Did BP provide us our wake-up wake call Floyd W Masters Contributing Writer A serendipitous side- side effect of the tragic oil spill mn in the Gulf of Mexico well over a month ago may point out the obvious conclusion its it's time to change our reliance on crude oil Take into consideration the oil supply is depleting at an accelerated rate and is isa isa isa a limited resource Too the cost for a barrel of crude oil will increases to hundreds of bf dollars over the coming i 1 decades Most important we have the technology in ini i 1 place to wean ourselves s I I off oil in much the same way we did from steam to combustion from horse- horse buggy and-buggy to steam Surely a species as advanced as mankind I considers himself to be in inthe inthe inthe the 21 st century is capable of such a transitional period or are they We are accustomed to a certain standard of living here herein herein herein in America Moreover we as humans are not accustoming to changes in our lifestyles not at the expense of our own creature comforts Take a look at your daily routine Would you park your car and ride a bike to school Would you or your parents invest in a home solar-conversion solar system Are you willing to pay a aI little littI more for focal and regional products rather than patronize the dollar store or Mart Wal-Mart Both Wal-Mart Wal and the dollar stores are large importers of foreign products thus incurring transportation requirements These are the questions that Americans will have to answer yes to The technology already exists to begin the transformation to green energy A solar farm farmin in the Mojave Desert hydrogen and hydrocarbon conversion on vehicles wind and tidal farms are a afew afew afew few technologies currently available The question is not one of profitability but rather a question of morality The United States is a democratic society based on bureaucracy that is to say the mighty dollar controls nearly every aspect of our daily lives Everything we buy sell invest in or deplete are based on its monetary value It is the profitability of a product not the practicality that determines its value The simple fact is that until the resources are diminished to the point where they are no longer profitable or extinguished altogether will the big oil companies be forced into alternative energies The other solution would be to enforce government mandates to force the issue of conversion However until Washington DC is devoid of lobbyists and paid off politicians the argument for mandatory green energy solutions willin will willin willin in all probability fall on deaf ears The Gulf of Mexico may never recover completely from this disaster The term long-term effects will take decades to be completely documented We can take takeno no solace in the recovery efforts since the disaster either The antiquated technology used for the up clean-up process has not been improved since the Exxon Valdez disaster The technological improvements in the oil industry over the last 25 years has been on the production end of the spectrum they can drill deeper and extract the hydrocarbons more efficiently than ever before but at what cost The oil spill will forever change the region Lives have been lost and will continue to be at risk as long as the process doesn't change The economic devastation to the fishing and tourism industries in the Gulf of Mexico may never completely recover I If we as Americans do nothing I Ito to curb our addiction to 1 oil we may look forward I to more such events in the r I future as the drilling moves moves I towards more desperate measures If we do not recognize this moment as the quintessential 01 turning point in m our energy energy dependency on oil we 7 probably never will If that is the case our generation may be remembered as the one that destroyed the environment environment- in the name of prosperity rather than build a better world for our descendants This is our wake-up wake call for fora a better term long-term energy program The question will anyone answer the fi phone t