A sufficient number of hybrids will destroy the planet just as easily. The only real choice is dropping cars entirely and riding bikes. Even batter, walking, because the factories that produce modern bikes should put a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere.

And if you're going to walk or even drive a bike, you are burning your own muscular energy so you must become vegetarian because eating meat is extremely eco-unfriendly (just google about "trophic dynamics" - each level of the food chain wastes 90% of the energy - and that's not counting other problems like the huge emissions of methane by cattle).

Well, perhaps the only real solution is not moving at all. If my boss was eco-savvy, he'd let me telecommute 100% of my work; this would allow further energy&CO2 savings, e.g. I wouldn't need to wear clean clothes every day, just keep the entire week working on the same pajamas; and washing/drying machines are huge energy burners.

The only remaining problem is that even purely intellectual work burns energy from our brains, I think it's something like 100W. The solution is simple:
1) we must use genetic engineering to become capable of photosynthesis;
2) not having to work for food, we can abandon the modern capitalist society;
3) then we can learn advanced yoga meditation and enter a state of quasi-hibernation with extremely reduced energy usage, I've seen a guru in TV claiming that he can have a diet like a peanut per day.
That's the way to go.

Posted by Osvaldo Pinali Doederlein on May 24, 2009 at 08:56 AM PDT #