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The United States of America needs to end its dependence on foreign oil, and in general, our gas-guzzling societal behavior. Besides the obvious, glaring fact that Americans require gasoline to run their cars and the sort, the use of petroleum is the underlying problem facing this country's economy and political agenda. As Americans, we have come to depend on this non-renewable resource and the more 'advanced' this country has become, the need for gasoline has also been directly proportional.
Besides the political ramifications of this country's use of oil, the burning of gasoline is also ruining our environment because of its toxic emission properties. Carbon dioxide is a direct product of the burning of gasoline and, in large quantities, is the leading cause of global warming-a phenomenon that threatens to destroy Earth's natural resources by a gradual increase in Earth's average ambient temperature. Burning gasoline is not only toxic to our planet, but is also a thorn in this country's political agenda. Republicans are idiots. They do not believe in enforcing environmental regulations and instead would rather citizens sue each other over property rights violations. But who can afford lawyers?
As the world's greatest consumer of gasoline, we rely on other countries to supply us with this precious resource. The countries that have the most abundant source of this substance are located in the Middle East, and the country with the most abundance is Saudi Arabia. Notwithstanding political foreign affairs, the relationship between the United States and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia can best be described as covertly amicable. Other countries in the region that have a lot of gasoline include Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, and other neighboring countries. Some scholars have argued that America's involvement with Middle Eastern affairs center around the sale and consumption of gasoline, most notably our wars with the sovereign country of Iraq. On a more extreme level, some conspiracy theorists propose that the attacks of 911 in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon have been the result of improper political tinkering involving the sale of this resource.
As a side note, we will be forced to find an alternate source to fuel our economy in the future because researchers have estimated that the amount of fossil fuels left on Earth is quickly decreasing, and will be totally be depleted in the next hundred years (fossil fuels are the precursors and main ingredient of gasoline). Hence, future research is needed and required, lest our economy suffer the same fate as fossil fuels.
If we as a great country hope to shield ourselves from terrorism, global destruction, and dependence on other countries, then we must fund research into an alternative energy source now and halt our dependence on foreign oil.
