If Money Could Talk: War Over Climate Change
source: http://www.ypnation.net/if-money-could-talk-middle-east-war-takes-priority-over-climate-change
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- NankinYP
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"I’m a reporter for a local newspaper. The government spending I write about--new lights for the high school football stadium, for example--are microscopic compared to the spending that goes on at the federal level. But the basic principles the city council tries to follow shouldn’t be too different from their peers in Washington, D.C.
At a Board of Education or Parks and Recreation meeting, whenever a budget issue comes up, there seems to be one prevailing rule: How much money a project gets, and how soon, depends on how high it is on the list of priorities..."
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- groups:
- Green, Afghanistan News
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- tags:
- Iraq, Afghanistan, Copenhagen, appropriations
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Wetdog
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If we run our vehicles on natural gas, there are no batteries or expensive electronics needed, bi-fuel engine vehicles(that run on both liquid and gas fuel) are manufactured from entirely off the shelf parts, using technology that as been in use and well known and well used for over 80 years. Bi-fuel engines (diesel or flex fuel/natural gas) can be run entirely on natural gas and/or biofuels and need never use a single drop of petroleum.
It the cost to build bifuel vehicles is minimal, and far less than the cost to produce hybrid vehicles. Diesel/natural gas vehicles offer about the same thermal efficiency as hybrids.
Vehicles that run on natural gas produce almost no pollution at all when compared to petroleum, the same with biofuels. They easily pass the most stringent California Air Standards tests.And using natural gas to power our vehicles costs 1/2 as much or less than it does running them on petroleum. This has been true for many years.
Solar thermal energy requires no expensive electronics and is ideally suited as an axulliary or "helper" system to heat buildings and hot water. Solar thermal is cheap to manufacture and install, effective and very easy to maintain. Your furnace and water heater work exactly the same as they always have----they just come on far less frequently and use much less energy when they do. And they will last a LOT longer---they won't run nearly as much to wear out.
If you install solar thermal to your home(most use natural gas for home heat and hot water)-----you will end up using a lot less natural gas. If you have a natural gas vehicle---and you put the natural gas in your fuel tank instead of the furnace or hot water heater, you are basically driving your car on free solar energy-----using the natural gas you did not use in your house.
We can make natural gas from sewage and landfill treatment. We need to treat sewage and landfills anyway.
And we don't have to import or fight wars to get natural gas. It is VERY EXPENSIVE to pay for fighting wars.
With these choices----it seems to me pretty clear what our prioritiies should be.
If we want a clean healthy environment, the energy we need at reasonable cost, national security that does not put our military people in harm's way, lower taxes and less beauracracy----we need to demand that Congress mandate that all cars sold in the US must be either diesel/CNG or flex fuel/CNG capable, and give high incentives to install solar thermal home energy collectors.
- 2 years ago
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Wetdog
