The Community Word

The World Trade Center in New York was officially dedicated in 1973. That was the year Spiro Agnew resigned from the Vice Presidency charged with income tax evasion. A first class stamp cost only eight cents. Watergate hearings began, and the Miami Dolphins won the Super Bowl after an undefeated season.

But many associate 1973 with the OPEC Oil Embargo. Mostly Arab nations got together, motivated perhaps by the Yom Kippur War, and decided to use the oil weapon against allies of Israel, mainly the United States and the Netherlands.

Oil supplies were cut off, resulting in shortages, price increase, and an economic downturn. There were long lines and lots of waiting at gas stations. The price of oil quadrupled by 1974.

The problems of dependence on oil had finally become glaringly obvious. The United States couldn’t then (and still can’t) supply enough oil, an unsustainable finite energy source, to meet our own rising domestic demand. It has put us at the mercy of unstable powers, while releasing immense amounts of stored carbon into the atmosphere. Besides, being a finite resource controlled mainly by Arab nations, its cost would only go up as the supply declined. Something had to be done. We needed a dependable energy source for the sake of ourselves as well as for the planet. But it’s a big ship to turn… first we needed time.

There was serious thought given to conservation. In order to slow consumption, a national speed limit was established at 55 miles per hour on highways throughout the nation. “The 1974 Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act” not only saved gas, but saved lives by lowering speeds. There was talk of greatly raising fuel efficiency standards and downsizing cars, while seeking alternate fuels. The looming dangers of global warming were well known in 1973. It was an ideal time to take advantage of this political climate to eliminate our dependency on foreign oil and at the same time reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses, and other atmospheric pollutants.

But the devil is in the details. As often happens, needs run headlong into what are sometimes referred to as “economic realities” (another oxymoron… like “random pattern,” some words are hard pressed to reconcile with one another). We needed energy companies to develop alternatives to reduce America’s oil addiction. The economic reality, however, is that oil produces far greater immediate financial rewards for share holders than any currently known alternative source of energy. Therefore oil corporations, focused on share holders, will do everything in their power to insure the oil continues to flow.

The corporate resistance to needed change has provided a lesson in Civics. It would seem that effective government, not profit motivated economic interests, would be in a better position to develop and promote energy that would be sensible, sustainable, and clean… for the common good. However, as English historian, Goldsworthy Dickinson pointed out, “Government is everywhere to a great extent controlled by powerful minorities, with an interest distinct from that of the mass of the people.” To this could be added, “and distinct from the best interest of environmental quality.”

The existence of a Diabolical Committee could help explain what has happened since 1973. Being diabolical, they would do their darnedest to profit, whether or not it might weaken America and harm future generations. They would prevent government from acting in the best interests of the future, becoming self sufficient, and/or serving as a beacon of hope for the rest of the world. This enigmatic embodiment of evil elite would have pushed us farther out on the energy limb.

In reality, oil is a reservoir in which a vast amount of carbon is sequestered within Earth’s crust, where it can’t contribute to global warming. But thanks to the Diabolical Committee we refer to it as fossil “fuel,” defining it as a ‘resource’ that is there to be exploited and burned… hence, released back into the atmosphere. Trouble is, recent evidence now shows that the harmful impacts of global warming may be far more imminent than was previously thought. Even the Diabolical Committee may have to face the consequences, rather than simply passing them on to future generations as they no doubt had hoped.

Not only have we not developed alternatives to oil based energy (as it becomes more difficult to obtain), but oil companies today have posted the highest profits in the history of commerce.

What about transportation? The Diabolical Committee has eliminated or weakened fuel efficient mass transit and promoted urban sprawl that is car dependent. And what about smaller and more efficient vehicles? We have gone in the opposite direction, releasing a maximum amount of carbon as ever larger cars now race down highways blowing the doors off that archaic 55 mile per hour speed limit. Who but the Diabolical Committee would have imagined in 1973 that we would today be driving truck sized gas guzzlers to the grocery store, to school, and to work?

New housing developments today feature, not small energy efficient homes, but so-called McMansions consisting of several thousand square feet of space to heat and cool, consuming immense amounts of energy.

But it gets worse. Already at the limit of sustainability, the population has not just grown… it has tripled since 1973, placing ever increasing stress on our already beleaguered environment, and exacerbating the problems of pollution.

The Diabolical Committee will try to convince us of several things. For example, that global warming is just a natural thing and that humans don’t really impact the atmosphere that much, so go ahead and super-size. Not a problem. Another example, we can produce enough oil and coal to continue on indefinitely, no need for alternative energy, so go ahead and super-size. The marketplace will solve all of our problems. No need to worry about melting glaciers, or disappearing species, so go ahead and super-size. Environmental warnings are just Chicken Little, yelling that the sky is falling.

So far this thinking has been surprisingly successful. Who would have thought, in 1973, that 35 years into the future (2008), we could possibly have gone so completely against both conservation and common sense, vastly increasing our dependence on oil and coal, and consuming at an ever increasing unsustainable rate with no regard for the consequences to future generations. While it’s not known whether we ‘could’ have made much of a difference, we do know that we didn’t.

We do have an enduring conservation legacy from 1973. The Federal Endangered Species Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. It recognized the need to protect habitats in order to prevent extinctions.

“Conservation,” according to Aldo Leopold, “is a state of harmony between men and land. By land is meant all of the things on, over, or in the earth. Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left.”

Until we learn to live in harmony with the land, we will continue (for a short time) to exploit so-called riches or resources. This is a result of mere cleverness and has little relationship to wisdom.