Greta's Dream
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One crisp winter morning in Sweden, a cute little girl named Greta woke up to a perfect world, one where there were no petroleum products ruining the earth. She tossed aside her cotton sheet and wool blanket and stepped out onto a dirt floor covered with willow bark that had been pulverized with rocks. “What’s this?” she asked.
“Pulverized willow bark,” replied her fairy godmother.
“What happened to the carpet?” she asked.
“The carpet was nylon, which is made from butadiene and hydrogen cyanide, both made from petroleum,” came the response.
Greta smiled, acknowledging that adjustments are necessary to save the planet, and moved to the sink to brush her teeth where instead of a toothbrush, she found a willow, mangled on one end to expose wood fibre bristles.
“Your old toothbrush?” noted her godmother, “Also nylon.”
“Where’s the water?” asked Greta.
“Down the road in the canal,” replied her godmother, ‘Just make sure you avoid water with cholera in it”
“Why’s there no running water?” Greta asked, becoming a little peevish.
“Well,” said her godmother, who happened to teach engineering at MIT, “Where do we begin?” There followed a long monologue about how sink valves need elastomer seats and how copper pipes contain copper, which has to be mined and how it’s impossible to make all-electric earth-moving equipment with no gear lubrication or tires and how ore has to be smelted to a make metal, and that’s tough to do with only electricity as a source of heat, and even if you use only electricity, the wires need insulation, which is petroleum-based, and though most of Sweden’s energy is produced in an environmentally friendly way because of hydro and nuclear, if you do a mass and energy balance around the whole system, you still need lots of petroleum products like lubricants and nylon and rubber for tires and asphalt for filling potholes and wax and iPhone plastic and elastic to hold your underwear up while operating a copper smelting furnace and . . .
“What’s for breakfast?” interjected Greta, whose head was hurting.
"Fresh, range-fed chicken eggs,” replied her godmother. “Raw.”
“How so, raw?” inquired Greta.
“Well, . . .” And once again, Greta was told about the need for petroleum products like transformer oil and scores of petroleum products essential for producing metals for frying pans and in the end was educated about how you can’t have a petroleum-free world and then cook eggs. Unless you rip your front fence up and start a fire and carefully cook your egg in an orange peel like you do in Boy Scouts. Not that you can find oranges in Sweden anymore.
“But I want poached eggs like my Aunt Tilda makes,” lamented Greta.
“Tilda died this morning,” the godmother explained. “Bacterial pneumonia.”
“What?!” interjected Greta. “No one dies of bacterial pneumonia! We have penicillin.”
“Not anymore,” explained godmother “The production of penicillin requires chemical extraction using isobutyl acetate, which, if you know your organic chemistry, is petroleum-based. Lots of people are dying, which is problematic because there’s not any easy way of disposing of the bodies since backhoes need hydraulic oil and crematoriums can’t really burn many bodies using as fuel Swedish fences and furniture, which are rapidly disappearing - being used on the black market for roasting eggs and staying warm.”
This represents only a fraction of Greta’s day, a day without microphones to exclaim into and a day without much food, and a day without carbon-fibre boats to sail in, but a day that will save the planet.
Tune in tomorrow when Greta needs a root canal and learns how Novocain is synthesized.
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Honestly, I don't blame her so much as I do the ridiculous culture that's encouraged her shenanigans. This coming from someone who's pretty damn lefty when it comes to environmental protection.
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I am all for environmental protection, but I want it to be sensible, not kneejerk, a labarynthine tangle of regulations that does more to promote EPA jobs than protect the environment.
Everywhere I look I see us moving closer and closer to renewables and now maybe the smaller nuclear reactors. Electric cars are taking off. My BIL just brought online Arkanas' largest solar farm. It's happening by evolution, which tends to accelerate as it progresses. More regulation would just get in the way.
I also support the Trump administration's common sense initiatives that I think balance conservation and responsible land use.
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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With most things, the final answer seems to end up in the middle - between the two extremes. In the case of environment, those who want 100% complete protection for the environment at the expense of everything, and those who want 0%.
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I am all for environmental protection, but I want it to be sensible, not kneejerk, a labarynthine tangle of regulations that does more to promote EPA jobs than protect the environment.
Everywhere I look I see us moving closer and closer to renewables and now maybe the smaller nuclear reactors. Electric cars are taking off. My BIL just brought online Arkanas' largest solar farm. It's happening by evolution, which tends to accelerate as it progresses. More regulation would just get in the way.
I also support the Trump administration's common sense initiatives that I think balance conservation and responsible land use.
