Glenn and I are on the same page: "Regardless of what you think about global warming, there are lots of good reasons to avoid burning fossil fuels. But the global-warming discussion in the media is a consensus identity narrative designed to achieve political ends, not an effort to find facts or protect the environment. And this also accounts for the backlash."
And I still would like to know why this never gets any attention. More here.
And I still would like to know why this never gets any attention. More here.
It would be interesting to see steam cars back on the road, as they are more efficient than gasoline cars and can burn a wider variety of fuels. But they still burn fuels and produce exhaust, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI agree there are many good reasons to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Along with better particulate filtering, if carbon sequestration technology ever pans out (a big if) that would make coal more palatable as an electricity producer, but this wouldn’t effect the negatives of gasoline and oil use for transportation.
One big problem with the use of fossil fuels for electricity generation (a big chunk of their total use) is that there is currently only one viable replacement that does not require immediate and massive conservation as well – nuclear power. But despite some recent positive articles, nuclear (my own specialty) suffers from a huge public understanding problem that the press often feeds. I suppose one could argue this is a “consensus identity narrative” rather than an effort to find the facts.
A good example is the recent Japanese earthquake. A large earthquake hit near a nuclear plant and only minor radioactive releases occurred (along with some problems, admittedly). Overall, that would seem to be good news, but it was not portrayed that way in the headlines that grab the public’s attention. Unfortunately, there is little out there garnering public notice which provides perspective on the nuclear issue to the average news consumer - - which might then promote a more nuanced media approach.
And while hilarious, I’m sure The Simpsons movie won’t help much either…