Neil deGrasse Tyson, What's our excuse?

[Playinghardball]

[cbayer]

1. NdT - a national treasure.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Our excuse?

The people in charge are more interested in money than anything.

[Adrahil]

4. The sad thing is....

... it doesn't have to mean an end to modern industrial society. Just a transition in the basis of it. In fact, there is LOTS of money to be made there. But too many idiots support people funded by the Koch brothers, who want to squeeze every last dime out the fossil fuels. WE could be building a transformative society based on renewable energy. And my guess is that we eventually will. But it may be too late.

[tclambert]

18. Germany or Brazil might do it. America seems determined to live and die with the oil companies.

[lunasun]

27. +1 agree - energy revolution -it will not happen here

[jtuck004]

17. What's the excuse for why we leave them in charge? That's like saying the plantation

owner's told us to stay in the barn while it's on fire...

I wrote the other day that we are a kept nation. One more example.

What's our excuse for not changing our behavior? There are dozens of "Us", with, presumably, a will to survive stronger than the couple million or so that might stand in our way, "Them". Yet we just stay in the barn because they say we should, because we are too afraid of walking away from our lazyboys and cable until we are foreclosed on tomorrow, preferring the uncertainty of serfdom to freedom.

Spineless planet full of people who are going to get exactly what they have worked for...

[Jack Rabbit]

25. That begs the question:

Why do we leave those people in charge?

[951-Riverside]

3. Lets ask these guys...

[IMG][/IMG]

Why do they continue suppressing alternative energies while destroying our world?

We had steam powered trains and cars 100 years ago, we can make cars that can run off of animal and human waste but all of this is being suppressed by these large oil conglomerates. Why?

[mindwalker_i]

5. Because Solyndra

We don't have excuses, we have Republicans.

There are so many things we could be doing, not just specifically for climate change, but that would make it a lot easier to solve the problem. We could be investing all those subsidies that go to oil and coal into solar or other carbon-neutral energy sources. We could be scaling up our education system so the next generation has better abilities to tackle these problems. Hell, we could put money into rebuilding our economy - take the "conservative" approach and apply all that economic knowledge that civilization has painfully gained on how to get economies working - shoot the people supporting trickle-down and austerity, apply a good, progressive tax system, tax wealth, etc. With a roaring economy, we could put resources into developing the technologies that will provide energy without killing us.

But we have Republicans.

[redqueen]

6. K&R nt

[DirkGently]

7. I love what he's doing with Cosmos.

It's telling that only now is it problematic or politically charged for a scientist to be speaking about science on a science show.

Before the new American civil right to make up your facts and just keep screaming at anyone pointing out the actual facts, this wouldn't have been a political program.

But it is now.

And it's good.

[Hekate]

8. I saw when he did that, and I liked it. TY for making the graphic.

Dr Tyson is a treasure.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Let me tell you. we have none

but the ELE will be fun.

[The2ndWheel]

10. It's not free energy

At least not the way we want to use it. We don't want to just lay back and let the sun do its thing. We want to harness that energy, and do a whole bunch of things with it. That's the problem.

What did the ingenuity and courage of the generations that came before us do? They figured out a way to get all that carbon into the atmosphere.

[CrispyQ]

11. I know people who genuinely believe there is no way humanity will go extinct. -nt

[AverageJoe90]

20. And that's the large majority of people who understand the issues, TBH.

I don't blame Dr. Tyson for being pessimistic, TBH. But in all reality, AGW just isn't quite one of those things that could quite kill off humanity even with the worst case (plausible) scenarios. Even a nuclear war in the '80s wouldn't have sufficed(though probably would have caused suffering even worse than 5 or 6*C of global warming, especially in the short term).

[alterfurz]

12. "We will have solar energy when...

...the power companies develop a sunbeam meter."

[SheilaT]

14. They will figure that out eventually.

I'm honestly surprised that there hasn't been a push to privatize solar right, making them owned by utility companies. Just as in many states you do not own the mineral rights under the surface of the land you own, they could easily make it so that you don't own the solar rights above ground.

If I can think of this, why haven't they?

[hueymahl]

21. That is a scary thought

Mostly because I can see it happening.

[SheilaT]

22. To me the amazing thing is that it hasn't happened already.

I live in a state (New Mexico) where you generally do not own the mineral rights under your land. This can actually mean the person or corporation that owns those rights can come in, mine those minerals, destroy your home, not need to replace it and not owe you a penny of compensation. Don't think it happens very often, but it does happen.

If you don't own your solar rights, the entity that does can come in, put solar panels on your roof and all over your land if they want and not owe you a penny of compensation.

In my personal case, solar panels occupying my small back yard would be an improvement over the weeds currently there.

[abelenkpe]

13. Did not think I could love this man more

clearly I was wrong. Love this! Love Neil deGrasse Tyson.

[tclambert]

15. Dinosaurs didn't have oil companies trying to maximize profit

at the expense of everything else. Pollute the air? If it makes a profit, do it. Poison the waterways? If it makes a profit, do it. Start wars in foreign countries to control oil production? If it makes a profit, do it. Kill civilian innocent bystanders? If it makes a profit, do it. Cause a climate catastrophe that may destroy human civilization? If it makes a profit, even in the short term, do it.

Dr. Tyson implies we should make some things, like the survival of human civilization, more important than making a profit. Obviously, he has not met our American oil tycoons.

[The2ndWheel]

16. Human civilization is the ultimate corporation

It's a resource hoarding process that has allowed a single species to increasingly privatize the profits of the planet, while socializing the costs to the rest of life.

[pansypoo53219]

19. our excuse? wall street + profit margins.

[smallcat88]

23. Cosmos

Best new show of the year!

But if you haven't heard, some states are already working on ways to tax people who move to solar energy. Free energy from the sun is just too scary for those making money supplying our energy. Yes, it's all about money. The only way to fight them is for more people to stand up to them. Sadly, . . .

[DirtyDawg]

24. And their...

...response is 'What does some affirmative action aided, over-educated, black guy know, and why should we believe him? Go back to Kenya, or wherever they bought your ancestors...'

The GOP...the TeaPartiers...hell, the entire conservative bunch...are all driven by prejudice and greed (hate is just the most extreme display of their prejudice)...and if it doesn't change, they'll kill us all with it.

[cilla4progress]

26. Hope it's just last gasps of the Neanderthals

With apologies to the Neanderthals.

[ffr]

28. K&R

I have to share this with the idiot Republis I know.

[madokie]

29. What a breath of fresh air

Sure wish we had a hell of a lot more like him.