Monday, July 03, 2006

Energy and Death

I've determined that as a country, we need to rethink our energy consumption. Now granted, I'm not a tree-hugging-hippie who thinks global warming will kill us in 3 years. Well, I am tree-hugging, but I don't think global warming is really as big of an issue as a lot of people. I actually don't think there is enough evidence to support global warming.

I think the main cause that United Statesians should rethink our energy consumption is that we use entirely too much. Strike that. We WASTE entirely too much. Meaning, we don't turn off lights and we go on road trips in a gas-guzzling SUV when there are only two people in the car (e.g. a passenger car would work just fine). Everywhere I go I see a glutany of United Statesians wasting electricity.

And to make matters worse, is the fact that people die for power. Our soldiers die for oil and oil rights. Governments fall and rise in the Middle East for oil and which country they'll give lower prices too. Miners die in tunnel collapses while mining coal. Oil riggers fall into freezing oceans in the arctic. Do people waste electricity because they don't connect these deaths with their waste of energy.

So I ask you all, turn off your lights when you walk out of a room. Turn your AC down during the summer and your heat down during the winter a couple degrees. Walk to work if you can, or ride a bike to run errands. Buy a fuel efficient car. If you have a large family and need an SUV, buy one SUV for family trips and a commuter car for running errands and commuting to work. There is no reason to commute to work alone in an SUV.

This world was given to us. It's an amazing piece of art and a mind-blowingly genious engineering feat. It has withstood everything that we've done to try and hurt it. But unfortunately human life cannot withstand human greed. So stop being so greedy.