Katrina thoughts
A couple of thoughts and comments I have heard reflected the past few days. These aren’t necessarily my views, but just things to consider:
1) is it ethical for corporations to be making donations. All a corporation is, is a sum of it’s shareholder’s value. They are giving away shareholder’s money, without a vote. It’s possible a group of shareholders could sue the board of directors for mismanagement
I’m not saying they should or should not donate, but it is something to think about.
2) Arctic drilling will become a reality sooner rather than later. While far too late to help any of the current situations, it will be part of the political reaction to this crisis. Personally, I’m all for letting it stay in the ground up there, not from an environmental reason, but to let the Saudi’s, Venezuela and Africa use up their oil soon, and we get the last amounts on earth. Sure it’s just a game of musical chairs, and we all lose out in the end. But at least we will lose out the least. Right? (I’m still hoping for cold fusion of some sort. Maybe the mass will power of the American people can join two atomic nuclei together!)
3) I am now paying 8 dollars a day for the privilege of driving to and from work. 40 dollars a week. 2000 dollars a year, just to drive to work. Not counting a trip to the store, vacation, visiting people or places. This is inventive though, to eat less.
4) I heard that under normal conditions (via my brother Ed) that New Orleans was pumping 10,000 cubic feet per second out of the bowl of the city. Forget the wisdom or lack thereof of building a city below sea level. Think of the electric bill every day in dry conditions to pump that much water out. No wonder we have an energy crisis, we were using it to keep water out of the bottom of a bowl! Glen Canyon Dam, draining Lake Powell into the Colorado river averages 10,000 cfs in low water. That electricity powers much of the Southwest US. So is it worthwhile to continually drain that city?
I think we have to now, from a pride perspective. We will not be beaten my nature!
5) I’m working on a reply to questions on Andy’s blog entry on hybrid vehicles and their actual cost effectiveness. I’m not to great at the math tonight, but I’m trying. Go join in the discussion