Current economic woes

[Mike]

Originally Posted by johnny

2: gee, that's reassuring (that you think everything will be figured out). no sense of urgency or anything though, right? more concerned about pinching pennies on a tank of gas for the near future.. why should we care if the fuel we're burning is actually sustainable?

3: i can't tell if you're being facetious :|

There's a big graph of different lines and points and figures*. It would list many things, efficiency, cost, environmental effects, and so on. Oil, as much as we hate to admit it, sits right at the middle of this graph... It is the most efficient, the most cost effective, and one of the least environmentally damaging of those 'efficient / cost effective' solutions. The ethanol push, in 2006, was a huge lobbying scam and we're paying the price now. Hydrogen is a hoax. Fuel cells are less efficient and cost effective, but are reasonable alternatives... but at this point, they are no less environmentally friendly, over the life of a car, than a 1998 gas-guzzling SUV.

We could, perhaps, change our way of life... but we have to remember: our way of life has made for the most prosperous mass of people in the annals of human history. In the 120 years the "Big Oil" has appeared on the global scene, the world has exponentially gained in literacy, collective health, and quality of life. The impact that oil has on this is staggering... it is the lifeblood of the wealthiest economy in the history of the universe, and advances in technology, education, politics, health sciences, and so on, is the fruit of that economy.

* This graph does not actually exist, but it could if someone were willing to take the time to draw it.