Tuesday, August 19, 2008

LunchTalk

I sat down today to have lunch with my coworkers as I do every day; fighting off the bees, spiders and ants that frequent the bench under the trees. At our last lunch the bees seemed to be more interested in my meal than normal. They are usually good for one pass before deciding that flowers are far more interesting. I had the unfortunate luck of finding an all natural brown sugar , they probably thought it was honey, mustard. Every bite of my sandwich was fraught with danger; a mouthful of bee is the last thing I wanted.

So I sat down with my coworkers and we began discussing matters of the world. We began with the deeper meaning of China being given the Olympics and moved on to America's meddling in every one's business. One guy says that we should take care of our business over here first and was quickly interrupted by another person who said that was not possible. He felt that we can't ever be perfect; while we are busy perfecting America external forces would be at play needing some sort of attention. To that the first guy answers "RMS."

The domestic policy discussion went quickly to what is probably the most pressing thing on every one's mind at this time, energy. This is where the discussion took a turn for the worse as well. We were all able to agree that we have a petroleum based economy, but that's about it. Well meaning individuals have some crazy ideas about what we should do about our energy policy. I learned that oil is an infinitely replenishing resource and that we need to look into nuclear power.

If Paris Hilton can publish an energy policy...
No I am not a possible VP pick.

HD's Energy Policy: A NEW DEAL

What America needs is a robust energy/economic policy that takes advantage of good old American ingenuity. A New Deal needs to be struck; a works program towards energy independence.
  1. Greater investment in education:
    1. Increased teacher pay
    2. Increase number of teachers
    3. Build new schools
    4. Increase subsidy for student
  2. Subsidize green projects: (Only naming a few)
    1. Solar panel efficiency needs to be improved
    2. Fuel Cell technology and other ways to store solar energy
    3. Wind Farms
    4. Electric/Hydrogen Cars
  3. Rethink how we build our cities and homes
    1. Solar panel for water heaters?
    2. Design to take advantage of the natural cycle
    3. Geothermal into all designs
    4. Mass Transit
  4. Conservation and Recycling

It is true that spending on all of these programs will cost a lot of money upfront. It is also true that we would be borrowing money that many generations would have to pay off. This is no different than an individual who takes a loan out for college in the hope of being in a better position later. A nation mobilized will undoubtedly come up with many great ideas that will make us a leader in the world which we could then reap the benefits of from within and out.

2 comments:

L BO said...

if i understood any of the words you used, i'd be even more impressed.
as is, i think we should rely on giant hamster balls and giant hamsters to power our grids. pretty sure genetically modified/mutated animals are a renewable resource. why else are there so many godzilla movies?

HumanDynamo said...

My friends, I believe we have a winner for renewable resources prize. It's American know-how like this we need to solve the problems of today; youngsters like you represent promise for the future

-J. McCain