Im not sure really. I know what you mean about peak oil and its going to be a disaster for everybody. I remember watching a programe where they showed a building charities had built in africa which was all done with solar power and windmills. It meant they only had enough electricity to run for a few hours a day and it was supposed to be all mod-con. (it was more expensive to build than wiring it to the mains as well) It just smacked me as a social heirarchy- we wont inconvenience ourselves with technology inadiquate for our needs but expect Africa to be grateful. I think George carlin hit the nail on the head when he said that westerners didnt want to save the planet, they simply wanted to keep it nice for themselves to drive their volvos in.
BBC Red Nose Day Snub
- Thread starter gunslinger
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and they never have to pay to fill it with fuel. I wish I had one.
Not needing fuel is a bonus, but the poor buggers were trying to run a frigde freezer on it!
"milks gone off ...again"
To return to the original subject. My brother is a disabled biker. He is the first to admit he is a disabled biker BECAUSE he is a biker.First he was a biker and knew it carried a high accident risk factor. Then he had a serious accident but can still ride his bike.He knows a few other disabled bikers who followed the same course to disability.He doesn't need or want charity or sympathy and does a fair bit of fund raising for comic relief as he knows there are a lot of people in the world that do require charitable aid and never inflicted it on themselves.I dont include the people who were born with or developed physical disabilities as they rarely get the chance to get on a bike in the first place.
I disagree, almost completely. The George Carlin bit I agree with.
But if they can't afford the gas needed to run gas-powered generators, or pay electricity bills, what do you suggest as an alternative? Have charities pay all the electricity or gas bills for them? The idea behind these things is not to make people dependant on handouts, its to give them a helping hand towards self-sufficiency. The problem isn't that they have plenty of money to pay for gas and electricity and they just never thought to buy a generator or get mains... it's just not a viable option in many circumstances. The added cost of the solar/wind/water powered generators is worth it, IMO, to enable them to get by on their own. The charity would probably spend more money if they had to hook them up to mains and then buy them food because all their money is going towards electricity. Just IMO of course and I don't really know what impoverished people we are referring to specifically or how impoverished they are, but that's how I see it anyway..
Pete