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December 1, 2008 at 01:02:52
Promoted to Headline (H2) on 12/1/08: by Karyn Strickler Page 1 of 2 page(s) 
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It's my turn. I want a bailout. Not hundreds of billions of dollars to the auto industry for making an inefficient, dirty product that Americans have stopped buying. Not trillions of dollars to the banks that have made bad loans, creating an explosive housing bubble, leading to the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. I want to be bailed out of the fossil fuel economy. America must kick the fossil fuel habit for our environment, our economy, our national security, our health, our children -- and forever. Even with lower gasoline prices, America's dependence on fossil fuel is still gouging us at the gas pump. The cost of heating and cooling our homes is skyrocketing. The fossil fuel economy is stoking the war in Iraq, fouling our air and water, jeopardizing our national security and exacerbating catastrophic climate change. If America could put a man on the moon, we can make the transition to 100% clean, renewable, non-nuclear energy within 10 years. It will require unflinching leadership an order of magnitude beyond anything that today's political leaders have proposed. 
There is scientific consensus that we are in the midst of a worldwide emergency with catastrophic climate change -- the warming-driven destabilization of the earth's climate system. It threatens our way of life and our children's future.
Statured scientists agree that global warming is caused by human activity and attributable to historically unprecedented levels of greenhouse gases in the air from burning fossil fuels. Some noted experts have even called coal and oil unintended weapons of mass destruction.
The effects of such climate change could be devastating for life on this planet: inundating island nations and coastal areas; causing severe droughts and storms and spreading infectious disease. It is stressing our oceans, forests, wetlands and permafrost, all carbon sinks which help to absorb excess greenhouse gases when healthy.
These are not tomorrow's problems; they affect every American today. Even a concerted effort today to curb dependence on fossil fuels will slow -- but not halt -- catastrophic climate change.
National SecurityOur dependence on other nations for fossil fuels imperils the national security of the United States. American national security now depends on propping up a few shaky authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. This creates wars for oil, inflaming hostilities against Americans and making us more vulnerable to terrorist attack.
Not just environmentalists, but conservative national security experts like former Reagan official Frank Gaffney warn, that dependence on foreign oil "is a national security emergency." In addition, "we are likely to find increasing competition from China for limited oil will become a flash point for future conflict, if not an actual causus belli [cause of war]."
Even the Pentagon reported* that because of the potentially dire consequences of abrupt climate change, the issue "should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a U.S. national security concern." The February 2004 report says that with 400 million people living in poor, overpopulated regions, "climate change and its follow-on effects pose a severe risk to political, economic and social stability."
According to The Observer, the report warned that "major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world."
Doug Randall, one of the authors of the report, told The Observer five years ago, it may already be too late to prevent a disaster but that since the consequences for some nations are so high, "It seems obvious that cutting the use of fossil fuels would be worthwhile."
Dirty Air and WaterMuch of our air and water pollution comes from burning fossil fuels. Human activity has greatly increased the atmospheric concentrations of compounds like nitrogen, carbon dioxide, mercury and lead. Excessive amounts of these compounds act as toxic air and water pollutants. The largest known source for most of these compounds is the combustion of fossil fuels by automobiles and power plants.
What goes into our air eventually ends up in our water, as shown by the tragic decline of the magnificent Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation notes that power plants burning fossil fuels "are collectively the worst toxic emitters in the country." Among other toxins, "They contribute 40 percent of all mercury emissions, or roughly 48 tons of poisonous mercury each year." Mercury results in "contaminating fish populations throughout the Bay" and poses a direct threat to humans, especially children through fish consumption.
Fuel CostsThe cost of heating homes and travel has increased dramatically in the past few years. The situation will not improve in years to come because of limited oil supplies and fierce competition from rapidly growing nations like China, India and Indonesia. And soaring jet fuel costs are threatening the viability of our airlines and raising the price of air travel. Similar problems beset farmers running tractors and construction companies operating heavy machinery.
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| 18 comments |
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Bail U.S. Out of the Fossil Fuel Economy
Well said Karyn. A good example of making the change to non fossell fuels is Europe and especially Germany who has made a considerable move to Wind and solar. Another major alternative is thermal, from the earth. If we have the will we could accomplish this quickly, and possibly reduce the disaster ahead. by Rolland Miller (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 227 comments [78 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 11:19:48 AM  (0+)
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Reply: Don't forget tidal energy.
