Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Today's News: Look Both Ways?

So, as I've been reading my morning news, two stories strike me as very very ironic. The first is that McCain has proposed $300 Million for some individual/company to come up with an efficient/long lasting battery in which to run your car, thus producing a gas "sipping" (if even using gas) or zero emission car. Okay then. The second story is that an Austrian study is showing that low levels of Vitamin D (gained specifically from being out in the sun), is linked with increased mortality, specifically cardiac risks.

Here's the irony in my book.

In story #1, if we do indeed find a great electrically powered vehicle, which all the Greenies want (and I'm not necessarily opposed, I'm just saying), how are we going to produce enough energy for everyone who buys one? Oh! I failed to mention the $5000 tax break we as consumers will get for buying the car, in order to encourage us all to get said great electric car. So, we buy our cars that run on electricity and technically we plug them in "during the night" when supposedly "energy consumption will be lower" than during the day. But that assumption is based on how we use energy right now...it doesn't really factor in the fact that we'd all then be plugging in our cars at night! So then we need to bump up our energy production. But how do we do that? Many many many folks are freaked out by the idea of nuclear energy (which I think is probably a sensible alternative, realistically) and coal and other mined stuff will produce more emmissions. It just doesn't seem to make sense to me. Why not give $300 Million to someone to come up with a very feul efficient car (and let's be frank: a minivan option would rock) that runs 100+ mpg????? Now THAT might be helpful.

The second one is ironic to me because how often are we being preached at NOT to go out into the sunshine, and if we do, block ourselves with the highest sunblock we feel comfortable slathering on? In other words, you need to spend some time out in the sun to not die, but don't spend too much time in case you get skin cancer and stuff like that and end up dying. I guess I'll be sticking to the admonition of my OBGYN: Stay inside between 10-3pm.

It's stories like these that remind me that I love our planet and I love my life. I just really need to find some good ol' moderation in all things because not only are the extremes confusing and unhelpful, I'm not sure either do that much good.

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