Tonight on Fox News, there was a piece that discussed how administration officials are frustrated by the fact that " the people " won't let them do whats necesary to solve this energy problem for the " long term ". Stuff like drill off California, drill more wells in the gulf, drill in Alaska, etc. Not a word was said about conservation. President Bush, who said recently, " America is addicted to oil " did not, in that same speech, say one word about conservation. China's leader, after visiting Saudi Arabia ( seeking oil deals ) over the weekend, went on to Africa for three more shopping stops for oil. Venezuala is making moves to divert its oil to other, in thier eyes, " more friendly " countries, and away from the US. India is seeking big deals in earnest too. All new competion for the declining, worldwide oil supplies. And these things are all part of a growing trend. Its also clear that the various terrorist organizations in the world, are smart enough to realize that hitting big oil infrastructure in today's climate of growing energy scarcity, will cause enormous problems for its foes. So all more drilling will offer the US, is a pipe dream. A highly temporary addition to the oil this country uses. These guys just don't get it. The Big Party is not going to go on like it has, for much longer, 5, 10, maybe 15 years, or real soon if enough things go wrong, all at once, caused by a perfect storm of troubles. We need to demand from our leaders that they take specific actions on a huge scale to develop a wide range of conservation measures, and as big an effort toward developing what ever alternative energy infratstructure we can muster ( anything's better than nothing ), that also in its development, and maintenance, will not require huge amounts of oil to accomplish those goals. Regarding Alternative Energy sources, a major problem is, current technologies still require a significant oil infrastructure base to create them on any meaningful scale. The hour is late, and we don't need leaders, who don't have what it takes, or have the will, to solidly address very quickly, these enormous issues that threaten the well being, and quality of life, of all americans. These tasks will be daunting to achieve, and all the more so, the more we wait. Our future is going to be a place of great change, no matter what. The question is, will a society like ours, which has grown so very used to abundance, be able to par back its lifestyles, and ways of running things, to what will be necesary, to survive for the Long Term? Endless growth is a dead end, and will kill our culture. Achieving sustainabililty should be of the highest priority, it terms of how we will construct, our future. Will we learn this fast enough, or at all? In a poll this evening on CNN, 65% said that the recent run up in Gasoline prices, was causing them Severe Hardship, and that folks, is just the beginning of whats coming, if we don't change.
