Karel Rogers, PhD – Responsibility

Video Transcript:

Together we, people who live on earth, have to solve this problem.  In particular, the countries with the most money and the most resources and the countries that have contributed the most to the problems have the highest level of responsibility.  If we think about the concept of sustainability and whether our grandchildren can live in this particular place, a key issue is national security.  Oil is closely tied to national security, and actually what we need to be thinking about is energy security.  You know, we cannot be in other people’s backyard insisting that we can take their resources because we have the most money and the most power and consider that to be a secure way to live.

I’m a great believer in the more local the solution, the better the solution.  You’re totally safe eating food from your own backyard.  Similarly, you’re safest if you’re using energy which is generated and produced very close to where you live.  Trying to rely on other countries for those essentials of living is a bad idea and not a way we can go into the future.

So, another piece of this, I think, is our responsibilities as citizens of a democracy.  Frankly, I’m appalled that American citizens put a bunch of oilmen in control of the US government over the past 8 years.  We’ve gotten what oil can do for us, and it isn’t a pretty thing.  I’m thinking change will happen, and happen very rapidly, as we change our elected officials and hold them accountable for accomplishing what needs to be accomplished in order for us to get away from, essentially, being slaves to an external supply of energy.