Driver less Into the Future

We are half way through our mini-vacation in Colorado. We had a nice visit with my step-son and his family; beautiful children and a great family.

Colorado is coal country. It is also not very "green" around here. Solar panels are not much in evidence, although we did drive by a large wind farm while traveling on I-80 in Wyoming.

The mine dominates life in Craig. Mitt Romney recently visited, and told the miners that he intends to "take the regulations" off mineral acquisitions at all levels.

In short, stop regulating emissions, full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes, drill baby drill!

Meanwhile, New Mexico is burning up. It hasn't rained much for months in Colorado. Steamboat Springs, a major ski resort area, has suffered through several years of drought, and many businesses are shuddered in the town.

But global warming is a concept that only those wacko Californians worry about.

So, according to Romney, we should stop all the regulations to get more energy, drive up emissions, and global warming is a socialist plot.

Craig depends on coal to live. There is no doubt that Romney will win here.

Coal and Elk hunting in the fall, are the only forms of economic vitality in the region. The people of Craig are stuck, depending on a form of energy, that left "unregulated" is leading us to climate disaster.

And Romney, typically pandering, tell them just what they want to hear.

Now, I am not recommending stopping coal production, not at all. We need coal in the United States. But every study I have seen, stresses that coal is a very dirty energy source, and emissions have to be controlled, else CO2 levels will keep exploding.

In other words, we must have coal, but we must control its by-products as well.

This is costly and not easy. This will cut profits and drive up the price of energy. This is about as popular politically I am in Colorado right now!

And Romney makes it very clear that Global Warming is not a priority with him. He noticeably missed New Mexico in his visit, with the largest wildfire in its history (caused by Global Warming). He told the miners that big government regulations are to blame for all of our economic distress, that we must "take the regulations off" to get to prosperity.

So what to do? Democrats will likely get killed in the upcoming elections if they state the obvious, that our present course is heading us to global disaster. People do not want to hear that, they want jobs, and economic growth. They see coal, oil, and natual gas as the gateways to that vitality.

Many do admit that global warming is happening, even Texans have noticed the endless droughts, but don't want to pay the price to stop it. And Romney, Mr. Opportunity, is right there to take advantage.

We already know cheap oil ran out a long time ago. But increasing gas prices are caused by over-regulation, right? That's right, its the government's fault!

There is also quite an effort in the region to begin fracking for oil, in a region that has little water resources and less all the time thanks to the droughts. Fracking requires vast amounts of water the region does not have. It also can destroy the water supply. So, the Governor of Colorado recently limited it.

Meanwhile, Google is working hard on driver less cars, to improve driving safety. This ingenious development, is occupying Google scientists at the highest level.

Google maintains that "there is no reason humans should be driving". Oh really?

So instead of working on mass transporation, they work on a driver less car?!

So, we should develop driver less cars, so we can sit behind the wheel, or joystick, or instrument panel, and read our papers while being whisked to work in the mounting traffic jams that are choking our roads, pouring tons more CO2 into the atmosphere, and causing New Mexico to burn up!

Driver less is a good analogy for the political leadership that Mr. Romney is suggesting.

Let the corporations run the country, because they proved in 2007 just how good that works! What is good for unregulated corporations is good for America, right?

My grandchildren are beautiful. They are smart too, all of them. They look to me, as a former teacher, with respect, and I challenge all of them to do their best, get all the education they can, and succeed.

But part of me worries, because the world they will inherit will be a limited one at best if we continue this madness. The economy they will inherit, will be so beset by cimate damage, that economic opportunity will be limited to survival.

Global warming costs far more than the efforts to stop it! This basic truth is being proved everyday.

I wonder why google doesn't devote their energy toward making coal a clean energy source; after all, there is lots of coal left.

I wonder why Google doesn't work on getting us out of our cars everyday, develop clean, efficient mass transportation, so we can use our driver less cars less, because there is not a lot of oil left?

Romney is gaining momentum, and may get elected. The conservatives have made no secret that they intend to roll back as many "regulations", (energy and conservation laws) as possible, having already denied any global warming is taking place.

Conservatives know people are scared, and are using that fear to blunder into the future, as usual putting profit in front of what is right; witness the Dust Bowl, The Great Depression, The Great Recession, and now the Great Warming.

Progressives are becoming afraid to bring reality up, watching New Mexico burn silently. It is not politically popular to state the truth.

So, New Mexico still burns, Colorado has no snow, and we all step closer to hell on earth.

And Google is working on driver less cars to take us into the future.

How appropriate!