…but we must try. Try and try. And believe we can anything we put our minds to.
I’ve always believed if ingenious workaholic Americans put as much willpower, determination, and effort into developing cleaner alternative fuels as we did in our 1960s Space Race, we could still dig our way out of environmental mess. It comes down to our collective will, our beliefs, our optimism and determination.
Which is exactly what a little article in today’s New York Times by Elisabeth Rosenthal says. An excerpt:
A National Research Council report released last week concluded that the United States could halve by 2030 the oil used in cars and trucks compared with 2005 levels by improving the efficiency of gasoline-powered vehicles and by relying more on cars that use alternative power sources, like electric batteries and biofuels.
And this:
“It’s absolutely not true that we need natural gas, coal or oil — we think it’s a myth,” said Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and the main author of the study, published in the journal Energy Policy. “You could power America with renewables from a technical and economic standpoint. The biggest obstacles are social and political — what you need is the will to do it.”
Read the entire short article and spread the word: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/sunday-review/life-after-oil-and-gas.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp&
Read the full referenced National Research Council report: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=18264&page=R1
I’ve always believed that cleaner, renewable energy sources can play a major, not minor, role in breaking our suicidal dependence on fossil fuels. Combined with conservation; breaking wasteful, decades-old energy-consuming habits is also key, and cheap, and can begin today. The biggest obstacles, and our greatest possibilities, lie in our own beliefs.