Honestly I think that people who believe that buying a hybrid car and some carbon offsets, is “saving the planet” are deluding themselves. The way to get people to use alternative energy (such as solar) and conserve electricity is to champion the benifits to the individual. Rather then complex and expensive alternatives individuals can take some simple energy independence steps that put real money back into the family budget and reduce dependence at the same time.
The side effect is a benefit to environmentalism but we need to stay in touch with reality. People in general do what directly is beneficial to them when they understand the benefit. Contrairy to the Al Gore speal the oceans won’t be covering the city of New York any time in the next 1000 years unless there is a tsunami (which may occur).
Still just because many on the fringe of environmentalism are alarmists doesn’t mean that we should not be trying to minimize pollution, resource consumption, energy dependence and the personal expense of energy use. This podcast covers some practical and economical things people can do to make more efficient use of electricity and incorporate things like solar energy in an economically beneficial way.
Also is my first “2008 One Minute Presidential Race Rant” at the end. Discussing McCain’s double stance on Social Security and Obama’s plea that he bail Hillary out of the consequences of her stupid decision to continue to spend money like water even when her campaign was clearly lost. Are these two really the best we could come up with?
