Will the Gulf Oil Spill Be Enough to Change Us?
Seagull Coated in Gulf Oil - Louisiana
As the toxic slur of oil and dispersants drift ashore across the American Gulf Coast, I wonder if this will be enough to make us change our ways? Over the past hundred years, we’ve accomplished a lot. We made the internal combustion engine the mainstream choice for transportation. We’ve built roads and super-highways that link every state together in the United States. We have a fueling infrastructure that has very few areas where you don’t have at least three or four choices of fuel stations. We’ve developed advanced fertilizers and pesticides from petroleum that allows us to feed hundreds of millions of people. We synthesize oil into olefins for making advanced polymers and plastics that allow us to carry disposable plastic water bottles wherever we go.
However, our voracious appetite for oil is polluting our environment and putting billions of dollars into the pockets of nations that undermine freedom, fund terrorism and have been linked to planting IEDs that kill our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Is it all worth it?
How many wars and Gulf oil spills will it take before we realize that we need to demand better alternatives? Henry Ford mass-produced the first automobiles without any roads or fuel stations across the nation. Americans fell in love with the automobile, purchased them and demanded roads and fuel stations. We can do this again and it will be alot easier.
The Nissan Leaf electric vehicle will begin shipping in December of 2010. They can be driven on the same roads and highways. Electricity is available along every major road and highway in our nation. If you believe we are a nation that can innovate and make the world a better place, trade in one of your cars for a Nissan Leaf and demand charging stations throughout your city or town. Our grandparents did it and now it’s our turn.
