MARCUS: “I'm not so sure it really requires everyone's cooperation.”
My argument was: Case A: If it DOES require every USA citizen to cooperate, then it WILL require every other country to cooperate. It’s a “global” issue! Case B: If it DOES NOT require every other country to cooperate, then it WILL NOT require every USA citizen to cooperate. (Case A) requires big USA government’s coercive power both foreign and domestic with threats of fines, wars, and sanctions. (Case B) requires neither. Only those USA citizens that cooperate are required. Regardless of how politics will eventually play out, the price of petroleum is going to rise in the USA merely because China and other growing foreign economies are now demanding more of (willing to pay higher prices for) this global commodity. So the "pain" in the USA will occur regardless of whether it’s "self-imposed". I can only assume that the ROI on solar cells and other alternatives will drop in response. Does <http://www.ecotality.com/blog/2007/does-solar-make-economic-sense-nyt-says- no-san-francisco-chronicle-says-yes/> Solar Make Economic Sense? NYT Says No, San Francisco Chronicle Says Yes Robert Howard Phoenix, Arizona -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Marcus G. Daniels Sent: Monday, April 30, 2007 4:36 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] bigger plans, bigger little mistakes - Electron Symmetry Robert Howard wrote: > “We have invented a game called Carbon Offsets. But to be effective, > it really requires everyone’s cooperation. Unfortunately, we can’t get > them to play. What I think is that necessity is the mother of invention. Make some self-imposed pain to, say, radically reduce the number of internal combustion automobiles on the road, and get large scale solar, clean coal, or even fusion working (e.g. which I believe requires little more than having the governments of wealthy western nations stand up to their petroleum lobbies), and then the rest of the world will run with it, because it will be easy to do. Open source energy. Or if for some reason it is not desirable to share some of this technology with iffy nations, we can export the energy to them real cheap. Also, I'm not so sure it really requires everyone's cooperation. For example, the United States alone a large fraction of the worlds' electrical and petroleum energy usage. If that were all clean power it ought to help buy some time w.r.t. climate change. ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
