Almost every day on the way to campus I watch all kinds of monster trucks overtaking my small diesel engine-powered car. The drivers look down at me with amusement and proudly roar from all of their 8 monster cylinders, spewing their monster exhaust fumes. All these dinosaurs on wheels usually carry one person, who is not getting anywhere any faster than I do. They do burn, however, four times more precious liquid hydrocarbons than I. And herein lies the quintessential U.S. infliction: blithe, mindless waste everywhere. Since this blog post will likely be used for all kinds of political spins from the left and right, here is my disclaimer: I am enthusiastic about most renewables (the giant-scale ethanol from any source and biodiesel fuel are excluded), and I would love to see a wiser use of much less energy in the U.S., as well as fewer people. Unfortunately, my fellow Americans - most notably politicians and journalists - are rather oblivious...
In this blog, I continue to write about the environment, ecology, energy, complexity, and humans. Of particular interest to me are human self-delusions and mad stampedes to nowhere.