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LET THERE BE LIGHT
The excitement of Earth Hour is upon us! Let Kate the Uptalker explain.
(Brief pause while we consider the miracle of an audio head-tilt)
Incredibly, enthusiasm for this pointless idiocy isn’t universal:
Who do you want to kill?: anyone spruiking this “earth hour” shit. I’m turning all my lights ON tonight out of sheer rebelliousness.
Well said, youngster. Now, let’s get this Gaia-rapin’ underway:
My house at night
is big and bright
(clap clap clap clap!)
Deep in the heart of Sydney ...
UPDATE. Via J.F. Beck, live video coverage of the Great Darkening.
Sam. What a wonderfully normal human being. And I mean that in a good way.
Posted by dean martin on 2007 03 31 at 05:40 AM • permalinkWOOHOO!
Every light is on, the neighbours are having a huge party so loud music booms forth, the divorcee across the road has her Swingers club Saturday nigh bonk-fest there again tonight and the air is rent with damp moans, the street is jammed with cars and my V8 is out the front, ready to roll and my wife is cooking up a storm as is her wont.
Ooooh Gaiaaaa?? Bend over, here it comes again!
MarkL
canberraIt’s crap - the spruikers are telling us how wonderful it is but the lights are still on. They have shots of Sydney taken from a helicopter that clearly show all the lights on. And a bridge full of cars. Occasionally the heli-cam cuts out to black, I guess to give us an idea of what it should look like…
Tangentially, as of 2 April owners of hybrid vehicles must display a warning sticker to “to improve safety for emergency service workers following concerns about electric currents continuing to run through hybrid vehicles after an accident” It’s similar to LPG sticker only [splutter] green. Penalty for non-display: $537.
I suppose it will be seen, perversely, as a badge of honour.
Posted by walterplinge on 2007 03 31 at 05:48 AM • permalinkThe lamps are going out all over Sydney; we shall not see such dimwits again in our lifetime.
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2007 03 31 at 05:50 AM • permalinkIve got kangaroos and sheep and bugger all else and what does MarkL get?
“the divorcee across the road has her Swingers club Saturday nigh bonk-fest there again tonight”
Still I suppose with Carmenand Joan attending you wouldnt want to see too much.
(I allways think of papawhen someone mentions swingers(Juliet bravo))Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 03 31 at 06:03 AM • permalinkKate’s got a great voice. I want to move to Australia just to hear chicks talk.
Posted by dean martin on 2007 03 31 at 06:11 AM • permalinkThe BBC here in the UK covered it with lots of bigging up as the time approached, lots of pseudo facts about how much energy it would save, and how Australia was showing the way. Then the moment arrived, the Harbour Bridge went dark, and that was it really. Their correspondent in Sydney suggested they wait a bit as turn off a light takes time. Still nothing really happened. A few lights went on. The anchor said some more lights had gone off. A few more lights went on.
They went onto the weather.I just drove into the city in a 4WD and every damn light was on, i was so impressed! I also left all the lights on in the house (and outside) for extra carbon credits.
Posted by ultra_violet on 2007 03 31 at 06:21 AM • permalinkSorry, rebase <tilts head>, I feel your pain. The swingers club she enjoys the company of only meets (meats??) at her place once a month or so. a dozen couples or so. Buggers never invite me…
Anyhoo:
48 lights on, 3 refrigerators, 4 freezers, 1 pool pump, 1 fishtank pump, 5 computers, 1 washing machine, 4 TVs (one a monster 34-inch CRT jobbie I got in Asia), 3 DVDs, Foxtel, 1 maniac kid with a sound system of some terawatts output by the way the walls are shaking, 1 oven, 1 air extractor and 8 heatlamps. Oh, and 22km clocked up in a P76 burning leaded fuel (I have my private stash).
Tried to get a kid to mow the back yard but the little sod nicked off.
How’s everyone else going?
MarkL
canberraI thought that ‘Earth Hour’would be an absolute waste of time. I was wrong. This is from ‘their’ ABC’s website. If anyone wanted convincing that the ABC is a lying, agenda driven tax suckhole this is it.
