AHA Student Work

Remember the year “ 2040 “, even though it hasn’t come yet. For this will be
a very important date, and will determine whether or not civilization as we
know changes for the worse.

Why? Because, as most experts agree, around 2040 oil production will peak.
Yes, oil, the fossil fuel that runs 40% of the world’s energy ( and 96% of
its transportation )(1) will be much, much less abundant. We won’t
necessarily have fished out all the world’s black gold, but the supply will
be much less than the demand. The concern of running out of oil has been in
the back of the world’s mind for some time now; our discovery of new oil
fields peaked in 1962 (2), and one only need look at the rising price of
gasoline to know that something’s amiss beyond just inflation.

And it’s only going to get worse. Though the upper class that runs the
country will be able to pay for oil and oil-related products, as typical the
middle class will suffer by being unable to afford oil. This not only means
gasoline, but all petroleum based products and services; plastic, artificial
rubber, fertilizer, paints, lubricants, medicines, heating oil, some
electricity etc. ad infinitum. All will get more expensive, and it will be
harder for most of us to afford all of them. Things could get messy, because
without enough oil in the world, oil-based economies like America could
collapse.

Any solutions involving getting more oil are short-term at best. We could
always open up the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve for drilling, but the
billions of barrels of oil believed to be under there wouldn’t last that
long. We could fight countries for war over possession of oil, but that also
has its limits ( as well as the potential to piss off the majority of the
world even more and have a high cost in human lives ). And we could keep
importing oil from the mostly shady Middle East, but even that will run out
eventually.

The only solution to the problem that isn’t a temporary fix inevitably
resulting in economic collapse is to research alternative energy sources.
There are many different ways to get energy to power our day-to-day lives;
solar, wind, biomass, hydrogen fuel cells, even steam. None of these are
perfect; they all have their own flaws, be it the slow pace of collecting
energy from the sun, the unsightliness of windmills ( not to mention the
avian fatalities ), or the difficulty and inefficiency of processing
hydrogen. But these alternatives are better than their alternative.

To the younger generation, I say this; don’t grow complacent about the
apparent 35-40 years of oil we have left before the wells start to dry up.
Listen closely to what your politicians say, and lend your support to those
who promise to put money and time towards new kinds of power. Depending on
how much focus our scientists put towards alternative energy, the time
between when a more diverse energy economy is fantasy and when it is fact
can lessen.

To the older generation, I say something more inflammatory; thanks a whole
bloody lot for your collective dependence on a dwindling fuel source. But
it’s not too late to change things. In the few decades we have left, we can
change our ways. We can look towards newer, cleaner fuels, and we can cut
back on the oil we’re using now. We can move towards the future and leave
the oil in the ground. Or we can keep wallowing in our fossil fuels and face
the consequences when the big 4-0 catches up to us.

REFERENCES

1.) Statistics taken from Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (
www.iags.org )
2.) Statistics taken from Oil and the Future (
www.eco-action.org/dt/oilfut.html )

NEIL KAPIT

Posted by JoshWand at 02:09 PM | Permalink

One person I will never forget is Roy Mugatu ( real name withheld ). He
was one of my best teachers in life. I can run off a list of all sorts of
people who have been influential to me; parents, friends, teachers,
counselors, writers, etc. But it all comes back to him. For you see, for a
month-long period, Roy was my high-school bully.

Don't get me wrong, Roy never really hurt me. He threatened me regularly,
but he never actually touched me. He just teased me regularly. He snickered
at any comment I'd make in class, and called me names like "bitch "and "
pussy ". His favorite game was to shout at me, "hey, look over here! "and
when I finally looked, he shouted, "Don't look at me or I'll hurt you! "
And so it went onward, for weeks and weeks. I eventually exchanged the class
he was in for a study hall, just to get some peace.

Maybe I was being overly sensitive. But the point of Roy's verbal jabs,
whether he was consciously aware of it or not ( being an F student, I doubt
he was ), wasn't to outright harm me. It was to show that he had power over
me. That even if he couldn't actually touch me, he could still assert
himself over me, and show me that he could get away with it. He was more
popular than me, after all. He was a star on the wrestling team. I was just
a skinny geekster who had as much influence on things as the modern
Democratic party. He could put me under his thumb and get away with it, just
with a few key words.

And maybe I brought this on myself. I won't forget the first day I met him;
I saw him doodling an image of Superman on lined paper, a drawing of
surprising quality for a 14-year-old artist. I thought I could compliment
him on his drawing and make an instant friend, for I was interested in comic
book superheroes too. Instead, at loss for words and not wanting to sound
phony, I made a snide joke about the anatomical incorrectness of comic
characters, which I think offended him. Or, at least, made me stand out as
different, and thus a target.

If you're listening, Roy, you muscle-brained twat.........I apologize for
saying that. I really do. I was young and stupid and socially inept. But
that doesn't excuse what you did to me. That doesn't excuse the emotional
scars I still bear from your jabs, the class I dropped to avoid you, the
years of resentment I had against you and the literal tears I shed over your
torment.

But still, you taught me a valuable lesson. It doesn't matter what you are;
white or black, privileged or poor, male or female, gay or straight,
wrestling star or comic geek. We're all different in some way, and that
makes us all targets. How we handle it is up to us. We can choose to be
insecure of our differences, and pick on those less fortunate in order to
make ourselves feel better. Or we can accept the differences in ourselves
and others and reach out in the name of tolerance and brotherhood. The
latter is something that I've tried to do ever since high school began, and
has been very difficult to do. Mainly because many other people were still
stuck in the former mindset, and didn't want someone to do to them what they
themselves couldn't do. But the principle has still made me a better person.

I never found out what happened to Roy after I tested out of high school.
I've often wondered what happened to him. In the past I hoped for him to be
trapped in a dead-end job at best. Right now, I'm mature enough to hope the
best for him. Hopefully he's cleaned up his act and has learned the same
lessons as I did, as I also teased people when I was in middle school.
Hopefully he's become a better person, and feels sorry for what he did to me
and countless others.

All I know is that the lessons learned in high school run deep, and I'm glad
I learned to be more tolerant from Roy Mugatu, instead of just more bitter.
I hope he learned the same from me.

Posted by JoshWand at 02:11 PM | Permalink