[rdsaltpower]

......yawn.......

[Cashmere]

That's all you got?

Any Al apologists out there want to jump in and explain Al's 10 year time line and complete lack of understanding of energy density?

[LittleBoPeak]

Not me.

I've always said Al's an idiot. He's trying to jump on a politically expedient bandwagon to make himself relevant.

[Ludi]

Kind of a loon, I guess.

[rdsaltpower]

lol

[smallpoxgirl]

Then that big wind bag needs to start by weaning his mansion off of fossil fuel electric.

[DefiledEngine]

He's just a good politician. Remember, anyone can aim for the possible, that's why you have to go for the impossible. As others gawk at your claims you make the headlines. All publicity is good publicity.

[Twilight]

I loathe the "Man on the Moon" comparison.

A quick history lesson. America never put a man on the Moon "before this decade is out". It began to build the necessary human capital during the 1930s under Roosevelt. His attempt to deal with the Depression may have seen some questionable command allocation of resources, but it also saw a mass mobilisation of technical cadres and fired up a remarkably effective vocational education system. The Second World War then allowed a far greater number of people to become intimately acquainted with radar, communication and other electronic systems than would otherwise have been required by a peace-time and damaged economy - and they did it from first principles. The same was true of the humble yet remarkably accomplished machinist. The manner of their experience was also very formative. Untold thousands of soon-to-be experts lived a brief career in its own right on adrenaline, and their successors trained alongside.

The industrialisation of the USSR was fundamentally a similar story with nightmarish details. America and the USSR alike also got a boost from looting and reverse-engineering advanced technologies, created during the same period by a third party that experienced, once again, a similarly crisis-driven technical-managerial evolution. When Kennedy set that goal, those people and their machines were ready, and so was the working culture that would be required.

Today? How much of that is true of today?

I expect no technological miracles this side of the pond, and I expect none in the US. I expect no technological windfall to come with the fruits of war. There is not only no sense of urgency, there is hardly anyone who can remember a sense of urgency in their time. There is no grand objective to focus the mind, nor has there been one in living memory (at least, of those upon whose shoulders this task would be laid).

Our readiness today can be likened more to 1931 than to 1961. That's right, the man who might send us along the path has not even appeared yet. If Gore said 40 years, that would be closer to the truth. That is what the historical precedent he cites would actually suggest. Alas, he is perhaps too close to the story to see it in its entirety, beyond the triumphant myth.

It is a shame the momentum never held after 1973 and 1979, because seeing where we are now, that would have been the time to start. History lesson over.

In summary, the technical-managerial cadres, structures and culture necessary to address the coming energy crisis do not exist today. Sometime next decade, an economic collapse may provoke a late attempt to construct them. Until then, normal service resumes.

[Cashmere]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'T')hen that big wind bag needs to start by weaning his mansion off of fossil fuel electric.

[mos6507]

Al Gore should look up Pickens. Sure, Pickens wants to use NG for cars, which I'm sure Gore doesn't like, but it's the closest thing Gore has to accomplishing his goals for electricity generation.

[lawnchair]

I would listen to a "not one more FF MWh than this year" pledge. That's even a long way off, but worth the fighting.

Okay, maybe I wouldn't listen from Al Gore. His house uses 42 times more electricity than mine in a year. I *know* he can reduce his power by 40 times and do okay. If I cut my power by 40-fold, I'd get, um, 15 watts on average. And, his house, frighteningly, consumes less than many in his tony neighborhood.

Over the last 20 years, US electric demand has averaged 2.4% per annum growth. Well over double the population growth. Adding a load the size of, say, Missouri, every year.

[Plantagenet]

Al Gore is a hypocritical gas bag, but he knows how to generate publicity and promote his issues. He's worked damn hard to make Greenhouse Warming a global issue and a mainstream political issue.

It doesn't hurt peak oil awareness to have Al Gore generating publicity and promoting the idea that its criminal to waste oil and other valuable fossil fuels on power generation. The next step is to have Al Gore and other mainstream politicians publically acknowledge that peak oil is real.

[essex]

He's an idiot - notice how he's been packing on the pounds lately ? Developing his own carbon storage system ?
NO global warming for 10 years !
http://www.climatescience.org.nz/

[Hagakure_Leofman]

I'd say the messenger is now well and truly shot.

Well done people.

[vision-master]

What does (liver lips) Obama have to say? After all, guess who's gonna run the show in 2009.

[cipi604]

If guys like Al Gore get the credit for being alive and mumbling nonsense than it's a f***d up world.

The real people out there can't get in front because of this idiots. Al should be team-leader for The Idiot Parade.

What I fear the most is the stupidity/ignorance of >90% of the population.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cipi604', '
')The real people out there can't get in front because of this idiots.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', 'W')hat does (liver lips) Obama have to say? After all, guess who's gonna run the show in 2009.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', 'W')hat does (liver lips) Obama have to say? After all, guess who's gonna run the show in 2009.

[AlexdeLarge]

We see what Algore is about.....now compare him with Bush.

Bush is your peak oil man. Yet he is hated and reviled by a huge numbers of people. I believe Bush is more peak oil aware..........than any other "politician" in government. But for obvious reasons, he cannot come out and "directly" say it........the sheeple would panic.

Example: Note the lingo in the below article and the smug way the writer depicts Bush, yet still acknowledges how he lives in a eco friendly home:


"George Bush�s policies on just about everything to do with the environment are wrong headed and destructive, but you cannot say the same for his ranch in Crawford Texas. Amazingly, given his oil industry links, Bush�s ranch is off-grid, boasting a range of eco-features including geothermal heating and cooling, that would make Leonardo di Caprio proud. The passive-solar house is positioned to absorb winter sunlight, warming the interior walkways and walls. Does his inside knowledge lead him to suspect that he will need it to survive a downturn very soon?"
http://www.off-grid.net/2007/02/18/mean ... the-ranch/

Plus he sent the Centurians into Iraq....... the country with the last, largest supplies of crude oil in the world. You may not like his approach to peak oil, but it is direct and pragmatic. (Forget your political biases for a minute.) Can you say this about any other politician?

The spice must flow.