Sydneysiders are enjoying a spectacular sight as the city is plunged into darkness for “Earth Hour”.
Over 2,000 companies and 70,000 individuals and households have signed up to the event organised by WWF Australia, to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and highlight the problems of climate change.
The Harbour Bridge, Opera House and many of Sydney’s skyscrapers have switched their lights off for an hour, with many people attending events and parties along the Harbour foreshore.
But Greg Bourne from WWF says others are reflecting on what they can do for the environment at home with family and friends.
“Many, many people I’ve spoken to are just going to do things at home with their families - talk about it and whether it’s the kids telling their mums and dads that they need to be turning the lights off or whether it’s the other way around because your kids are teenagers,” Mr Bourne said.
“There’s lots of things just privately at home or with your friends and neighbours.”
Mr Bourne says he hopes tonight’s campaign will become a worldwide event.
“Everyone really now knows in Australia that climate change is the most important challenge facing us environmentally, socially and indeed economically, and (they) just want to get on and do things,” he said.
“So to my mind this is the opportunity for people to say ‘lets all do stuff together’.”
Hmm. And the party next door is roaring away with drunken singing commencing and the joint lit up like a Christmas tree. The smell of dead animal parts sizzling on a BBQ is wafting over the fence while there’s doubtless not a dry seat in the house over the road with many a case of carpet burn.
1 more kid just shot through. He took his car, though, and with teh sound system blaring so it’s all good.
SO, how’s your street tonite?
MarkL
canberraCross-posted from the earlier thread, for those who are interested in quantifying TV news reporters’ astounding lack of mathematical understanding:
Channel 7 Sydney just reported that the energy saved will be the equivalent of taking 75,000 motor vehicles off the road for a year. Didn’t anyone at Channel 7 study maths at school?
Obviously not. Let’s make some simple assumptions:
* An average car is driven 1 hour a day, 5 days a week, year round.
* On an average journey, the engine is putting out an average of 10 horse power (7.5kW). An engine puts out power even at idle, and a lot more than 10HP during acceleration, and probably around 10 during moderate speed cruising. So I think this is probably a fair assumption.
* A car’s drivetrain is about 33% efficient (that’s probably a bit generous).So, 75000*5*52*7.5*3 = 438 750 000 kWh of thermal power
So, for a 50% efficient power plant/transmission lines, we’re looking at 219gW delivered power. That’s enough to power 2.193 billion 100W light globes for one hour. Or roughly 1 trillion 100W equivalent florescent lamps.
You can draw your own conclusions as to the feasibility of the comparison from that figure.
Krakatoa was small beer compared to the coldening from the Laki eruption.
You know, the more that I think about it, the more ridiculous that Channel 7 News claim is. I reckon the reduction in CO2 output from that stunt—if any—wouldn’t even be equivalent to the output of 75 000 cars being driven for one hour, let alone a whole year. By my calculations, that many cars consume power equivalent to roughly six million 100W light bulbs. I doubt if anywhere near that many were turned off in Australia during this “earth hour”, and many of them would be less than 100W of power. So, they’re off by so much, it just isn’t funny.
I went out the backyard and turned on our rarely -used spotlights.
They shone brightly into my neighbour’s darkened yard.
It felt goooooooooooooooooooooooood.
Posted by neoZionoid on 2007 03 31 at 07:25 AM • permalinkthe divorcee across the road has her Swingers club Saturday nigh bonk-fest there again tonight
ah, good old Canberra ;)
All my neighbours had their lights blazing and I joined in by cooking a fiery BBQ (hey’s it all carbon right?) and turning on all the lights (I have replaced most of the energy efficient lightbulbs my landlord installed with incandescents as I like to be able to see my hand in front of my face).
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2007 03 31 at 07:27 AM • permalinkCate Blanchett thinks that pre-industrial civilization was just fabo!.
Australian actor Cate Blanchett described Earth Hour as a beginning.
“It’s an hour of active, thoughtful darkness, a celebration of our awakening to climate change action,” she said.
I love Cate, she is so there.
