On Fossil Fuels

Vonnegut says, “When you get here, even when I got here, the industrialized world was already hopelessly hooked on fossil fuels, and very soon now there won’t be any left. Cold turkey."

"Can I tell you the truth? I mean this isn’t the TV news is it? Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on.”

This world is going to go cold turkey on fossil fuels someday. This is inevitable, but what really gets me is that it is going to happen before there are enough alternative fuel sources available. And you can’t call me a pessimist. The last reaches of oil are certainly going to be tapped before we have an answer to the gaping hole in our future. But what about Ethanol? Yeah, right. I heard a statistic on the news the other night that if all of this country’s corn was used for Ethanol production it would only account for 15% of the USA’s fossil fuel consumption.

I couldn’t agree more with Vonnegut about all of us being addicts of fossil fuels. I know we will run out. I know there isn’t any replacement for it, but I’ll get in my car tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. I am trying to use less fuel and energy where I can. I take it easy on the gas and stretch each tank to the maximum mileage and that’s not just because gas is $3.25. I could start riding my bike whenever I need to go somewhere in Longmont, but the layout of our society demands the use of fossil fuels. I’ll list a couple of examples. Big box stores are almost always built on the outskirts of town because this is the only space for these obese cinderblock eyesores. Who would have thought, but capitalism and globalization have boosted some economies of the world to unbelievable heights, while others have plummeted. In the end, however, capitalism and globalization will be the end of most economies of this world. Business is private jets. Business is premier class flights where each person has a recliner and a personal office at 40,000 feet. Business is China shipping goods to their next-door neighbor…the U.S. Business is consuming everything to get another zero in your account balance regardless of what is burnt on the way there. We are fine, as long as it isn’t our money being burned.

Leaders of the world know that fossil fuels are limited. Unfortunately, their solutions have been to go on a global shopping spree for the last vapors of the stuff. However, when you bring the battle to the part of the world where most oil comes from it just seems to make it more expensive to get that oil here. Where are we going to go when Iraq is dry?