President Obama spoke today of the friendly nature of oil supplying countries like Mexico and Canada as the costs of oil goes through the roof due to the instability in the middle east.
At a time where nuclear has its image challenges, oil has its stability challenges, it seems opportune that we are all moving farther ahead with renewable energy solutions to help reduce dependency on foreign oil supply. And while true that this solar blog writer may not live to see the day where oil is completely made redundant, at least I know that our world is moving in that direction.
From the oil sands of Saudi Arabia, to the lithium sands of Bolivia, we are seeing shifts which have major geopolitical repercussions. One may even postulate that the populations of the oil rich countries know that the jig is coming to an end, and so perhaps they too are understanding that they must develop their economies into modern era versions of what they have had, lest they become inconsequential to the global economy once oil is no longer required from them.
The ironic thing about all of this is that Israel may be held up as the model economy which came out of the same desert as Jordan, Egypt or others, with absolutely no oil revenues to speak of. Perhaps the dependency on oil has in fact concentrated the wealth in the hands of a few, delayed the need for these societies to develop truly modern economies and left their leaders quite exposed to the revolutions now occurring almost everywhere in the Arab world.
It will take strong leadership which does not try to hold onto ways of past, yet engages its populations to find solutions for future. I remain hopeful that the middle eastern countries now undergoing turmoil come out of these times with a sincere desire to participate peacefully in the global community and begin to assume their places in helping our world be more considerate in how we affect our planet earth.