ago 14 Responses