gas prices

[Leto729]

You are right Peter when it comes to diesel. Even in America they are as will in Europe working on them. Diesel those is less polluted than gas cars even tho diesel smells worse than gas cars do and they do in the end do they. No matter how big or small they maybe in the end. Diesel smells badly.

[Leto729]

We need to work away from gas and oil the sooner the better for Us All In the End.

[purposefulinsanity]

I don't think this is a simple enough issue that we can say one view point is completely right and one point is completely wrong.  I think its wrong to assume that the reason all people use their cars is because they are too lazy too walk, because in some cases its just not possible.  Since they keep cutting back public transport here in the UK it isn't always possible to walk.  As an example, there is one bus an hour here that we could use to take our kids to school (its too far to walk) and even if we were able to get them ready to set off 45 minutes earlier (and then hang around in the rain, etc till it was time for school) it wouldn't do much good since they've stopped the buses at school times (oh and they've also stopped them from town at the time when a lot of people are finishing work).  Yes, we could change our kids school to one that was within walking distance- but the nearest one isn't one that anyone would chose to send theirs kids to if they had a choice.

However, I agree that there are too many people making unneccessary car journeys- when we lived in the same village as their school, people who lived a 3-5 minute walk away from the school were still driving their kids to school everyday.  People nipping to the local shop, at the most a 5 minute walk away (and for some who did it only 2 minutes) were still going in their cars.  To me, that is just wrong and is lazy.

But to say that people are selfish for wanting fuel prices to come down is completely unfair.  When its a struggle to make ends meet and you have times regularly when using your car is the only real option open to you of course you're going to be glad when fuel prices fall slightly. It doesn't mean that you don't care about environmental issues, it just means that you realise that we don't live in a pefect world and sometimes the 'better' option isn't open to you.

[purposefulinsanity]

We need to work away from gas and oil the sooner the better for Us All In the End.

Agreed, which is why I think the real villians in all this aren't the people who use their cars, its the fuel companies who refuse to help with or even try to hinder research into alternative fuels.   We live in a world where people are expected to be able to drop their kids off at school or day care at a fixed time and then rush off to work.  We live in a world where public transport is poor and more expensive in many cases than travelling by car.  To call those people who use their cars the bad guys is just wrong and helpfully deflects the blame away from those who really need the finger pointing at them.

[Leto729]

It is how We all do it together that matters to Me. How We can learn together as a World Community to work together to Me. In this endeavour for Us all here on this Earth that We all Live on in the end. Together no matter what are differences maybe. That what matters to Us All does it not. I Like to be Green like the other but realisticity like the other too. Europe has never seen it as Americans have they not it is the problem We all have is it not in the end. Together We have this problem do We not. How can We All come together to a understanding that is what matters to Me in the end.

[Litigious]

What some Europeans do not seem to understand is how huge the distances are here in the US and some of them seem to think that it would be practical for us to walk everywhere rather than driving, and if we don't we are ignorant, selfish and irresponsible, which I think is a bit snobbish of them.

Even if Sweden is just a little bit bigger than California, the distances here are pretty huge outside the cities too. So the Swedes at least should understand it. I, for example, live 15 English miles from the nearest town, and I live pretty down south. In northern Sweden houses can be situated tens of English miles from each other! And our gas hasn't costed $1/ liter for over 10 years. One US gallon is 3.8 liters...

But then again, I disagree with other Europeans on most things. They're naïve suckers, who think gun "control" is something that's supposed to keep people from hurting and killing each other, when it in fact is to make people obedient, helpless cowards vs Big Brother. They think that gas prices are for the sake of environment and not out of the greed of the state or the oil companies. And they think muslims can be talked with in a reasonable, logic way...

[Leto729]

But You are less in population Litigouis than California in Sweden that's not fair is it not.

[Litigious]

Considered that we are fewer than in California, the gas prices here should be lower than those in California, since the distances are huger, don't you think? But even European countries with their own oil fields, like Norway, have higher prices on gas then the US have ever had.

[McGiver]

We need to work away from gas and oil the sooner the better for Us All In the End.

