Why is it that the GOP talking points concerning our debt and deficit always seem to lead to the idea that we will be leaving our children and grand children with a terrible burden in the future? Don't get me wrong, I am a firm believer in shoring up our finances as a nation. However all the GOP has offered so far, are draconian cuts to much needed social safety nets, and then in turn, giving the savings that these cuts produce to large multi-national corporations. Our Supreme Court ruled last year in the Citizens United case, that these same corporations are considered people, and have the same First Amendment rights as individual citizens. That decision has brought about unprecedented campaign donations by these very corporate interests. These are the corporations who buy off our politicians, get them in lock step, and give them their talking points. Then it is just a matter of spin to convince us, that if we are to get out of this recession we need to give corporations more tax cuts so they can hire more workers. We can never raise taxes on the wealthiest among us. Oh and by the way, that clean air you like to breathe, your children may not have that same advantage. If we restrict what the giant multi-national corporations can do to the environment, all the jobs will dry up and we will be living in a job-less world, that happens to have a healthy environment. So back to my original question. If are children are fiscally wealthy thirty years down the road, what good will it do them when the ground, air, and water are polluted so badly that they are literally being killed by the environment surrounding them?
What are we thinking? We give all this credence to fiscal responsibility, and yet we constantly pollute the environment with our insatiable energy needs. Ask yourself this question. If the world becomes so irradiated by a massive nuclear accident that our children are dying of horrible cancers and radiation related illnesses, what good is a balanced budget? We are the greatest energy consuming nation in the history of human inhabitation on this planet. It is time to take responsibility for the damage we have done.
We all know about wind, solar and hydro-electric power, and yes these are great steps toward maintaining a healthy environment. Unfortunately these sources of power generation only make up about twelve percent of our consumption. We as a nation need to take a look backward to the "Space-Race." We were a determined nation. A nation that innovated itself from simple V-2 rockets to the mighty Saturn 5, to landing men on the moon. We need innovation and drive of that scale again. We have some of the brightest minds in this country. We can do this. What we need is a voice to espouse that ambition. What we don't need is corporate money constantly buying our politicians and squashing that ambition.
We are on an unsustainable course as far as our energy needs are concerned. We basically burn things to make power. Whether it is coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear power, we are simply burning various combustible materials to generate steam, which turns a turbine and generates electrical power. All fossil fuels generate green-house gases in varying degrees. These gases then trap excess heat within the atmosphere. Whether you think climate change is man made or not is beyond the argument. The fact remains that we are pumping hundreds of tons of emissions into our atmosphere, and we are not sure what the consequences of that will be. Already this spring we have seen some of the wildest weather on record. We are not sure what is causing the disturbing shift in our weather patterns, but would it not be prudent to at least put some of the blame on our energy production.
The time has come to start making drastic changes. Lets stop funneling billions of dollars in tax breaks to the largest multi-national corporations. Start pushing our politicians to use that money to start innovating the way to real changes in how we produce our energy. I want to leave a better planet for my children. I want my children to be able to go fishing and eat the fish they catch. I want my children to enjoy the natural splendor of the mountains, the forests' and the oceans. If we don't start making big changes our children will be left with a smoldering wreckage of an environment. We have recently been reminded by the British Petroleum oil spill in the gulf and the nuclear nightmare at Fukushima of the grave consequences of our energy production. A hundred years from now, I do not want my great grand children to look back at this generation and see greedy, insatiable energy consumption. I want them to see a generation that changed the world. I want them to see a generation who innovated it's way out of a big problem. I want them to tell stories about how we did it, the same way we tell our children about going to the moon, proudly. We can do this! We are the greatest nation on the planet, lets get started proving it once again. Good Luck America!!
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