Our entire country could get it's energy from this 0% polution method of creating energy. Works the same as wind only the tides are ongoing. Geothermal for individual homes and buisnesses and we don't even need solar except maybe for cars if they could figure that one out. Wind is good but requires wind. Tidal and goethermal are the places to start and just look at all the living wage jobs it could create. If I had billions I would put every penny into those two forms of energy and we couls be off the grid in 10 years or less. by Janiece Senn (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 94 comments [23 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 7:02:19 PM (0+)
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Zer0 Point Energy
An alternative to oil, coal, natural gas and nuclear energy has been known for decades. It's non-polluting, virtually limitless, but the problem is that it can't be hooked up to a meter. In other words, it's free, and that's why it's been suppressed in the public sector, militarized, and why relatively few people know about it. It's called zero-point energy, and an introduction to it can be seen at the www.orionproject.org. Before you start screaming that such a thing couldn't possibly be, ask yourself why you continue to accept the energy crisis talking points from the mainstream, when you're on forums like this that ostensibly point out the many mainstream lies - mostly by omission - and attempt to re-educate those who have open minds. Everyone should do their homework on this topic, which means setting down the morning newspaper and turning off the TV evening news. by Bill Cain (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 434 comments [67 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 1:09:56 PM (0+)
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Reply: Thanks for the hook up
It's good to know this is out there although they admit to having no technology at this time to develope it is still great that they are creating an enviroment that could protect and assist those that do have that info. I had a friend. a chemist, who worked five years at Monsanto trying to come up with a better engine coolant than antifreeze. A whole division was developed for this and their conclusion was water with a solar panel to keep the water from freezing when the car was not running. Ther was another electrical alturnitive to this also but she never went into it. Anyway, they all got fired and the division closed because Monsanto doesn't have a patent on water ...yet. by Janiece Senn (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 94 comments [23 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 7:26:44 PM (0+)
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Orion Project
Check that URL above. It should be www.theorionproject.org. Sorry. by Bill Cain (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 434 comments [67 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 1:11:28 PM (0+)
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Bill and Karyn
Words can't describe just how much I would love to see this developed, there are many things that need to be considered. 1. there is no infrastructure to support these technologies. Take wind, for example. It would require millions of miles of wiring to move the energy from the windmills to the main transmission stations. 2. these technologies are NOT ready to go on line right now; in fact, they will NOT be ready for another 50 years assuming the plans are laid out, now, to create the infrastructure necessary to support the new plants. 3. Even an atomic reactor must jump through massive hoops to become viable, and many of these plants could use existing infrastructure and could be on-line in 9 months (assuming the legal hurtles were not in the way) Right now, I keep hearing people demand an alternative from foreign oil energy, YET, as things stand, we are looking at decades with NO ENERGY WHATSOEVER while we attempt to court the solutions they suggest.... The Orion Project would be awesome, but given the fact that it does not exist other than as an idea, we will be a long time developing it. I was really interested in seeing what would happen with The Hadron Collider, but it was severely damaged in its initial testing due to a coolant leak.. I am not sure how much energy is created by the collision of sub-atomic particles, but I would imagine that it has some serious potential! Regardless of the potential there, it takes liquid helium, a substance that is pretty close to absolute zero costing a large fortune to maintain, it is 17 miles around, and it takes a massive amount of energy to maintain... With cars, we have the hybrid cars that have toxic batteries that we must, somehow, dispose of... These hybrids don't save enough fuel to make the change, worth it, and they do not save the planet, AT ALL, but people still buy them.... If you want to change how the US energy policy works, AWESOME! However, don't kid yourself into believing that we will be able to make it happen tomorrow... we must plan for the "IN THE MEAN TIME" issues... Ciao, CZ by steve scheetz (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 829 comments [52 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 2:07:12 PM (0+)
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Reply: Not Just an Idea
The Orion Project is not just an idea. If you watched the video, Dr. Greer explains that it is a viable 501-C(3) non profit organization with a staff of people who have the expertise to bring forth a device from an inventor, as long as the necessary funding can be met. People, upon finding out that such energy sources have been withheld from them for the sake of corporate profits, while at the same time allowing the earth to become polluted through conventional sources, should be outraged! by Bill Cain (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 434 comments [67 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 3:41:15 PM (0+)
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Reply: I listened to the video
he said how wonderful it would be if the device was able to put out 1KW.. as in it is not able to do that just yet. That was what I was referring to. the device, is still, just an idea.. Ciao, CZ by steve scheetz (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 829 comments [52 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 4:02:03 PM (0+)
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Reply: The Orion Project
