Most Viewed Stories
Most Commented Stories
Save & Share this Article
How to win the war in Iraq
Editorial: April 26
There is a solution to the war in Iraq that no one seems to have thought of, one that could resolve our interest in the area and resolve a lot of other problems for us and the rest of the world.
We have to make oil obsolete.
Imagine what it would feel like to tell the oil cartels, "Umm, sorry boys, just don't need any more. Check with China, maybe they can use some."
It is not impossible; nothing is impossible. But someone has to have the courage and ingenuity to create the alternative.
We are smarter today than we ever have been. We have more tools to help us think and create than at any time in history. We can look into the soul of a single atom and rearrange DNA like wooden blocks.
Why can't we do something about energy?
Because there is no incentive.
Millions of jobs depend on the oil industry and trillions of dollars in wages and revenues.
People would see it as counterproductive, if not downright treasonous, to eliminate those jobs and crash the oil business in lieu of a cleaner and more readily available fuel source.
Governments around the world are structured around oil, including our own. There are financial incentives to keep oil, to make oil and perpetuate the use of oil. To eliminate it, could cause world chaos and upheaval.
The American Petroleum Institute is touting Department of Interior estimates there are 112 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil beneath U.S. federal lands and coastal waters. That's enough oil to fuel 60 million cars for 60 years at current production and usage rates.
They see this as a good thing, as if 60 years is a long time and our consumption of oil is not going to increase.
But 60 years is less than a single lifetime. It means that if not in your lifetime, then surely in your children's, the U.S. will see an end to its oil.
It's time to get serious about oil alternatives.
If we want to be a world leader, then let us act like one and lead the way in a technological revolution.
It's not a question of "if we can do it," but rather "when we do it."
