For those who wonder how to convince resistant people we must move away from fossil fuels due to Climate Change, I have one word of advice: Don't.
There's
actually no need. Not because Global Warming isn't real - it is, and
the overwhelming evidence is that it's largely fueled by human actions
- but because there are other reasons why we should move away from
fossil fuel-based energy. The elegant thing about a multi-pronged
approach like this is that you can always find some reason to convince
someone with. For example, hard-core conservatives may simply refuse to
believe anything people do could affect "God's perfect world" but they
are perfectly willing to accept that we should not be sending half a
trillion dollars a year to foreign oil producers who mostly hate us,
and who export terrorism along with their oil (#s 4-6).
1. Climate Change:
Oil and Coal contribute to global warming and will only do so more as
China, India etc. emulate American lifestyles. According to many
scientists, we may already be past the temperature "tipping point"
where runaway synergistic effects will make warming inevitable, even if
we could stop all CO2 production today (which we can't).
3. Green Jobs: Germany has created 250,000
new green jobs in its solar industry, which supplies 13% of its
electric needs. We need to replace oil, coal and nuclear producing jobs
with wind and solar installation and maintenance jobs. (It takes 10
years to build a nuclear plant and 2 years to build a solar thermal
field).
4. National Security: We must not depend on
foreign powers to supply us with vital energy, which is as critical to
modern society as food and shelter. Even if we drill the arctic for oil
(home to up to 25% of the world's reserves, according to US Geological
Survey), we will have to defend those new wells not only from nature,
but from Russia, Canada, Denmark (Greenland), and others with a claim
to the high north, leading to unnecessary conflict with these
countries. Clearly, ANWR has never been about the tiny bit of land off
northern Alaska that would supply just 2 years of oil for America; it's
been about opening up the entire Arctic to exploration. We cannot
afford to defend such a large and inhospitable region from other
regional players with as large or larger geological claims.
5. The Oil Curse:
Countries that depend on natural resources to make money, and not
people, are the most corrupt, despotic, self-righteous and anti-human
rights regimes on Earth. China does not seem to care where their oil
comes from, encouraging rogue states like Sudan, Iran, Burma and
Venezuela, where human rights barely exist. This is a naà ¯ve and
ultimately counter-productive strategy for China but not one we should
be encouraging again either (see: the downfall of the Shah of Iran).
6. Military Overreach:
America cannot afford to defend oil fields. The Iraq war is, at least
partly, a subsidy for Big Oil. Lives are being lost and resources are
being spent ($12 Billion/month) so that - maybe, eventually - we can
get more oil out of Iraq (estimated to be 2 or 3 largest holder of oil
reserves). Meanwhile, Iraq does not even use its own $79 billion surplus to pay
for its infrastructure needs, while here in the U.S. our bridges
collapse from lack of care (Minnesota) and our electrical grid blacks
out.
7. Peak Oil: We are probably only seeing peak
geopolitical oil, not peak geological oil, now, but it will only get
more expensive to drill oil. Most estimates put peak oil within 10
years, and since global demand has exceeded earlier estimates, we may
be even closer. The perversion of the OPEC dominated oil market means
that they will drill LESS, not MORE, as the price goes up, since they
literally collect more money than they know what to do with already,
and they want to stretch out their supply. It's only when the price of
oil goes DOWN that OPEC members are tempted to cheat on their quotas
because their dysfunctional economies become desperate for cash. Right
now, they want to sell oil only a trickle at a time.
8. Local Environmental Damage:
If we drill everywhere, we will eventually have oil wells all over the
west (instead of wind turbines), and even in the (newly melted) arctic.
These high-risk drilling areas will be more likely to see oil spills,
soot, and CO2 damage and the further eradication of local animal (Polar
Bears) and plant life. Already, regional water tables are being
polluted by accidents and poisonous chemicals involved in the drilling
industry. This is especially true of the Natural Gas and Coal
industries, which use and pollute prodigious amounts of scarce water
resources. The cost to clean up the toxic coal ash release in Harriman,
Tennessee has been estimated to be as high as $800 billion, higher than
President Obama's entire stimulus bill. This "pond" was merely average
out of hundreds of similar ponds located all over the south and west.
9. We eat too much oil:
Oil goes into fertilizer, which goes into corn, which goes into
EVERYTHING we eat, including meat. Omega 6 fatty acids (the bad kind)
are higher in factory-fed beef. Omega 3 fatty acids (the good kind) are
higher in grass-fed beef and almost as high as in fish, according to
Michael Pollen (the Omnivore's Dilemma). Oil-based Corn-fed meat is
making us fat and raising the national health bill. Cattle, pigs,
chickens live a cruel, short life in tight, economical confines because
it is cheaper to make them do so than to let them live on the open
range. Even an omnivore must realize there is a difference for an
animal to be raised humanely and then killed for food than one that is
tortured in a CAFO its entire life and then killed. Each wind turbine
pays farmers $5,000-$10,000 annually and allows livestock to graze in
their shade, making natural grass-fed meat economically competitive
again. This synergy could make us healthier AND wean us off imported
oil. It would also make our streams, rivers and the Gulf of Mexico
healthier by reducing fertilizer runoff.
10. Loss of American's position as Innovation Leader:
The oil and automotive industries were born here over 100 years ago. It
is time for America to lead the world into the renewable era with Zero
Emission Vehicles and renewable energy. If not us, then China or some
other countries will take our place and America will become a
second-rate power dependent on others for everything.
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