DeeKnow’s Grotto

Most of what Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons had to say in her recent speech on Waiheke Island appeals to the left-leaning, liberalish greenie in me. I even gave the Greens my party vote at the last election

Hell, even my bike is Green !!! :-)

I reckon most kiwis deep down empathise with the worsening state of Mother Earth and as Jeanette suggested we really do have a reasonably close relationship with the environment

One of my right-aligned-blue-as-heck family members springs to mind, and even he would even have been cheering on Waiheke in response to a good number of Jeanette's conservation observations.

However, he would have spent the majority of the speech scoffing and very probably outraged by her position on other matters (race, sexuality, trade, organic farming, transport etc) and would *never* vote green as a result.

Seems like there are always a few positions the greens take that polarise people so strongly they turn them off and away. What political party apart from Labour could ever risk losing votes because of a response to their alignment with the Greens.

If things are as gloomy and short-term as the Greenies are suggesting, and I believe they are, then the only way we can change things for the better is by taking radical and unpopular measures.

But there's no way in hell that’s gonna happen until people are actually being hit in the pocket, hard, and by that time its too friggin late.

A massive chunk of global problems are clearly energy related but unless we have an actual and significant paradigm shift in energy generation, conversion, transmission and/or storage technology we really are basically screwed!!!

We need a brilliant mind appearing in a lab somewhere outside of the influence of any of the evil global energy empires. A modern day Tesla perhaps.

Either that or some timely divine intervention.

p.s. check out this post by David Young on the matter, its a slightly broader view of the oil issue.

1:02:12 PM