...and you have the power to provide the solution. Why you? The United States is the most powerful nation, ever. Today, and for the next generation, no other country will be anywhere close to our military and economic dominance. You will have a once in a millennium opportunity to accomplish something monumentally extraordinary, while ameliorating the global economic mega-depression that some say will soon loom from the combined hammer of Peak Oil and Global Warming.
You worry that you have a more important task at hand, which is to become POTUS (President of the U.S.)? Yes, continue that effort, but you will become the 44th POTUS.
Now to the more important challenge, creating your legacy for the benefit of Planet Earth and Humanity. As an aside, let me say that during the past year I published two books: SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth (http://simplesolutionsbook1.com/) and SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity (http://simplesolutionsbook2.com/). I mention this because those publications provide both the spur and solution for you, our Nation and the World.
Our society seems to have a fatal flaw: we can’t expeditiously act to prevent potential cataclysms like Peak Oil and Global Warming (let’s call this PO/GW). Yes, of course, we will eventually prevail, but, by my reckoning, only after decades of agony and turmoil. There has to be a better way.
Miracle of miracles. It turns out, ironically, that PO/GW is just the catalyst you need to empower you to take extraordinary steps. There are innumerable great things you can attempt to accomplish to create your legacy. What about something so monumental as ending wars..forever?
Fortunately, you will be the next POTUS because McCain, a Republican, is too closely linked to the military-industrial complex and Clinton is too entrenched in conventional politics for either one of them to even consider this extraordinary pathway to be described. You symbolize change and will not be fettered by convention nor commitments.
Let us speculate that early in your presidency your close advisors tell you, Mr. President, we have a problem. We have reached Peak Oil, and the $100+/barrel oil we have will zoom to over $200/barrel. Worse, we can’t shift to coal or other fossil fuels because, yikes, Global Warming is indeed real. It’s kind of too late, and you can ascribe culpability to Bush or Congress or oil executives, but the masses—you and me and others—are to blame. Public will is totally lacking.
Understanding that, you and you alone can immediately orchestrate a global Manhattan/Apollo effort to minimize the coming pain. We need to spend a trillion dollars over the next few years to stimulate industry to help us remediate the almost certain crisis. This is only a fraction of what we will squander on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.* The numbers, therefore, are tolerable to take on this gallant mission.
So where do you find this kind of money? Ah, the Defense budget. You go to your very first G8 Nations Summit, by your declared emergency to be held at United Nations headquarters in New York City, and pronounce a Gorbachev-like bombshell: our country will reduce military spending by 10% this year, and will continue to do so for the next eight years. This scenario is described on page 65 of Book 2. You say, we want every country to do the same, for this 10% solution can be our response to Peak Oil and Global Warming.
I am adding this graph to show how President Joe Biden can today do what I suggested to President Obama.
Yes, we spend more on war than the next eleven countries, combined.
China’s knee-jerk reaction might well be, what, cut defense spending? We haven’t had a chance yet to attain your level of capability. But, on afterthought, they will realize that they will only need to decrease their spending by $6 billion in Year One while the U.S. takes a $60 billion hit. Ten percent of the worldwide $1.2 trillion/year for war means that at least $120 billion/year will suddenly become available in the first year to overcome PO/GW. This sum will drop to just under $100 billion in Year Two…and down to a little more than $50 billion by Year Eight. But, by Year 12, the world defense budget will have been reduced to $34 billion, and almost a trillion dollars would have been allocated to overcome PO/GW.
This grand sum will go to the United Nations to administrate and dispense. Yes, I’ve worked with the UN, and it is about the worst organization to do anything, but there is no choice, it is the only international entity of any credibility available. The so-called military-industrial complex will shift their effort to mass-producing more efficient wind energy conversion systems, developing the hydrogen jetliner, in time converting the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to methanol and otherwise insuring for the development of the sustainable infrastructure and necessary clean energy. Military personnel can initially be maintained to take on environmental tasks and the like. There is every reason to believe that your 10% solution can continue forever to the point where there will be close to no military expenditures and no chance for a major war. Countries like Costa Rica, Iceland, Mauritius and Panama already have no defense budget. Are they threatened? Nope! Japan, and, even, China, have had a chance to expand their economy because of a limited war account. The U.S spends almost $2000/person for defense while that of China is $45/citizen.
Triumphing over PO/GW will mean applying our tax dollars in a constructive manner. Much of this will be for better jobs, greater support towards education and truly boosting our economy.So, future President Obama, you will have a problem, but could the above scenario be an effective solution? You are the exact right person to save Planet Earth and Humanity. Simply go to my blog at http://planetearthandhumanity.blogspot.com/, where some details are presented.
Ah, what a great country. Where else can a former public McKinley High School student provide advice to a Punahou graduate?
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* In his new book, the Three Trillion Dollar War, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, with colleague Linda Bilmes, provides a true picture of the Iraq War cost. The obvious sense, then, is, if so much money only created a stalemate in the Middle East (and that is being kind), how can only one trillion dollar save the world from Peak Oil and Global Warming. Well, Mr. POTUS #44, this sum will only be the worldwide federal government contribution. Industrial cost matching should push the the actual expenditure to several times this contribution. -
Comments to the above can be viewed in The Huffington Post. Go to:
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and type "Patrick Takahashi" into the search box. Click on "search" and then click on "Well, Barack, We have a Problem." The comments are at the end of the article.
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I yesterday mentioned that European gasoline prices were double ours. This is only partly true, as France is just below $10/gallon and Germany is already up to $11.50, which would almost be three times what we pay in the USA. I also said that the people in those countries were accepting these inflated prices. Not so, as protests are growing. Soon, there will be major demonstrations, then, rioting. Had enough of this? Move to Venezuela. Book 1 listed gasoline at 12 cents / gallon. Today, gasoline still costs 12 cents / gallon. By the way, ten years ago, the price of crude oil was $11.91, less than one-tenth the cost today. Has something monumental occurred? Ah...yes, although my response should have been more hysterical. 
Two weeks ago I indicated that on Tuesdays I would chronologically traipse through my past postings and selectively repeat the few that are important or monumental in some way. However, I skipped last week and this, so will make it up today. If I use one/month, it would take me 12 years to get to the present. So clearly I need to be more selective. Nevertheless, I only went one month from my first one, but just had to choose my blog of 31May2008 for featuring today, as it reported on my very first Huffington Post article. Note that here and there I will add graphics and editorialize as necessary.
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