>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: Owen Byrne To:
> lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 3:14 PM
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] the petro-thusians have their moment
>
>
> james at communistbanker.com wrote:
>
>> Why is it that it's so often the same people who worry about
>> destroying the planet by burning oil AND worry about running out? If
>> both are true, shouldn't they celebrate the running out part, and not
>> bother with environmental politics at all? Doug has consistency in
>> favour of his approach to this.
>>
>> But all of the debate about climate change still hasn't produced a
>> consensus. Can't some of the petro-thusians take time out and tell
>> us what the alternative is? If we are going to have to switch from
>> fossil fuel reliance, how exactly will you manage the massive shift
>> in living patterns, the enforced parochialism of a world without
>> cars, how will you distribute the misery and impoverishment that it
>> would cause? Just saying that we MUST use less, that we MUST develop
>> alternatives is not an answer to this.
>>
>>
>>
> IMHO - home-working/telecommuting on a much greater scale would
> greatly reduce oil consumption. What percentage
> of the work force sits in traffic for hours only to sit in front of a
> computer screen that they could just as easily have at home? -
> except of course for the need to massage the boss's ego.
>
> Owen
> ===========================
>
> The Dog Bites column in San Francisco Weekly reported
> a few years back that a Bay Area daily had done an interview
> with the manager of a "Server Farm" in the SF area.
> The manager is said to have boasted that the electricity
> for the air conditioning to cool the building used the equivalent of 2
> million American homes.
>
> Dog Bites also reported that the phone book had no
> listing for "server farm" and they were unable to figure
> out how many of those facilities are *in* the Bay Area.
>
> And if my town ever figures out how to get more
> than 2 bikes on a bus I'll be stunned!
>
> Who's got the calculator? Is it all one big zeo-sum?
> Leigh Meyers
> leighcmeyers at yahoo.com
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But nobody (or nearly) actually works in the same room with those server farms. If I avoid driving from my Home A to Office B to work on server farm C - then there is no zero-sum about it. Its a net gain.
Owen