The American way of life, MUST be negotiable

[drbubb]

"The American way of life is not negotiable" - who said that?

It sounds like a fit of Imperial Arrogance that has not been heard since the days of ancient Rome.

 

 

... At the Earth Summit in 1992, George H.W. Bush forcefully declared, "The American way of life is not negotiable." "That way of life requires a highly disproportionate use of the world's nonrenewable resources. While only containing 4% of the world population, the United States consumes 25% of the world's oil. The centerpiece of that way of life is suburbia. And massive amounts of nonrenewable fuels are required to maintain the project of suburbia."

/see: article by Thomas Wheeler

 

The US way of living cannot be taken up and used by the rest of the world- it is too wasteful,

especially in a time of peak resources

 

So what does he expect: The US will put a gun at the head of Oil producers, and use their oil,

while they have to conserve? This will not work.

 

The US can and must amend its useful ways.

 

This thread looks at the signs and risks of Blowback from US bullying to get resources.

 

and also:

Things that are being done to change the American Suburban Way of life

(while there is still time.)

 

== == ==

 

Here's another area of discussion about some of the key issues:

 

From the PEAK MOMENT Series

 

Learning From the Collapse of Earlier Societies

 

+ He compares the US strategy, with the failing strategy of ancient Rome

+ It's a cycle, and we can learn from other societies, how they coped with collapse

+ Other points like: watering suburban lawns is wasting precious water

 

= = = = =

LINKS

Sundance Channel - Green : http://www.sundancechannel.com/thegreen/#/homePage

Peak Moment Series ......... : http://www.youtube.com/user/peakmoment

KunstlerKast Podcasts ....... : http://www.KunstlerKast.com

Baltimore Chronicle Links... : http://baltimorechronicle.com/ongoing/glob...ing-links.shtml

[yaowarat]

... At the Earth Summit in 1992, George H.W. Bush forcefully declared....

 

American way life is deeply distorted, disconnected in many important ways from its traditions, and on a dangerous path for itself and the world....

 

However, much of this was caused by elite sentiment, and elite aspirations, and elite ideology. Let us remember that.

 

Furthermore, beyond the American context, much of the environmental movement, has adopted a religious/emotional position on issues, especially the so called "global warming" issue, which is largely used by elites to cause fear among the public; much in the same way the "red scare" did in the '50s and passion plays did in the middle ages.

 

[drbubb]

Furthermore, beyond the American context, much of the environmental movement, has adopted a religious/emotional position on issues, especially the so called "global warming" issue, which is largely used by elites to cause fear among the public; much in the same way the "red scare" did in the '50s and passion plays did in the middle ages.

 

I can detect a shift.

The average American is coming around* to to understand that they MUST change the way they live. They cannot continue their traditional suburban living arrangement. That is why people are moving away from the suburbs- they fear the future there if they stay, and are trying to cutback on oil use.

 

Politicians have not yet caught onto this. I am hoping that Obama will be sensitive enough to realise that he can win the election, and a strong mandate for real change, if he has the nerve to campaign AGAINST THE SUBURBAN PROJECT. The safer choice would be to continue a more traditional message, and then come out against the suburbs after the election. Watch Gore, and see how much he becomes involved in the campaign. I still think there is a real chance of an Obama/Gore ticket in november.

 

= =

 

*here's a couple who is building a new type of home:

Building An Ecologically Sensible Home

 

This project may prove to be a waste of money and time. How do you get to work if you live in the suburbs in an energy efficient home? Maybe it will wind up abandoned, or they will be fighting off impoverished neighbors.

 

People need to think more about their communities, not just their own abodes.

 

Nevertheless, the commitment needed to take on such a project, does show that North American people+ have energy to invest in solutions once they understand there is a series peak oil problem that is not going away.

 

+(these are canadians from Manitoba, i think)

 

2/

Here's some extreme downsizing, with some help from a friend

Woman Living In A 84 sq foot Home

 

She beat the mortgage trap, and saves money too.