Bugger. I forgot all about Earth Hour. As a result of my negligence, I only had most of the lights on rather than all of them.
And I left the aircon off, although the heater is on.
This is Melbourne, after all.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2007 03 31 at 07:38 AM • permalinkIt’s a shame not enough people participated to cause Sydney’s power stations to melt down from the sudden drop in demand.
That way Sydneysiders could have savoured a month or three with no power and given themselves a good taste of what to expect under the triumverate of Iemma, Rudd and Garrett. The perfect storm of incompetence, foolhardiness and zealotry. Enjoy.
36 Nicholas:
I doubt there would be much, if any, CO2 reduction from turning the lights off. There will be less photons produced. The energy generators are burning the coal, or pumping water around in the hydro business, to ensure there is adequate electricity supply when needed. Turning a light switch or several switches at home should not affect the fuel burnt to produce the electrons we need to live between 7.30pm and 8.30pm. Not unless the generators switched off a power station at 7.30pm. They don’t do that. I’m pretty sure I’m correct.I did my bit from the wicked USA and left the lights and TV on all night. Actually I fell asleep on the sofa, but I expect it still counts.
Oh, and I got my whole company involved yesterday. We held our first lunch-time cook-out of the season. Dead cows and pigs were duly bbq’d and eaten by heartless humans. Yum.
#38
Nope, CL, that was some stupid marketer’s idea. I mean how do you get a full one out of the bloody boot?
The boot was designed to take all the luggage froma family of 2 adults and 4 kids heading from Sydney to Melbourne for a week.
A car well ahead of its time and the only one ever fully designed here for out conditions. Pity about the God-awful build quality and crappy Lucas (Prince of Darkness) electric system designed by demented maniacs on crack.
(It is true, BTW, Lucas actually run not on electricity but on smoke....)
It is a source of amusement to see all the wedge-shaped cars these days!
MarkL
CanberraStevo : I pretty much agree… a reduction in demand will mean that the peaking power is less-utilized (which is typically provided by gas turbines and such - which can be throttled relatively easily), but the baseload stays, and that’s where most of the power is generated and most of the coal is burnt.
I thought about this some more. How much money was spent promoting Earth Day? Probably hundreds of thousands. They could have reduced their precious CO2 a lot more, but more importantly reduced our dependency on oil imports, by buying several 1.3L Honda Jazz cars instead, and giving them away to people who have old, inefficient and polluting cars. They would get a new car, that burned a lot less fuel. And as my mathematics has demonstrated, cars use a hell of a lot more power than lights.
So even if you believe in Glowball Warming, this was by far and away not the best utilisation of resources in order to prevent it…
i’d love to wipe this smug smile off Cate Blanchett’s face.
Travelling economy next time she jets off I wonder?
the divorcee across the road has her Swingers club Saturday nigh bonk-fest there again tonight
MarkL, you don’t happen to live in Swinger Hill?
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2007 03 31 at 07:59 AM • permalinkSo it’s over and y’alls grid didn’t melt down?
Good to know. I guess I can let all these illegal immigrants and this psychic go then.
I was going to have them all shuffle their stockinged feets on the carpet to generate up some static electricity and the psychic was gonna channel it y’alls way.
I’m glad things worked out for all y’all too. This has got to be the most under nourished shipment of illegals I’ve ever managed to intercept. I doubt they could have shuffled up enough static to do much good.
And this psychic, she’s kinda creepy.
Glad you didn’t end up needing them because I’m glad to see them all gone.
Kate’s got a great voice. I want to move to Australia just to hear chicks talk
James Thurber nailed it (_Is Sex Necessary?_)
When she was a little girl putting her dolls to bed, at least one of them was ill and needed constant attention.
This grew into a redecorating instinct, which today expands country-wide.
Rearranged furniture everywhere, and carbon-attracting curtains.
Women get a thrill out of shifting things.
