<p>I see where you are coming from, pprn00dle.</p>
<p>Actually, the gas station attendant was telling me that he had just filled a Hummer right before me, to the tune of $112. I had been fuming about my $40 fill.</p>
<p>I would think sheer financial reality would cause people to pause before filling up the gashog…even if the fuel or environmental realities are not on a person’s radar screen.</p>
<p>I’m surprised that there hasn’t been any reference to Bjorn Lomborg’s book “The Skeptical Environmentalist.” I know that its’ premise sends the environmentalists into orbit, but it is an interesting read.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521010683/sr=8-1/qid=1149694178/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-3151411-5104809?_encoding=UTF8[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521010683/sr=8-1/qid=1149694178/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-3151411-5104809?_encoding=UTF8</a></p>
<p>“I actually don’t understand it, and for those of you who drive Hummers or Suburbans and live in 6000 square foot houses with your families of four, I would love the rationale, honestly.”</p>
<p>That would be a great question to ask of John Kerry who has not just one McMansion but McMansions all over the country - plus a fleet of SUVs and other vehicles for each one and flys a private jet to get to them. Same question could be asked of Al Gore, the Kennedys, the Hollywood elite and all of the other hypocritical liberals who feel it is quite appropriate to tell other people (the “little people” as Leona Helmsley used to refer to them) how to live their lives - as long as no one questions their lifestyle.</p>
<p>Everyone knows the politicians backing the Global Warming campaigns are hypocrites. Although I will say that some people in Hollywood are changing.</p>
<p>$112 is nuts…I pay my $50 and it doesnt fill all the way up…but damn.</p>
<p>“Although I will say that some people in Hollywood are changing.”</p>
<p>Right … they bought a Prius for one of their 6 stalls of their garage. They then drive it to the airport to get into a private jet to take them to their mansion in Aspen or Jackson Hole.</p>
<p>haha…the prius was what I was getting at</p>
<p>
Living in a 6000+sf house on several acres with a family of four (now three) has been fabulous. It’s like waking up on vacation every morning. Mine is an old mansion built during the roaring twenties, so it has an antique and historic value…there was no “Mc” anything back then. After my baby leaves next year, it will be just me, my husband, and the dogs, most of the time. But everyone comes here for all the holidays, and our location is perfect for providing space to friends, relatives, and itinerate Ultimate Frisbee teams. Never a dull moment, and I don’t know what we’d do with all of our “stuff” (thank you, George Carlin) without our mansion. </p>
<p>As for gas guzzlers, I’ve never liked Humvees or Suburbans. The only way I’d go is with something like the 550HP/13mpg Ford GT: <a href=“http://cnn.edmunds.com/new/2006/ford/gt/100666365/researchlanding.html[/url]”>http://cnn.edmunds.com/new/2006/ford/gt/100666365/researchlanding.html</a>
Short of that, I’ll stick with my Honda Pilot.</p>
<p>For a Ford GT…id sacrifice the gas money :)</p>
<p>FF, do you drive your Prius, or take public transportation? (LOL on that one)!</p>
<p>Actually, I bought a new vehicle back in March and after 3 months of driving, I am still on my third tank of gas. Is it a Prius? No, it’s a non-hybrid SUV (Highlander). However, my round trip commute is less than 3 miles. Its not what you drive but how much energy you consume. In my case, I consume very little. During the winter I keep my home night-time and work-day temperature setting at 58 and my wake-time setting at 64.</p>
<p>the '06 highlanders are hybrid…but I dont like the small size…Toyota is supposed to come out with a bigger one in '08…maybe my kind of car? we’ll have to see</p>
<p>FF–what is the point of your argument? Ad hominem attacks (however well grounded) don’t have any bearing on the issue. Gas guzzlers are bad for the environment, whoever drives them. So are big houses with big heating bills, whoever brags about owning them.</p>
<p>and why, FF, do you do that…it is good that you do, but what is your motivation?</p>
<p>And gee, if YOU can do it, why not encourage the rest of America?</p>
<p>As an aside, why are people so against taking care of our planet, our home, we keep our bathrooms clean, we take care of our back yard, why the big fight about taking car of the earth? Why not say, hey, yeah, we need to conserve water, we need to be concerned about the icecaps melting, rivers disappearting, lakes drying up, whole coasts eing underwater, and what harm can happen from changing a few habits, buying different products, encouraging businesses to act differently, what harm is there in that</p>
<p>Please explain what HARM comes from taking care of our earth, and paying attention to what is happening to it? Why deny science? ANd why are scientists (a very few) not caring about the earth? No matter where you live, or how, this is our home, and we need to be careful how we treat it, to not care is at our own peril</p>
<p>
I’m confident that FF is motivated strictly by self-interest, and not by a sanctimonious urge to impress his neighbors or a compulsion to respect Gaia. That is probably the rationale behind his tasteful selection of sweaters, as well.</p>
<p>All of us can cut back in our energy consumption - we don’t have to do it in the same way, nor should we criticize our neighbor because his way isn’t our way. I may drive a small car, run energy efficient appliances and use efficient lightbulbs, but I still run my pool filter during the summer for 12 hours a day or more. I’m not about to attack someone because they live in a large family estate, and don’t intend to move. Someone else would move in instead - so how would that help anyone?</p>
<p>We need to quit sniping at each other and making this a liberal vs right wing issue and insist that our government look at incentives for businesses to capitalize on green energy. If we had the will in this country to make significant changes, we could do it. Until we stop blaming one another, we’ll never have the will. </p>
<p>Most of my republican friends believe we need look for alternatives, and they think money is to be made. But, as xiggy said, incentives and rewards are probably necessary to get the ball rolling.
Even if you believe that global warming isn’t due to human consumption, eventually we’ll run out of oil. It’s in our national interest to get going on finding alternatives. The only ones I know arguing against investing in alternative energy are those who profit from our reliance on oil.</p>
<p>See, we already have the technology, cause the rest of the world does, we have the brains, we have the knowledge, we just don’t have on a national level, the caring…that is what we need</p>
<p>guess some people think, well, i will be dead, so what do i care?</p>
<p>I think its more likely, cym, that most people don’t think about it at all.</p>
<p>They may think about it, but either don’t believe it (peak oil, global warming…the “liberal conspiracy”) or think it doesn’t apply to them. </p>
<p>Individualism is alive and well in the US…since people have decided that their individual happiness and actions, as protected by the US constitution, is more important than the good of the whole.</p>
<p>
What they have decided…recognized, actually…is that individuals enjoying liberty and the pursuit of their own lives, property, and general happiness present a more effective means of attaining “the good of the whole” than government enforced collectivism will ever be (or has ever been).</p>
<p>That may be true, allmusic, but in a case such as this, their individual good is also compromised if our earth is ruined, to say nothing of their grandkids, who most people think of as one of “their own.”</p>