Thursday, February 05, 2009

Recession to give environmentalists a big can of shut the fuck up. Hopefully.



You know.. the past few months I've been watching with great interest the collapse of the so called "green" industry. Everything from solar, to green pharmacies. Making it feel oh so like the 70's. Most are blaming the economy. Many understand the real reason is because these companies were kinda bullshit. Some even exaggerated their effectiveness.

Sure, solar power is good. I even debated many times having panels installed on my place. But, not for some moralistic epiphany. It was because, when I first moved into this place, we were having rolling blackouts. And random blackouts. Which would make some people say "exactly - that is why you need alternative energy sources".

Except, that wasn't really the problem. It was the ineptitude of the utility department to triage outages properly. Our problem usually was a breaker box down the street had tripped. They'd take out a long insulated pole and flip the switch back. Wala! Power. But, occasionally that took a couple of days. And the utility department sent a team of people to every call. Meanwhile everything in my refrigerator had to be thrown out. Even expensive medications for my pets.

Anyway. If the panels were cost effective - I'd still have them installed. But, they aren't cost effective. Wherein lies the rub.

In a down economy.... you can't hide behind the "good feelings" alternative energy exudes. Why pay more for something, when paying less will do the same job? In a down economy, cost effectiveness becomes very relative.

When gas is 5 bucks a gallon - sure people will believe they can drive the country on chicken oil. But, people like me wonder "how are you going to run a nation on chicken oil". How exactly do you do that on a massive scale? And how much energy does it take to make chicken oil after all?

But people who say "oh, we can't do it, because our government wont allow it (insert conspiracy theory here)" become really loud and obnoxious. Yet, it also seems in a down economy all of a sudden people aren't willing to pay a little more to feel better about themselves.

Well, you've had your day in the sun. No pun intended. They've had all the financial resources possible thrown at them - and they failed! You want to know why? Because if all this green energy crap was cost effective you wouldn't be crying to the banks for money. People would open their wallets wide. Greed is funny that way.

Now onto my second hippy dooshbag rant. Yeah - I'm a little ranty this week.

Water. That's right. I know some of you think I'm nutbag crazy about the water thing. And some days I wonder too. But, this is becoming a big deal. A super big deal. Like - they aren't just charging more. In some areas they will cut your service if you don't tow the rationing line.

Which pisses me off! The first year of the drought the state ignored it. The second year..the state ignored it. Well, now the shit it hitting the fan.

Where a few days ago I was joking about stealing street gutter water - this might actually become a reality. I'm not even joking.

I'm not a huge conservationist or any conservationist. But even I made an effort the last two years. Letting stuff die. Watering in the middle of the night when it wasn't windy. Yet, there are people that are such assholes they won't even turn their sprinklers off when it is raining.

Is even that amount of effort to much to ask? Yet, I read today- the enviro-assholes say global warming has doomed us to not have enough drinking water. No! These assholes have.





Thank goodness I have my cup made of corn!

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