[quote name='JolietJake']Are you sure you don't mean short term, because i'd say that finding other sources of energy certainly is the long term solution. It won't do much to help us in the short term of course.[/QUOTE]
Both, but thanks for pointing that out. Eventually there will reach a point in our planets life where our energy costs will be too high (and I dont mean dollars) that the concept of the "global economy" no longer functions the way it does today. Electric is great....electric cars will allow us to scoot around town, scoot to our jobs, use almost no gasoline (depending on how our electricity is made, anyhow) and so forth. From a "our worlds revolve around us" perspective, thats good.
But does that mean that there will now be a GLUT of electric cars, all with batteries that need replacing every few years, clogging up our landfills and poisoning our water?? Thats a cost of using that kind of energy. Hydrogen is great, but it takes an awful lot of energy to create hydrogen. T here is work being done on bacteria being used to actually create hydrogen gas....which is awesome...but again, what is the downside?
So the key isn't to go from gas to electric, its "how do we minimize the use of cars...period". Go to the store less, visit your friends less often but vist them for longer periods of time. CHOOSE where to live a little better....not just "is that a nice house" but "is it close to my job, are the neighbors my age".....a real shift in thinking.
Eventually, I think, we are going to have to think a little more realistically about how we live in this world.
Example: I think travel will be more expensive, and airlines are probably not going to be the way it happens, unless you are ultra rich. I think nuclear-powered ships are probably the future...for shipping..and for passenger travel. Rail and electric vehicle commuting will pick up, and dare I say more manufacturing will move back to this country as the cost of shipping negates any benefit of having goods made cheaply overseas. Of course thanks to advances in electronic telecommunication, travel for business wont be required the way it is today...already we've got video teleconferencing that can put two people in the same room from across the world with almost no lag (and I'm not talking anything made by CREATIVE here...).

etc, etc.
If anything it could mean a HUGE boom for Mexico and South America, where they..thanks to their lower standard of living (which wont last, btw) can at least supply us with cheap goods in the short term as we slowly wean ourselves back to a more localized economy. Not isolationism, but really....we wont be getting every last item from some overseas sweatshop. The Oriental Traders catalog will probably go away
"What? I cant get a gross of bouncy balls for $3.99!? F THAT SHIT!"
So in the end I think its good that Peaches cost $4 bucks each in the winter time, or that the price of our gasoline is starting to go up. Its one of those nasty pills that we eventually have to swallow...better to do it now and get accustomed to it, give ourselves time to adapt to the changing way of things.
But I dont want to see the world simply stop gorging on gas, and start gorging on electricity.
I mean, if all it takes to bring down our electric grid is a bunch of fat, sweaty bastards all turning on their A/C's at once....can you imagine what happens when everyone plugs in their frickin Camary's or Accords to juice up?
