Fix our addiction, not our gas prices

Sally Williams, Henderson

Monday, March 5, 2012 | 2 a.m.

It’s time for Americans to stop whining about gas prices. Wake up, America. It’s intervention time, and we need to realize that we the people are the problem. Americans consume 25 percent of the oil in the world but only have 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves, and not all of that 3 percent is consumed by Americans — a lot of it is exported.

Because of this gap, we are dependent on foreign oil, and thus changing world events, increasing demand of oil by countries such as China and India and the speculators keeping track of all this.

So what can we do? Not much in the short term (although an increase in the price of oil could bring about another recession, and then demand and prices would go down). But for the future, what can and should we do? We need to decrease that 25 percent consumption and increase other forms of energy. Use less power, drive more fuel-efficient cars, carpool, demand better transit systems, build safer bike trails, demand cleaner fuel-efficient energies, etc. Oil is a limited (and dirty) resource, and it won’t last forever. We can do better than this.

Clean up, America. Cure our addiction now and secure a better future for our children.