Petey's
Pipeline E-zine
Issue #31
May 15, 2006
Contents
Business
First Business After Peak
Oil
Random Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings
The Case for Hemp Legalization: Global Warming
Write Thinking Commonly Confused
or Misused Words (Part II)
Business
First (Editorial)
Business
After Peak Oil
by Phil Hanson
Being
able to conjure an image of the future based on the likely outcome
of previously occurring actions or events is a natural talent
of visionaries. However, most of these perceptive and far-seeing
individuals will be quick to tell you that long-term results
are rarely, if ever, the same as short-term results.
Take
the case of peak oil, for instance. There seems to be a cognitive
disconnect taking place in the general population; most people
still don't get it. They go on about their business as if nothing
has changed, as if nothing is changing, as if nothing will change.
Global
demand for oil is on the increase; so are gasoline prices. In
spite of this people still buy heavy, gas-wasting SUVs and high-performance
vehicles with performance capabilities they'll never
tap into. People still drive everywhere they go. Yet they bitch,
relentlessly, about high gasoline prices, as if their own behavior
has nothing to do with it.
Corporate
planners are no more astute than Joe Six-pack or Suzy Soccermom
when it comes to assessing the long-term consequences of present-day
actions.
Whenever
Wal-Mart or Target or K-Mart or any of dozens of other national
retailers opens a new store, it siphons customers away from
established local businesses that operate in surrounding communities.
The effects aren't just felt for a few blocks in any direction,
they're felt for miles in every direction.
If
a family-owned business that serves a local community closes
its doors for good, local shoppers are then forced to travel
longer distances to obtain the goods they need. An obvious result
of this is that fewer people walk and more people drive, further
driving up the demand for gas.
When
gas prices get to unacceptable levels, people will cut back
on their driving. When gas can't be obtained at any price, they'll
once again support local businesses that are accessible to foot
traffic.
For
the first time in more than fifty years, small businesses will
start pulling customers away from big businesses. It's possible
that some of these "big box" superstores will, themselves,
shut down for lack of sufficient numbers of customers to support
them, thus hastening the return of neighborhood businesses.
For
most of the 20th century cheap energy propelled a newfound mobility,
which in turn introduced an unfamiliar dynamic into already
proven economic models. Businesses that were positioned to exploit
economics of scale prospered. Those not so positioned stagnated
or failed.
Now,
the emerging reality of higher-priced energy promises wiser
use of energy resources, a return to saner economic policies
and practices, a restoration of economic balance, and a move
toward a sustainable economy and culture.
It
seems likely that the global economies fostered by multinational
corporate robber barons will take the hardest hit as the economic
wheel of fortune comes full circle. Fortune 500 investors won't
be pleased, but the forecast for individual entrepreneurs and
community-based businesses looks promising.
Call
it poetic justice, if you will, or a righteous bit of payback.
Call it a twist of fate, a turn of the screw, or a swing of
the pendulum. By whatever name you call it, think of it as the
long overdue correction needed to restore balance to an economic
system badly distorted by cupidity and insatiable greed.
Or,
to put it more succinctly, as a case of what went around coming
around. In other words, karma in action.
Copyright
© 2006 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
• • •
For
your daily doses of insight and opinion, read Petey's Pipeline
Blog. Check it out at http://peteys-pipeline.blogspot.com/.
Feel
free to respond to blog postings at any time. Whether you agree
or disagree, your thoughtful, carefully considered comments
are welcome. However,
anything suggestive of a temper tantrum, psychotic episode or
hysteria will be deleted.
Running
a spelling check on your text before making posts is strongly
encouraged. Perfect Text, Petey's
Pipeline E-zine and Petey's
Pipeline Blog exist, in part, to make all of us better writers.
Let's not defeat that purpose by being hasty or becoming careless.
Random
Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings
The
Case for Hemp Legalization: Global Warming
by Phil Hanson
Most
scientists who engage in Earth studies now accept global warming
as undeniable fact. They cite a sharp increase in greenhouse
gasses over the past few decades, primarily carbon dioxide released
into the atmosphere as a result of human activities, as the
cause. To be sure, the percentage of atmospheric carbon dioxide
is at its highest level in many thousands of years.
How
did we get from where we were to where we are? Very carelessly,
it seems, and without regards for the consequences of our actions.
