Oil and Water

We can argue forever about which country or region is best suited to deal with the upcoming crises of water and oil. And we can also add in the impacts of climate change. Some will be better suited and others less suited. But regardless of who is in a better position to respond we will all be facing the same problems of war and destruction, fear and hate.

All of our wars through history have been fought over territory and resources, whether those resources are oil, metals, minds or bodies. Global economics push our governments and our politics to follow in directions that support the entities in their pursuit of resources and territory, which directly translates to money and power. We can continue this game or we can radically examine the playing field upon which we find ourselves.

There are plenty of all of our resources to go around if we use the resources sanely and conservatively. The problem lies in the continual push for greater and greater consumption of resources, which is continually and vehemently encouraged by the economic system that is ruling (and has ruled) the world. We are constantly encouraged and driven to buy more and more and use more and more so that the economic giants can make increasing profits. Our governments are obsessed with GNP and the economic milieu forces those in business to always expand.

In these ways we are on a path to disaster because the economic entities will push on and on until there are no more profits to be made at which point there will be little left for any of us to use for survival.

Our problems and their solutions are global and for us to address the upcoming crises with oil and water and climate and population and disease we must deal with these issues as a connected world. Otherwise we will keep repeating the same mistakes over and over... whether exactly the same or as rhymes of our previous failures.

We can have enough food and enough water and enough energy if we change our thinking from expansion to comfortable management. We can satisfy many of these needs on local and regional bases and conserve time and energy. And to boot we can begin to rebuild local flavor and culture.

Not that isolationism will help us at all. For us to act as a race we must communicate as a race and our global communications can do that for us. We are all World Citizens first and foremost. When we communicate globally we can recognize and address our global needs and wants. By looking carefully at our histories and working to change that past through our present purposefully redemptive actions we can make a future that is bright for all of us.

Call me a dreamer. But it is only by dreaming and pulling ourselves up to our dreams that we can move beyond the status quo... which is getting bleaker with each passing year.