Americans are finally getting their environmental act together. We’re buying greener cars, recycling more and generally being more conservative in our consumption of limited resources, in large part because of the expensiveness of these products.
Gas prices are, as always, soaring higher than ever and because of that, a lot of people are looking into wasting less and using alternative fuels to replace these expendable sources. Among our highest priorities when looking for a car is fuel economy. We’re giving car companies a whole new reason to make cars that are conservative in gas consumption, especially hybrid cars.
Our new environmentally friendly attitude is not entirely altruistic. We want to save money. Pumping your paycheck into your gas tank isn’t exactly pleasant, but recently huge new sources of crude oil have been discovered off the Gulf of Mexico, according to an article in the Sept. 6 edition of the Los Angeles Times. This will certainly lead to a temporary stalemate in the progress of our new, eco-friendly milieu.
As the most basic of economic principles tell us, as the supply of a highly sought after product (like oil) increases, the price drops. While most consumers will be elated from the drop in price, this new discovery runs the risk of making us less conscientious of our consumption and more careless of this resource. As gas prices go down, many people may decide on driving more, carpooling less or even those who are currently in the market and may be lulled into relaxing their standards when it comes to fuel efficiency when buying a car.
This new discovery is a small Band-Aid on a huge, gaping wound. The United States is extremely dependent on oil. Without it, transportation would likely come to a complete halt. We’ve put all our eggs into one basket, so to speak. We not only need to look into alternative resources, especially ones that are closer to home, but we must diversify our sources of fuel.
Rather than create an economy heavily dependent upon one commodity, as it currently is, we should look into several alternatives. Corn-based ethanol, natural gas, more efficient public transportation and other means of resource conservation should all receive more research and funding from the government and be of general interest to the public. If we begin to utilize different sources of fuel we will be less vulnerable to the whims of the market and should something happen, such as a corn blight or break in a natural gas pipeline, it wouldn’t totally alter our lifestyles.
With our current dependency on petroleum, the price of almost any commodity is susceptible to the jumpy price of gas. If the price of gas goes up significantly, the price to ship something or fly somewhere also becomes more expensive.
Dinosaurs aren’t decomposing quickly and the environment won’t be able to withstand much more gratuitous, gluttonous consumption. We need to remain steadfast in our monitoring of our usage of limited resources. Our environment depends on it.