Too Much of a Good Thing

[Guest]

Energy and technology are not to be confused as the same but like Martin and Lewis they are inextricably linked. It is the art of technology that discovers, channels and then releases the potential of all energy sources for use by man. After all energy itself can not be created nor destroyed

I understand quite well the origins of oil and coal and uranium and ...all potential fuel sources. The very fact that they are fuel implies a time accretion process. Innovation is key in unlocking new (read untapped not newly created) sources of energy. Innovation is also the answer for helping man to delay the inevitable Peak Oil event.

And yes you belittled the existing renewable and emerging energy sources but I could fill-up numerous screens citing verse and chapter of naysayer

[NewTowner]

And yes you belittled the existing renewable and emerging energy sources but I could fill-up numerous screens citing verse and chapter of naysayer

[Guest]

Prepare for the worst and hope for the best?

As an advocate and potential user of Nashville mass transit (if it ever happens) I am vested in a model that takes some of the traditional hwy funds and redirects them into more mass people movers. But it would not be enough to get a simple LRT system up and running in the 4 metros even if the urban politicos held the power of the purse (which they do not). I study Portland's tri-met system and it looks great and sounds great and I want to believe but then I read about the high payroll taxes and low ridership and I think maybe increased bus service in conjunction with communter rail sharing freight tracks is the best route.

Anyway good to finally agree.

[Unifour]

LMAO! LMFAO!!!

Now THAT'S a real nice thing to say... It's a shame that foul language is now a common part of everyday American speech. Wonder when people will stop letting people define deviancy down.

[Unifour]

Recently, avid Urban Planet poster and Weltpolitik Maestro (that's a good thing, Barbara!) Nashville_Bound responded indignantly to an assertion I made on a different thread regarding Cool Springs and why, in my opinion, that "place" offers a self-destructive Program for Living. NB suggested, correctly, that I was offering a viewpoint which could be described as alarmist. My spiel, while full of bombast and witticisms, went something simple like this:

A) People become large and unhealthy when the only exercise they ever get is slouching to and from their automobiles.

B) An economic system which depends completely and totally on an imported good which is finite in supply is not only foolish, but dangerous.

C) A healthier and more rewarding way of life exists, in walkable mixed-use neighborhoods built with affection and respect.

All of this stuff, which is currently at the heart of our nation's whispering dialogue about the sustainability of suburban "lifeways" and the Truth about Oil, are plastered loud and clear, in ALL CAPS, on the bifocals of people like me who have learned to look at Cool Springs objectively and in the context of global architectural theory and practice. Cool Springs is a "product," not a "place." It is a cartoon. It is the bizarre beotch brainchild of social-extremist European urban theory and Anglo-American agrarian nostalgia. It was gleefully milked to death as a system in which citizens are transformed into consumers. But besides all that, it is inherently unhealthy and dangerous here and now. Why?

There is a growing consensus among petro-chemical professionals, oil company execs, and anyone who understands the glories of capitalist supply/demand that the global oil supply has peaked and that this means serious consequences. Basically, while we won't be running out of the sweet stuff any time soon, the ability to produce X number of barrels per day will slowly...slowly...diminish--with no new fields to be tapped, and no nice juicy stores to be sucked a little harder. What this means to Saudi Arabia: pumping millions of gallons of seawater into the oil fields isn't doing the trick anymore. What this means to Cool Springs: Holy Crap-Sausage! Every time the demand for oil goes up...the price goes up! And guess what else: it will only get worse, because the downside of bell-curve production cycles is that there is a downside, and we are on it.

Now, all of this may be bunk. But please know that it certainly is not bunk for American domestic oil supplies, the North Sea oil fields, and Iraq's oil fields, among many others--all of these blighted landscapes peaked years ago, and production has been falling drastically ever since. Whether or not the Saudis have peaked, we cannot know for sure--they don't talk about that sort of thing, and they might not even know themselves. Oh, and we can forget all that oil shale in Canada--it is so expensive to convert that sour mash into sweet crude that we would all be better off burning old sneakers (literally)...and besides, China bought it all. Oops!

I confess that this kind of talk is pretty hard-core alarmist, but I like to think that being an early 21st century alarmist regarding America's addiction to oil is sort of like being a late fifth century alarmist regarding Rome's shaky relationships with all those bloody Goths in the northern forests, or a late 30s alarmist concerning Hitler's intentions with Poland. Sometimes, bad news is real news, and no amount of Exxon blaming or wishing thinking regarding the Tony Award-winning musical farce The Hydrogen Economy will change the facts. That is, if they are facts. Nobody knows for sure. But it looks a lot like facts to me.

The obvious conclusion: when Healthways moved to Cool Springs, they place their corporate heads in a social guilllotine of ratcheting-up gasoline prices. They also created a nasty scenario in which healthcare for their own employees will become more expensive, since common sense and the observable world tell us that a lifestyle which equates to being the soft gooey innards of a motorized prosthesis equals: fat ass.

Nashville_Bound, you suggested that people are getting fat because they are no longer workin' on the railroad, all the live-long day--and that white collar jobs are a good thang despite the increase in booty sizes. Okay, that's a point. But have you been to not-fat places like Rome, New York, Paris, or Savannah (where I currently live)? Recently, some good friends of mine from Spain, Japan, and Germany came to visit this lovely walking city in order to attend a wedding party (my own). They are all well-acquainted with America, and all said: "Savannah has a lot less fat people than Nashville." Why do you think that is? Because we eat less fried chicken or collard greens? Heeeaaaaaaalllleeee no! It's because we--get this, ya'll--walk around. I walk an hour or so every day, but not in circles just to burn cals...I do it--get this, ya'll--going to and from class/shops/bars/the homes of my pals.

And so we, as well as downtown Nashville, will not be hurting as much under the inevitable energy squeeze as will the unfortunate denizens of Cool Springs. The upside to their downside: it will take a looonnnnggg time for them to starve. And that's all, Folks!

PS: I was pretty chubby before I moved to Savannah. Full disclosure.

Alarmist maybe, but it is not set in stone. Suburbs, freeways, etc. don't make people fat. Most of the First World nations are growing fatter. Rising income/wealth is primarily responsible as it tends to make people lazier. Also, we are not going to run out of oil anytime soon. Oil has not "peaked." People have been predicting that oil had peaked since the early 20th century, and we produce more oil than we did then. This is true because our ability to find and produce oil and our technologies to do so have increased, while at the same time making it possible for us to do more and more with less and less oil. Evidence exists that oil is not static in quantity-meaning that it is continuously formed deep inside Earth and erupts and pools under the surface. Most new oil is discovered in areas that were considered "dry" in the past. I happen to agree that we need a new energy source that is viable-just to be on the safe side. I'd personally like to be shed of the Middle East once and for all.