The energy crisis is an ongoing situation that involves the scarcity of energy resources and the complications that come with this scarcity. It includes Peak Oil, the Oil Wars, the Energy Wars, and Gazprom-style business-politics. It spawns and foments dictatorships, bad administration and corruption. It holds continents captive to their energy suppliers.
It is also tied to environmental catastrophes such as the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, the Niger Delta ongoing bio-disaster, and the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
Things aren’t too bright regarding the future. The energy crisis promises tension and volatility round the globe. People are talking about the coming Water Conflicts, the inevitable natural gas rush, the privatization of the atmosphere – nasty scenarios that don’t bode well for open society.
The energy crisis has, in short, taken humanity captive. The whole system, the entire planet, in fact, is pegged and reliant on resources geared to make profit above all. We burn fossil fuels wantonly, without regard for the future, or our immediate surroundings. We use energy to satisfy profit margins.
It’s a far cry from when energy was used to enhance life, not bottom lines.
All this is avoidable. It’s obvious we’re capable of doing wonders with the natural energy sources at our disposal. We’re technologically advanced enough, at a point where we could produce energy hundreds time more abundant and powerful than all the coal, gas, and oil combined, at a fraction of the current cost, if we devote ourselves to the task.
But we don’t. We waste energy selling energy that caters to an industry powered by the ability to sell energy in ways that waste energy. It’s a shame, if not a crime against the environment, not to mention the future generations.
Why remain addicted to oil, coal, and other dirty forms of energy when we could power up the world with cleaner, leaner, inexhaustible means? We have a whole sun at our disposal, burning round the clock, powering up an entire solar system. Couldn’t we harness a little of its awesome energy, and put it to good use?
For those who think this is nothing more than hazy, theoretical rhetoric, or wishful thinking, here’s a short example of what’s possible.
If only we put our minds – and economies, and politics, and cultures – to it…