To say that the world is addicted to oil is an understatement. Oil is more than an addiction, it’s the life blood of the world’s energy intensive economy.
Despite the world’s insatiable demand for what science and common sense tell us is a finite resource, industry and those that constantly require more and more of what industry can produce behave as though oil is as plentiful as the perpetual energy produced by the sun.
While the captains of industry and the merchants of the extractive economy malign those who predict dire consequences from this slothfulness, the world continues to feed its oil addiction at an alarming pace. With no realistic plan to address the impending crisis, the industrialized world places all of humanity in peril.
Yes, fossil fuel-induced climate change and global warming are of grave concern but it’s the hideous specter of economic collapse that should garner most of our focus. Shrinking coastlines, extreme drought and ill health can be partially mitigated, albeit at great expense, but the extinction of the world economy would be an event of apocalyptic magnitude and cries out for an emergency declaration that inescapably points us toward renewable energy.
Addressing the twin evils of climate change and economic collapse at the same time should be something that even the most ardent capitalist can get excited about.
Thomas R. Smith, Hurricane