Glenn wrote:
"In cities just 200 years ago, people died from drinking well water
because it was so polluted with human waste. Yum Yum! What a way for
humanity to live again."
I have read somewhere that, at the turn of the last century (~1899/1900),
funeral homes often had white hearses and black hearses. The infant
mortality was high enough to warrant white hearses.
As for the need for AC in places like Houston, I don't deny for a moment
that AC is necessary and I don't begrudge anyone from using AC. Having lived
in places like Michigan and Pennsylvania, I know first hand that life in the
summer without AC can be miserable. I wanted to make two points: 1) cheap
oil has allowed society to establish large and sprawling population centers
in areas that are unpleasant without AC, and 2) if "the North" (in economic
terms) feels the need for oil-powered conveniences, "the South"
(underdeveloped in economic terms) has just as much right to those
conveniences. I'll do my bit to promote the use of nuclear power so that
society can reserve the oil for transportation and synthesis of organic
compounds and we can all live in reasonable comfort, including the people in
the developing nations.
Chuck Vandergraaf
Pinawa, MB
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