Well, Dang.
Last week my wife and I flew to Alaska for the first time. Georgetown University political theorist Patrick Deneen thinks we've also flown to the Alaska for the last time - afraid he might be right.
I've just finished listening to an NPR program, "On Point," the subject of which was the prospect of "the end of cheap airfare," or - to be more blunt - the end of air travel for most of us. Its host was incredulous that they could even be considering the possibility that Americans may have to start thinking about distances in making choices about where they live. He couldn't repeat enough that oil prices were forcing a reconsideration about everything we assume about life as we know it in America. The realization is dawning that we've based a civilization on a fleeting and temporary substance. It is yet to occur to many that what an oil civilization allowed us was the luxury of thoughtlessness. A national seminar is underway, but at the moment many of us are just starting to study, though the lesson started some time ago. And there is no curve.
posted by PSA+ at 12:31
1 Comments:
One hopes that the "national seminar" will include the facts that 85% of American shores are off limits to drilling. Major parts of the US due to various laws block either oil or oil-shale exploitation, which we KNOW how to do safely. It has been 35 years since we build a new refinery, and about that long since a nuclear plant was brought on line. Living in TVA country, there are nuclear plants nearby, but you are welcome to build one in my back yard. Meanwhile other countries such as Brazil, thought to be without energy resources, are finding truly massive oil fields. So yes, by all means, lets have a national seminar.
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