Once, men abused slaves. Now we abuse fossil fuels

In 2005, while teaching history at a French university, I was struck by the general disbelief among students that rational and sensitive human beings could ever hold others in bondage.

[SpaceBlues]

This is profound: Consumers of goods made by slaves or absentee plantation owners who lived in Britain in the 18th century also benefited from the slave system without maintaining direct connections to it. Those beneficiaries can certainly be said to have committed a morally comparable sort of human transgression to that of people who benefit from fossil fuels today.

A must read:

http://www.enn.com/sci-tech/article/43962...

[litesong]

Because people don't have to do the work, when fossil-fueled engines do the work, we waste a lot of fuel.

A study done in the UK, indicated that billions of gallons of fuel are wasted, just because we don't keep our tire pressures up to standard, making engines work harder. Bicyclists sure huff & puff a lot more when their tire pressures are low.... so the smart bicyclists keep their tire pressures up.

So, keep careful track of your mpg, keep your tires pumped up AND USE 100% PURE GASOLINE. Get rid of 10% ethanol gasoline & your mpg will go up. The ethanol industry & gov't says ethanol blends lose only 2% to 4% in mpg. However, large percentages of people report much greater losses(as much as 10% to 15%) using 10% ethanol blends. Our 3 cars lose 7%, 7% & 4+% using ethanol blends. Go to pure-gas.org for accurate maps & addresses of ethanol-free gasoline stations.

[Northie]

Here's the full paper:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/w310wk5g4...

I've been thinking about this myself. Now that we KNOW we are cooking the climate and that this robs future generations of wealth and health, the parallels are growing between the denial of responsibility to halt slavery 200 years ago and denial of responsibility to halt climate destruction now.

It's a moral issue through and through, and we see exactly the same kinds of people standing in the way:

1) An international business and government elite directly enriched by an immoral industry.

2) An increasingly concerned middle class that's too invested in the present system to act.

3) Strong racial, religious and nationalistic nuttery justifying the immoral status quo.

4) Shrill propaganda campaigns feeding people reasons to deny the problem ("negroes are inferior and better off in our care"..."

[Earthling-1]

FYI, Nauseous, Islam isn't a race or political party, it's a religion, therefore any mention of Muslims isn't a racial or political comment.
-
Understood?
Ö¿Ö

[Northie]

Earthling-1 wrote:

FYI, Nauseous, Islam isn't a race or political party, it's a religion, therefore any mention of Muslims isn't a racial or political comment.
-
Understood?
Ö¿Ö

Rubbish. Would you give a shit about Muslims if they weren't Arabs, Berbers, Turks and and Pakis polluting your sceptre'd isle with languages other than the queen's? No, you wouldn't. That kind of nativist crap is smeared all over climate denial on both sides of the pond.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/68286/...

[Earthling-1]

Nauseous wrote:

Rubbish. Would you give a shit about Muslims if they weren't Arabs, Berbers, Turks and and Pakis

That last word is an offensive, racial slur, a derogatory term for a person from Pakistan.

Nauseous wrote:

polluting your sceptre'd isle

Do you mean the septic isle I abandoned in January 1990?

Nauseous wrote:

with languages other than the queen's?

Define it?

Nauseous wrote:

No, you wouldn't.

I'll think for myself, if that's OK with you?

Nauseous wrote:

That kind of nativist crap is smeared all over climate denial on both sides of the pond.

Define "Climate denial," specifically, because I know of no one who denies climate, do you?

[bronck burger]

TO the FRENCHY called JEAN FRANCOIS MOUHOT I have a very nice BRIDGE FOR SALE. THESE CLIMATE-ITES ARE GETTING MORE and MORE DESPARATE by the SECOND. FRENCHY playing the RACE CARD anymore just makes you look like a WEAK BEING.

[duke nader]

i am duke nader >>>> SEND ME YOUR MONEY (CASH ONLY) and i will save planet earth from global warming AND OR climate change.

[litesong]

steenking piddling diddling middling mudling mudslinger dirtling wrote:

.....an offensive, racial slur, a derogatory term.......

"steenking piddling diddling middling mudling mudslinger dirtling" uses offensive, racial, derogatory, slimy steenking filthy vile reprobate racist rooting(& rotting) pukey proud pigisms.

[Earthling-1]

Then there's litesout, the mindless racist.

[Fun Facts]

Northie wrote:

Here's the full paper:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/w310wk5g4...
I've been thinking about this myself. Now that we KNOW we are cooking the climate and that this robs future generations of wealth and health, the parallels are growing between the denial of responsibility to halt slavery 200 years ago and denial of responsibility to halt climate destruction now.
It's a moral issue through and through, and we see exactly the same kinds of people standing in the way:
1) An international business and government elite directly enriched by an immoral industry.
2) An increasingly concerned middle class that's too invested in the present system to act.
3) Strong racial, religious and nationalistic nuttery justifying the immoral status quo.
4) Shrill propaganda campaigns feeding people reasons to deny the problem ("negroes are inferior and better off in our care"..."

I guess the use of horses would also be considered an amoral activity. Horses relieve man of work.

All of this is irrelavent if the burning of fossil fuels does not cause global warming.

So we are back to square one, provide evidence that the burning of fossil fuels has/can change the climate.

