Price of Gas

Everyone is aware that gas prices are very high, and rising. There is a lot of angst about the impact of oil-related products on our entire society. Look around and practically everything we use is either directly or indirectly linked to a petroleum product. Gas for our cars; asphalt for the roads those cars roll on. Diesel fuel for shipping; shipping for EVERYTHING we use. Many homes, especially on the East Coast, are heated by fuel oil. Our military forces use jet fuel and diesel for nearly every tank, truck, airplane, and ship they operate. Plastics are everywhere in our life; yep, petroleum based!

On the other hand, there is a growing cacophony of voices, a din of ominous predictions shouting about Global Over-Warming of the earth due to, you guessed it, burning carbon-rich petroleum products. The culprits include the internal combustion engine, in its various forms. These voices warn us that we are killing the earth, and ourselves—that we must use electric cars, change all of our light bulbs, and stop consuming anything that creates carbon dioxide! This could get out of hand, and fast!

You do realize, every breath we exhale introduces CO2 into the atmosphere. With this panic mentality, I won’t be surprised when some well-meaning-but-insanely-irrational politician out there proposes a ‘exhale’ tax. It will never happen, you say? This country has done some interesting things, in the name of national security.

History has shown the “ready-fire-aim” approach to solving problems generally introduces additional, unanticipated negative consequences. If the prognostications of the Global Over-Warming crowd are true, we’re doomed; its too late, almost.

I do agree that we should be better stewards of our natural resources. We should not waste things. We need to be more aware of the simple, easy things we can do to conserve these resources. To consume, simply because we can, is not responsible. Let’s discuss the impacts of our efforts on the climate. But, let’s also admit that we don’t really have a very good understanding of the Earth’s ecosystem. Like mom used to say, just because all of your friends are doing it, doesn’t make it right, or okay for you to do!