....isn't about one inventor nor one invention. Also, there are working models of more than one variety already producing. There used to be some videos that showed towns functioning "off the grid", all their energy needs supplied with magnetic "over unity" technology. Not only were these videos censored out from youtube, but the section of one of my pages that carried the links for that and much other good examples "mysteriously vanished". I have spent an awful lot of time more recently trying to find "replacements" to no avail, but the predators, I'm sure are the culprits and don't want such viability out in such visibility. The predatory shenanigans are also still a substantial problem for initiatives like the Orion Project and therefore there is still need for a low and discerning profile. This is what makes Dennis Lee's project all the more crucially important since what he's working with is ALREADY well known and has previously been fought over, a number of times through the years, with the predators. It will function like an icebreaker for all the other good new tech that is yet being kept more under wraps. We've HAD the needed "breakthrough" technology, though there will always be more, but now we need to break it out safely into the OPEN. THAT is the REAL problem between here and energy independence. This is because it truly MEANS "Independence", no corporate biggies necessary! That's also why it has been so fanatically supressed for the past 100 years! Many good people have been killed over it. Check out Stan Meyer. I'm afraid perhaps even Troy Reed more recently also, though have only "heard mention on the grapevine" that he was killed in 2006, I still hope to discover this isn't true! (-:G by G Achin (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 110 comments [9 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 6:31:01 PM (0+)
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Reply: New Paradigm Time!
Steve -- this is a whole new ballpark and doesn't belong to that old "big infrastructure" paradigm. People have been developing and creating a number of these new technologies in their garage at home! It will not take YEARS, and certainly not 50 years for peetsake! Inventors have been quietly driving around on HHO for many years! You can too, now, if you have the gumption to try it! by G Achin (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 110 comments [9 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 4:07:02 PM (0+)
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Industrial Hemp!
Hemp is the #1 source of biomass on the planet! It is at the very minimum four times more efficient per acre than corn for ethanol production and grows with less fertilizers, and no herbicides or pesticides to foul the soil and water, and in climates and conditions other crops won't grow! Farming just six to eight percent of our contiguous land in hemp would satisfy our current demands for oil and gas. A process called pyrolysys uses high heat to make charcoal out of biomass suitable to burn in coal ovens for electricity. In fact anything made from oil, coal, timber, or cotton can be made from eco-friendly cannabis hemp! All paper, plastics, paints, varnishes, textiles, fuels, lubricants, plywood, structural components, many cosmetics, health foods, and medicines, over 25,000 Earth friendly products can all be made from this one plant! The word canvas is Dutch for cannabis. For thousands of years all ships sails, rigging, netting, rope, and most clothing were of cannabis fibers, which are the longest and strongest in nature. In fact it was so vital for our early Colonists that they could pay their taxes with it! Later on Henry Ford built and fueled a car primarily from hemp, its cellulose plastic panels ten times stronger than steel. The hemp seed is also the single most nutritionally complete food source you can eat! The reason cannabis hemp became illegal never had anything to do with its physical affects on us, the reason it's illegal is so that billionaires can remain billionaires. Currently the United States is the only major nation not growing industrial hemp! China grows 40% of the worlds crop and they are developing new technologies that will keep the U.S.A. at an economic and strategic deficit for years................Even more so!!! by Garry Minor (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 56 comments [7 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 2:11:07 PM (0+)
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A Surprising Way Out of the Fossil Fuel Economy
Unconventional energy conversion systems are under development - those inventions that become practical products may prove to be tapping never previously commercialized, renewable, abundant sources of energy such as the Zero Point Field and ambient heat. Revolutionary new energy conversion devices are likely to prove inherently cost-competitive with all existing energy systems. Not only can they be used to power homes and businesses of every variety, but also to make practical cars, trucks, buses, ships and eventually aircraft that need no engines, batteries, or any variety of conventional fuel or recharge. Advanced designs will soon be capable of producing torque and/or electricity on a self-sustaining basis. Devices without moving parts are comparable to an inexhaustible electric battery. One Proof-of-Concept prototype was evaluated by Lee Felsenstein, EE. He concluded it to be analogous to the early work on the transistor, which eventually led to a Nobel Prize and the creation of Silicon Valley. 2,000 watts is the maximum amount of power that can be drawn from a 110 volt wall outlet to recharge the battery of a plug-in hybrid car. Generators we are developing are expected to generate this much power and demonstrate replacement of the plug needed by a plug-in hybrid car, within a year. This will be a harbinger of automobiles that need no conventional fuel. With normal progress, prototype new energy conversion systems are anticipated to replace an automobile engine within three years. These prototypes will open a path to mass production of entirely new varieties of automotive power plants. Vehicles powered by these technologies will never require conventional fuel of any kind. Cars can become a source of income Vehicle to grid (V2G) power was demonstrated during 2007. It was recently estimated that selling power to the grid from future production hybrid electric cars might earn the vehicles’ owner $4,000 each year. This assumes that power will be drawn by utilities from the car’s batteries, using a two-way, plug. In the future, cars powered by new energy conversion systems are expected to earn much more, as these generators are anticipated to replace both batteries and car engines. Therefore, they are expected to produce far greater amounts of electricity. No plug will be required. by Mark Goldes (11 articles, 1 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 129 comments [3 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 3:04:42 PM (0+)
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What about our over consumption of meat?
