My habitat section was designed to give myself my own "blog" if you will on the environment. Before blogs became all the rage I had this website with this habitat section and I wrote - er spoke - my mind! I don't intend to offend people but sometimes the truth is hard to take. We ALL need to take a good hard look at ourselves and reflect on our own lifestyles and how that impacts on the rest of the world. I include myself on this and I've made changes myself to help the environment. In this habitat section I've done my fair share of complaining on the plight of the environment and how Americans are not so environmentally friendly and are part of the problem. I see now how our gas guzzling ways are really out of control and our hording of the world's oil is becoming a real thorn in our side and not just at the gas pump but spread out into literally almost everything else in our lives due to the rapidly rising cost of a barrel of oil. I've been saying for years that we need to get off of foreign oil and begin utilizing domestic clean and renewable fuel sources. So it is with GREAT PLEASURE that I support the Pickens Plan put out by billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens.  He has a wonderful website full of good information along with ways for YOU to get involved to help make the transition from a foreign oil based energy economy to a domestic based clean and renewable fuel economy. I cannot urge you enough to visit his website and become involved. You have so many reasons to get involved, least of all the ever increasing expense of gasoline. Do you want to go to war over oil or do you want to live in a country you can be proud of because it uses domestic clean and renewable fuel? You take the pick but to me its a no brainer! For all the writing I've done on this subject in my habit section on my website, I am ever so grateful for this man to have come to the rescue of the American people so that we can finally make this country energy self sufficient from clean and renewable energy sources. It took an oilman to do it but that actually seems logical to me. I've always said that oil companies should be at the forefront of the green energy revolution since they have the capital, engineers and technology to do it. Oil companies don't need to shrivel up and die - they just need to transform themselves in 21st Century companies!  The plan by T. Boone Pickens will positively change the path of the United States forever. The plan calls for utilizing domestic forms of clean renewable energy: wind and solar for electricity; natural gas for vehicle fuel.  By using natural gas for fuel it drastically reduces our need for oil and by using wind and solar for electricity the need for oil and coal as sources for electricity is also severely cut, if not eliminated. T. Boone Pickens does not see this plan as the end-all-to-beat-all of energy plans to meet our needs indefinitely but he does see it as a bridge to gap the current crisis we are now in until we implement better and more usable forms of domestic clean renewable energy forms. There are other interesting sources of domestic energy being investigated right now such as the use of algae. There are algae farms in the desert portions of the southwest being tested for mass production as an energy source that may some day be the answer we are looking for to fulfill our energy needs.  The emphasis is not so much on finding the "magic bullet" of energy sources nearly as much as actually getting out there and finally testing alternative fuel sources. Nothing is done overnight, nothing is done right the first time and more often than not, trial and "error" have usually brought about major fundamental advancements in research and development. Many scientists and inventors have "accidentally" discovered major advancements over the years.  I find this to be more than encouraging and believe that within ten years or less we will be basically energy self sufficient utilizing clean and renewable energy sources for electricity and vehicles. People like T. Boone Pickens will play a major and integral role in this shift and YOU can be a part of it by joining his team to push for his plan to become a reality!  

"Quite frankly I'm glad gasoline is at $4 a gallon because its finally forcing us to act now to turn away from foreign oil and utilize domestic clean and renewable energy sources that will not only create much needed "green collar jobs" but reduce our possibility of wars over oil and our ties to terrorism sponsoring countries that we tolerate simply because we need their oil." - Diane from www.dianeszoo.com

