Looking forward is always a scarey prospect. As Scrooge said to the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come, "Spectre, I fear thee most of all." A great many things to be learned from Mr. Dickens.
And yet, from the last year, we have learned much. We have been reminded how fragile the "trappings" of man are compared to the forces of nature. We saw one of our oldest cities, New Orleans, all but obliterated. We saw the modern cities of Japan shaken apart by earthquakes, and the primitive towns of the Himalayas destroyed by them. Mostly, though, Americans learn through the pains of their pocketbooks. This is not meant to be overly critical, and I am no better than anyone else on this one. My own expenses at the gas pump are likely what has prompted me to take my head out of the sand (or my posterior) after many years of intentionally ignoring world events.
Mostly, what we will remember about 2005, will be that it was the year that gasoline prices topped $3 a gallon for the first time. I say "first" because it will certainly not be the last.
Our own oil reserves in the US supply us with about 30% of our petroleum usage. This will decrease slowly over the next 2 decades until it's all gone. Right now, we import 40% of our petroleum from Canada. They have been finding new and improved ways to meet our needs, and will likely continue to do so for the forseeable future.
The rest of our oil supply is dreadfully unstable. Leftist Regimes such as Venezuela, and Islamic Fundementalist states comprise the remainder.
And what of our Canadian neighbours? They are our sharpest environmental critics, and our government is about as unsympathetic to their concerns as it can possibly be. I can see a future where Canada penalizes our use of fossil fuels, by tarrifing, or limiting our oil supply. So perhaps our Canadian fuel supply is not as stable as we have lulled ourselves into believing.
We need to realize that even our national security is jeopardized severely by this reliance on foreign petroleum of any kind. We are so hated that it is not inconceivable that we could one day be on the receiving end of a worldwide petroleum boycott. This would also pretty much affect our ability to wage war, as we still do power most of our war machines with petroleum based fuels. Not to mention that we are a major polluter, although our motor fuel pollution is merely a drop in the bucket, so to speak, compared to our total pollution as a country. The US, UK, Russia, China and Japan have pretty much damned our climate to severe changes at this point in time. All we can do is minimize the damage at this point.
2005 also saw the world demanding the end of our agricultural subsidies (along with those of the EU, namely France), at the recent WTO conference. We have, in essence, all but complied, and have set timetables to do exactly that. What are we going to do with all that land when it doesn't pay to grow the corn, wheat, and soybeans anymore? Believe me, the WTO has it's hands firmly grasped on the rug, and is merely awaiting the nod from our government, or possibly that of the UN, to pull it out from under us.
All of these events point forward to one possible solution: Biofuels.
Now, whether you think that climate change is breathing down our necks as we speak, like me, or is a century away, I don't think anyone can disagree with the principals behind the conversion to biofuels as soon as possible. What we need, however, is a grass-roots plan of action, and who, really is more grass-roots than we here at farmallcub.com?
Gentlemen, I have thrown out the topic, and I, and a few others, eagerly await your discussion.
Thanks, and may you all be blessed in the coming year with all that you wish for.