[NobodyYouKnow]

Northie wrote:

Here's the full paper:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/w310wk5g4...
I've been thinking about this myself. Now that we KNOW we are cooking the climate and that this robs future generations of wealth and health, the parallels are growing between the denial of responsibility to halt slavery 200 years ago and denial of responsibility to halt climate destruction now.

The 'meme' goes far beyond the slavery/pollution analogy.

Facts are that power corrupts. And Capitalism is about exploitation and gathering power to a few (*).

The check on this was SUPPOSED to be Democracy, but that has been disabled by:

1: lowering standards of education for the working classes.

2: Using the media to 'disengage' the public so as to prevent them feeling that THEY are in control. This leaves it up to the 'leaders' aka capitalists to run the country for their own benefit with NO check from the public

3: Restrict the election process to the 'upper classes' who have similar values and goals.

The 'meme' though is purely that those who are given or inherit power NEVER put other values ahead of themselves. So slavery, pollution, social justice, etc all get 'left behind', ignored, or exploited for personal gain as much as possible.

Thus we have a society 'moulded' by greed and indifference to the public good, the environment, and long term risks.

(*) the justification WAS that the few would do the 'right thing' and that would benefit all, but the reality has been that the few have no sense of 'noblesse oblige' or the obligations of power. They are an aristocracy with no 'heart' and consider the peasantry (i.e working class) no more than a draft animal.

[NobodyYouKnow]

Oh, I forgot.

4: Lower wages and increase job competition globally so that the 'working class' who have the numbers to put a check on the power of the aristocracy, are too damn busy just surviving. The original (i.e royal) aristocracy did this too. Grinding the serfs so that they would never have the energy to rebel no matter what the provocation.

5: The 'middle class' broke this when they had the money and the TIME to go into politics and lead revolutions, so the modern 'solution' by the ruling class is to consolidate business into larger and larger corporations to exclude the 'middle class' by raising 'barriers to entry' such as the dominant market share of the primary corporation and their control on the distribution systems.

The loss of the middle class EXCEPT for professionals under the pay of the corporations is just another facet of this. A middle class that cannot rise because the corporations control his paycheque.

[NobodyYouKnow]

Earthling-1 wrote:

I'll think for myself, if that's OK with you?

He just got tired of waiting for you to start. Don't take it personally.

[litesong]

steenking piddling diddling middling mudling mudslinger dirtling wrote:

Then there's litesong, the mindless racist.

I keep advertising the words of the slimy steenking filthy vile reprobate rooting(& rotting) racist pukey proud pig', "steenking piddling diddling middling mudling mudslinger dirtling".

The mindless racist diatribe of atheist "steenking piddling diddling middling mudling mudslinger dirtling" is his own ghost writer.

[litesong]

steenking piddling diddling middling mudling mudslinger dirtling wrote:
I'll think for myself, if that's OK with you?
//////////
NobodyYouKnow wrote:
He just got tired of waiting for you to start.
//////////
'steenking piddling diddling middling mudling mudslinger dirtling' wrote:
Then there's litesong, the mindless racist.
/////////
litesong wrote:
'steenking piddling diddling middling mudling mudslinger dirtling' can only react with atheist mindless 'slimy steenking reprobate rooting(&rotting) racist pukey proud pigisms, because he has no hi skule deegreee, no mathematics or science degrees, & no science & mathematics background.

[Earthling-1]

LessFactMoreHype, alias:

NobodyYouEverWantToKnow wrote:

Oh, I forgot.

You forget a lot of things these days, Mr Undoubtably Spelt Fourty.

[Northie]

NobodyYouKnow wrote:

<quoted text>
The 'meme' goes far beyond the slavery/pollution analogy.

To me, the striking parallel between slavery and climate destruction is that in both cases it wasn't capitalism itself that was at fault; it was simply the takeover of society by a single, immoral industry that was so large, so pervasive, so lucrative and so politically connected that it prevented the normal competitive corrections of capitalism.

The slave industry then. The carbon industry now. And we see the same kinds of passions in conflict.

[Earthling-1]

Nauseous wrote:

And we see the same kinds of passions in conflict.

You're unable to see past the end of your nose.
-
Can you explain CO2 as a thermal pollutant?
No?
Thought not.
º¿º

[NobodyYouKnow]

Northie wrote:

<quoted text>
it was simply the takeover of society by a single, immoral industry that was so large, so pervasive, so lucrative and so politically connected that it prevented the normal competitive corrections of capitalism.

Exactly my point but you fail to see the extent to which it has become PERVASIVE and not just an 'outsider group'.

Multinational corporations with political ties ensure that innovation is stifled (i.e. oil and coal conglomerates blocking alternative energy) and that they maintain essentially a monopoly control of their own market, rather than having many small competitors.

Northie wrote:

<quoted text>
The slave industry then. The carbon industry now. And we see the same kinds of passions in conflict.

Funny thing is that businesses that try to 'stifle change' end up dying. Look at RIM, Kodak, Blockbuster, etc. They all tried to continue in what THEY saw as their 'core business' until they died out (well, RIM is still surviving but the end is in sight).

What EXXON, SHELL, BP etc need do is to rethink themselves as ENERGY companies and drive the innovation rather than trying to block it. That way, they will thrive when the system evolves.

Luddites never learn. Buggy whips are NOT forever...