First I want to thank blazeheliski for bringing much of this up and causing me to do a bit of research. I am not claiming that I have found any answers or that I have obtained huge amounts of knowledge. It does seem however that you can find information and extensive articles in support of either theory; we need to be concerned we don’t need to be concerned. Which is it?
I don’t think anyone really knows, and there in lies the problem so you can just pick a side and run with it and collect all the data you can find to support your cause. I believe that the media promotes and runs with the extremes so consequently we as a society react to the extreme. If someone was to accurately describe and lay out the facts as actually known would anyone listen? Would anyone feel the need to change their behaviors or would industry spend R & D money looking for alternatives? Who knows, I only have my own perception and opinion on what is really going on in this situation.
Do I believe that there are other resources for oil and that we should be taking advantage of those resources, sure why not? Have environmentalist made carbon emissions and the use of fossil fuels bad words, yes and they seem to have done a pretty good job of it. Is all this tied into “Global Warming” no solid proof one way or the other that I can tell, I personally think we will most likely be cooling into another ice age at some point. Being a skier I like this idea anyway so that is the one I am going with.
Seriously though I certainly do think that the Environmentalist have embellished and use scare tactics, not that the ends justifies the means but I can understand a bit of the rational it goes hand in hand with the philosophy or statement and I paraphrase, for real change to happen there has to be a crisis either real or perceived. It seems until very recently little has been aggressively done to find alternative energy sources by this country. Perhaps the environmentalists believe that creating a perception of crisis is the only way to actually get things moving quickly, history shows us that if tomorrow gas prices dropped back to $2.00 a gallon people would most likely just go about their business and would once again become complacent in the search and development of alternative fuel sources therefore we must come up with a motivating reason other than the pocketbook.
On the other hand Bush just announced a lift on a ban of offshore drilling, could the crisis in regards to oil prices be the oil companies’ way of creating a crisis to open up new markets and resources for oil. I don’t know the answer but it does seem, gas prices perhaps will force those “save the planet” types to look harder at the facts and be open to some balance in this confusing and complex debate. After spending a day of searching and reading articles on the internet I am pretty certain both sides of the argument have used “Bad” science to advance and argue their agendas. So there is the pendulum and the environmentalists have had it swinging pretty solidly to their side for awhile, high gas prices may swing it back the other way. Maybe in the end we will continue to look aggressively at alternative sources while at the same be willing to tap into what is available to us now with one not being done at the expense of the other.
In conclusion, I have decided that where I can and am willing without it causing undo hardship to my current lifestyle I will be conscious of ways that I can minimize my negative impact on our environment.
