re: #395 Guanxi88

There are answers and solution, but none of them seem to be enjoying anything along the lines of state support that the taxation and poverty proposals have.

Taxation is a perfectly good way to approach it, and one of the only ways to escape the paradox of greater energy utilization with greater energy efficiency. Punitive taxation isn’t good, nor is ineffective taxation, but if we want to increase efficiency and decrease usage, we need to keep the cost from diving with the increased efficiency.

Taxing the Hell outta the average guys, and imposing pointless and crippling restrictions on technological developments is guranteed to do nothing and make us all more miserable and impoverished as we slide toward the great culling.

I’m unsure where you see restrictions on technological development as part of any plan.

Me? I;m a big fan of bio-char as a carbon sequestration/soil improvement technique. This improves developing world crop yields AND sequesters atmospheric carbon.

Then I guess you do know a solution, after all. There is no overarching solution, just a lot of little ones.

I’m a huge fan of Kerrick Process for coal to liquids fuels, and think it’s criminally stupid to just burn coal when there’s so many valuable products to be gotten from it. These things, however, aren’t sexy, don’t catch the eye, and don’t do anything to increase the power of one group of people over another. And so, they’re not popular.

They can be made popular, though. And they can be achieved without popularity, in many ways. And they do increase the power of a group of people who I honestly think have a unique chance at this point in time: pragmatists.

One way you can make them more popular is explaining them in coffee conversations to your friends. It really is how humanity works; the enlightenment was partially the smartest guys in the world talking with each other, but it was equally those ideas being transmitted to the street.

Sometimes that led to the American Revolution, sometimes to the French. Again, we have a choice of path. I understand the fear that the Terror of climate change will be draconian measures, but if AGW is allowed to go to far we will have all of its penalties, plus draconian measures as well.

So persuade all those you can persuade. And encourage, above all, science education and critical thinking in the classroom.

And the bison is delicious.