  If you have read my pages in this habitat section on fossil fuel and terrorism and renewable energy than you will know how I feel about our overuse of antiquated and harmful fuel sources such as oil and coal. You will know that I was deeply discouraged by the fact that the United States has been long bought out by oil, automobile and energy companies and that they were literally running the government in Washington, D.C., NOT the American people. You would know that we were remiss in not encouraging a new sector of vitally needed jobs called "green collar jobs" that would help get our economy back on track from millions of lost jobs due to outsourcing of manufacturing and customer service jobs to countries like China, Mexico, India, Taiwan and Thailand, to name a few. Overall, the economic downfall of the United States has been a long time in the making of our own devices. As a nation, we've become self absorbed, indulgent, pampered, spoiled, careless, sloppy, uncaring about the environment, and self righteous.  We expected to get in our big gas guzzling SUV's and other vehicles and drive where we wanted, for how long we wanted and whenever we wanted and that it was our God given right as Americans to have enough gas available to us at a reasonable cost no matter what the consequences to the rest of the world. We bought McMansion houses we couldn't afford further and further from our jobs which resulted in longer commutes through bumper to bumper traffic in urban sprawls. We cared nonetheless, although obviously irked at the traffic we sat in, so we chatted on our cell phones and text messaged while we waited in seemingless endless gridlock. We drove two miles to the gym to work out but would never consider walking two miles in our neighborhood for exercise instead. We drove three blocks to the mailbox but never thought of riding our bicycles from the cluttered garage of junk to make the trip to the box instead.  We felt it was within our right to go to war in Iraq under whatever the latest reason the Bush administration gave to justify the war in order for us to continue to have oil flowing to our gas stations. We buy hook, line and sinker the false reasons the government officials give us to justify any possible future wars to keep the oil flowing - because after all - we are Americans and deserve to have the oil keep flowing so we can keep driving in the manner to which we are accustomed  - it is our right and no one, and I mean no one can take that away from us, right? WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!! We may be Americans but we do not have any rights to any foreign oil - it is not ours - it is not our right to demand it - and it certainly isn't a God given right to expect it! According to T. Boone Pickens currently we import about 70% of our oil from other countries. Don't you see a huge problem with that? Well I do and I suspect that you do now too as gas is at least $4 a gallon in the majority of the country and going higher and higher just about every day.  Trust me, gas will be $10 a gallon before we are finally domestically energy self sufficient enough to not need foreign oil. Why $10 a gallon you ask? Well...we've squandered so many years being bought out by corporations that we did virtually nothing to wean ourselves off of oil, domestic or foreign, and get ourselves using clean and renewable fuel sources. Since we are now just starting to even think about utilizing clean alternative fuel sources it will take years before we can expect to have them fully implemented and available. I sure hope I'm wrong on that but I have an uncanny knack for projecting trends that come true (ask my mom!) so if history is any indicator than start saving every penny you have for the gas pump!

  These are ugly and hard truths to bear these days - truths that we as Americans are to blame for the ever increasing demand for foreign oil based on our lifestyle and our arrogant attitudes that we can live as we please and damn the consequences to the rest of the world and the environment. Its only when these hard truths come to hit us in our pocketbooks do we begin to "feel" the error of our ways. Our domestic output is simply a drop in the bucket compared to our consumption so naturally we get an ever increasing supply from overseas. But what is the cost for that? According to T. Boone Pickens it is 700 billion a year that is what the cost is my friend! Look, I'm an American and I love this country like most of you do and I don't want to see ANY harm come to this nation, and I want the BEST for the United States. And I know that we can do better - we can make the transition from a fossil fuel energy economy to a domestic clean and renewable energy economy. BUT we need to act NOW and we need to make some sacrifices along the way and we need to change our habits and our thinking that we are the best, we deserve the best and we can continue to live the way we've always lived because we deserve it. Do you honestly believe that we are better than citizen's of any other country in the world? Do you honestly think that we should be able to live our lifestyle even if it hurts the rest of the world's inhabitants and the environment? Do you honestly think we are so superior that we can do what we want without any negative consequences?  Do you honestly believe that we can go to war to keep oil flowing our way? Do you honestly think that we are safe in this country when 70% of our oil comes from other countries? Do you honestly believe that countries will continue to sell us oil when we have military conflicts with them or political conflicts that cannot be repaired? Even President Bush, who will go down as the WORST president the United States has ever had (and probably ever will have!) has said that we are addicted to foreign oil and need to change that. He does not offer solutions and doesn't have any plans or ideas but what can you expect from a man who has his brain in his big toe! What I fear, and many others fear, is that President Bush, in his typical arrogant cowboy mentality, will start yet another unnecessary war in order to keep oil coming to the United States so that we can continue to live the vain lifestyle we think we deserve. Of course we don't have to suffer the bombs and the destruction and the sheer terror of the war, only the innocent people who by no fault of their own happen to live in the country we make war against suffer! Another reason to get off of foreign oil ASAP!

