Tomas,
The author dismisses the problems of oil without much thought.
Problem #1.
"The consumption and production of oil spoil the environment."
His reply - "air pollution from combustion-diminish as technology progresses" - a childish distortion of the truth.
Engines have become more efficient, but air pollution from combustion has not diminished because a) the total number of sources has increased b)efficiecy gains are offset by larger engines (ie avg. fuel economy hasn't changed - or has it gotten worse?).
Problem #2
"Reliance on the Middle East for oil supply is dangerous."
Answer - "It's no more so than reliance on Nigeria or Venezuela for oil supply or on general trade for economic health."
Whoa! Are we really so naive to ignore the distinctions between say Canada, and Iran, Lybia, or Saudia Arabia? Or if supply from Venezuela is also risky does this mean we should passively sit back and do nothing? Is it really all the same? Or can we count on a different response from these countries in a time of crisis?
There are differences, and fundamental differences between nations, governments, and the men who run them. We can not escape the reality that the Mid East can bring massive economic disruption to the west and that this power is not some remote, obscure threat, but a very real force - a force (religion) more powerful than reason. The solution is not to say 'hey, it's all the same anyways, let's just let the market take care of itself', but to actively seek alternatives, to make contingencies, to have the means to protect ourselves from this threat.
Problem #3
* Burning oil causes global warming.
Answer - "This remains hypothesis, unsubstantiated by observation yet overwhelmingly accepted."
It is overwhelmingly accepted by those who spend their life studying it. Saying it's not happening over and over and over will not make global warming less of an issue. And mountains of money spent saying it doesn't exist over and over will not make it go away. Glaciers are melting, ocean temperatures are rising, ecosystems are moving north, and avg. world temperatures have risen faster in the last 20 years than at any time in the recorded past. At some point we need to acknowledge that we've released into the atmosphere much of the energy that the planet has been saving up for the last 100's of billions of years in the course of about 100, with the majority in the last 20. And we need to be honest and understand that we can't do that without upsetting something.
Rant over, go CRK. -g- |