"Not much to it, and that's the point."

 

(comment from that video):

drummerkid71 (1 month ago) Show Hide +5 Marked as spam Reply | Spam Dee is the ideal woman ... smart, energy saving smart, minimalist, truly a woman I would marry hands down. She seems generous and loves the earth and its people. Smartest, and most beautiful person I've ever seen. Way to go!!!!

[webmaster]

The Great American Empire has begun its long slow decline.

 

It may take a few generations to reach its nadir, but the poor decisions already made and crucial decisions postponed in the last 25 years by our Boomer dominated leadership has put our country on a path to a declining standard of living. The U.S. is like a punch drunk ex-champion boxer who still thinks he has what it takes, but is living off his old press clippings. He lived the good life, got fat and didn’t do the hard work required of a champion. A slew of young brash fighters are itching to take him down. It is just a matter of time.

 

In our heyday during the 1950s, manufacturing accounted for 25% of GDP. In 1980 it was still 22% of GDP. Today it is 12% of GDP. By 2010 it will be under 10% of GDP. Our Government bureaucracy, which contributes nothing to the advancement of our society, now is a larger portion of GDP than manufacturing. Services such as banking, retail sales, transportation, and health care now account for two-thirds of the value of U.S. GDP. We have become a nation of bureaucratic paper pushers. Past U.S. generations invented the airplane; invented the automobile; discovered penicillin; and built the Interstate highway system. The Baby Boom generation has invented credit default swaps; mortgage backed securities; the fast food drive thru window; discovered the cure for erectile dysfunction; and built bridges to nowhere. No wonder we’re in so much trouble.

 

/much more: http://seekingalpha.com/article/103202-the...icle_sb_popular

 

 

 

[wren]

We have become a nation of bureaucratic paper pushers. Past U.S. generations invented the airplane; invented the automobile; discovered penicillin; and built the Interstate highway system.

Although many things have been invented in America, I'm pretty sure the car is not one of them. The internal combustion engine is a German invention.

 

Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming, a Scotsman who worked in London. The industrial-scale production was started in America in the early '40s.

[id5]

Although many things have been invented in America, I'm pretty sure the car is not one of them. The internal combustion engine is a German invention.

 

Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming, a Scotsman who worked in London. The industrial-scale production was started in America in the early '40s.

 

The plane was not invented in the US either. Try George Cayley for the first glider flight in the early 1800's and Clement Ader for the first powered flight in 1890. The Wright brothers took the control gear from a patent by Otto Lilienthal and made the first flight powered by a combustion engine.

[Panas]

Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming, a Scotsman who worked in London. The industrial-scale production was started in America in the early '40s.

 

My aunt spent time in London as a nurse. She became friends with this other nurse who one day invited my aunt for tea at her uncle's. Who was he? Alexander Fleming. I'll have to ask my aunt about that visit. She's in her 80's now. Just thought I'd share that.

 

[drbubb]

Wealth is falling

 

/source:

[nicejim]

The plane was not invented in the US either. Try George Cayley for the first glider flight in the early 1800's and Clement Ader for the first powered flight in 1890. The Wright brothers took the control gear from a patent by Otto Lilienthal and made the first flight powered by a combustion engine.

Powered flight in 1848 (not on a human scale)

http://www.chardmuseum.co.uk/Powered_Flight/

 

"Somebody must do better than I before we succeed with aerial navigation."

[wren]

Powered flight in 1848 (not on a human scale)

http://www.chardmuseum.co.uk/Powered_Flight/

 

"Somebody must do better than I before we succeed with aerial navigation."

Thanks for that link. I had never heard of this.

[aliveandkicking]

Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming, a Scotsman who worked in London. The industrial-scale production was started in America in the early '40s.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillin

 

several others reported the bacteriostatic effects of Penicillium earlier than Fleming. The first published reference appears in the publication of the Royal Society in 1875, by John Tyndall.[3] Ernest Duchesne documented it in an 1897 paper, which was not accepted by the Institut Pasteur because of his youth.

