Tag: oil

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A generational challenge

I got an email from my daughter yesterday that linked this video which I hope you will watch in its entirety. It is a clarion call for change and a change that I hope to be a part of. Gandhi once said, that we must be the change that we wish to see in the world and I’ve been thinking of both the Mahatma’s words and my own actions. What can I do to help bring about the necessary change to save our planet and protect the interests of the citizens of my own country. We all know that prayer indeed moves mountains. Meditation and prayer may be our best weapons in this fight to change the status quo. I’ve thought of the power of the Promise Keepers movement of ten years ago and the movement of a nation and a world to prayer. Gandhi once said, “whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.” So we must move to end our dependence of carbon based fuels yet do so in a loving way that condemns not the producers nor consumers but points the way to a better life for us and the planet.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt9wZloG97U]

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Oily thoughts

Been spending the weekend at Colonial Williamsburg and thinking about an earlier age and an earlier King who much like our President ruled the world. Why else would an oil man invade a country that produced 3.5 million barrels of oil a day. Now that same country only produces 2 million barrels of oil a day. If you want to drive up the price of crude oil and in so doing maximize your profits and those of your prime contributors you might do just that. The War in Iraq has not brought democracy to Iraq nor stability and safety to the region. It has raised the price of oil from $40 a barrel to $135 a barrel. That would seem to benefit big oil producers and also Mr. Bush.

The invasion of Iraq by Britain and the US has trebled the price of oil, according to a leading expert, costing the world a staggering $6 trillion in higher energy prices alone…..

The world’s biggest oil well, it is said, lies beneath Detroit. US vehicles get an average of only 25 miles per gallon. Dramatically improving this would do more to ease the oil crunch than any likely new discovery. But new measures recently approved by Congress would increase the average only to the 35mpg already being achieved by China. Europe does better, if not well enough, at 44mpg.

Rising fuel prices are already beginning to drive change. Sales of 4×4s are plummeting in both the US and Britain, and those of hybrids – which do 60mpg are soaring. As the price climbs further, manufacturers will unlock long-prepared plans for much more efficient vehicles. “Plug-in” hybrids, charged up with electricity overnight, save another 45 per cent in petrol consumption. Further down the line is the “hypercar” – made of tough, light plastic – which could cross the US on a single tankful…

Read more at Common Dreams