Claremont McKenna vs Pomona

ErlindaP
Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:09:19 +0000

This is fun for me. I assume the rest of you are CMC students and I am getting a taste of the dialogue that takes place in your classes. I can see why I am spending the big bucks for my daughter’s education, because I would have to do some further research before I could participate in any meaningful way in most of this, they are definitely training you how to construct an argument.

I do think however, that the market has been behind the curve on replacing oil as our primary fuel, whether or not supplies remain. Sometimes something is still profitable in the short term, when its continued use will be disasterous to the long term health of the economy. Scientists pretty much universally agree that global warming or man made climate change is real. CO2 levels are higher than they have been in tens of thousands of years. Even if this is only probably true, which I think even George W is now willing to concede, prudence dictates that we find other fuels. The planet is a very big chip to be gambling in the market. But oil is still profitable and people like Dick Cheney have manipulated their Science hating Evangelical constituencies and free market ideologues like Santino, to believe that none of this is real. NOW the markets are finally beginning to respond in a minimal way-however whatever we do now will only mitigate the impact of global climate change. Will the markets respond in time? It’s difficult to say, but we are playing roulette with our children’s-ie you guys-futures. I think I’ll be dead when Wall Street is under water. Santino-you will not be. Devastation of natural systems as we see in sub saharan Africa make for poor economic conditions, even though it is profitable in the short term to extract and run.

One theory about the root cause of the fall of the Roman Empire was the total deforestation of Italy and all the colonies. The cedars of Lebanon that we read about in the bible where gone 2000 years ago for example. No trees = no fuel, no masts and spars for the Roman fleet etc. If not the main cause it was certainly a contributing factor. So-I am concerned that while the market may be able to respond nimbly to short term conditions of the moment, it is not structured to account for long term prudence, and prudence is a virtue we can’t survive without.