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continued...
Whose Future Are We Planning Anyway?
Who, I ask you, would think it's such a great idea to plan your future to be totally dependent on something that you aren't going to have much of ten years from now? I mean other than heroin dealers, mind you. Makes you wonder what interests lurk behind those claims of how essential oil is, lulling us softly with assurances that if we'd only allow more exploration we could keep this up forever...
Must be those "American" corporate oil interests you may argue. I suggest that you might want to think again. I know I was surprised to discover that the U.S. controls only 2.2% of the world's oil supply. That isn't our oil we're being encouraged to consume, even if the name on the pump seems reassuringly familiar. The U.S. isn't even in the major leagues as an oil-producing nation. In fact, just six OPEC countries control over 70% of the world oil production. So why the elaborate justifications for why Americans must continue to pig out on the stuff in order to have an economy?
Well, while we are mere junior league producers, we are the world's greatest consumers of oil and gasoline. American citizens represent a market for oil that is sizable, reliable, profitable and highly addicted. And this makes us desireable.
Suckers Apply Here
Oil producers certainly don't want to lose us as a market. So they pump propaganda along with the gas and are so effective they have most of us convinced that giving up gasoline would mean (gasp!) giving up our CARS! But as the supplies diminish, what do you think is going to happen to any remaining oil reserves, especially if we are on our knees begging for a tankful to make that SUV go somewhere? Can you say, "That'll be ten dollars for a gallon of regular, please"?
Fortunately the American auto industry is beginning to see the light at the end of the pipeline. While for the last couple of decades they have been in lock step with the fossil fuel industry, they have begun to rethink their position, and are quickly abandoning the notion that cars must be powered by internal combustion engines that run on expensive polluting gasoline. With consumer support we'll have viable alternatives in the next two to four years: cars that run on fuel cell or hybrid gas/electric technologies. New battery technologies—just being annouced—make electric vehicles more of a possibility as well. These cars will be elegant, fast, and mechanically superior and take you everywhere a tank of gas used to go, but with fuel efficiencies of 70, 80 or even 100 miles per gallon.
Here You Thought It Didn't Matter!
However, even today, every time you make a decision about the vehicle you are purchasing, leasing or renting, you are moving toward the solution if you choose a smaller, more fuel efficient vehicle. And when you consider that each gallon of gasoline infuses 19 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and adds to the burden of climate change for the next 200 years, well, you can see what kind of difference your choice actually makes.
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