Unless you drive a Prius and belong to the Sierra Club, sorry, the global warming argument isn’t going to get anybody’s ass off the couch to do anything. Until warming rots the potatoes that fill our bags of chips and makes it too hot to pick up the remote control, no one cares about a steadily warming climate. It’s just one of those unfortunate, short-sighted plights of many Americans.
What should get people’s asses off the couch are all the other reasons.
Let’s pretend global warming or “climate change” is simply a motivational item—perhaps a giant American flag floating above one of our greatest cities while the camera slowly pans by. What a beautiful sight that is. It represents independence and self-reliance. It represents power and prestige. It truly represents what all Americans hope for our country and often perceive it to be.
Unfortunately, being a beacon requires constant reassessment and soul-searching and we, as Americans, have a terrible time with this bit.
Right now we consume 20,680,000 barrels of oil a day. That’s 66% of America’s oil being imported from foreign countries. As oil goes, we’re dependent, not independent. One way to fix this, is to invest in serious alternative energies. Build solar, wind, hydro and nuclear and begin to phase out coal and oil.
On another note, when we consume so much oil from foreign countries, we are effectively not only dependent on, but beholden to, foreign countries. Our addiction makes us much less safe because without foreign oil, our country would grind to a halt. No oil to run our cars, trains, or planes. No oil to run our military. Take a second to ask yourself, what do we do when the oil that we depend on is in the hands of our enemy? You could reckon back to the Iraq war and realize that we’ve already explored what we’d do. It’s an unfortunate reality to continuing to be the most powerful economy in the world.
These oil reserves are quickly being lapped up by other developing countries who have many, many more consumers than we could ever imagine. It’s only a matter a time before we are faced with a market that is unsustainable. There will simply be too much demand with a finite supply. We should start considering the consequences now, because if we don’t, we face being consumed ourselves.
I love being American. I love the freedom that I have and I recognize that I’m fortunate to have been born here. But being born in a great country does not give Americans the right to think that greatness is a God endowed right. Greatness is built and sustained by smart, forward-thinking, dare I say, progressive agendas. Simply sitting back our laurels and depending on WWII victories as a ticket to an unending splendor, is delusional. Right now we need to be making ourselves the true independent people that we see ourselves as. Right now, we need to focus on what it is that we need and how to best provide it for ourselves. Alternative energy infrastructure could easily shift us from a consumer driven society by building a new foundation for America’s working class producers. This and, of course, the fact that we would no longer be begging for our next black, slimy, grimy meal.