Oil and the Slippery Slope We're On

Finite: having limits or bounds. It's opposite, slightly more recognizable: infinite. Why is it that the word infinite is used so much more in writing, television, and day to day conversation? It's sensationalized by our culture. There are car manufactures, radio services, insurance companies and an entire onslaught of other corporations who take their name from it. The ever expanding universe. To infinity and beyond. Forever and ever. It's all around us. Yet, the idea of anything being completely limitless and without bounds is impossible to even understand; to truly understand. Nothingness and infinity are both outside of what the human mind can comprehend. Things of a limited supply, however, are all around us, and are completely tangible. They're just not as fun to talk about. But a total exhaustion of any major resource could take a major toll on our way of life. Especially when at the core of our entire economic system is one of those finite resources. Oil.

We will run out of oil. There are no more dinosaurs to replenish it; and we just don't have the time. We use it way faster than it generates. Peak oil has already been passed. We will never extract as much crude oil from the ground as we were in 2005. We're at the top of the mountain, and it is a slippery slope. So, we'll have to start driving electric cars. Whatever, hippie. Right? Unfortunately it's just not that simple. In 2009 almost 60% of the electricity generated in the U.S. was made with fossil fuels. Nonrenewable. Another 25% was made with natural gas. Also nonrenewable. Wind, solar, geothermal, and hydroelectric dams made up less than 10% combined. Essentially, electric cars are running off of fossil fuels, and so are your lights, your televisions, and your cell phones.

It doesn't stop there. Gasoline is just one of many casualties. Amongst the others are plastic, latex, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Think about all of the plastic you have in your house. What about our medical supplies and individually wrapped food? What about food in general. Those petroleum based chemicals are what allow us to achieve such high yielding crops. At the same time they are poisoning the land making it useless for the near future. Oil is not only what sustains our population; it is what allowed it to get to such a large, overcrowding number in the first place.

It's time for another Renaissance. Science knows better than to continue on the path we are on and culture is catching up. I think the reason the first Renaissance was so great and lasted so long is because those people didn't just change the way they thought, they changed the way they educated so that the future would be changed for the better too. We have to change the way we teach. The importance of infinity has to be replaced with the importance of conservation and appreciation in our entire way of life. If we allow ourselves to destroy our own economical backbone we will suffer great consequences, possibly a total collapse of out current system. Nothing still in comparison to what is happeng to our ecological system.
We have to replace all fossil fuel technologies. Even if they weren't inefficient and harmful and expensive, they still wouldn't work. They cannot keep up to our growing demand forever. Why wait until we absolutely have to make the change. Faze them out now. Other options are not yet fully realized between a lack of research, funding, and suppression to protect corporate profits. But there are many that show promise. Synthetic silk in place of plastics. It's made from only protein and water. Personally, I think the only logical answer for power is the Sun. After all it is the sole provider energy to every organism on this planet, either directly or indirectly. Biomass fuel power is also very promising.

We can do this. We can do it better than any other group of people in history could have, because we have the internet. We can share these ideas. It has to be made clear; oil is not the choice of our generation. We don't care how much money and convince is at stake. There is a lot of momentum fighting against us, but we are young and anything is possible.

-The film “Collapse,” a documentary focused on American author, Michael Ruppert, brought my attention to a lot of this information. Collapse is available on Netflix. I strongly suggest it.-

Do not just question authority, question everything.