This blog is a result of many students wishing to delve into topics lightly discussed due to curricular demands but would like to investigate further. I am fortunate to teach students who want to challenge conventional wisdom and seek further discourse as a way to empower themselves to help shape the world they live in.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Tax Time...that will be $ per mile!
One way to discourage car usage and hence reduce environmental impacts, charge by the kilometer like the Dutch are planning to do. What do you think?
I cant support this only due to the fact that the movie "The Truman show" got me all rilled up as a kid, and to think of putting that much control and information into someone else's hands seems unjust and far to big brother esque. not to mention the obvious way of stating this as just another tax on a day to day "necessity". i do like the idea and agree we need to find a way to cut back on pollution and effectively distribute our energy and resources, but in this case thats as simple as heading back twenty years and letting the scientist who were working on the electric car continue to research instead of shutting them down due to predicted financial issues.
I cant agree more. Whats next after that they are going to start charging us for every little thing we do. We live in a society now that transportation is needed, and I do not believe we the people are the ones to blame for everything. I mean if we really want to start getting serious about what cars do to our planet why dont we just take the source of the problem away, CARS WHICH RUN ON GAS. We as people in general have built space ships that have gottten men to the moon, watches that can be used as web cams, phones that do everything a computer does and more, but we cant get cars to run cleanly and effiecntly. I mean we all know the tech. is out there and the possibilty is definatly there but we need to put in rules and regulations eg. from now on any cars that are bought are hybrids or run on electricity. The day is coming to where we will have to change to electricaly powered cars just because there isnt enough oil to last forever. Why wait until that happens, instead stop, change it now and save what little there is to save of our planet.
These measures, although well meant, I'm sure, are utterly and completely useless. According to statistics in Derrick Jensen's moving graphic novel "As the world burns, 50 things you can do to stay in denial", if every citizen of the United States were to convert to fluorescent light-bulbs, cut the amount of driving they do in half, recycle half of their household waste, use low flow shower heads, wash dishes/clothes in cold water, inflate their tire pressure to increase gas mileage, and turn their thermostats with the time of year, this would only result in a one-time emission reduction of 20%. And since the rate of consumption increases every year, in ten years or so they'd be right back where they were before. "Sustainable" options simply don't exist in an industrial society, which is hardwired to churn out products as if there were infinite resources on our FINITE planet. What needs to be done is, people need to get off their asses and dismantle all these machines that pollute our earth and our bodies. This idea scares most people (Other than us rabid anarcho-primitivists), but in the long run, would you rather have your big screen TV and MP3 player or have your species go extinct in a century or two(As well as living a long, monotonous life as a wage slave simply to keep this bullshit moving)? The choice is yours.
I cant support this only due to the fact that the movie "The Truman show" got me all rilled up as a kid, and to think of putting that much control and information into someone else's hands seems unjust and far to big brother esque. not to mention the obvious way of stating this as just another tax on a day to day "necessity". i do like the idea and agree we need to find a way to cut back on pollution and effectively distribute our energy and resources, but in this case thats as simple as heading back twenty years and letting the scientist who were working on the electric car continue to research instead of shutting them down due to predicted financial issues.
ReplyDeleteI cant agree more. Whats next after that they are going to start charging us for every little thing we do. We live in a society now that transportation is needed, and I do not believe we the people are the ones to blame for everything. I mean if we really want to start getting serious about what cars do to our planet why dont we just take the source of the problem away, CARS WHICH RUN ON GAS. We as people in general have built space ships that have gottten men to the moon, watches that can be used as web cams, phones that do everything a computer does and more, but we cant get cars to run cleanly and effiecntly. I mean we all know the tech. is out there and the possibilty is definatly there but we need to put in rules and regulations eg. from now on any cars that are bought are hybrids or run on electricity. The day is coming to where we will have to change to electricaly powered cars just because there isnt enough oil to last forever. Why wait until that happens, instead stop, change it now and save what little there is to save of our planet.
ReplyDeleteThese measures, although well meant, I'm sure, are utterly and completely useless.
ReplyDeleteAccording to statistics in Derrick Jensen's moving graphic novel "As the world burns, 50 things you can do to stay in denial", if every citizen of the United States were to convert to fluorescent light-bulbs, cut the amount of driving they do in half, recycle half of their household waste, use low flow shower heads, wash dishes/clothes in cold water, inflate their tire pressure to increase gas mileage, and turn their thermostats with the time of year, this would only result in a one-time emission reduction of 20%. And since the rate of consumption increases every year, in ten years or so they'd be right back where they were before.
"Sustainable" options simply don't exist in an industrial society, which is hardwired to churn out products as if there were infinite resources on our FINITE planet.
What needs to be done is, people need to get off their asses and dismantle all these machines that pollute our earth and our bodies.
This idea scares most people (Other than us rabid anarcho-primitivists), but in the long run, would you rather have your big screen TV and MP3 player or have your species go extinct in a century or two(As well as living a long, monotonous life as a wage slave simply to keep this bullshit moving)?
The choice is yours.