[malco]

The Wright Brothers were the first to learn how to build a controllable airplane. Others before them, such as Lilienthal, Maxim and Langley, had built planes that could stay in the air for brief periods, but they were not controllable. In particular they had no three dimensional control system to enable a coordinated banked turn. The Wrights found that very little of what they could glean from existing experience was of much use to them, and a lot of it turned out to be misleading. This actually delayed them. They also were unusual in that they learned how to fly fast enough that neither of them were killed trying, unlike many of the pioneers before them.

 

I am surprised that the Wrights have not been the object of deniers. The evidence that they actually flew at Kittyhawk is very much of the type that the deniers/conspracy theorists would debunk. The odd primitive photograph, witness statements by a handful of local yokels.... I can imagine Bart Sibrell thundering with righteous indignation: "Can we really believe that two self-educated bicycle mechanics from the Midwest really achieved what the secretary of the Smithsonian Institute and all the other finest minds of science were unable to achieve? On the basis of a single grainy photo? Pah!"

 

As previously pointed out, the US did not invent/discover either Penicillin or the car, but did pioneer the mass production of both. They can, however, take the credit for the airplane and nuclear power.

 

 

[id5]

The Wright Brothers were the first to learn how to build a controllable airplane. Others before them, such as Lilienthal, Maxim and Langley, had built planes that could stay in the air for brief periods, but they were not controllable. In particular they had no three dimensional control system to enable a coordinated banked turn. The Wrights found that very little of what they could glean from existing experience was of much use to them, and a lot of it turned out to be misleading. This actually delayed them.

The Wright Brothers made the first 'successful' powered flight of an aeroplane, the phrase airplane was not coined until 1911. There were plenty of controllable aeroplanes invented before the Wright brothers. Otto Lilienthal used similar wing warping techniques in his Derwitzer glider, and the elevator and tail plane controls had already invented and used in airships. Either Robert Esnault-Pelterie or a group lead by the Scot Alexander Graham Bell developed the aileron after the Wright Brothers flew. The Wright Brothers also spent many years conversing by letter with many of the worlds pioneering aeroplane inventors and as the vast majority of their aeroplane design can be traced to others I disagree with your statement that 'very little of what they could glean from existing experience was of much use to them'

 

They also were unusual in that they learned how to fly fast enough that neither of them were killed trying, unlike many of the pioneers before them.

Err, many early aviation pioneers did not die from lack of speed. Too be true full it was their abrupt stop into the ground that killed them. What I think that you should have wrote was 'A lack of speed of the air over the wings gave little control to the early aviation pioneers thus making their craft harder to fly which often resulted in death'

 

I am surprised that the Wrights have not been the object of deniers. The evidence that they actually flew at Kittyhawk is very much of the type that the deniers/conspracy theorists would debunk. The odd primitive photograph, witness statements by a handful of local yokels.... I can imagine Bart Sibrell thundering with righteous indignation: "Can we really believe that two self-educated bicycle mechanics from the Midwest really achieved what the secretary of the Smithsonian Institute and all the other finest minds of science were unable to achieve? On the basis of a single grainy photo? Pah!"

They have had their detractors and won

 

As previously pointed out, the US did not invent/discover either Penicillin or the car, but did pioneer the mass production of both. They can, however, take the credit for the airplane and nuclear power.

The word airplane - Yes - 1911

First to mass produce the car - Yes - 1910 to 1916 but only for a chassis with engine, axles and springs, he could't get the paint to dry on the bodies and had to outsource them

Nuclear fission - No, Otto Hann, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassman - 1938

Nuclear power - No, Halban & Kowarski, Cambridge, England - 1940

Mass production of medicines - No, France/Germany - diphtheria anitoxin - 1892