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==>It is just not very meaningful to compare energy efficienciestransport.
==>between different countries. Take Switzerland for example.
OK, let's. Gasoline is $4/gallon here. That COULD :-) be done in the US.
Virtually every inhabited spot in Switzerland can be efficiently (here I
mean efficiently in the traveler's time spent) reached by public
That could not be done in the US, but a vast improvement IS possible. Iaway
personally commute 100 km each way, every day by train & bus. To say that
you cannot learn from other country's experiences & efforts is throwing
very useful data.the
==>You can't fairly compare the energy efficiency of Japan (at 335
==>people/km^2) and the U.S. at 30 people km^2.
True, but the available sayings are in the much denser megalopolises on
coasts.not
==>I guess you can try to change the culture/lifestyle of everywhere
==>to something that is very energy efficient, but I don't think you
==>will ever be successful doing so.
I do not think that changing the culture/lifestyle is at all easy, but
recycling was a culture/lifestyle change in the 70's. It happened. I do
imagine (as apparently do some of the environmental organizations that Iout
belong to) that conservation and windmills will solve our problem. But you
miss two points.
1) Incrementalism works. Don't disparage 10% effects. Look at any of the
dozens of spectacularly effective high tech toys littering our houses.
Typically one big breakthrough & then a hundred 10% improvements ground
by corps of engineers brought them to their present state. 1.1^100 =13,780
:-)consumers
2) The free enterprise system will save our butts. As long as the price of
energy reflects its costs [I know that $4/gallon gasoline violates this
rule, but it violates it in the "right" direction :-) ] over time
will choose conservation and suppliers will find new sources.Environmental
concerns can be put into the pricing mechanism. Note that this is notprice
automatic. Command economies, like the Soviet Union's did not let the
of energy reflect its costs. In lots of third world countries gasoline is
currently heavily subsidized. When their governments try sensible reforms,
there are massive riots. We have to avoid these errors.
Cheers,
Bill Larson
Geneva, Switzerland