We've been telling ourselves all along that everything will
be just fine as long as we continue to make a profit. That,
of course, is a lie, albeit an integral part of capitalist self-delusion.
An
increasing population drives up demands for energy, much of
which is supplied by fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural
gas, resulting in larger amounts of greenhouse gasses being
released into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the same increasing
population, in need of living space, building materials and
food, hastens global deforestation and the depletion of natural
carbon sinks. As the old-growth forests of North America and
Europe, and the rain forests of Central and South America, Africa,
and Southeast Asia disappear the world grows warmer.
With
global warming comes a long list of associated problems. Global
climate changes, rising sea levels, desertification, flooding,
droughts, heat waves, monster storms, food insecurity, potable
water shortages and economic upheavals are just a few of the
things that could make life miserable, if not appreciably shorter,
for all of us.
Everyone
has a pet theory about what needs to be done to avert a global
warming disaster, but few people understand how serious the
problem is, or that no single solution, by itself, can remedy
it. What many people don't realize is that it's going to take
every option and every resource at our disposal to reduce carbon
dioxide levels in the atmosphere, and that the time to get started
is now rather than later.
There
are only two overall strategies for reducing atmospheric greenhouse
gas concentrations; reduce greenhouse gas emissions and
increase carbon sink (sequestration) capacity. Using both methods
in concert provides the surest way of halting global warming
trends.
Reducing
energy demands through conservation, improved efficiency, and
by switching to renewable energy alternatives will help accomplish
the first part. Preserving forests and planting trees and other
flora, which absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen as part of
their natural life cycles, will help accomplish the second part.
These
are among the many reasons why we should end our 69-year old
prohibition against hemp, immediately, without further procrastination,
obfuscation or disinformation. Cannabis hemp (marijuana to the
uninitiated) can play a vital role in saving all life on Earth
from the ravages of environmental destruction.
In
1916, the USDA issued Bulletin No. 404, a report that described,
in glowing terms, the advantages of using hemp as a source material
for making paper. One such advantage cited by the USDA is that
1 acre of land planted in hemp would produce, in annual rotation
over 20 years, 4.1 times more pulp for paper than the same acre
planted in trees.
Hemp
makes more efficient use of sunlight than most other plants,
producing relatively large amounts of biomass over a relatively
short growing season. No other plant capable of growing in the
Northern Hemisphere is more effective at sequestering carbon
than cannabis hemp.
When
you consider that hemp has multiple uses, that it's environment
friendly, and that it's renewable and sustainable, there's every
reason in the world to legalize it, and no good reasons not
to.
Copyright
© 2006 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
Write
Thinking
Commonly
Confused or Misused Words (Part II)
Often,
when writers confuse word meanings due to similarities of spelling
or sound, they unintentionally use the wrong word. The resulting
misuse of a word introduces ambiguity and confusion into one's
writing and calls the writer's credibility into question. You
can avoid these embarrassing mistakes by becoming familiar with
the words that frequently cause problems. Learning the spelling,
meaning and accepted usage of these commonly confused and misused
words will make you a better, more credible writer.
Here
are a few more examples to raise your level of expertise:
can
(able, capable of doing something) She can swim five
miles.
may
(seeks or gives permission) He may leave work early,
today.
• • •
farther
(pertains to distance) San Francisco is farther from
Portland than Seattle.
further
(refers to extent or degree, excepting distance) He can advance
no further in rank.
• • •
good
(describing something positive) She has a good grasp
of the fundamentals.
well
(skillful, satisfactory, or thorough; describing a state of
health) He does well as the shop foreman, but he's not
feeling well today.
• • •
in
(means that something is already there) Old articles can be
found in the archive.
into
(means movement from the outside to the inside) They went into
the cafe.
• • •
lay
(means to put something down) Lay your books on the table.
lie
(to recline) All she wanted to do was lie down on the
cool grass.
• • •
set
(to put something down; to bring to or cause a certain state
or condition) You can set the model airplane on the kitchen
counter. The glue will set in about 10 minutes.
sit
(to be seated) It's okay to sit on the couch.
Look
for more commonly confused words in the next issue.
Copyright
© 2006 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
Disclaimer
The
articles appearing in Petey's Pipeline E-zine are based on information
believed to be true at the time of publication.
Neither Perfecttext.com, Petey's Pipeline E-zine nor their publisher
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