Agreed, which is why I think the real villians in all this aren't the people who use their cars, its the fuel companies who refuse to help with or even try to hinder research into alternative fuels.   We live in a world where people are expected to be able to drop their kids off at school or day care at a fixed time and then rush off to work.  We live in a world where public transport is poor and more expensive in many cases than travelling by car.  To call those people who use their cars the bad guys is just wrong and helpfully deflects the blame away from those who really need the finger pointing at them.

and the politicians (ie:gw bush) who are in the feul companies back pockets.

and the was that feul IS a necessity in everyday life and the fact that they fluctuate feul prices so radically as to cut into a regular persons savings, or disposable income.
its simplyt an excess tax to the multitudes that we already pay.

[Lucifer]

But then again, I disagree with other Europeans on most things. They're naïve suckers, who think gun "control" is something that's supposed to keep people from hurting and killing each other, when it in fact is to make people obedient, helpless cowards vs Big Brother... And they think muslims can be talked with in a reasonable, logic way...

i take it this is completely tongue in cheek?  and i agree with the bit i excised, although with the qualification that it isn't an "either/or" thing, but both.

i'm not suggesting that people who really need cars should be penalised by higher fuel prices. it's the same as usual - the situation (and, hence, the solution) has to be taken as a whole, which means non-reliance on oil, AND ensuring decent public transport systems,  fair wages and salaries, proper support for parents and children (and single people), etc., etc., etc.  looking at things piecemeal just means no-one will do anything, cos there's always a reason not to (and i mean "reason", not "excuse").

as for the alleged dig at americans, as callaway and kevv mentioned above - perhaps, then, someone could explain why it is i have the understanding that the media in the US concentrates almost exclusively on the US.  i believe someone even posted somethig to that effect on here, somewhere.

Read what I say carefully all.

i did, and i can't understand most of it.  al i got from it is that you want to blame russia and india and china for stuff.  that's still not taking responsiblity for one's own behaviour, in my book.

[Litigious]

i take it this is completely tongue in cheek?  and i agree with the bit i excised, although with the qualification that it isn't an "either/or" thing, but both.

I meant literally what I said. The average American may be dumb and ignorant about anything outside his own country, compared with the European, but the Europeans are over-civilized jerks, who believe that one can talk sense to a criminal or a terrorist and that it isn't a human right to defend oneself with which means that are ever necessary.

[Callaway]

as for the alleged dig at americans, as callaway and kevv mentioned above - perhaps, then, someone could explain why it is i have the understanding that the media in the US concentrates almost exclusively on the US.  i believe someone even posted somethig to that effect on here, somewhere.

I'll try to explain, since I am the one who said it.  Kevv did not.  You said this:

i used the examples above as i thought there might be a vague chance an american may know where they are.

I said that statement came across to me as a dig at Americans because I thought you were saying that Americans were too ignorant of geography to even know where Bangladesh and the Eastern coast of the UK are and there was only a vague chance we would know where the Eastern Seaboard of the US is, where New Orleans, Louisiana and the US Gulf Coast are, or where Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and South Africa are (the areas most strongly affected by the Tsunami of 2004, which was caused by an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 which happened in the Indian Ocean and has nothing at all to do with fossil fuel consumption or global warming, by the way).  Just how ignorant do you think we are to believe we would accept such a fallacious argument?  Some of us may be just as intelligent as you are, even if we were born in the US.

[Leto729]

Read what I say carefully all.

i did, and i can't understand most of it.  al i got from it is that you want to blame russia and india and china for stuff.  that's still not taking responsiblity for one's own behaviour, in my book.

The world is consuming more oil China and India have become consumers too. China will yet surpass even America one day. Russia is producing more oil everyday. Even China has become the biggest polluter in this world today not America. Facts are facts. Blame $1.00 gas I think is going to far in the end.

[odeon]

And [the Europeans] think muslims can be talked with in a reasonable, logic way...

They can. The majority of muslims are just as peaceful as the majority of Christians, atheists, ... And just as logical. Or illogical.

Are you buying the bs from Bush, Blair, and "allies" to justify a war agains a fucking noun, or do you claim some originality regarding your statement?

[McGiver]

ladies and gentlemen....

the swedish alpha male showdown begins.
stay tuned.