  America made mistakes in the post World War II era when it came to community development. We literally built urban sprawl from the ground up and as a result built roads, highways, interstates and turnpikes.  That concept, which seemed uniquely American and a model for the rest of the world to strive for, ended up costing us plenty. We should have designed communities for mass transportation rather than individual driving.  We have since increasingly relied on foreign oil to fuel that lifestyle and now look where we are as a result. As baby boomers grew up in this new American experience they expected that their uniquely American lifestyle was a right rather than a fluke compared to the rest of the world. Even in other first world countries, most people didn't own a car and if they did, it was used sparingly. We are now in a costly mess and one that is so volatile it could unleash World War III at any moment over the use of oil to continue to give Americans the lifestyle they are used to. Is this right considering the world now has over six billion people yet the United States has slightly more than 300 million citizens? Again, according to T. Boone Pickens, Americans use 25% of the world's oil yet we are only 4% of the world's population. You do the math and see if you can justify the numbers. I don't believe that morally you can.

  Part of T. Boone Pickens plan is to utilize natural gas as a fuel source for our vehicles.  I am not a huge fan of natural gas only because you do need to carve up the earth to get it but its not as bad as carving up the earth to harvest oil. I guess that in some cases you need to make some concessions and sacrifices for the overall good.  This is one of those times that I personally am willing to come off of my high horse on and support, albeit grudgingly.  I am so against drilling for oil domestically that I am willing to concede harvesting natural gas to fuel vehicles.  Drilling for oil domestically is nothing but a political band aid but with an enormous wound underneath it as it carves up the earth and destroys the environment in the process, harming animal populations and the people that live near the drilling fields, not to mention the potential oil spills that do happen.  I really don't know much about natural gas, especially when it comes to being a fuel source but I realize that T. Boone Pickens is really all about using clean and renewable fuel sources to get us off of our sickening addiction to foreign oil so for the time being I will go along with it.  I do believe that is far superior to continuing on our trend of importing foreign oil for a host of reasons including the price, the potential for wars and political conflicts, the ties it has to terrorism and the environmental destruction is causes.  According to the Pickens Plan website natural gas is much cheaper than gasoline per gallon and that is definitely one reason to support it, as long as it is not environmentally destructive, which according to the website, it is not. It is also the cleanest fuel available today according to the website. 

  The Pickens Plan would create "green collar jobs" which are sorely needed in today's economy where so many jobs have been lost to the developing world.  While it is wonderful to see countries get jobs and develop economically which in turn will hopefully encourage more democracies, what is the cost to the United States? We see an ever increasing housing slump with escalating foreclosures and it is not all related to the sub prime mess and flipping houses by investors. Some of the mess is the result of job losses in a downturned economy and the trend of companies to move their jobs overseas for manufacturing of their products. When that happens it is a no brainer that there will be far reaching consequences. We do have an opportunity to create a whole new sector of jobs right now - green collar jobs - jobs that will install and service clean and renewable energy sources such as solar and wind and God knows what else will come along in the future.  The training of a new generation of Americans for these types of jobs not only benefits the economy but it benefits the environment too!  This is dream come true for the nation and one that should be realized to its fullest potential. You know, we aren't responsible just to our present but to our future as well. What kind of country and earth do we want to leave to our children and all those that come long after we are gone? The fact is that when President Jimmy Carter had his fireside chats back in the 1970s during the oil embargo he said we needed to conserve energy and find alternative energy sources and get off of foreign oil. I barely remember that time as I was only in junior high at the time but I do remember the long lines as gas stations and the televised chats by the president. And at no time during his administration or any subsequent administration or any session of Congress has the push for alternative energy sources been a priority. As a result, some forty years later, we are now "paying the price" for that. What if we had begun to research and develop alternative sources of domestic energy back then? We would be in a completely different America right now. We aren't because of various reasons but we now see ourselves in penny pinching mode and it bites big time and we don't like it. But the good news is that we can find our way out before its too late but if we don't act now it will be too late before too long.

  Take action! Listen to T. Boone Pickens as he asks for your help in making our country energy self sufficient. Remember YOU can help bring this country into the 21st Century of energy technology and self sufficiency. If you USE energy than use your ENERGY to make a difference today!

 
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COMMENTS SECTION

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