Bring on the end of the petroleum age. I have an undying faith in the inventiveness of man and I possess a true belief that necessity will be the antecedent of innovation. Bring on our day of reckoning and let us reckon with it! As we accelerate toward “the end of global oil reserves,” free market innovation will gear up to finally move us forward. What a blessing it would be for me to live long enough to hear an end to the blathering about oil being the cause of so many environmental ills. Let the last oil-fueled lamp burn itself out and let us finally be done with it! Goodness sakes almighty, when I was a young man during the famous 1970’s “energy crisis” I heard and read seeming endless “expert” opinions that the world’s oil reserves would be exhausted in 20-30 years time. Those “deadlines” passed without eschatological significance and those predictions have been revised forward several times since. Be done with it! Let our enemies, who have flourished from our thirst for oil, finally learn what it is like to possess nothing that we need. I call on all red-blooded Americans to tank up their gas guzzling SUVs and party hearty until the end is upon us!
For that matter, I wish the world supply of coal were
nearing exhaustion. Unfortunately, we
will need to tolerate the argument on its environmental impact until free market
prices nurture change. The pessimist in
you may say that the failure of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is
evidence that nuclear power cannot be managed.
BAH! This was an “end of the
world” scenario that miserably failed to cause the end of the world. Yes, the site is the mother of all stinking
messes to clean up, but engineers and scientists from all over the world are
studying that debacle and the future power plants, policies, and procedures
will reflect what was learned. We live,
we learn, and we move forward.
You have a great point. I have a book called Great Doomsday Myth that goes back through history and lists all the times that people have been afraid we would die because of a lack. We are still here.
ReplyDeleteThe weakness in your position is in the term "free enterprise." With all the government controls we will need to really suffer before the people will wake up and allow innovation to produce what we need.
Preach it.
Grace and peace.
Tell it!
ReplyDeleteSuffering as an input will be what gives us a real alternative to petroleum and coal. Until then, our best bet is to find ways to more efficiently and cleanly use it. And find polite ways to tell envirofascists to gag on a tube sock filled with sauerkraut.