Everyone around here is talking, panicking, reacting to the gasoline shortage. I wrote a column today about the gas panic–and how that, plus the financial crisis plus climate change plus Sarah Palin–are making me worried for my kids’ future.
But the column won’t be published until Monday, so you’ll have to wait. In the mean time, I’m hoping that one positive from this mess is that we stop taking our cars for granted. Wouldn’t it be nice if carpooling, bus riding, and walking were the norm instead of the exception?
Of course, this is how the world will be in 50 or so years. Because, guess what? The world is running out of oil. You can drill, baby, drill all you want and buy us a few more years, but, remember, oil’s a nonrenewable resource. And it’s disappearing quickly.
Feeling happy now, aren’t you?
I’m going to bed.
How to cheer up EM?
I agree with you; we don’t need to drill baby drill, we need to think baby think and talk baby talk. There are hints of the amazing technology ahead, and I feel I have no choice but to be optimistic or give up and go forth blindly. I don’t know if there will ever be such a thing as 100% renewable energy, but our geniuses will find ways to get more and more efficient with our harnessed (albeit currently inadequately) and incredibly abundant resources, such as wind, sun, water, even gravity. There will be much suffering on the way, as there always has been and always will. But we will one day tip the scales toward a more gentle marriage with our planet (I must believe). Technology has already allowed us to connect with each other in ways never before possible. Thanks to this awesome power of communication, we know the truth of the world more and more, and our ability to influence the planet as a cooperative community is growing rapidly. Maybe one day we will be able to leave this planet, and look back upon as it dies of natural causes without shame and regret, but with gratitude and pride. If our species is even slightly more good than bad, we’ll get there.
For my basic mental health, I am limiting how much news I take in each day. Between the economy, gas and grocery bill, and the Republican ticket continuing what has happened these last 8 years, it is enough to send one into depression. I am literally praying that Obama-Biden win and we can start to head in a different direction. It’s going to take some time, and more pain, to get out of this unbelievable mess, but we need to get started on it.
That’s actually the way I grew up in the small town South 60 + years ago….we really did walk everywhere ! Each person was RESPONSIBLE for himself and we all had RESPECT for each other and our environment. No politician can make that happen, unfortunately.
I have been tracking the change in oil/gasoline prices. In my community the price of gasoline for years was above $3.00 a gallon. In September 2008, the price of gasoline was about $4.50 a gallon. The price then drastically dropped to $1.80 a gallon or so. I cannot find any explanation as to why the sudden drop in gasoline price. Can you respond? Thanks, Karen Jones