Is Renewable Really Doable? Today’s Wine-tasters Didn’t Care
I think we’ve all had experiences that were such unmitigated disasters that they were actually funny. That’s the bottom line on today’s book signing at Roblar, a very nice local winery with which friends had made arrangements for me.
Not only did I not sell a single book, but I was heckled by a couple of the wine-tasters. This is a very “God and Country” part of the world, so, sadly, the whole concept of clean energy is met with a degree of skepticism and even derision.
I had a guy exclaim from halfway across a crowded room, “I don’t believe in global warming.”
“You needn’t,” I replied. “But you do believe in lung cancer, right? And terrorism?” When he nodded, I smiled and said, “Then you’re JUST the type who would have a natural affinity for the subject.” He clearly hated me. Of course, I had embarrassed him, which I regretted.
Later, a tall and broad-shouldered lady who looked like she might have been carved out of a giant block of granite told me that all we have to do is open up the state for oil drilling. “That would solve all our energy AND our money problems,” she intoned. “Yes, that’s true,” I responded. My follow-on, “But mightn’t it cause other problems?” fell on deaf ears.
Oh well. A few good conversations, and a few sips of wine. Could have been worse. If that’s the biggest catastrophe in my life, I should count myself lucky.
Your experience today demonstrated a very, very important point: the American public does not understand the issues of energy and the energy community (academics, DOE, energy companies, IEEE, etc.) is not doing very much about this. It is imperative that the role of mankind in affecting global warming be clarified.
Exactly right. That’s what gets me out of bed every morning.
I do not drink except on rare occasions and I am not a wine aficionado but as I understand it, the grapes take in everything in the environment and all of this affects the taste of the grapes and therefore the wine. Everything from the amount of sun to the amount of rain to temperature to what is in the soil makes a difference that people claim enables them to be able to tell where and when the wine came from.
I wonder what effect the changes in the environment over the last 50 years might have had. How much of a difference does the chemical makeup of the air, rain and soil have in the taste? I wonder what a chemical analysis of wine from 50 years ago and today might show for both east coast and west coast wines. Granted the difference might be greater in east coast wines than in west coast wines since weather in the U.S. typically moves from west to east picking up toxins and pollutants along the way in ever increasing concentrations. What kind of a difference might acid rain and mercury and other things make? What are their levels? You would think that people with such discerning pallets who take all of this very seriously would be extremely concerned about changes in the environment.