Meet Gustav, 24 hours old.
In three days he will damage several offshore drilling platforms off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
The logic behind building more offshore drilling platforms is senseless.
As global warming continues, so will the potential for more violent and destructive hurricanes in the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic. But this isn't a problem people in the South and East coast face. California has the potential to be hit by hurricanes too, though most of the time it is the remenance of an East Pacific hurricane. (As if the earthquakes and the fires are not bad enough!)
So continuing our dependence on oil, foreign or domestic will continue to increase greenhouse gasses. And the continued dependence on oil will cause economic strain as the oil industry will collect millions on insurance (something that people on dry land can't get because the insurance industry serves those with the most income in the first place) for repairs and drive the price of oil up every time a Gustav or a Katrina, Rita, Hugo, or Andrew like storm occurs.
The price of food will not decrease until farmers recieve alternative energy support first.
Some farmers do not like the idea of wind energy although the amout of space a single wind turbine occupies is very minimal. If they chose, they could use biomass as a source of energy. The oil, gas, and nuclear energy industry continues to push old number showing the flaws of wind, solar, and biomass and spreading lies about alternative energy and recalling the old problems earlier forms of alternative energy had but are now reduced or solved due to newer alternative energy technolgy.
Farmers need alternative energy support first as they produce the food that America and the world needs. We learned this summer that biodesil and ethanol are not the best choices for alternative energy, in fact they still rely on the use of crude oil and waste pleanty of resources (i.e. corn or sunflower stalks that can also be processed). Then there is the fact that ethanol is poisonous to bees that need to polinate food crops. It is more than likely that excessive ethanol usage may be a factor in Coloney Collapse Disorder (CCD) which threatens to decimate the bee population and in turn cause poor crop yeilds.
Worse yet, continued usage of ethanol drives up food prices as our energy demands are gluttonous. The more we spend on energy, the more we buy foods that are not as healthy as the foods that are healthy become more expensive. Why should America continue to suffer an obesity epidemic if healthy food is not as affordable as junk food?
The price of oil has been down the past couple of weeks, but DO NOT BE DECIEVED! Everytime we have a hurricane in the gulf, oil prices will spike, and with more offshore platforms being damaged the more likely we will pay at the pump and at the diner table.
Comments are closed for this post.
