I decided that I needed to start this blog somehow. Of all that is going on in this world what would I start writing about? Well... How about a excellent chapter I read in my new book, Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded.
I just tackled a chapter, which title reads 'Petro-Dictatorship'. Which outlined the effects our energy consumption to unstable mineral-exporting rich countries. These nations have the luxury to be lazy in reform due to windfall profits from huge mineral deposits, in particular oil. With strong supporting information, the conclusion was that a nation will only want reform when they are forced into it. Otherwise the elite will oppress the weak and poor, financed by the large mineral exports. Oil slows reforms due to the money it provides for a country. That money allows dictators to 'silence' opposition, subsidize industries that would otherwise fail, and buy time to address real issues later on.
I have noticed over the past few months that the price of oil has been going down. Some of this was due to the past election, some from US consumers curbing their driving habits, but mostly from the loss of speculation in the market. The one and most important thing that came out of last summer's $150+ barrel price of oil was the sweeping realization that change in old habits is needed. Americans have spent the last few years propping up dictators with oil revenue. I don't know why it took so long for us to see our present economic situation brewing, or trouble ideological-oppressive religious states given there are many factors to it's stumble, the most important being our energy policy.
When I hear the words 'sustainable economic development' I think growth in moderation. Planning for unforeseen & predictable problems through strong economic policy and guidance. It is to view the world as one system, and the worlds economy as a subsystem. This means the overall health of our planet is immediately dictated by the size of the worlds economy. I believe it is inevitable that once the economy becomes X size, there will be no resources left to continue it's growth. We are talking about a closed system, size is definite, but not yet defined.
This leads me into energy policy. The harvesting of energy is essential for every economic system in place. To consume all of a finite resource, that is very efficient (oil) is unintelligent. To waste in the name growth, & hinder future possibilities of sustained growth sounds again, unintelligent. We have the resources available to us to use less of a non-renewable resource. Combining innovative & localized harnessing of wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, & supplementing these with oil where they won't work is the correct direction. What would need to be done is an outlined plan for energy development, investing today to make these resources more efficient. This would curb our appetite on oil, and allow greater sustained growth of our economy by using what is abundant and free before what is limited and non-renewable.
If we use up what took mother nature millions of years to brew, how will our economy continue to flourish? We live in 1950's infrastructure developed in the direction of ZERO knowledge about oil life cycle. The more we rely on oil to fuel our economic development the harder it will be to get off of it. It is like an addict, and we are on step 1, just beginning to admit the problem. The faster we tone down that addiction to unsustainable growth, the quicker we will prepare ourselves for the next 100 years. So this becomes a call to action, most will want to call upon Barack Obama, but that is not the correct place. It has to be a call to ourselves, a call that causes us to reduce our wasteful consumption. A call to strive and be better, and a call to demand that change of our leaders. Our leaders only do what they think is most beneficial to our county, and most believe that is saving our wallets by providing cheap oil. That mindset only re-affirms the addict.
So what will you do?.... Make a pledge.
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