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Sham Scam Sam writes:
"Sure, after wasting billions or trillions of dollars - for nothing. While hampering everyone's ability to function in a myriad amount of ways. You're whitewashing this, as most believers do."
I'd like to see you explain how "reducing consumption of petroleum" or "reducing the clear-cutting of forests" is equivalent to "wasting billions of dollars." I'd also like to see you admit that not everybody who believes in global warming is advocating a set of hard-line, dictatorial solutions.
"Like we're supposed to live by bicycle? Completely unreasonable. We don't all live like you - or want to - especially if it's bullshit."
The writer, CRL, was providing a personal example of one small lifestyle choice he has made. He was not saying everybody should follow it. Nor was he saying he gave up his car.
"You want to buy my (very expensive) electric car? Buy my (very expensive) lightbulbs?"
You're wrong on both counts. Low-wattage lightbulbs cost the same as regular lightbulbs and save the consumer electric costs. There are probably some fancy lightbulbs on the market that do cost more, but this is probably mostly a supply-demand issue rather than an issue of using more expensive materials to create the bulbs. As for electric cards, you should see the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" sometime. By all indications, electric cars (were they mass produced) could be priced comparable to their oil-using counterparts. Check out the costs of hybrids like the Prius. Not too shabby for something that gets 60-70 miles per gallon (saving the consumer literally hundreds of dollars each month or so.) My point is that many solutions -- freely chosen solutions, not dictated -- are actually beneficial to the consumer.
"Our dependence on foreign oil is the only good reason to move in this direction. But that's not what we're being sold: we're being sold DOOMSDAY. It's a crime."
Not everybody is talking "doomsday," but they are talking "rational concern." What do you object to? That people are concerned about messing up life on this planet? Should people pad their communication with niceties in order to avoid turning you off?