CM Hersh’s Recent Comments

• Click here to view comment in original post

  Political vs. technical solutions

  I see the challenge as both technical and political.  Yes, the inertia of the present system is huge.  

  But the technical questions remain. I'm skeptical of the quick fixex.  All the technical quick fixes thus far have not panned out.  

  Part of the reason is simply the fact that petroleum represents a huge source of essentially free energy.  We can't simply replace all gas guzzling SUVs with gas sipping hybrids. How can we replace 20 million barrels of oil a day with renewable methane?  

  We need to drastically make lifestyle changes.    On Hurricane Katrina brings a foretaste of environmental disasters to come posted 4 years, 1 month ago 7 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  Bill nails it

  One of my favorite pieces of writing is his 1995 essay on global warming in the NYT Sunday Magazine.  I pull it out and re-read it every so often.  He is certainly no Bill-come-lately to this topic.  

  I find myself worrying as much about peak oil these days.  Bill's comment:  

  Not to mention the costs of converting our energy system to something less suicidal than fossil fuel, a task that becomes more expensive with every year that passes.

  assumes that something like this is even possible.  Kunstler makes a pretty compelling case in The Long Emergency that it simply can't be done.  Oil is simply huge volumes of cheap energy.  What could possibly be used to replace it?  Alternative ways to generate electricity can ease the pain, but our unsustainable suburban/automobile lifestyle is based on petroleum.

  It seems that unless someone's Hail Mary pass (cold fusion, nanotechnology, who-the-hell-knows what) is completed--and damn soon--that these environmental disruptions that are going to occur are going to be accompanied by resource wars.  

  The scary thing is that our gov't doesn't even seem to be concerned about looking for the alternatives.  Our energy policy is military-based.    On Hurricane Katrina brings a foretaste of environmental disasters to come posted 4 years, 2 months ago 7 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  Nature vs nurture?

  Both are in the mix.  There are innate differences between men and women and not all of them are subtle, and not all of them are pretty. There is no sense denying our hunter-gatherer's-shaped brain.  It ain't hogwash.  

  We can, however, strive to make our society and institutions more equitable.  Just because sex differences are "natural" does not mean that all manifestations of them are acceptable in a society of reasoning beings.

  But it ain't all culture.  On Men posted 4 years, 2 months ago 10 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  I can hardly wait

  until they want to start charging for memberships or some other thing.  What a bunch of leeches.  A good idea, but they just want to create a bureacracy and make a couple of cushy jobs for themselves.  WMI must be laughing like hell.  

  I use craigslist.  Less structure, works great. On ... oh, and R.I.P. posted 4 years, 3 months ago 13 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  The Onion is required reading

  to remain sane.  No ifs ands or buts.On The Onion posted 4 years, 3 months ago 2 Responses