from RunningOnEmpty post 1/18/08

Thinking 100 years into the future with assumptions from 100 years in the past… is a problem. It’s tragic to hear of Barak’s crystal clear statement about global warming.

We know that preventing global warming requires physically lowering our total resource footprint on the earth so we can live sustainably.   That directly conflicts with all his other policies for continually swelling our footprint by restoring continual economic growth.

Cost will rule and no one who remains competitive will be using clean energy.

It’s not only Barak, obviously, but the whole ‘civilized culture’ he represents. As wonderful a guy as he seems to be, he comes from a culture that knows no solution for declining resources other than priming the pump to find creative new ways to accelerate their consumption, making them decline faster.

The other real problem, which Barak also deeply cares about is a totally contradictory way, is “winners and losers”.  Promoting growth against natural limits:

…the increasing consumption of resources for the winners comes from multiplying the losses for and the number of losers…

I guess that’s not too complicated, but clearly neither he nor his tradition bound “independent thinkers” have figured it out yet…