#55 - $680,000 for a GTHO Phase 3. Unbelievable. My cousin has one, he’s in his late 60’s and really crook and hasn’t driven it for 5 years. He rarely did before that, he had it covered and on blocks most of the time and took it out maybe once a year. It’s pristine inside and out, hasn’t been touched, painted or modified in any way and it’s got about 17,00 miles on the clock. The first time I ever drove it, we were on a long straight going towards Port Wakefield in South Aust and at about 90mph he said to put it back to third and put my foot down flat. Hooley Dooley, I know cars are better these days, but that was something.
Posted by Whale Spinor on 2007 03 31 at 08:35 AM • permalinkOddly enough, it’s still brighter than North Korea after dark.
Posted by andycanuck on 2007 03 31 at 08:40 AM • permalinkOkay, ‘Earth Hour’ and the ‘Dying Polar Bears’ are purely advertising. The ‘Global Warming’ isn’t happening because, you know, places are so much colder than they normally are.
None of this is an indication of strange behaviour is it? Some places are always colder than they normally are, some places are always warmer than they normally are, polar bears are always stranded on icebergs - none of this is an indication of unpredicatable behaviour is it? It just means we can’t predict things very well.
Is global warming (aka: severe climate change - and yes, I know that a Chrichton novel predicted the change in phrasing - read it, enjoyed it, and many good points btw) caused by humans or a natural cycle? Who the f**k knows, who the f**k cares? If it means there is less wheat, beef, rice, tofu or whatever it still matters to each and every one of us. We still have to deal with it.
Do CO2 emissions make it worse? Science says yes - but that could be biased. Will less CO2 make it, if not better, at least not as bad? Who knows - but does it hurt to try?
Oil is a finite resource, the number of people on the planet is potentially infinite. Is driving just yourself to work in an SUV selfish? Yes, it is - why not pick up your workmates on the way, why not get a smaller more efficient car just to get to work and back. Do you really need a V8 for that? How often do you exceed 80 kph let alone the 180 or 240 kph your latest and greatest grunt machine can do?
I can’t imagine living without a computer, the internet, air-conditioning in summer and heaters in winter. I want to be able to drive up the coast to see my parents, I want to fly overseas to see my friends. I don’t want to stop doing any of that and I don’t expect anyone else to either. But if it can be done more efficiently (less emissions, less fuel consumption, more chance for my grandchildren or great-grandchildren to do the same thing) why would I not want that?
What do you want?
Why stop at saving the Earth. Save all the planets. Collect the set.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 03 31 at 11:03 AM • permalink“Many, many people I’ve spoken to are just going to do things at home with their families - talk about it and whether it’s the kids telling their mums and dads that they need to be turning the lights off or whether it’s the other way around because your kids are teenagers,” Mr Bourne said.
Whether the kids want a thick ear or are too busy rifling mom’s purse for beer and smokes money…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 03 31 at 11:08 AM • permalink#73 - It wasn’t, in QLD at least. Figures for other states will become publically available over time but they will probably be the same.
For the number of people that turned everything off and sat in the dark like cavemen there were an equal number of people that turned everything on (for the same reason - to make a pointless political statement). Remind me again why the radical right is different from the radical left?
Personally I had the same number of lights on that I normally do, I was running the same things I normally do (aircon was off though - it’s cool enough here right now not to need it).
If you want to do something for *OUR* country then push for nuclear power for us. Get our troops out of Iraq and back here on our northern border to protect us from the antagonistic countries in that direction (*cough*, Korea, *cough* Indonesia). Forget the doctrine of strong and powerful (read - political and fairweather) friends. We have to look after ourselves and that is where our greatest threat lies (in more ways than one).
Forget your personal revolution against the ‘gore effect’ - do what you normally do, live your life as normal. If you are going to go above and beyond make it for Australia, not for America. If you don’t you are really no better than a muslim pushing for a caliphate.
#78. Ghostie, we are living our lives as normal. I’m sure I can speak for others here in saying it’s quite normal for us to speak out against (and ridicule) collectivised insanity and group think. If people like us don’t, we’ll end up like Cuba / New Zealand before you can spit.
As for Iraq, no apologies for getting rid of Saddam and his ilk. We should leave as soon as the Iraqi government wants us to, and not a minute before. Just seeing the difference in life for the Kurds alone makes it all worthwhile.
