Rather than view off-shore drilling as a solution to America's energy problems, I like to think of it as an action which increases our dependence on oil if successful, and which diverts our focus from energy independence if unsuccesful. It is the same type of thinking that brought us to Iraq when we should have been pursuing Osama bin Laden.
Environmentalists must no longer squabble for their favorite projects but instead unite against our common enemy (carbon-emitting energy sources).
Global warming is real and the evidence is in our polar ice caps, in the strength of storms, in the tenacity of our wildfires, and in the science of chemistry. The technologies which will abate it exist in windmills, in solar panels, in carbon-free nuclear power, in geothermal power, in micro-hydro power, in tidal power.
To embrace petro-dictators in the face of what we now know is to embrace defeat for America. If not for us, then for our children or grand-children. It is to invite more foreign wars of occupation. It is to invite increasingly more polluted skies. It is to invite ecological catastrophe.
The flaw in societies that decay is to fail to see the promise which comes through change, and to cling in desperation to a way of life that has become self-destructive.
Think what it means for America if we can power our vehicles with electricity generated from non-polluting and renewable sources. Think what it means for the quality of our air. Think what it means for our economy. Think what it means to our foreign policy.
Why not envision American greatness? Why have our dreams become so small?
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