On Jan 30, 2013, at 2:39 PM, Jed Rothwell wrote:
Edmund Storms <[email protected]> wrote:
As you can see, the political will does not exist to do anything
heroic. The will is not even present to develop cold fusion, which
in any case would require years before it had any impact at all.
Political will to act has often appeared very quickly, sometimes
overnight, sometimes within hours of a triggering event. Dramatic
examples include: the US response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the
fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Yes Jed, but each example was easily understood by the least smart.
This is not the case with GW or CF.
Never underestimate people's ability to act in their own best
interests, quickly and rationally, in response to a crisis. Look at
the way people living in England responded to the Black plague. They
kept what we now call "essential services" going. They kept millions
of people alive even while they risked and often lost their lives.
Again, the event was obvious.
Freeman Dyson wrote, ". . . [The] experiences of World War II made
an indelible impression on people of my generation. At the bottom of
our hearts we still believe you can have anything you want in five
years if you need it badly enough and if you are prepared to slog
your way through the barriers of confusion and incompetence to get
it . . . The accepted wisdom says that, no matter what we decide to
do about economic problems, we cannot expect to see any substantial
results [for 15 years]. The accepted wisdom is no doubt correct, if
we continue to play the game by the rules of today. But anyone who
lived through World War II knows that the rules can be changed very
fast when the necessity arises."
If it becomes generally known that cold fusion is real, similar
dramatic events might ensue.
"If it becomes generally known." Yes, but my point is that it is not
becoming generally known and it will not be anytime soon. Once known,
application of CF will have to fight the self-interest of the present
energy sources. So, 10 years might not be a bad guess before CF has
made an important contribution once it has been caused to work every
time at high level.
You claim that it would take years for cold fusion to have an
effect. How many years? Ten or 20 would be enough. The U.S. built
all of the armaments of WWII starting form nothing in 1938. By 1945
it had manufactured a mass of equipment -- ships, guns, airplanes
and so on -- greater than the mass of equipment we would need today
to reverse global warming or replace most energy sources with cold
fusion.
Again, your example was in response to an obvious threat. GW is not
obvious to most people and it will not be obvious until it is too late
to stop it. That is my opinion.
Ed
- Jed
