RSS
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
What about Peak Oil ? Whether the thread is about the 3-C Rail Project, local food, bicycling, urban planning, or the "attack on suburbia", so few people seem to be aware of, or care about it.
It would be cynical of me to think that many of us care about, for example, mass transit, bicycling or organic and local food just to be hipper-than-thou.
Whether the issue in question is the 3-C Rail Project or local food, many of us, understandably so, care about how these alternatives to the status quo will affect us in terms of our time, money, personal energy, and our physical and mental health.
Yet, absent from most of the comments I read on threads related to these issues is something that relates to all, if not most, of those components of our enlightened self-interest: Peak Oil.
There is a credible body of evidence indicating that the demand will soon far surpass the availability of oil that is 'economically feasible to extract and refine.'
That phrase is in single quotes in anticipation of all the usual responses I hear, ironically, from some of the people who dismiss the viability of wind and solar power yet are enthusiastic (if not wishful) about algae, tar sands, and shale oil.
Even if we don't care about or believe in Climate Change, and even if we are ok with our nation using its military in a struggle for access to this black gold, we still might want to consider Peak Oil.
It's not far-fetched to think that our nation will not be able to continue with using about 20 million barrels of it per day, no matter how many bombs we drop and no matter how many troops we may send to the Middle East or other parts of the world.
Obviously, our transportation system depends heavily on petroleum. Perhaps less obvious is how much our food supply depends on it. As things now stand, the vast majority of us would have little to eat without petroleum.
Ah ha ! We have at least that much in common, whether we think of ourselves as big-corporation-wary liberals, big-government-wary conservatives, or as some other type of political creature.
Maybe it's just me, but I am amazed when I read Columbus Underground threads about transportation or food, all the while encountering so few fellow undergrounders who account for Peak Oil in their analyses of the issues.
Is that because many of us assume we, as a nation, can get ourselves out of this problem (if we actually think there is one) with some combination of militarism and market-driven technological innovation ?
Launched in August 2010, TheMetropreneur.com is a local online resource devoted to small business development and entrepreneurship. Its aim is to tell the stories of Central Ohio's business community, foster regional economic development and assist entrepreneurs with its resource-heavy focus.