A Piece of the Whole Pie

The drive to renewable, clean energy is clouded by all kinds of hypocrisy and contradictions. It's hard to get to the truth, even for those who claim to be leaders down the right path. Everyone still wants their piece of the pie and we seem to be willing to delude ourselves on our way down the proverbial primrose path. Most recycling programs waste more energy than they save. Almost all of the "renewable" energy sources actually absorb more energy than they produce (and thus pollute more than fossil fuels).

Lost in the cacophony is the fact that the US economy has been naturally striving for more efficiency, the ability to do more with less energy and thus less pollution. Through our own choices in the marketplace, we've been selecting for businesses that have less environmental impact. Manufacturing jobs have been disappearing because the manufacturing industry pollutes more than the service industry. Each year the invisible hand is trying to constrict the population because each person in this culture demands a certain amount of luxury, as much as they can get.

And yet, many of our populist political policies contradict these trends. When the obvious solutions are not palatable, are we really serious about issues like reducing our oil consumption, cleaner economies, etc? Apparently not, first I'd like my slice of the pie and then I'd like to be elected. Whatever it takes to achieve that...