Ready or not, we are now choosing the future of the United States. The proposed Iraq war represents the belief that our country can meet its needs for the future through militarism. Alternatively, we can lead a cooperative effort with the rest of the world to achieve sustainability, safety, and prosperity. Our immediate choice is about oil.
Oil is the key fuel for the U.S. and the world. It is critical to American industry. It powers our cars and heats our homes. It is also critical to our agriculture, powering irrigation pumps, producing fertilizer, and fueling tractors and trucks. It’s difficult to overstate U.S. dependence on oil.
Worldwide, oil is being pumped from the ground faster than new supplies are being discovered. Geologists believe that within this decade, the amount of oil recovered per year will peak, and start to fall for the first time. In the next decades, the world’s supply of oil will run out.
To some extent natural gas and coal can substitute for oil, but there are problems. Like oil, these are fossil fuels-- energy from the sun captured and stored in the earth over millions of years. All are running out, and once they are gone, they are gone. Also, burning any of these adds carbon dioxide, a green house gas, to the atmosphere. Scientists believe burning fossil fuels is already changing the earth’s climate, raising the level of oceans, triggering storms of unprecedented severity, and disrupting agriculture with floods and droughts.
If we expect to live on planet earth for the indefinite future, we must achieve sustainability. In terms of energy, this means we must be weaned from burning fossil fuels. That will require the technology and infrastructure to harvest renewable energy from the sun.
Solar energy from wind or direct sunlight can be captured as electricity. Electricity can be used to make hydrogen gas. Hydrogen can be stored and transported. With fuel cells, it can make cars pollution-free and efficient; it can power and heat houses; and it can drive industry.
Rebuilding our society around sustainable energy is within the scope of American ingenuity. But the infrastructure required will be vast, requiring the cooperation of business and government. This will be the new industrial revolution.
Fortunes will be made supplying renewable energy systems. This revolution will bring prosperity, and create new jobs. Renewable energy systems will be needed all over the world, and will revitalize the world’s economy. So what stands in the way?
Our industries and our government are stuck in the past. In the short term, oil and automotive corporations can make the most money by keeping cheap oil flowing. They support political candidates, and pay lobbyists to promote their views to our government. One such view is that the American military should be used to stabilize our oil supply, for example in Iraq.
The U.S. spends some $400 billion per year on militarism—more than the rest of the world put together. But we don’t need an aggressive foreign policy. We could save most of this money, and create a lot of good will for America, by adopting a cooperative foreign policy, based on supporting international law.
With some of that $400 billion per year, we could jump start renewable energy in this country. If the projected $200 billion cost of the Iraq war were spent on energy independence instead, it would buy more security, less terrorism, and would not cost America its self-respect.
The U.S. uses about 100 quads of energy per year. A quad is a quadrillion Btu’s, the energy equivalent of a tank of gasoline the size of a football field, and 5 miles high. That’s a lot of energy! Suppose we had project “QUAD25”, with the goal of saving or renewably generating 25 quads of energy per year by 2025?
It’s a question of leadership. John F. Kennedy took us to the moon in 10 years. Now we need leadership to turn away from fossil fuels, and go the sun.
The proposed Iraq war is an expensive and dangerous distraction from transitioning to renewable energy. It is a 20th century solution to a 21st century problem. Do we want America to be merely strong? Do we want a future of Americans being resented and feared, bullying weaker countries and precipitating terrorism?
Or do we want America to be truly great, doing the right things, in ways other countries can respect? We need leadership to transition to renewable energy.
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Hank Stone, 1880 Route 64, Ionia, NY 14475 (585) 624-3673 HStone@rochester.rr.com