|
|
|
No Independence
But We're Celebrating Anyway
It's a small victory and long overdue. As one who has watched the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere mounting at a nearly exponential rate, while the size of American vehicles has grown nearly as fast over the last decade (losing fuel efficiency in the process), such opportunities are rare. So, break open the bubbly. Auto industry pundits predict that our love affair with the SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) has peaked. There's new concern about their fuel efficiency, too. I say this is great news. May wiser heads prevail.
Perhaps because of the recent rise in pump prices for gasoline, smaller cars are suddenly looking more attractive to consumers. This trend is not only good for the atmosphere and the driver's pocket book, but also helps us escape from our dependence on gas and oil and just barely in time, because the Earth's big clock is counting down to a make-or-break deadline on our economy that we haven't been paying much attention to —yet.
Tick, Tick, Tick
Recent figures released by the Gas and Oil Institute predict that the world's production of oil will peak in a mere ten years. Currently we are processing about 74 million barrels a day, and production will peak at around 84 million barrels in 2010. Then what happens? Do we gradually ramp down or perhaps we find additional reserves that will stave off the inevitable gap created by dwindling resources?
Remarkably, the experts in the field predict neither. Instead we need to prepare for a gargantuan drop in oil supply. The projections for 2020 are a mere 36 million barrels a day. That's a 57% drop in world oil production in ten years.
So, why are we being led to believe that it is somehow unpatriotic to replace oil in our economy when it is so clear we will have to do just that if we are to have an economy at all a mere decade from now? (And did I mention this other little problem of 7 billion metric tons per year of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide dumped into the atmosphere—invisibly adding to global warming?)
continued...
|
|
|
|
|
|
