[Leanan]

Lou Dobbs Tonight started half an hour late tonight. CNN was hit by some sort of computer worm, and their entire network went down. (Serves them right for not patching. They're running an unpatched version of Windows 2000, fer crissakes.)

One of the other top stories was about the drought. It's spreading from the west to the midwest, affecting Texas, Illinois, even Michigan. Farmers have lost most of their corn crop. One farmer said he thought this was going to be the biggest event of his life, something to tell his grandchildren about. (He should be so lucky.)

Luckily, there's plenty of corn from last year in the silos. Getting it to market might be a problem, though. Due to the drought, the barges can't get through. The government is now busy dredging out the rivers, trying to make them deeper.

The next story was about high gas prices. Even though Lou Dobbs is supposed to be pro-business, the story painted the oil companies as evil, making record profits while middle-class folks suffered. Bush, the GOP, and the Democrats were also attacked, for that lame energy plan they passed. "Fiddling while energy burned," was the phrase they used.

[RonMN]

I have to admit, i'm a bit concerned about the way they've been portraying oil companies (as the big bad corporations taking all of OUR money). At this point it just seems so obvious to come clean about depletion.

Any scapegoat in a storm i guess

[lotrfan55345]

My god, people still use Windows 2000 sp1?

[Cyrus]

I still use it....

[The_Toecutter]

The oil companies did everything they could to prevent the adoption of alternatives both in the past and today, while we still might have a chance to adopt them. The oil industry may not be responsible for depletion, but it is stupid to deny their role in our situation. They don't want the population to become independent from oil use because it will net them less revenue. Peak oil and the resulting high prices will make the oil industry even richer, as each barrel sold will sell for much more than pre peak, and a lot of that will be due to supply and demand.

PO is making the oil companies that much more richer, and anything that threatens to make PO less of a crisis is something they fight tooth and nail, be it wind energy, electric cars, public transit, or industrial hemp.

The oil industry is just as much of a problem to this crisis as rampant unchecked consumerism.

The problem rests in getting the media whores to understand both sides of the problem without resorting to a scapegoat while ignoring the problem of depletion, but to also ignore how much and why the industry is benefitting from the crisis, and why this crisis occured in the first place, is not very smart.

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Leanan', '(')Serves them right for not patching. They're running an unpatched version of Windows 2000, fer crissakes.)

[BabyPeanut]

http://it.slashdot.org/it/05/08/16/2247 ... 20&tid=188

[pilferage]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lotrfan55345', 'M')y god, people still use Windows 2000 sp1?

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pilferage', 'W')ord! I even got the sp4 version off of BT a year ago.

[Leanan]

What is the media coverage like in other countries? In France, England, Japan, China? Do they blame Big Oil? Environmentalists? The government? Or do they admit that we're all to blame?

[Doly]

In England they blame everything and everybody, but there is a certain amount of peak oil awareness in the media.

[gg3]

Blame doesn't exist in nature; humans create it to serve atavistic psychological needs including evasion of responsibility.

No one is being held hostage by oil companies. On the other hand it's not as simple as "changing _your_ behavior." The most wasteful among us cause the crises that the rest of us are forced to bear. Jevon's paradox & all that.

We can take it to the voting booth. Gas rationing, powerdown, massive non-fossil construction programs, birth control, etc...

It would be interesting to start doing "Peak Oil Pickets" at car dealerships that sell Hummers and other worst-mileage SUVs. Get the media on it. Get the case out in public. These demonstrations need to be a) peaceful, b) not block streets or access, c) highly disciplined & focused, d) include a cross-section of people not just lefties.

And then it would be interesting to do Peak Oil Pickets at the gates of nuclear power plants, *supporting* nuclear power. And at the entrances to public transport stations, *supporting* public transport. And then at the entrances of family planning clinics, *supporting* contraception & abortion. Etc. etc. Tackle each component issue as part of a larger campaign. Every Saturday, go to a new site with a new message.


Re. computer viruses: MacOSX, no worries. I keep my Windows XP machine safe & sound by keeping it off the internet (direct dialups for PBX programming); no worries there either.

[Leanan]

The story on gas prices is now up on the CNN web site.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/17/news/ec ... /index.htm

Scroll down to the photo of the blue gas station price sign, and click on "Play video."