Whether you belive global warming to be a real threat or not, is irrelevant at this point. The world, and more importantly the US, is already moving toward environmentally friendly energy. The leaders of the world nations are trying to do their part to stop global warming. The US Presidential candidates to automobile companies are all on the bandwagon. Is debating the scientific evidence to support or bust global warming what we should focus on? Not really. The world is in agreement that we need a cleaner world to live in. Do we all need to jump on the 'stop global warming love bus and hold hands'? No...
But what we need to focus on and demand in our next presidential candidates is a strong plan for capitalizing on this upcoming generation of eco-friendly economics. We are in a critical transition period and we MUST act wisely if we are to prosper in the future eco-friendly world.
Develop a renewable energy industry here in the USA. It's time we stop funding the 24/7 construction of Dubai-land and instead spend our dollars on renewable-energy that is produced here in the states. If we invest our money into the USA to start a green industrial revolution, where renewable-energy companies emerge and prosper, we will reap the rewards of this global trend that is starting.
The automobile companies are ready to put green cars on the road but the US does not have the infrastructure to support the future of automobiles. Our next Administration needs a plan to rebuild our infrastructure to support eco-friendly fuels.
BMW has commercials on tv for their hydrogen powered vehicle. This car can use either hydrogen or gasoline but there obviously aren't hydrogen stations to go fill up at. Our next Administration needs to address this issue because its going to be a major one, whether we like it or not. We WILL need to build new stations or convert current stations to sell new types of fuels.
I also think our next Administration would be wise to to realize that a nation dependent on any single commodity, like we have been on oil, is a great weakness. So in our green future we need to ensure the automobile companies and fuel companies develop variety. Hydrogen cars, vegetable oil cars, electric cars, etc. Why become 100% dependent on something all over again, isn't that one of the major issues with gasoline aside from carbon emissions? Variety will breed better business and economy for the US, competitive markets will keep prices affordable and technology booming.
Renewable-energy for international economy? Instead of buying oil from the middle east, we offer building contracts in other nations to build renewable-energy industry in their countries. If we do this right, we can not only help countries develop their infrastructures but we can generate international economy to increase our revenue. Iraq needs a lot of things and one of those things (far as I know) is electricity. Instead of American troops, lets help them build solar/wind farms to power their country and reap the benefits of an energy contract with them.
As a diplomatic trump card for Iran: Iranian president insists they are developing nuclear power for energy only, tell them if they are solely trying to develop energy for Iran they can do so with solar/wind energy and meet their objective and avoid WW3. Maybe we even manage an energy contract in Iran for renewable-energy plants.
In closing, whether or not my ideas here are good or bad won't matter in the 2024 election. What will matter is what the candidates ideas for these topics are and that is what I want people to think about when they vote. Seriously consider the points I tried to make and if you have a better idea, great. But make sure your candidates have a plan for these topics. If they don't, they shouldn't get your vote.
Nec, I agree with what you are saying. There needs to be funding to explore alternate fuel sources. Bio-fuels are a good starting point but they are not the answer. We are currently dependent exclusively on fossil fuels which come out of the earth and are not renewable. If we switch to bio-fuels, we are still stripping the land of valuable resources. New agricultural practices, such as no-till agriculture, suggest harvesting what is needed and leaving the crop debris on the farmland. This keeps a constant cycle of nutrients in the soil and helps significantly with erosion control. In a nutshell, it means that plants (crops) pull nutrients from the soil; only a said amount goes to the part of the plant (crop) we harvest. If we over harvest, there will be no crop residue to put the unused nutrients back into the soil, this would lead to an exhaustion of soil nutrients. Not to mention with no crop residue to help control erosion, we will lose our rich layer of topsoil. It takes many years to create the topsoil layer, which is the fertile life giving layer to the plants in our environment. This means that after years of using our soil for fuel we might deplete the life giving nutrients that keep our county thriving and food on our tables. If we aren’t careful in developing more than one fuel source, we could just be creating another problem.
This is just a concern that needs to be addressed and looked at.
Hydroponics is an alternative ways of producing mass crops and is still being developed and explored. Maybe this is the route we should take in the development of bio-fuels.
Gibb McGowan