Getting back to Rice, Stanford, climate change, fossil fuels, etc.:

One of the mind-numbing things that comes up when these oh-so-cautious self-declared conservatives is how they just propagate the idea that the Earth is just big bag full of gooey oil, just waiting for us to puncture it and enjoy the riches.

There is just no acknowledgment of how resources get depleted.

The problem with the 2006-2008 Peak Oil movement was too many of them were infected with the end-is-near mindset.

The smarter ones realized that the peak was going to be a broad plateau that would last decades.

Well, we are into those decades. Petroleum, real petroleum not carbon that is not-quite fluid, has pretty much plateaued.

For all those like Rice who hold the founding of the US as some sort of magical high point in history, our country is only 248 years old.

If you think we are going to last another 248 years just doing what we’ve done the past 100 years then you’ve missed some very important facts.

Now, I’m old enough to be mostly concerned about keeping demagogues like Trump away from Social Security and my retirement.

But for any youngsters out there who still have most of their life ahead of them, I hope you can find a way to move your society forward. Your life will depend upon developing sustainable energy use.