The Unwitting Environmentalist

Maybe he didn’t intend it, but President Trump, at least in one respect, is doing the planet a great big favor. One giant side effect of the Iran war is the attention being brought to that country’s stranglehold on oil and other important commodities largely caused by geography: the Strait of Hormuz. It’s not fair, perhaps, that the Iran regime should have control over 20 percent of the world’s daily oil supply, but so far, it does.

The most immediate effect of the war is the increase in the price of oil and its knock-on effect on gasoline prices here in the US and many other countries, resulting in inflation and great economic hardship. But some may be smiling.

One of them might be your neighbor down the street who owns a Tesla, the same car on which, earlier this year, he had a bumper sticker apologizing for owning it because it came from Elon Musk, who at the time was using his famous chainsaw on government agencies. But now, your neighbor can’t control his smile, because he doesn’t have to buy gas for $6 a gallon. Meanwhile, we guzzlers have to cut down on our driving because we simply can’t afford it. Let’s see: less driving. That means, not only less traffic congestion, but less air pollution, right?

I have a friend (not a neighbor) who has solar panels on his house and a battery system to store energy. At night, he charges his Tesla up, then drives it around the next day. It has been quite a while since he has purchased one drop of gasoline. Does any of this sound attractive?

Let’s be clear: oil isn’t going away anytime soon. If it weren’t for all those dead dinosaurs, we might not have the civilization we enjoy now, so we can’t blame ourselves   too much for putting it to use. It’s still needed for many other things, like plastics.

But shouldn’t we continue thinking about alternatives? We don’t until we’re in pain. Some may remember the pain we suffered in the 1970s, when many of us waited in line to get a few gallons of the limited supply at our local gas station. Well, it happened then, and it may be starting to happen now in some other Western countries. But do you think maybe there’s a chance it might happen once more in the future?

Rare earths may be the next commodity we get into a fist fight over. But wouldn’t it get us ahead in life to find our own sources or at least maintain relationships with others who may have what we need? It would be nice if we could all just get along.