Two Clues for the Clueless(Kunstler)

[4dsc]

http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/2007/10/two-clues-for-t.html

this dependence on foreign oil is not itself the problem. The problem is that we have adopted a living arrangement so hopelessly centered around cars and incessant motoring and one of the consequences is an addiction to oil, which we happen to have a declining supply of in our own land.

In other words, the problem is not the fact that two-thirds of the oil we use comes from other nations, but is about our own behavior in our own nation. In a reality-based existence, it is more effective to modify one's own behavior than to try to govern the behavior of other sovereign individuals and entities. It ought to be a test of anybody applying for the position of president to realize this, and to communicate it to the public. One might expect a Republican candidate to artfully avoid this reality -- since car-dealers and suburban sprawl developers are among the heartiest Republicans. But it's disgraceful for the Democratic opposition to ignore this reality.

The gravest problem this nation faces, therefore, is the inability of the American public and its leaders to confront the fact that we can't continue to live the way we do -- and, by the way, when I say "leaders," I don't restrict myself to political leaders. Our failures of leadership are comprehensive, including leadership in my nominal sector, journalism. For two weeks in a row, the price of oil on the futures markets has closed above $80-a-barrel, and for these two weeks The New York Times Sunday Business Section has failed to run one story on the consequences of oil rising into this uncharted territory of high price. Are the Times editors on crack? Surely $80-plus oil will thunder through the American economy.

[Virginia Dare]

1. Jimmy Carter tried..

remember his infamous "fireside chat" that he got resoundingly pummeled for?

Hey America, as Jack Nicholson once said, "You can't handle the truth".

Good evening.

Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since I became President. I have spent a lot of time deciding how I can be a good President. This talk, which the broadcast networks have agreed to bring to you, is one of several steps that I will take to keep in close touch with the people of .our country, and to let you know informally about our plans for the coming months.

When I was running for President, I made a number of commitments. I take them very seriously. I believe that they were the reason that I was elected. And I want you to know that I intend to carry them out. As you probably noticed already, I have acted on several of my promises.

I will report to you from time to time about .our Government--both our problems and our achievements, but tonight I want to tell you how I plan to carry out some of my other commitments.

Some of our obvious goals can be achieved very quickly--for example, through executive orders and decisions made directly by me. But in many other areas, we must move carefully, with full involvement by the Congress, allowing time for citizens to participate in careful study, in order to develop predictable, long-range programs that we can be sure are affordable and that we know will work.

Some of these efforts will also require dedication--perhaps even some sacrifice--from you. But I don't believe that any of us are afraid to learn that our national goals require cooperation and mutual effort.

One of our most urgent projects is to develop a national energy policy. As I pointed out during the campaign, the United States is the only major industrial country without a comprehensive, long-range energy policy.

The extremely cold weather this winter has dangerously depleted our supplies of natural gas and fuel oil and forced hundreds of thousands of workers off the job. I congratulate the Congress for its quick action on the Emergency Natural Gas Act, which was passed today and signed just a few minutes ago. But the real problem--our failure to plan for the future or to take energy conservation seriously--started long before this winter, and it will take much longer to solve.

I realize that many of you have not believed that we really have an energy problem. But this winter has made all of us realize that we have to act.

Now, the Congress has already made many of the preparations for energy legislation. Presidential assistant Dr. James Schlesinger is beginning to direct an effort to develop a national energy policy. Many groups of Americans will be involved. On April 20, we will have completed the planning for our energy program and will immediately then ask the Congress for its help in enacting comprehensive legislation.

Our program will emphasize conservation. The amount of energy being wasted which could be saved is greater than the total energy that we are importing from foreign countries. We will also stress development of our rich coal reserves in an environmentally sound way; we will emphasize research on solar energy and other renewable energy sources; and we will maintain strict safeguards on necessary atomic energy production.

The responsibility for setting energy policy is now split among more than 50 different agencies, departments, and bureaus in the Federal Government. Later this month, I will ask the Congress for its help in combining many of these agencies in a new energy department to bring order out of chaos. Congressional leaders have already been working on this for quite a while.

We must face the fact that the energy shortage is permanent. There is no way we can solve it quickly. But if we all cooperate and make modest sacrifices, if we learn to live thriftily and remember the importance of helping our neighbors, then we can find ways to adjust and to make our society more efficient and our own lives more enjoyable and productive. Utility companies must promote conservation and not consumption. Oil and natural gas companies must be honest with all of us about their reserves and profits. We will find out the difference between real shortages and artificial ones. We will ask private companies to sacrifice, just as private citizens must do.

All of us must learn to waste less energy. Simply by keeping our thermostats, for instance, at 65 degrees in the daytime and 55 degrees at night we could save half the current shortage of natural gas.

There is no way that I, or anyone else in the Government, can solve our energy problems if you are not willing to help. I know that we can meet this energy challenge if the burden is borne fairly among all our people--and if we realize that in order to solve our energy problems we need not sacrifice the quality of our lives.

[Kolesar]

2. The energy industry came after President Carter with guns a-blazing

It was a full-out media attack with their shills at Road & Track, the "think tanks", and worthless newspaper writers in collusion.

I think that the denigrating language against environmentalists of all sorts is playing out by now, though. More fundamental messages of how we hate the high prices at the pump and the rising price of electricity have supplanted the simplistic RW thinking.

[Virginia Dare]

3. Then along came Reagan and his "morning in America" lies..

that we could all have our cake and eat it too. Give more money to the rich, and it will trickle down to you, just watch! Americans ate that shit on a stick up.

[Bigmack]

8. Thanks for posting the text of the Carter speech

Really appreciate having it close about - could probably have "googled" it myself, but thanks for your effort. Where oh where are the real leaders when we need them? Not that the boneheads in this strange land would follow them..... Ms Bigmack

[applegrove]

4. Local town centers will spring up again when the **** hits the fan. People will

need food and groceries within walking distance.

[Virginia Dare]

5. I read an article some time ago about that..

basically predicting that suburbia as a way of life is ultimately doomed. Yet we still keep building suburbs and exurbs. Spooky to think sometime in the future, however distant, you'll likely see farm animals grazing in abandoned former suburban neighborhoods.

[NickB79]

6. "The future, however distant"

That distant future is about a decade away, maybe 15 years at most.

Get your chickens and goats now! Avoid the rush!

[kestrel91316]

7. Unfortunately most city ordinances and homeowners' associations

don't permit anything remotely resembling (gasp, horrors!!!1!!) livestock.

[4dsc]

9. Not that very long from now

people will look back at the warning they were given and chose to ignore..

What's amazing is that most people under the age of 30 will witness the end of the age of oil, IMHO..