@Mik said in Greta's Dream:
Everywhere I look I see us moving closer and closer to renewables and now maybe the smaller nuclear reactors. Electric cars are taking off. My BIL just brought online Arkanas' largest solar farm. It's happening by evolution, which tends to accelerate as it progresses. More regulation would just get in the way.
There's a lot of really bad shit going on out there, though. Unlike the movies, it's seldom evil corporations purposely destroying the environment (and risking public health). A lot of times, spills happen because companies just cut corners.
There's a ton of ridiculous regulation on the East Coast when it comes to environmental protection. I'm all for nasty, punitive consequences for incidents that harm the environment or risk public health. When the fine for screwing with tap water can be written off, there's a problem. But as for the other stuff? Fewer regs, please.
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With most things, the final answer seems to end up in the middle - between the two extremes. In the case of environment, those who want 100% complete protection for the environment at the expense of everything, and those who want 0%.
@taiwan_girl said in Greta's Dream:
With most things, the final answer seems to end up in the middle - between the two extremes. In the case of environment, those who want 100% complete protection for the environment at the expense of everything, and those who want 0%.
No one i have ever heard of wants zero protection. That would be ridiculous. But 100% is absurd too.
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@george-k In all fairness, the other kids may not know what else childhood could be. Don’t discount Ms. Thuneburg’s advocacy just because there are other less fortunate kids. Such race to the bottom makes as much sense saying you cannot complain about paying too high a tax rate just because there are Scandinavians paying even higher tax rates who don’t complain about tax rates as much as you do.
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@george-k In all fairness, the other kids may not know what else childhood could be. Don’t discount Ms. Thuneburg’s advocacy just because there are other less fortunate kids. Such race to the bottom makes as much sense saying you cannot complain about paying too high a tax rate just because there are Scandinavians paying even higher tax rates who don’t complain about tax rates as much as you do.
@Axtremus said in Greta's Dream:
In all fairness, the other kids may not know what else childhood could be.
An overwhelmingly sad state of affairs on its own.
I've changed my thinking on Greta. She has Asperger's which, as she says, makes her different from the norm. But more to the point, she has a right to her opinions and her outrages, none of which are any skin off my nose. She's just alleviating her intensity of feeling pretty much as the rest of us do in other realms. She's never harmed me. Maybe she'll even end up doing some good. Live and let live.
Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace. – Mike Ditka
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I don't think anyone has anything against her as a person. I don't. It is how she was promoted and used for an agenda.
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@Axtremus said in Greta's Dream:
In all fairness, the other kids may not know what else childhood could be.
An overwhelmingly sad state of affairs on its own.
I've changed my thinking on Greta. She has Asperger's which, as she says, makes her different from the norm. But more to the point, she has a right to her opinions and her outrages, none of which are any skin off my nose. She's just alleviating her intensity of feeling pretty much as the rest of us do in other realms. She's never harmed me. Maybe she'll even end up doing some good. Live and let live.
@Catseye3 said in Greta's Dream:
@Axtremus said in Greta's Dream:
In all fairness, the other kids may not know what else childhood could be.
An overwhelmingly sad state of affairs on its own.
I've changed my thinking on Greta. She has Asperger's which, as she says, makes her different from the norm. But more to the point, she has a right to her opinions and her outrages, none of which are any skin off my nose. She's just alleviating her intensity of feeling pretty much as the rest of us do in other realms. She's never harmed me. Maybe she'll even end up doing some good. Live and let live.
That's not entirely true.
The agenda she has bally-hooed will hurt many of us, including you and me. Don't believe me, look at your utility bill.
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@Catseye3 said in Greta's Dream:
@Axtremus said in Greta's Dream:
In all fairness, the other kids may not know what else childhood could be.
An overwhelmingly sad state of affairs on its own.
I've changed my thinking on Greta. She has Asperger's which, as she says, makes her different from the norm. But more to the point, she has a right to her opinions and her outrages, none of which are any skin off my nose. She's just alleviating her intensity of feeling pretty much as the rest of us do in other realms. She's never harmed me. Maybe she'll even end up doing some good. Live and let live.
That's not entirely true.
The agenda she has bally-hooed will hurt many of us, including you and me. Don't believe me, look at your utility bill.
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@Jolly said in Greta's Dream:
Don't believe me, look at your utility bill.
Her ballyhooing wasn't responsible for that.
@Catseye3 said in Greta's Dream:
@Jolly said in Greta's Dream:
Don't believe me, look at your utility bill.
Her ballyhooing wasn't responsible for that.
Yes, it is.
Ask the guys working the NE gas fields or the hands on the Gulf rigs.
