We All Live Downstream

Energy Series, Part I: We Can’t Solve Today’s Problems with Yesterday’s Ideas

One of my favorite quotes is Einstein’s: “We can’t solve the problems of today by thinking the way we thought when we created them.” As with many popular quotes, there are several different versions floating around, but they all mean the same thing — if we want solutions, we have to think differently.

If Einstein were alive today, he would be appalled at Palin’s promise to “lay more pipelines,” or McCain’s call to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling. This doesn’t represent a new way of thinking, just more of the same. McCain would have us believe a reversal of the offshore drilling ban today would lower gasoline prices tomorrow. We know better — even if the ban were lifted today, we wouldn’t see a drop of oil for over a decade, and never enough to alter gas prices more than a few pennies. Palin wants to open ANWR for drilling, and doesn’t believe in climate change. Guess she hasn’t noticed Alaska’s melting glaciers or drowning polar bears. Einstein would be very disappointed.

Even billionaire oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens says, “this is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of.” I don’t often agree with oil tycoons, but this is one time where I couldn’t agree more. Our current energy crises will not be solved with oil rigs, no matter how many we cram along our coastline.

It’s time to follow Einstein’s advice and try something new. Instead of a wreckage of polluting oil rigs, let’s invest in a forest of clean wind turbines. Why grapple with the dangers and limits of nuclear energy when we have a limitless supply of safe, powerful solar energy. And, while we’re at it, let’s develop cars that need less fuel, homes that rely on geothermal heating and communities built around the ideals of sustainable living. We can do it. We don’t have to settle for Big Oil’s future. We can create our own.

I can’t speak to McCain’s intelligence or Palin’s experience with energy issues, but I’m willing to wager that Einstein could run intellectual circles around the two of them. So, when Einstein says we need to think differently while the McCain-Palin campaign advocates more of the same, the choice is easy. Einstein. Change. And the belief in a future that can be better than today.

Please stay tuned to We All Live Downstream, as I post this series on Clean Water Action’s vision for a New Energy Economy.

Related Posts:

Energy Series, Part II: The Dirty Truth About “Clean” Coal

Energy Series, Part III: Nuclear Energy: Not In My Watershed

Energy Series, Part IV: Ethanol: Too Good To Be True?

Energy Series, Part V: Curing Our Fossil Fuel Addiction, One Alternative At A Time

Energy Series, Part VI: Have More Energy By Using Less Of It

Posted on September 22, 2008  | Filed Under Global Warming and a New Energy Economy | 1 Comment

Related posts

• Energy Series, Part VI: Have More Energy, by Using Less of It
• Energy Series, Part V: Curing our Fossil Fuel Addiction, One Alternative at a Time
• Energy Series, Part III: Nuclear Energy: Not in My Watershed
• Energy Series, Part IV: Ethanol: Too Good to be True?
• Energy Series, Part II: The Dirty Truth About “Clean” Coal

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