Re: OT: interesting global warming quote found elsewhwere

Eeyore <rabbitsfriendsandrelations@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:4896D8AF.4AED6C3D@xxxxxxxxxxx:



Kris Krieger wrote:

OK, explain something to me.

We've either reached, or will soon reach, peak petroleum production -
that's what the oil experts themselves say. So that in and of itself
indicates thet alterantive energy sources need to be developed.
Given that fact, what is the payoff/reward/advantage for Exxon to
refute global warming? If petroleum is, or will soon be, on the
decline, wouldn't it be smarter for them to use all that money to
instead expand out from being "an oil company" to being "an energy
company", which is what BP claims it's doing? IOW, if oil is on the
decline, Exxon will eventually start losing profits *regardless* of
any question about global warming, so by spending money on countering
global warming, ratehr than spending it upon things taht would
actually keep them in business for the long- term, arent tehy just
shooting themselves in the foot so to speak?

You couldn't have put it better.

I don't know about that - it just baffles me.

Business survivs by *both* solving short term probblems, (*and* dodin
analysis to determine where long-term problems might occur and then
coming up wiht strategies that will form a framework for developing
tactics to solve them should/when they arise.

But that fact seems to be lost on an increasing number of businesses. It
almost seems as tho' the more fancy MBA degress are being obtained, the
less actual business sense is out there. And I don't understand it. Are
people actually gettign stupider, or is it just that they 1) just don't
much care, and/or 2) no longer have any idea how to make rational, as
opposed to purely emotional/knee-jerk/myopic, decisions?


What T. Boone Pickens has been saying recently IMO is just plain old
obvious common sense. So it baffles me as to why Exxon (and otehrs?)
would spend so much money on opposing global warming theory, as opposed
to spending it upon far-more-useful Diversification planning/development?
Oil useage is not going to stop overnight, so it's not like they're
suddenly going to go out of business - meanwhile, the predictions for the
peak of oil production occurring by 2012 (and probably right now) have
been known since the 1950's, so it's not like there was no time to come
up with a plan for diversification.

So why is stupidity consistently rewarded, whle analysis is rejected -
adn then people run around in a maniacal panic when the inevitable
finally occurrs? IMO, this is where the gov.t has failed dismally for
many years (i.e. bipartisan failure): they've rewarded business that
plan, not for success, but failure...

I just don't understand it. I guess I'm just stupid or something...


Also, as I've asked in the past, wouldn't CO2 be lowered if
non-polluting or less-polluting energy sources continue to be
developed? ANy dope knows that pollutants cause various sorts of
harm, so why are poeple clawing at one another over global warming,
rather than using that brain- power and human energy to counteract
pollution?

Re: CO2, if planting trees helps reduce CO2, well, it *also*
beautifies and helps cool the areas where they're planted.

I'd re-forest Scotland for one.

There are a lot of area which have been deforested by humansover the last
couple millenia. Easter Island used to be covered in forests; same with
Iceland; I'd also read that the Middle East also used to have a lot of
forests. People just didn't know back then that some areas cannot
replenish themselves; now we know better, and also, know how to better
help such ares be replenished. But people seem to be utterly complacent
about merely accepting environemntal degradation, and worse, ridiculing
anyne who says, "THings might be better if we tried doing X...". I just
don't get it.


It just seems to me that the bickering about global warming distracts
people from taking real, current action to solve well-known
problems...

Absolutely.


and just who benefits from that, I wonder?

Politicicians and unrepresentative tiny pressure groups.

Graham


That's all I can figure, but I assume there are lots and lots of poeple
out there who are a hell of a lot smarter than I (because Lord knows I've
heard lots and lots of 'em going on, for the past several decades, as to
how stupid I supposedly am), so I'm totally baffled as to why there is so
little positive/constructive action, and so very much behaving like a
bunch of tomcats trapped in a sack... ... ?


.

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