Facing Our Problems

Everyone is in trouble unless we face up to some problems and get to work right away on them. One of these problems is climate change. A lot of us know that already. What we don't know is what to do about it.

The problem of climate change is easier to face if we break it down into smaller problems that make up the bigger problem of climate change. One of these smaller problems that make up the bigger problem of climate change is energy.

We have a finite amount of traditional energy sources or fuels, left in the world. These fuels are things like, oil, gas, nuclear fuel, coal, wood, etc. 

This would be a problem anyway if the number of people who want to get energy from our existing energy fuels will stay the same. The problem is made much worse because the number of people who want energy keeps growing, and the people who are already alive want to use more and more fuel.

An example of people wanting to use more and more fuel is the Chinese. As their standard of living has risen, they have more money to spend and want to have more things that use energy. This is true for people in other countries as well.

A side effect of more people wanting more of existing fuel, is conflict. When a lot of people want the same thing, they often want to fight to get it. This can mean more wars. Since humans have much more destructive and dangerous weapons than ever before, war is even more dangerous than it has been. The risk to our lives and the future of the human race from this quarreling over fuel is worse than climate change.

There are two main ways to solve this problem of competition for fuel and the wars that can come from it. One way is for everyone to use less fuel. The other way is for us to get more fuel.

We are not having good results so far with the first option. Everyone wants other people to use less fuel and leave more for themselves. The rich countries want the poor people to conserve fuel. The poor countries want the rich countries to conserve fuel. 

The other option seems to be the one we are stuck with. I wish to write some posts about possible ways for us to get more fuel. I plan to begin posting about ways for us to get more fuel tomorrow.