Friday, November 6, 2009
Commentary
Former Vice President Al Gore recently wrote a new book titled Our Choice: A plan to solve the Climate Crisis which is now available at Costco. In an article in The Costco Connection he gives his opinion on our nation’s economy and our environmental issue as well as what the United States can do to solve these problems. He stresses that the main problem is our reliance on foreign oil as a source for fuel. If we give up our reliance on oil it will solve much of the problems with our economy as well as taking a giant leap in saving the planet. The topic of US reliance on foreign oil as a basis to our economic problem as a nation is something that I completely agree with Mr. Gore on. I believe that, although people do not like to admit it the primary reason for the Iraqi war is our reliance on Middle Eastern Oil. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer is what keeps our automobile industry afloat. With the tension in the Middle East we don’t know how much longer we can continue to get this supply of oil. So we send US troops to conserve our oil rights. Meanwhile we find ourselves in the midst of terrorist attacks and war between ourselves and Iraq. The war has drained the United States of its finances and we still have the problem of whether or not we will continue to receive enough oil to satisfy our demand. Simultaneously cars are destroying our environment and although we are in a “go green” phase right now hybrid cars are still not popular. Mr. Gore offers some solutions that I would like to see implemented. First we need to find an alternative fuel. This will decrease our reliance on oil from the Middle East and sub sequentially the need for war will be far less. Also since we have cut down so many trees, we need to compensate for this by planting trees. However, in Austin it’s hard to come across a field that isn’t getting ready to be used for the building of houses, highways, or the building of an HEB or Wal-Mart. I don’t think that we are in desperate need for more Wal-Mart’s and HEBs. I think we could live without more toll roads and our population is not that big that we need to build more houses and apartment complexes or business buildings that will still be available for rent a decade from now. If we are unable to go without destroying a field, how do we plan on planting trees without cutting more down? I think that our economy and our environment are falling apart as a result of our greed. Our greed for oil and our greed to get more of what we already have.
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I definitely agree to many points that Allison illustrated in he post. However, before I can go into that I have to disagree with her reasoning as to our presence in the Middle East. Now, this is a topic that can be discussed forever but my main point is that our initial presence was a direct result of the attacks on September 11th, 2001. Whether we are in the right countries today or if we are abiding by our initial goals over there, finding Osama Bin Laden and other taliban leaders, is another topic all together. As a resident of Austin and its surrounding areas for most of my life and the past ten years all together I have seen the drastic increase in construction. When I first moved from Austin to Pflugerville I thought the growth in the suburban areas was a good thing Now as I pass places that used to full of trees and other vegetation and see subdivisions put up in such a weak housing market; I see it more as a waste. We should all do our part to give back to the environment and I believe that cities should play a big part in starting up organizations that go out and replant tress. Hybrid cars don't seem to be so popular because few companies have put out models that intrigue us as buyers. Aside from the hybrid versions of popular Honda models and the TDI versions of Volkswagen models, its been only up until recently that we've seen hybrid models of popular SUVs such as the Escalade and Tahoe. Allison made an interesting point at the end of the blog. I think that it's a result of this greed and effects on the nation lately that have caused some companies to open they're eyes and try to undo some of the damage. Unfortunately for us, the working class, there aren't enough companies that have begun to work towards a better economy.
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