#81 - Although I would not put it past the media to push an agenda that’s a *LOT* of photoshop work (speaking from experience - just removing pimples from a teen model takes three or four hours).
I would imagine most major companies would have shut the lights down (purely for advertising), the state government would have done the same thing. The upper photo looks as though the lights have been enhanced, the lower photo would have had minimal manipulation done (brightness reduced, perhaps some building lights edited out). Contrast is definitely different - but that doesn’t account for the lack of lights on the bridge and other buildings (and their associated reflections).
Actually the night sky should be just as lit up - it would require a *major* change in light output to modify the reflection of light from the clouds - modifying the contrast would make a big difference. Lights turned of on the bridge and major office buildings are probably accurate though.
Aaron : That’s exactly what I had in mind, instead of wasting this money, they could have set up a competition where you can enter if you have an old clunker, and you can win a new and efficient car, on the condition that you scrap the old one. I would have entered. I could have cut my fuel bills in half. Still could, of course, if I had the cash to spend on a new car.
Yeah, the scrapped car will be used for parts, but that’s going to be its eventual fate anyway, and it would still help more than this futile gesture.
#83 - If you specifically look at the buildings in the near foreground, their internal lights are pretty much the same in both photos, yet it is brightness overload in the top photo
The top photo is definitely doctored by boosting up the contrast in Photoshop, the Harbour Bridge and Sydney CBD is not that bright in real life at night!
#82. Ubique, we are not living our lives as normal. We are living our lives as a shadow of our ‘great and powerful friends’. Iraq was never a threat to us (Saddam was never a good leader, in fact he was a complete butcher, I have never disagreed with that - but he was a leader that was backed by the US in the 70’s/80’s as an alternative to a mullah run regime, as we see in Iran now). And at that time we were in support of him as well.
My argument is that it’s about time that Australia started looking after Australia - not looking after our ‘powerful friends and allies’. In WW I we were used as cannon fodder (Gallipoli), in WW II we were used as pretty much the same until Australia itself became strategically important (remember the Brisbane Line - alternative viewpoint here?).
We have coal, we have oil, we have natural gas, we have uranium - everything we need for our own energy needs is right here. We have aluminium, we have copper, we have iron, we have zinc, we have silicon, we have wheat, we have rice, we have beef, pork, lamb, fish, whatever meat you prefer. We are self sufficient in terms of natural resources.
The threat of world terrorism is real, but it has been around for a long time (remember the Munich Olympics?). 9/11 did not change the world, it just changed America. The way America has responded, although justified, has made it more dangereous for it’s allies. This response has not worked, it’s actually made things worse. We need to concentrate on our own borders, protect our fellow Australians and make sure we, as a country, are safe.
No photoshop is necessary. Just slightly tweaking the camera setting would take care of it. Probably the camera is on Automatic (as most people leave them). The settings automatically change based on the in light at the point of focus (the center is slightly different and the amount of light there is different). You can see big changes in consistent conditions with just slight variation in aim when you take a picture of a city.
So Earth Hour has gone down, with a maximum of publicity and media coverage, having accomplished . . .
. . . hold on, I’ll think of it . . .
Posted by Tungsten Monk on 2007 03 31 at 12:28 PM • permalinkGhostie, yeah, you have everything you need for energy, except liquid fuel (fermented sugar might work, but I have no idea home much would be needed).
You want to take your troops home so they can twiddle their thumbs. Fine, we’ll just have to find something other to bash the heads of Iraqis in than the heads of Australians (that’s what we’re doing over there, right?)
#90 - No, I want our troops to bash the heads in of the people who are a direct threat to us - or at least be available to do so and not lose their lives for something else. Not the Iraqis - the Indonesians would be a good start. Koreans would be a close second.
As for liquid fuel - we have enough for our needs - check this link (CIA Factbook). According to their records we export 523,400 bbl/day and import 530,800 bbl/day - not a huge difference. Those figures are from 2001 though so things have definitely changed since then - for a start there have been a lot of new oil fields opened up in AU territory.
