Adhering to clean energy standards

By: Omar Qureshi

Posted: 12/4/08

Our civilization is hopelessly chained to the corporate elite, corrupt leadership of unstable states and a bureaucracy that has been unable to bring about change. While we might pretend to think that we are in charge of the economy, power still remains largely in the hands of an elite few. The executives that lead the world's major oil companies are constant reminders of this fact.

President-elect Barack Obama's recent cruise to the White House seems to have put wind back in sails of the renewable energy sector. Obama has promised to invest some $150 billion over 10 years in renewable resources as part of a wider plan to increase U.S. energy security amid fear of oil shortages, while also decreasing the country's carbon emissions in an attempt to confront the problem of global warming. Still, these promises of a long-term solution should be taken a with a grain of salt.

There still has been no commitment to an international treaty that obligates a government to adhere to clean energy standards. The same people who want to take a hard line against Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela won't consent to coming up with a plan to reduce dependence. In fact, the system has been so entangled that the only solution we have been presented with is offshore drilling - drilling that will have no effect on actual oil reserves for at least 10 years. Coincidentally, the same oil companies that are keeping oil prices high will be the ones who gain the rights to this new oil, without having to drill themselves. The bureaucracy is perpetuating corporate America's price exploitation, which continues to leave us dependent on governments we oppose.

The irony is almost painful. In the status quo there is a cycle that perpetuates the problem that we want to alleviate. All the while, we allow the system to block research and development spending on new types of energy. We allow oil companies to go back on their promises of developing alternate fuels.

We allow our reliance on oil to keep increasing. At the same time we are allowing our environment to become destroyed. And perhaps worst of all is that there is not any overwhelming anger at the way the system is working. There is no call for a revolution. There is no demand for a legitimate change amongst the corporate elite and the Washington bloc.

The lack of passion is one of the greatest tragedies of our slavery to oil. We are the people who fought back against the tyrannical rule of Britain in the late 1700s. We are the people who proudly and loudly contested the abomination that was plantation slavery. We are the people who called for equality in women's rights and justice for African Americans. We are the people who stood up against the evils of the Soviet Union. Our success as a nation is a success that has not come from complacency. It has come from a desire to be passionate. It is a desire that will never accept the norm insofar as it is harmful. We are a society that has been built with the powerful heartbeat that is revolution.

Yet when it comes to the biggest crisis of our generation it seems we have fallen silent. There is no passion. There isn't a break from conformity. The heartbeat of the revolution has stopped. We haven't fought back against the system of oil dependence. We haven't made a push for change on the most important issue of our time. Our common voice has wavered. This is the calling of our generation. America has been made great because the youth recognized the unacceptable and committed to overthrow it. The footsteps we follow are generational. Just like those Americans who came before us, we must commit to making oil dependency a real issue.

Our commitment on this matter pervades just a few discussion groups, T-shirts and petitions. It requires a concentration of demanding change. Rallies, marches and protest writing are all keys to our peaceful revolution.

Uniting our voices will finally make this dependency an issue. We cannot allow any recently-elected officials to skirt the issue. After all, the worst effects of global warming will not necessarily affect the generation in elected office now. It will affect our generation and the generations to come. The politicians and corporate executives have no reason to change and protect our future unless we force them to realize that we will not be left to clean up the mess that oil dependency has caused. Force them to act now.

Until we can fight back, we will remain enslaved - enslaved to all we abhor because we aren't standing up for what we truly believe in. Luckily, we can break the shackles of this slavery to oil by using our collective voice to no longer be complacent individuals, but rather to be a revolutionary unit with one common voice. The time for revolution is now. The time for this slavery is over.