Regular readers of this blog know that I'm no green freak. I have frequently poked fun at the "eco-nazis" who militantly insist that we stop using oil and coal as energy sources.....now! That's not only silly...it's impossible.
Still, as I awakened Monday morning, turned on the news and read of still another oil rig explosion, I was a bit nauseated. That nausea was compounded as I read of Iraqi forces moving to take control of the Kurdish oil fields. It has been exactly forty-four years now since oil has been used to fuel the world wide plague of extreme Islamic terrorism, Saudi Arabia the biggest oil producer, and the the biggest funder of those terrorist groups. The Saudis have, in recent years, slacked off on that funding, given that many of those they once funded have to come back to bite them in the ass.
From an environmental standpoint, we've all been sickened by watching that oil sludge wash up on the shores of Louisiana and Florida. Even the staunchest oil advocates must have had a stomach churning moment or two seeing that.
So, this morning we are seeing oil workers die and middle east sheiks fighting for the spigot. And, down in Louisiana we are waiting with bated breath to see if we are going to see more nasty sludge wash up on pristine shoreline. I'm tired of it all.
While I know it will take many years for the world to ween itself off of oil, it can't some soon enough for me. While a "Manhattan Project" level of national effort will be costly, I would remind folks that we've now spent trillions of the last two decades, battling oil-funded Islamic terrorists. How many solar homes could we have built with those trillions? How many communities could we have hooked up to the wind turbine grid with that kind of dough?
The costs of a carbon based economy are enormous, in lost lives, in environmental disasters, and the rapidly diminishing quality of our air and water. And yet we continue to move at a snail's pace. I am not advocating for an immediate halt to carbon based fuels. But we can certainly do better than we have to date.
The death of oil can't come soon enough for me.
4 comments:
wow, this sounds pretty 'liberal' to me! It is really pretty simple though and it is even in the Bible: we are supposed to be "caretakers" of this planet. You are correct, ending Big Oil won't be fast as we have become addicted to it and, like any addict, will do whatever it takes to get our fix, including wars and destroying our environment. It is a shame we pulled out of the Paris Agreement and turned over leadership of clean energy to China. Even most American Corporations were not in favor of that. As individuals we can make small steps: "paper or plastic"? we can bring our own bag and not throw more trash into the ocean. nice post, thanks!
Agree with everything you just said, Jerry...except for the Paris Agreement stuff. Been doing a lot of research on that for a future blog. The Paris Agreement was a nightmare...where we were expected to fund the effort...and sacrifice greater as a third of the world gamed the system. Trump was right to pull out..........though I doubt that he actually understood why.
it was the "leadership of clean energy" and giving this role to China that I was objecting to.Many American Industries agree with me on This Part of it.
With respect to those "corporate supporters", I'll just refer you back to my last blog. Global corporate whores, ready to profit with american taxpayer money. As to China, they are our bankers, Jerry. We owe them more than $2 trillion dollars in loans through our treasuries. They are already running the show.
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