Saturday, September 29, 2007

There's always a price

Jane Goodall probably knows that we burn too much fuel. That's why she's speaking against the biofuel industry, and its growing appetite for rainforest lands.

We are desperately searching for a source of energy that will sustain our extravagance. We think that the 2-car family is ok so long as they're both hybrids. We think we've done the environment a favour when our disposable plates are made from recyclable paper. Someone once suggested to me that "Earthwater" was a good alternative to commercial bottled water. The water is trucked thousands of kilometers from glaciers in BC and Alberta to Canadian cities that already have clean sources of public water

The system is something like this : The Iraqi refugees flee their country => the Iraqi "government" relinquishes oil concessions in the country => the oil goes from their country to the world market => the gas prices stay down in our country => we buy the Earthwater => Earthwater donates a portion to UNHCR => and then the money goes to help the Iraqi refugees who've had to flee their country.

We in the "developed" nations don't seem to have much of a concept of just how extravagantly we live. More importantly, we don't seem to have concept of just how it is being paid for, and just who is paying for it. If we find a more efficient way to use our energy, the impulse is to start using more of it. If we find a new source of energy, the impulse is to breath a sigh of relief, and carry on.

Biofuel's gotta come from somewhere.

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