On Jan 10, 1:47*pm, Tom Gardner wrote:
On Jan 10, 8:24*pm, Gary Evans wrote:

Quote from the book of Gore, chapter 7, verse 3.

Numbers can be our friend if we use them correctly.

As MacKay says ...

In a climate where people don’t understand the numbers, newspapers,
campaigners, companies, and politicians can get away with murder.

We need simple numbers, and we need the numbers to be comprehen-
sible, comparable, and memorable.

With numbers in place, we will be better placed to answer questions
such as these:
1) Can a country like Britain conceivably live on its own renewable
en-
ergy sources?
2) If everyone turns their thermostats one degree closer to the
outside
temperature, drives a smaller car, and switches off phone chargers
when not in use, will an energy crisis be averted?
3) Should the tax on transportation fuels be signi?cantly increased?
4) Should speed-limits on roads be halved?
5) Is someone who advocates windmills over nuclear power stations
“an enemy of the people”?
6) If climate change is “a greater threat than terrorism,” should
govern-
ments criminalize “the glori?cation of travel” and pass laws against
“advocating acts of consumption”?
7) Will a switch to “advanced technologies” allow us to eliminate car-
bon dioxide pollution without changing our lifestyle?
8) Should people be encouraged to eat more vegetarian food?
9) Is the population of the earth six times too big?

I sort of liked the "tongue in cheek" idea expressed in (I think) the
San Jose, CA Mercury News that gasoline taxes should escalate with the
amount purchased. For example, 5 gallons would cost $5 while 50
gallons would cost $500. Of course a Hummer could be driven station
to station buying 5 gallons at each but that would get tiresome in a
hurry. Meanwhile, the owner of a super-efficient vehicle would be
rewarded with $1/Gal gas.