I just can’t believe what this world is coming to.  Everyone sits up nights thinking of new ways to be stupid.  Here we are, faced with the extinction of life on earth, whether by nuclear holocaust or by the total collapse of our environment due to the inexorable tolls of Climate Change making our planet uninhabitable, and yet, not only is everyone dragging their feet, but there are whole nations bitterly opposed to implementing any measures that have any slim chance of salvaging some remnant of life on earth.  

     By now, “everyone” knows (except, of course, Donald Trump, but he doesn’t know anything) that the burning of fossil fuels is the main driver of global warming, bringing tropical storms, floods, and drought of ever increasing severity.  The oceans are heating up faster than anything else; the glaciers and polar ice caps are melting as we speak; and New York City is going to put up dykes like they have in the north of Holland to keep the sea at bay.  Good luck with that one.  

     And yet, not only are the Robber Barons (the “usual suspects”) persisting in their rampage of pillaging the earth by the continuing proliferation of more and more oil wells, and more and more coal burning power plants, assisted, hand in glove, with governments who provide subsidies for them to continue the range of their nefarious villainy, but we have whole nations, which rely upon the sale of fossil fuels for income (which they are totally reluctant to curtail in any way) using all the power of their several States to resist and oppose any effort to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.  

     So, after Monarchy, Tyranny, Oligarchy, Democracy, Plutocracy, and Gerontocracy, we are now entering the Age of Idiocracy.  But, as usual, I have a solution to this problem.

     The solution, just like the problem, is all about ~ Money !  (How did you ever guess ?)  So the big oil producing states don’t want any limitation to their oil revenues ?  Here’s my solution ~ cut production in half, and double the price.  That way, the oil producers will get just as much money, but a lot more of their resource will remain in the ground for another day !  In this way, everyone will be happy.

     “Everyone will be happy” ?  But what about the poor consumer, who will have to foot the bill as gasoline prices double at the pump ?  But those consumers should rejoice !  With every dollar increase in the price of gas, there will be all the greater incentive to transition to alternative energy sources.  Don’t worry ~ the market for oil will never dry up, even at double price.  In the first place, the price of electricity will be going up so fast, that it will be a long time before the burning of fossil fuels is finally laid to rest.  And then there are all the industrial uses for oil.  The idea that ancient fossil petroleum is being burned up as fuel is as foolish as re-purposing Medieval stained glass windows to make jelly jars.  (Okay, so you’ve heard it before; I’m getting old, but I like the image and it fits.)

     Another idea which should be implemented as part of the same effort is to levy a significant tax on all producers or extractors of fossil fuels.  Of course all of these taxes and price increases will find their way to the final price to the consumer, but that’s what the end of fossil fuel looks like.  It has to go up in price, pricing it out of the market, so that alternatives will rapidly take their place.  

     Get a bicycle, and I’ve said that before, too.  And, while I’m at it, don’t forget to plant more trees.  

Curriculum Vitae ~ links about the Author and his work.