Time of Crisis or Opportunity?

I wrote this on the 31st of May 2008, while petrol prices were causing riots across Europe, I'm posting it here as it's been about 10 months since I wrote that, and things couldn't be more different, though unfortunately they didn't go the way I hoped!


I was watching the News at 10 last night, and something struck me.

I can see that we are at the start of a point in history that futures generations will look at as a turning point.
The strikes all over Europe caused by the increasing costs of petrol mark the beginning of interesting times. We can start seeing the consequences of our western lives on the world, people are aware, and I can see that we are at a point where we really need to start thinking properly about change.

I can see two possibilities in front of us, two directions to take, we either take the hard, yet high, road, and finally invest most of our resources in finding renewable, healthy alternatives to petrol, and educate everyone about the effects of our actions, or we dodge this crisis, put off having to deal with the shortage problem and leave it to future generations.
There are only two possible outcomes, either we finally make a change on our way of living, an incredibly important and long lasting change, influencing our society and mentality, or we'll prove, once again, that we are not quite as intelligent as we think ourselves to be, and leave irreversible damage.
Now, I'm not against cars, planes, and all that, I love travelling, plus I doubt I'd be able to live in a world without top gear.. Yet I can't understand, as we are such an intelligent species, why we are still so dependant on something we can't possibly control. It goes against any logic reasoning.
As a species we should allow ourselves to depend only on things we can create and control, not on something that can pretty much disappear in our lifetime. Our behaviour is self-destructive.
With all the geniuses in the world, and all the scientists, and all the governments affected by this sudden crisis, is it possible that no-one has yet found a valid, cheap, renewable alternative to petrol? And if it has been found, why hasn't it been implemented?
All the companies making profits off of this crisis are much more in troubles than we are, when petrol runs out, how will these companies survive? Isn't it in their best interest as well to dabble in alternative resources? Create a new market and invest in it? In the long run they'll benefit as well.

That said, I can also see great things happening around us, recent scientific discoveries and new technologies used to benefit those who need them, used to solve the real problems of our world. A good example is the project trying to modify crops at a genetic level to make them better resistant to long periods of drought. ( BBC News ) (or also GMO Africa , for a different purpose).
At a theoretical level I am against modified food. But if we can use science to solve famine and illnesses, well, I'm all for it! That's what science is all about, increase our knowledge, and use our findings to improve our quality of life, overcome obstacles, and help us survive.
Putting it Darwiniangly: if we don't improve the world for future generations, if we don't fix the mess we've created by being greedy and self-centred, how will our genes survive? Or rather, how long will they survive for? Certainly not enough to evolve a tiny bit more and grow a functioning brain. Unfortunately we don't always think that the purpose of life should be improving ourselves and the world around us.
We may be living in worrying times, yet it's also times full of possibilities, we are seeing warning signs spelled out in big red letters, we have the opportunity to change the world for the better and we have more means to do it than ever before.
Time for a change? The French revolution started with huge increases in the price of salt, due to the government's monopoly of it. That was their last straw. Will petrol be ours?


I like how Obama touched on many of my points in many of his speeches, I would say great minds think alike but mine was just a rant he will hopefully help steer the world in the right direction (though I still think the expectations are too high...