Let’s be honest. Americans are not renowned for their ability to read the signs and plan for the future when everything in the present is hunky-dory. Many have pointed out that terrorists attacked the U.S. intermittently for 10 years before 9-11 woke us up. The levees in New Orleans were long known to be inadequate, but it took a massive hurricane to make us care.
Sure, we got upset when prices spiked over $3 a gallon earlier this year. Consumers complained and politicians harrumphed and oil companies made money. But we’re back down to $2.20 now and all of that seems like a bad dream. The anger has subsided and our demands that someone do something have faded.
Know why? Because we’re the ones who have to do something.
It’s not just caulking your windows to make your house more energy-efficient. We have to demand that our nation focus on finding future sources of energy because oil, while nice and artificially cheap now, probably will be gone in less than a lifetime.
Public and private investment must be directed into perfecting technologies such as hydrogen, solar, wind, biodiesel, ethanol, nuclear and whatever else we can find that doesn’t depend on “black gold.” We must make energy efficiency a priority when we purchase cars, appliances and homes.
Let’s not wait for a plane to hit a building before we wake up this time.
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