Saturday, May 17, 2008

Who needs oil?

So Saudi Arabia has kindly consented to increase oil production by 300,000 barrels of oil per day! Doesn't it stick in your craw that our country has to crawl to a brutal repressive regime and beg them to please give us more oil?
It seems to be incredibly hard for people to realize that oil is a limited resource. It's like the little kid who always sees daddy getting money from the bank. The kid doesn't realize that somehow that money has to get into the bank, and that it won't just keep coming out forever.
It's way past time to work very hard and seriously on safe alternate energy sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal. Solar energy already powers nearly every living creature on this planet. Biology 111 teaches every freshman that the sun provides the energy that plants convert into chemical energy which provides power for plants and animals alike. A blade of grass can do it. Why can't we? A world run on renewable energy would have to rely on a hodgepodge of sources. People who live in geothermal areas, would be set up to use geothermal energy. Iceland is ahead of us on this one. People who live in windy areas would depend on windmills. And everyone could use solar systems to some extent.
Would it be a disadvantage to rely on multiple systems to create useful energy? Only for the big corporations who have a stranglehold on us now. The corporations who are posting record profits year after year (Bush administration years) and who are quite happy with the current energy crisis. For the rest of us, we would be much better off if we were more independent of the big power grids. As it is now, any infrastructure failure, or damaging storm, cripples us and leaves us without resources for basic survival in many cases.
The thing is, it will have to be done. We will run out of oil. We will adapt to new sources or most of us will die. Could that be Mr. Bush's plan? Invade Iran and start world war 3 so people will die and the oil will last longer? Interesting hypothesis. So far the evidence doesn't rule it out.
Let's just take our money and resources and put them into alternate energy research and development. Who needs their stinking oil anyway?