Editor:

The May 7 article titled “Fuel prices continue to soar,” which suggests that the quick-fix solution to high gas prices and energy dependency is to drill the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Sadly, we keep focusing on symptoms (high gas prices) rather than the underlying problem (the world is running out of fossil fuels).

The world presently has 6 billion people and that population is growing by more than 70 million a year. Oil is finite and nonrenewable. One day it will run out, and when it’s gone, it’s gone.

According to The Last Days of Ancient Sunlight, by Thom Hartmann, when we run out of oil, we will only be able to sustain perhaps one-fifth of our present population. This is because petroleum is used in more than just gasoline but in everything from fertilizers, pesticides, to plastics, etc.

We have known for decades that fossil fuels would not last forever. In the Carter Administration, we looked to longrange solutions.

We had a 55 mph speed limit to save lives and energy. Carter had solar panels on the White House, and he frequently educated the American people on the need to conserve energy and finally switch to sustainable energy. At the time, we had the largest budget alternative energy budget.

Since then, we did away with the 55 mph speed limit, took down the solar panels, and the alternative energy budget was slashed and has not been restored since.

Today, we are in a full-fledged energy crisis. Yet, we keep focusing on quick-fixes, (i.e. drill ANWAR and other areas in the U.S. to try to lower prices in the short-term and will also run out). This would only increase demand, and when the world finally runs out of energy faster, we will be more dependent, not less. It will be as if the rug were pulled out from under us.

Presently, “conservation” has been branded a dirty word and gone largely unmentioned in this equation. We keep going on in a fantasy believing oil will last forever, but the joyride is almost over. Maybe we hope it won’t be in our lifetimes, but we are gambling with the future.

The world is literally running out of gas, and we need to realize it is time to switch to other forms of energy, sooner rather than later.

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