I don't think anyone mentioned the need to reduce meat consumption to lessen global warming. The UN Food Advisory Commission and Chicago environmental researchers Eshel and Martin have warned that our overconsumption of food animals is causing more greenhouse gases than both coal- spewing furnaces and gas- guzzling cars. Of course, meat eaters aren't happy to hear about this - but then you don't have to give up meat - just as a nation we should try to consume less of it. If the poor Third World Countries would consume as much meat as the rich countries, I believe that our earth will be in big trouble. Please look to the internet where I think this notion will be borne out. by Suzana Megles (66 articles, 0 quicklinks, 21 diaries, 363 comments [43 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 3:44:36 PM (0+)
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Energy Freedom Is In Your Hands, If You'll Give It A Go!
The biggest blockage in the way of ending the addiction to oil is the prevalence over the energy market of the "shadow gov" predators and their deadly suppression of much more functionally promising technologies. These technologies are a real and present solution that readily, RIGHT NOW, not in 10 years, but NOW could accomplish this if human beings only had some brains and some initiative, and could use them! The predators have so spun these technologies down that even the majority of those who otherwise may be the "most progressive", are totally glued to the predatory propaganda and seem to refuse to come unstuck. The predators are getting really anxious about it now though because "free energy" technologies have reached the 100th monkey point and are spontaneously breaking out all over, even in the most "undeveloped" areas of the world. The predators can no longer keep up with them to keep them down, there are simply too many. It will take too long for our and the world's needs though, to wait for it to replace oil by spontaneous appearance alone. People need to find some spine and take some initiative, get a kit and install it! by G Achin (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 110 comments [9 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 3:46:29 PM (0+)
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Reply: How would people in California contact this company?
I have lots of home owner friends in Califirnia and not one of them I think would turn this down. I want one. Send it to St. Lou. by Janiece Senn (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 94 comments [23 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 7:59:10 PM (0+)
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Reply: International Tesla Electric Company
International Tesla Electric Company Though there are outright fraudsters as well as paid sabatouers lurking around and about , one to get your money for nothing of value, the other to convince you that the new energy technologies are all just a hoax, THIS particular group are truly good, honest people of integrity and quite worthy of your trust. (-:G by G Achin (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 110 comments [9 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Dec 2, 2008 at 5:57:11 PM (0+)
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Reply: Free Energy
Thank you for articulating this. Keep in mind that the topic of free energy, for those who are uninitiated, falls into the realm of "conspiracy theory", and that those on this forum are primarily still anchored in the old right-left paradigm, as defined by the mainstream. by Bill Cain (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 434 comments [67 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Dec 1, 2008 at 8:48:58 PM (0+)
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Another idea...
Years ago, General Motors was close to being able to produce a commercially viable electric automobile. Big oil bought the battery patent and killed the project. That is why we are so far behind Toyota now. 80,000 acres of Oil drilling rights in this country have been sold to corporations that have no intention of exercising them. These kind of suppressive business tactics should be outlawed. by Matthew Peters (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 171 comments [4 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Dec 2, 2008 at 6:56:38 AM (0+)
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