Let’s look a little closer to home regarding the predictions of this report. The growth in fossil fuel consumption is expected to occur primarily in other areas of the world. That means that a large portion of the 75% of the energy that the U.S. currently purchases from the aforementioned kindly foreign nations could well be needed by someone else. This brings us back to item 3 of plan “B.”
Can the U.S. become energy independent? Of course we can. All we have to do is stop driving, stop paving, stop making plastic, stop flying, stop trains and trucking, and live in mud huts.
We could also start drilling every National Park in the U.S. We could also drill in the Artic National Wildlife Reserve and in every ocean surrounding this country. And in the end, we would still have the same problem; exponential growth is impossible.
Of course, doing all of the above will make very little difference except to put off the inevitable for four more years while the politicians make up new campaign promises. But, in keeping with tradition, putting off reality is in fact what we have been doing since the design for our economy began. Like those little wind up toys that take off across the room, run into the wall, beat their head on the wall for a little while and then turn around and head full steam for another wall.
It’s not a question of whether we will run out of resources, and especially oil. It’s a matter of when we run short and how bad it will be. My belief is that it will be soon and extremely bad.
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