Hummers for all, thanks to Apartheid and the Nazis.

October 24, 2006 7:47 AM

Green Nazis.
posted by Meatbomb (16 comments total)

Completely gratuitous use of "Nazi". Interesting article though.

But I'll see your coal-to-liquid-fuel process and raise you a turkey-guts-to-liquid-fuel process.
posted by GuyZero at 7:55 AM on October 24, 2006 [1 favorite]

This reminded me of an old joke from grade school: What's green, slimy, and flies over Germany? A Snazi. (Yes, it can be deconstructed a million different ways. It was a stupid, ignorant kid joke. I still remember it because I am stupid and ignorant. Carry on.)
posted by brain_drain at 8:09 AM on October 24, 2006

There's nothing green about Fischer-Tropsch gasoline synthesis. If the world decides to address its oil shortages with this, that's pretty much it for the environment. Oil is pretty good for the atmosphere relative to this.
posted by justkevin at 8:15 AM on October 24, 2006

Godwin.
(You know who else used to tie his shoes in little nazis?)
posted by Smedleyman at 8:15 AM on October 24, 2006

Oil from coal, still as dirty as coal (scroll down for info on the Fischer-Tropsch process). Not sure what's so "green" about it. Since we burn so much oil running electric plants, my intuition is that it would be a whole lot more efficient, in terms of import-substitution, just to fire up some new coal-powered electric plants and reallocate that oil to running cars. Of course, there's really no way to even pretend that's green.
posted by rkent at 8:20 AM on October 24, 2006

But big energy companies—in the United States and abroad—won't brave new technologies without government subsidy. "We can't go forward until incentives are in place," said Davies. In the U.S. market, he notes, ethanol receives a 51-cents-per-gallon subsidy.

Ohhhh look at who is looking for corporate welfare ?! How unsuprising, when risk surface the taxpayers are supposed to face it, while the profit remains in the same-ol same-ol hands ?

It's no garage company either, in bad need of fund, but poor poor deeply poor oil companies

We're just a little company stuck on the bottom of Africa.

You "little company" can get more credit from a bank that 99% of the next 1000 generations of ordinary peons will be able to dream. F you.

Indeed, the firm that built its competitive advantage during the apartheid years is clearly concerned that it may be asked to help pick up the cost of atoning for the country's sins

And not surprisingly ! If they are so stupid to first be exploited and then be exploited again, why stop ?

Not sure what's so "green" about it.
Why of course, dollar.
posted by elpapacito at 8:31 AM on October 24, 2006 [1 favorite]

Sorry, but "alternative fuel source developed in 1920s Germany" didn't make sexy copy.
posted by Meatbomb at 8:32 AM on October 24, 2006

Why, I bet those chemists weren't even Nazis! Big rip, Meatbomb!

Stepping back from the rhetoric, I think it's clear that this is a process that will become economically feasible in much of the world within, oh, a generation. Just not right now.

As such South Africa would be brilliant if they kept the company viable and held a technological edge when the day comes. If we're all lucky, they'll improve the emissions situation somewhat in that time.

With better luck still, we'll have some other cheap, portable energy source for our vehicles by then, of course.
posted by dhartung at 9:20 AM on October 24, 2006

What a stupid article.
posted by delmoi at 9:24 AM on October 24, 2006

I still don't like Nazis.
posted by Mister_A at 9:25 AM on October 24, 2006 [1 favorite]

Green Power is so played. I power my entire compound with tiny Nazis on recumbant bikes. White Power is the future, baby!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 9:38 AM on October 24, 2006 [1 favorite]

Oil is pretty good for the atmosphere relative to this

And for the terrain. And for the workers. wikipedia
posted by CynicalKnight at 9:45 AM on October 24, 2006

Now, that privatized company, Sasol, may help liberate Western democracies (and non-Western ones, like India) from the grip of crude oil produced largely by loathsome authoritarian regimes.

And by "liberate Western democracies" from Middle Eastern crude, he of course meant "may help accelerate the onset of catastrophic climate change even quicker, which I'd have to be on an internship from the Journalism School for the Developmentally Delayed not to realize is a far larger problem in the long run than oil scarcity, not to mention being inextricably linked to a global economy based on burning fossil fuels anyway."

Tomorrow on Slate: "Whale Oil: The Miracle Replacement For Wasteful Incandescent Bulbs!" (Sidebar: "Don't Worry, We're Pretty Sure There Are More Than Enough Whales")
posted by gompa at 10:02 AM on October 24, 2006

There were factions within the Nazi Party that were definitely interested in nature and environmental issues (e.g., the "soil" of "blood and soil"). Here's an article on the "green wing" of the Nazi Party. You can acknowledge this historical fact without having to buy into Rush Limbaugh's right-wing canards about "environazis."
posted by jonp72 at 10:30 AM on October 24, 2006

A little context for that "climate change = way bigger problem" thing, torn from today's headlines:

"Global ecosystems 'face collapse'" (BBC News)
posted by gompa at 11:02 AM on October 24, 2006

will invade poland for food.
posted by sgt.serenity at 2:12 PM on October 24, 2006