There is a lot more available through shoal (?) oil as well - I don’t think shoal oil is the right term but I can’t remember the right term. Basically it means oil that is hidden under sheets of something else. Whatever - we have enough to fulfill our own needs.
All I’m arguing is that we look out for Australia first rather than America. Why do you have a problem with that?
So Earth Hour has gone down, with a maximum of publicity and media coverage, having accomplished . . .
. . . hold on, I’ll think of it . . .
Absolution?
Posted by Jim Geones on 2007 03 31 at 12:57 PM • permalinkYou might want to ask why you export the oil. And where to. Probably a quality issue.
You also want to consider that by slowing economic growth a little by focusing on infrastructure development, 30 years would be optimistic for development of infrastructure for liquefied coal and shale oil extraction for your needs.
Don’t be so racist.
What direct threats, and why do think having troops in Iraq makes your military not ready? You have other troops, and it wouldn’t take much to bring them home when needed. In fact, the troops that have served will be much more ready.
aaron_:
Maybe Ghostie’s advocating the “Australia Strategy” from Risk? ;)
Posted by Patrick Chester on 2007 03 31 at 01:32 PM • permalink#92 - I hope you get what you wish for.
I am actually a conservative. You want stronger immigration laws? So do I. You want stricter controls over who gets goverment grants or ‘income adjustments’? So do I. Do you think ‘native title’ and some sort of apology from the federal government is a load of crap? So do I.
I just want our politics to be about Australia, not America. We are a Western country stuck in the middle of asia - in that sense we are unique. I want the freedoms my grandfather fought for in WW2 to be available to my children. I want them to be able to turn on an air conditioner when they want it, or a heater when they want it. I want Australia to be truly independant - not a un-acknowledged state of the US or yet another left-over reminder of the once great British Empire.
We have our own enemies (and dangerous states), they are to our north, not to our west.
#96 - From my memory of Risk that was actually a very difficult strategy to play - it depended on the other players not noticing what you were up to for a while. Very effective if they were first time players, once they had seen it in action it became very problematic to duplicate without getting stomped on.
The lack of infrastructure is something of our own making - we, as a country, have always been far too dependant on exports of primary resources. Farmers and Miners have always been the backbone of our country (and will probably always keep that role) but there is no reason why we shouldn’t build up our design and manufacturing as well.
Anyway - I’m off to bed, I’ll leave you alone to whine about trolls. Thank you for the correction about SHALE oil as well - I realised SHOAL was close but not quite what I meant.
#98 - OK, I really can’t resist a response to this. In a thread that was basically a response to the ‘conserve energy’ movement (whether it be a ‘save gaia’ wishy-washy crap or a more logical ‘don’t use what you don’t need’ response), where the original post includes a statement saying ‘Who do you want to kill?: anyone spruiking this “earth hour” shit. I’m turning all my lights ON tonight out of sheer rebelliousness.’ (there was so much crap on the linked page I couldn’t be bothered searching through it for the original quote - I’ll just trust Tim on this one) and where the very first post says
‘All my lights are on, shouting defiantly into the empty night:
I AM NOT AN IMBECILE!’
... after this you are now refuting my argument by saying Australias energy reserves will be depleted in 11.5 years? Do you not see the irony in this statement? Given the previous posts are you even surprised that this is the case?
All natural resources are finite - we can get far more energy from Uranium than we have available to us through oil (or natural gas, or coal). We have the Uranium, we have plenty of empty space to put the nuclear stations with little or no risk to the population.
While we build up the required infrastructure to support this we should probably conserve our existing energy reserves shouldn’t we? Discourage people from using fuel guzzling vehicles, encourage people to share rides to work? Extend our energy reserves (oil based) beyond the optimistic 11.5 years you have given us?
aaron: You control Australia, New Zealand and, IIRC, Indonesia and just stay there, building up armies, and being a tough location to take out because the invasion routes are very limited and you can stack a lot of armies at the chokepoints.
It is more like a stalemate strategy, hoping your opponents will be too busy slogging over the rest of the world to deal with you.
Sound familiar?
Posted by Patrick Chester on 2007 03 31 at 02:24 PM • permalink#104 - Good description.
