It’s clear that we are all dependent on oil in one form or another, and while everyone is complaining about rising gas prices, most people usually don’t consider the true cost of oil.

Oil companies like to spin lies about how the earth’s resources is for everyone, which is why they should have the right to drill everywhere to make that resource available to the public. Sounds nice when they put it that way, doesn’t it? In actuality, when they bribe governments to drill in the once protected wilderness, the profit they gain by selling that oil goes only to them, while the environmental damage is billed to the rest of humanity. You can see it as an invisible sales tax. 

For every dollar you spend on gas, you and your children will be paying countless more for rising medical costs created by pollution. And pollution comes in all forms. From the city smog that gives children asthma to tainted sea food from oil spills that can cause cancer, the damage is boundless. That’s not to mention the climate change that will endanger countless wildlife and cause increasingly severe weather. 

Just last year, my home town was hit by a severe storm that uprooted entire rows of trees. Even the hundred year old Christmas tree in our park is gone. This is a place that normally has no storms at all, but that storm caused so much damage and a three day black out. Do you think the oil companies are going to pay for that? Nope. But what they will pay for are lobbyists to bribe the government to give them 1 trillion dollars in subsidies instead of investing in clean energy.

This black black heart of humanity is not the future we want for our children, but what can we do? The transition from fossil fuel to clean energy is a slow but necessary one, and you can help speed up the process but telling your government to stop wasting 1 trillion dollars per year on  subsidizing fossil fuel. It is not a sustainable energy source and only idiots would keep throwing money at a dying resource when they could be using that money to fund renewable energy research. We shouldn’t be trying to relive the bygone past of low gas prices, instead, we should be looking toward a clean and renewable future. 

You can help now by visiting 350.org and click on GET INVOLVED and sign the end oil subsidies petition. Just think of how much we can accomplish with 1 trillion dollars for clean energy research instead of subsidizing oil. 

More information:

• Video: How dependent are we on oil?
• Climate change 101
• Effects of oil on wildlife
• Oil and gas company ignores safety
• US ignores lessons of BP oil spill

(Source: yuumei.deviantart.com)