Wild & Wonderful

Coal and the Space-Time Continuum

/ Elizabeth Gaucher / 6 Comments

Albert Einstein said, “Things should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”  This is a guiding principle the nation would do well to consider as we navigate planning for life after dependence on finite energy resources.

Clean energy transportation

Imagine West Virginia is a well-respected policy think tank that dove into the deep end when it issued its first formal policy recommendations in April 2008 with Coal: Energy, the Environment & West Virginia.  This report is a good example of keeping things simple without going too far in that direction.

Testament to what IWV did very well is that the report’s facts are not in dispute.  What one ought to conclude or support from the facts is a contentious issue, however, so there has been some heat in the kitchen for over two years.  I was reminded last week of the statistic that “projections suggest that there is sufficient coal to meet the nation’s energy needs for more than 100 years at current rates of consumption.”

What brought this stat to mind was someone’s comment that “coal isn’t running out any time soon.”  This is a verbatim phrase I’ve heard so many times I almost ignore it now, but for some reason this time it brought me to full attention.  Coal isn’t running out any time soon.  We have about 100 years.

On both sides of my family, 100 years is one human lifetime.  It is an exceptionally long lifetime, but it is one nonetheless.  When you see 10 decades that way, it feels like we have no business exhaling over the finite nature of coal as an energy resource.  If you have not yet read the IWV report, you may enjoy learning more about what a significant slice of the energy pie it is at home and abroad.  It is quite clear that even if one wanted to just stop the use of coal tomorrow there is currently no other developed alternative energy that is ready to fill the gap based on current demand.

Human beings can step up when they have to save their own rear ends.  We will most likely get it together to fill the coal gap before my child is a grandmother, but not if we continue to act like coal isn’t running out any time soon.  Einstein also theorized, “For objects travelling near light speed, the theory of relativity states that objects will move slower and shorten in length from the point of view of an observer on Earth.” 

I’m not 100% sure why I think this has something to do with the whole kit and kaboodle, but I think it might.  It’s also probably not simple.

C’mon. Don’t Be a Hater.

/ Elizabeth Gaucher / 6 Comments

Do you ever find yourself on the verge of a back and forth public comment exchange, and then decide to just drop it?  Well I did that yesterday. Except now I can’t drop it.

Stilletos are good.

I am amazed by the animosity people who claim to love West Virginia can muster for anyone who sees the world differently than they do.  There is a vibrant young woman who had her first op-ed in The Charleston Gazette Monday, and her topic was social media in politics.  Now here comes a fresh voice — a bit of an attitude, I’ll warrant, but that’s part of the freshness — and what kind of response does she get?  A very snarky put-down and dismissal as having nothing to offer.

Now, you can like it or not like it, but you have to be in some deep denial if you don’t understand that the first African-American to be elected leader of the free world did it with the brilliant use of social media.  That fact alone should wake you way, way up.

Flops are good, too.

Monday’s commentary, like it or not, has a great deal to offer.  It’s not about what you like, or what you wish were true.  It’s about what is, and from where the writer sits her job is to connect politicians with what is.

It’s also what was.  The writer was not comparing Carte Goodwin to JFK as a change agent.  She was saying that they both bask in the glow of a similar perception of savoir faire.  Yes, it’s shallow and goofy to think elected officials are “hot.”  As a friend of mine put it, “Whoa.  That’s a low bar, the U.S. Congress.”  I still crack up that JFK was considered yummy.  Maybe, maybe, next to a sweating Nixon.  But really?  Folks need to get out more.  The bar goes much lower when you limbo at the state level.  But I digress………….(and a little of my breakfast just came up).

The point is that public perception is a valid and important element of elected office, and social media is driving a great deal of public perception.  We can argue all day and all night about whether or not that ought to be true, but while we argue there are people who know how to take advantage of solid strategy who are getting elected, and re-elected, via their socially networked connections to a large proportion of their constituencies.

My hat’s off to this young lady.  True wisdom is not the hallmark of the young, but it’s not rare to have strong opinions and the courage to try to change the world, and to be crazy enough to think you can do it.  West Virginia is chock full of a bunch of old people.  How about we get clue and listen to the very few young people we have left who are still willing to participate in making a difference?