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Archives Review
Energy Prices - Hitting Home, Dividing Classes
Expectations will need to change
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Here we are in another energy crisis. It's not only unleaded and diesel fuel. Natural gas, electricity, home heating oil - all different types of flammable fuels - are becoming more and more expensive.
Hybrid cars are better. Efficient furnaces are good. Even solar collection array are effective. All of these simply delay the problem from becoming epidemic and continue our dependance on these fossil fuels and precious domestic energy.
Why then, are we as a society not demanding more effective alternative sources of energy into the mainstream? Why are we still consuming like it was 1963?
It's a tough question, and depending on your bias towards the easy popular targets (i.e. SUV's, Fast Food, etc.) you may be missing the point completely. We're a nation of extreme convenience. Consequently, we've become a nation of extreem consumption.
This isn't to say that other nations are any better - there are lots of examples of nations that consume just as much, and in some cases more, than the United States. Take a look at the booming country of China.
Perhaps rather than looking for ways to continue about our daily routine and consumption rates, we should consider all aspects of our lives that consume something - eating, driving, clothing, heating - all of it. What can we do as individuals to change the culture of this nation from one that consumes mass quantities to one that consumes only what it needs?
Think long term here. I'm not asking you to think about how it will affect you tomorrow or even the next day - but down the road. Will your life be that different if you turn the heat down 5 degrees or cut your driving down to just necessary trips?
We can all stand to adjust our lives a little. Most of us are addicted to mass consumption. There's little we do that in our consumption-functionality that is truely necessary to sustain life. For that matter, there's little we do that is necessary to maintain a quality of life that fulfills us. In most cases, we've been massaged into our ways of consuming out of control - rather than basing our consumption on real needs, wants and desires have been handed to us or dreamed up by us.
I'm not attacking capitalism. Far from it. Capitalism is a very powerful and desirable system of economy. What I am attacking is the lack of control that we excerpt as business owners, entrepenuers and consumers in the process. We tend to put aside concern for things that aren't immediately affecting our business decisions. We're too stuck on making a buck.
Many entrepenuers have already started making headway in combining capitalism with consumption responsible values.
Let's look at the effects of maintaining our unsustainable consumption methods.
Further dividing classes continues. We've seen it as far back as Rome and are seeing it again today - the gap between rich and poor widens and the middle class disappears when prices and scarcity rise. Revolt ensues traditionally. This isn't something that anyone wants, rich or poor.
Prices will continue to rise on fuels and food as we run out of our surpluses (some of which we don't realize are surpluses and we treat as a renewable resource).
At some point, it all collapses. All that we have worked for in America - gone. Suburbs will become wastelands where we dump our trash. SUV's will become planter boxes in our front yards. Our appliances will become museum relics of a "lavash time past". We'll all be divided and living either in militia compounds or in the inner cities, just barely hanging on.
So, decide for yourself. Is it worth it eating all that fast food, driving all those miles in your SUV and keeping your house at 80 degrees in th winter? Where can you contribute to the sustainability of America? Who can you put pressure on to produce products that are sustainable and efficient?
Think about it, but don't let it keep you up at night. Just do something about it.
Energetically,
Gregster
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| Posted For 9/17/2005
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