Right now, Sarah Pallin is asserting that building pipelines in Alaska is somehow independent of oil company interests and the path towards energy independence that will ultimately secure our national security. Politics aside, it’s an interesting statement considering the $40bn in public money that supported destroying one of the last pristine preserves of wildlife in America.
Beyond the environmental threat, there’s a number of other emergent trends that are overlooked here. And again, politics aside, it’s somewhat frightening. Like Thomas Friedman notes today in his Op-Ed, there is an emerging world order that revolves around next generation energy technologies that requires an immediate departure from old oil politics of the past, not only for our environmental preservation, but for our own national and future security.
As renewable technologies do begin to take control of our long-term energy supply, it will be interesting to see how the political dialogue evolves in response to larger international pressures. Friedman encourages education in the meantime, and a long hard think on how we’ll navigate these tumultuous times ahead.