An 'Oily' Blessing in Disguise

Oil they say is the greatest of wonders.
Discovering it I think was one of our biggest blunders.
Keep digging for more till no more you can find
While it sucks away the future, of the whole man kind


Not a day goes by without references in the media about the ill effects of the rising cost of oil on our lives but I would like to turn that conversation on its head and explain the glass half-full scenario.

With world leaders trying to bring down the price of oil, one thing seems to have been overlooked. The dramatic rise is probably the best thing that could have happened to the planet. It is surely the swiftest way of curtailing the profligate use of energy.

According to the CIA world fact book the current world oil demand is over 80 million barrels of oil a day!!! Soaring oil and petrol prices have triggered a sudden revolution in our travel behavior and a seismic upheaval in the automobile industry. People are now compelled to put fewer miles on the car, ditch the sport utility vehicles and cut down their consumption of oil helping the world to create a greener and healthier tomorrow. ~~renewable energy such as solar geothermal and wind power is gaining greater credence as a way to curb the regions appetite for oil.
Dear friends, nothing will happen without higher oil prices getting us in gear. If petrol were cheap there would be no incentive to change. No one would care about developing new technologies, no one would bother driving more efficient cars and no one would care about conservation.
Something as ingrained in our culture as petrol will cling to the "if -it-aint-broke-why -fix-it' mentality until something like higher prices breaks it!

For instance:
Back in the 1970s, Brazil relied on the rest of the world for 85% of its oil the result? Debt ballooned and rampant inflation became the norm for decades. But those high prices pushed the need to change and change is exactly what Brazil got. Flowers of innovation and commitment bloomed to overcome Brazil’s oil burden and financial crunch with the invention of sugar cane based ethanol.
Simple yet potent example of the adage that necessity is the mother of invention

If you need more convincing then let me tell you about Singapore where they have invested billions to create the worlds best public transportation system and raised the taxes on the purchase of cars to such exorbitant rates that a common man would rather prefer public transport than wasting hundreds of dead hours a year driving and hurting the environment.
People talk about …Pressure on economy…inflation……Are these short term material gains so important to us that we are willing to overlook the long term gains of sustainable energy? What economics, what fiscal policies would help a planet with no mankind? Its high time we start respecting our mother earth and stop drilling into it to find some black fluid that would clog our air with smoke and choke us to death.
When we promise our children a better future, is global warming and pollution our legacy? We have to save our planet for our children and their children and trust me it is not that difficult all you need is an alternative energy source.

The beauty of our society is that crisis breeds genius. When humankind is faced with a crisis the brightest minds come up with solutions that allow us to adapt.
In the end I would conclude by saying that expensive energy is a powerful medicine against our addiction for oil. It may hurt when taken but it brings long term cures for a host of ills!