Pickens and Gore and the Global Crisis- Part 2

As I said, yesterday. I think that this plan goes deeper and broader than what most people are talking about on the news.

To start, Pickens responded to Gore's plan by saying that their objectives were different- Gore focusing on global warming and Pickens focusing on our use of foreign oil. But, I think these problems go hand in hand with our use of fossil fuels. I also see some other crises happening at the same time. There's also the peak oil crisis talked about in "Crude Awakenings" and a growing economic crisis, of which we may only be feeling the tip of the iceberg now. These things all affect one another and solving one may have a great impact on the others, too.

This economic crisis, is shown on the news as individual problems - gas prices, the housing market, stock prices and inflation. I think that these things all play into one overall trend that will become much worse once China and India's economy have reached the levels that ours is at. And that is inevitable.


A Business Week article from August of 2005 says, "China and India... possess the weight and dynamism to transform the 21st-century global economy. The closest parallel to their emergence is the saga of 19th-century America ." It also says that by mid-century, these two will equal or even surpass the US' economy and global power.


While, my fundamental philosophy is that this is the way it should be- it's the great equalization of the global economy and the logical evolution of our world - it's really going to hurt. These two countries will eat up all the current commodities that we have been taking for granted all these years. They're already doing it with oil which is greatly contributing to the oil crisis. They will also be spewing as much carbon and other toxins into the air as we do pretty soon.


My point here is that all of these problems are related or at least affected by our dependence on fossil fuels. If we can move ourselves away from them, using the clean and limitless power in wind, solar and other renewables, we can relieve all of these problems and even completely solve a few. It's all one big eco-system of problems and the time to actually start solving them is now.


The good news is that we already have some leaders in Gore and Pickens who are ready to start the long haul to get us where we need to be. I am hoping some more will crop up with more great ideas. So, come on all you big brains out there - get to work. I'm willing to do some grunt work but I need your expertise to get us started.


If this or any of the stark news reports you've been hearing are starting to get you worried, like they are us, here are some places you can get started:


The Pickens Plan: http://push.pickensplan.com/. Here you can join the army and learn of ways to get the word out, educate others and our government of the need to get to work. Right now, it's just a big group of people contributing to the conversation but Pickens himself updates us with his progress and gives us tasks such as writing our congresspeople or setting up house parties. Eventually, I think he'll give us more info on how to contribute, invest and help the project to build all those windmills. I'm looking forward to it.


Gore's We Can Solve It: www.wecansolveit.org/ Similar to the Pickens' Plan website, you can join Gore's group and get information on how you can help with the global climate change crisis, by calling on your utility company to be carbon-free, going solar and talking to everyone you know, including the government, about the issue.


This is starting to become a real movement and we all need to be a part of it to save our society from the dim future that has been predicted. Yes, there's a chance that global warming is a myth or that there is actually an endless supply of oil in the earth's mantel as a friend of mine (a scientist that works with Russian scientists) insists. There's even a chance that the economy will work it's way out of this doldrum and not be affected at all by China and India. But, as I say with pretty much all of my moral imperatives - do you really want to take that chance?

Gore and Picken: Leaders Attacking the Global Crisis

A couple of weeks ago, Andy and I watched a movie called "Crude Awakenings" which portrayed a very bleak future for us. It showed how dependent we are on oil and that we have most likely reached the peak of our supply, meaning - it's all downhill from here and the down-slope will be a lot faster than the up-slope. Basically, if we don't find a substitute for our energy and transportation needs, we won't be flying in airplanes one day and we may go back to a horse and buggy existence. I know it sounds far-fetched but check out the movie and you'll see that it's pretty credible.

Shortly thereafter, we heard about T. Boone Pickens' plan to break our dependence on foreign oil. He says that in 1970 we imported 24% of our oil and now we import 70%. "At current oil prices, we will send $700 billion dollars out of the country this year alone — that's four times the annual cost of the Iraq war." In 10 years that is 10 trillion dollars - the greatest transfer of wealth ever. He wants to combat this by building a ton of wind farms in the west between Canada and our south-western states where there's a lot of wind - more than anywhere else in the world. By doing this, we can use that energy for electricity and divert that natural gas to transportation needs. After being a bit scared by the movie, we checked out his plan at http://www.pickensplan.com/. We listened to his message and now we're part of his growing army of people who will hopefully work together to convince the government to support the project.



Then, Al Gore came out a week later with his plan to fight the global climate crisis - global warming. His plan is to completely stop using fossil fuels for our energy in 10 years, a much more ambitious plan than Pickens. We most recently heard Gore on Meet the Press on Sunday - our weekly news ritual and he had some very interesting and compelling arguments.

Gore said that international scientists studying global climate change say we may have less than 10 years to make dramatic changes to avoid catastrophic effects of global warming. Burning fossil fuels are the heart of global climate change - coal and oil. I have also joined his online group at www.wecansolveit.org/.



The bottom line here is that there is a growing understanding that we need to do something about these problems and in my opinion, it goes even deeper than these.

Tomorrow, check out part 2 of my blog which will give you more of my opinions on this growing issue and what we can start to do about it.