Gas prices and the elephant in the middle of the room
The cost of fossil fuels continues to rise. Whether you think it is because of price and market speculation or because of Hubbert’s peak or because of too much demand from the emerging economies in India and China, the fact remains that in North America, we have yet to wake up to the fact that prices for commodities based on fossil fuels are going to rise. That includes the cost of heat and air conditioning, the cost of transportation, the cost food and the cost plastics and consumer items. We have been dancing around the pink elephant in the middle of the room for so long now, it has a sort of normalcy about it. The elephant is this: because yesterday and today things were normal and we could do what we please with the non renewable resources, we can then expect that tomorrow things will also be the same, ie normal. Well folks, the beginning of the wake up call is finally here. We are at the peak or somewhere very close to the peak of cheap oil production and it is never going to be the same again. So when, do you think we are going to plan for the changes? When are we going to stop arguing about how to sidestep something that we have no control over and take control over that which we do?
Its not just about buying smaller cars. Its about a huge list of things and at the top of the agenda is when do we plan for the middle and the long term. Predicting the future is a mugs game and the country side is littered with would be Nostradamases. But on the other hand there are certain realities. Its not just going green, it’s also about thinking ahead and planning. As the cost of getting the oil increases and the wealth of the world shifts from us to the oil producing nations, what in blazes are we going to do. We now rely on the rest of the world for just about everything from toasters to food to cars to jobs.
Business needs to change, the incentives for development at home needs to change and certainly the attitude towards that which sustains us and is not renewable needs to change. Its not about whether we hunt seals or not or whether we drive SUVs versus driving an eco-box. Its about living within our means, taking control of our environment, effluent, markets and populations.
Things are going to get pricier and scarcer and there are only two options as I see it. Plan for it and soften the landing or blithely motor on kvetching about the injustice of it all and run into the wall. As Winston Churchill replied when told that he smelled and was fat, “I can lose weight and take a bath, but you can do nothing about being stupid!”
Lets take a bath, shed some excess and stop, please stop being stupid!