Australia is hard to get to - but generates a reasonable number of armies (based on area in Risk I think). It’s a very good place to maintain a defense.
And yes, if the other players have not played before and wind up controlling the US or Europe or Eurasia you let them slog it out until Australia is the only place left for the current winner to conquer and by then you have enough troops to walk through whatever they have left over.
Against smart players it generally only works the once though - after that they just storm through and grab you early in the game and use AU as a troop generating station with good defense :(
Ghostie,
I’m sure your reserves will grow in the future, maybe even faster than consumption does. And you should develop extraction capability. Maybe even so much that on day you will be able to extract more oil than you consume.
Your consumption is higher than your extraction. You’d need to reduce consumption by more than 30% to become “independent”. Since energy is an input for almost all economic activity, you’re basically looking at a 30% reduction in your economy. You’d also see a reduction in the growth rate.
Decreasing your supply options increases your risk exposure.
Importing allows you a larger economy and faster growth. Exploration and development of extraction methods will continue even as you continue to import.
11.5 years assumes that proven reserve will not increase. It also assumed that all consumption was met using your own reserves. That’s not the reality. Your reserves will grow, and you extract less than you consume and export.
If no more oil were found, your reserve would be depleted after 20 years at the current extraction rate.
Ghostie the problem with being isolationist is that not everyone else will agree with you.
We have one of the biggest continents on the planet for around 20 million people. That’s a lot of empty space going begging, even if it is mostly desert.
People don’t think of practical things like “where do water and food come from?”
Especially when we have the remarkably generous welfare state that we have.
As for the enemies to the north?
Well right about now, I couldn’t give a toss about them.
I’m more concerned about the enemies within, who should be given a much higher priority than they currently are.
Hell, I’d appreciate them being given some priority.
If nothing else, Iraq is good training for our military for if and when it all hits the fan here, and there is good stuff coming out of Iraq, media bleating notwithstanding.
We also have troops up north keeping an eye on things, but there’s only so much that can be done.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2007 03 31 at 05:40 PM • permalinkWhen I saw it mentioned on CNN with video of Sydney and the caption “Lights out in Sydney” I thought why are those lazy bastards using file video with all the lights on? Efficiency is great but this was embarrassingly pointless.
Just look at what an overdeveloped sense of self-importance can accomplish.
Posted by Col. Milquetoast on 2007 03 31 at 05:50 PM • permalinkA lot of people think like Ghostie. They don’t realize that while we may be self-sufficient in food and energy, we import computers, plasma TVs, airplanes and a million other things we take for granted.
Without Pax Americana, the supply of those things is at risk as is pretty much every economy in the world. The only alternative I can think of is geopolitical blocs as per Brave New World - the Euros are already going down this road and arguably the Chinese are as well.
The reality is that Australia on its own is just a plum for the picking.
“‘All my lights are on, shouting defiantly into the empty night:
I AM NOT AN IMBECILE!’
... after this you are now refuting my argument by saying Australias energy reserves will be depleted in 11.5 years? Do you not see the irony in this statement? Given the previous posts are you even surprised that this is the case? “
Yes Ghostie, you imbecile. Do you know how much of our precious energy resources I used up by having all my lights on for an hour? Literally an *immeasurably* insignificant amount. Especially since they’re all flouros, you twat.
Without “pax Americana” all our exports are also at risk, and without the massive shipping traffic generated by agricultural and mining exports manufacturing exports become much less economical, and without the ability to export surplus we can forget about the manufacturing sector anyway.
Isolationism is a losing strategy. Nobody ever got rich refusing to trade, no one can successfully hold off a determined enemy at the strategic level indefinitely. The guys inside the walls are not especially likely to be the ones who survive the seige.
By the way, if you can win from Australia in Risk, it’s because your opponents suck.
Here’s something for the tilties:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/wiihelm.shtml
A game controller that operates off of head tilts. Fine video included.
Posted by Ernst Blofeld on 2007 04 01 at 02:41 PM • permalink
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All my lights are on, shouting defiantly into the empty night:
I AM NOT AN IMBECILE!