In the face of the basic fact that fossil fuel reserves are finite, the exact length of time these reserves will last is important in only one respect: the longer they last, the more time do we have, to invent ways of living off renewable or substitute energy sources and to adjust our economy to the vast changes which we can expect from such a shift.
Quelle: „Energy Resources and Our Future“ – Speech by Hyman Rickover in 1957
Bereits vor fünfzig Jahren hat ein weiser Mann erkannt, dass die Welt vom billigen Rohstoff Erdöl schwerstabhängig ist – und man lieber früher als später etwas dagegen unternähme. Während man bei Drogenabhängigen umgehend einen Entzug einleitet, haben wir den Konsum Jahr für Jahr erhöht. Es steht zu befürchten, das die Droge in den nächsten Jahren knapp werden und bald darauf ausgehen wird.
Törichterweise haben wir im Drogenrausch verpasst, Alternativen zu erschliessen, geschweige denn sie bezahlbar zu machen. Droht uns dasselbe Schicksal wie den Mayas und der chinesischen Hochkultur?
Our greatest responsibility, as parents and as citizens, is to give America’s youngsters the best possible education. We need the best teachers and enough of them to prepare our young people for a future immeasurably more complex than the present, and calling for ever larger numbers of competent and highly trained men and women. This means that we must not delay building more schools, colleges, and playgrounds. It means that we must reconcile ourselves to continuing higher taxes to build up and maintain at decent salaries a greatly enlarged corps of much better trained teachers, even at the cost of denying ourselves such momentary pleasures as buying a bigger new car, or a TV set, or household gadget. We should find – I believe – that these small self-denials would be far more than offset by the benefits they would buy for tomorrow’s America.
