The following discussion is not necessarily original. In fact, most of it was written by someone else, and I acquired the rights to it. However, the information is valuable, so I present it here pretty much as I got it, but with a few editoral changes of my own.
Every day it seems we hear of record high prices at American gas pumps and continued trouble in the Middle East, Nigeria, and other areas of importance to our oil-driven economy. All of this have made it abundantly clear to Americans that we are in need of developing many new avenues of energy supply and production. In short, we need to reduce our dependency on oil, and not just foreign oil, for it is ultimately finite and, frankly, the cheap sources of oil (not all oil—just the stuff that is cheap to remove from the earth) are running out.
Energy consultants and analysts continue to remind us that cheap oil has “peaked” or is very soon going to peak. What this means for us is an expensive future—unless we can find new sources of power for our mechanized and electronic civilization...new sources which are alternatives to oil.
We also must switch to alternative forms of energy because our present sources are too damaging to the planet we live on. While the jury is still out for some people on the subject of global warming, we can say that even if the climate changes we are seeing are part of a natural cycle, the massive demand for energy and oil are helping to push the pendulum. We certainly do contribute at present to the destruction of the environment and to things like air pollution with our energy sources as they are.
Coal is another source of energy that we really need to wean ourselves off of. As with other sources of energy, it is finite, and it is filthy, and the mining of it is dangerous and environmentally disruptive. We can also explore new, streamlined methods for producing electricity that we presently generate so much of via hydro-power so that we are less disruptive of the environment when we have need of constructing things such as large dams.
Developing nations which have become more industrialized in recent decades especially will need the benefits of alternative energy research and development, for they are presently doing much more environmental damage than the United States. The United States, Japan, and some European nations have been implementing studies into and programs for the development of alternative energy sources, and are therefore already leading the way in doing less environmental damage.
The developing nations such as China and India need to look to Japan and the West as examples of what research and development to give government backing and private investment currency to. We could also add great robustness to our own economy by being at the forefront of such alternative energy sources development and then marketing the technologies and services to nations like India, China, Brazil, and so on and so forth.
Biofuels from things like “supertrees” and soybeans, refined hydroelectric technology, natural gas, hydrogen fuel cells, the further building of atomic energy plants, the continued development of solar energy photovoltaic cells, more research into wind-harnessed power—all of these are viable energy sources that can act as alternatives to the mammoth amounts of oil and coal that we presently are so dependent on for our very lifestyles. The energy of the future is green.
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Help reduce dependence on foreign oil. Use synthetic motor oil.