In an unprecedented step towards sustainability and effort to lessen America’s dependence on foreign oil (oil in general) General Motors released an ad that talks about using several alternative fuels including coal, bio-mass, hydrogen, and electricity. GM is certainly on the forefront of the Green Movement and taking recent events in the Gulf seriously. It shows that they aren’t puppets to foreign oil, nor do they take their orders from the government. They have shown that the people and the environment matter. With a little ingenuity, alternative fuel can be available to everyone. Sure, hybrids are becoming fairly commonplace, but GM is talking about even better options. Options that get us completely off oil for good. Frankly, I’m astounded and happy that a car company is leading the charge and finally doing the right thing. Bravo GM!

Oh wait. That article is almost 30 years old. It came on the back of a youth magazine that AJB’s friend sent him because it had Epcot articles in it. Oh, so GM isn’t leading the charge? 30 years ago? That was the early 80′s, right? Bummer.

When I first saw that ad, I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. The car companies wanted alternative fuel – for whatever reason, they wanted it. They told us about it and had every intention of doing it. So what happened? My guess is that the oil companies wouldn’t hear of it. Enough said, so long alternative fuel. What boggles the mind is that it’s taken 30 years or more to finally get alternative energy to the people. 30 years! The oil companies have the government and the car companies by the gonads and whenever anyone talks about getting off oil, they squeeze pretty tight.

Try, for a minute, to imagine what the world would have been like had GM actually started providing alternative fuel cars in 1982. Other car companies would have followed. No Exxon Valdez, no Mexican Gulf Spill, and NO WARS! Our air would be pretty damned clean, because think of this: You’re just hopping on board the Green Train. Imagine if your parents hopped on 30 years ago and you were raised to care for the environment. What if recycling was easy in every community because everyone did it and city governments provided simple options? What if everyone composted and people grew their own vegetables? What if people en masse saw the future and realized we could actually halt global warming? People would be healthier. In general, people would have a healthier outlook towards life and wouldn’t need every shaky leg syndrome pill on the market – which eventually causes colitis or anal leakage. Diabetes would be unheard of. Autism, cancer, and AIDS would be non-existent. People would sing and dance in the streets! Places like Wal-Mart and Target might not exist because we only bought what we needed. This would mean that credit card debt would be low and people could afford to see the world they’re saving. Everyone would have solar panels. Our health care system would be free because people wouldn’t be sick all the time and the government knows it’s OK to provide free services that not everyone uses. McDonald’s would have introduced the Veggie Burger in 1986 and people would own cows instead of eating them.

I could go on an on. It’s easy to imagine a utopia based on the eradication of oil 30 years ago. Let’s face it, human beings are human beings and it probably wouldn’t have solved every problem, but it certainly would have helped. The fact that it’s taken the Green Movement 30 years to become part of the 1st world lexicon is staggering. It might have caught on sooner and the world might not be perfect, but it might be a nicer place to live, anyway.

It bums me out that the oil companies squelched these innovations so early on. I wish I knew what really happened and why it took the car companies 30 years to release a hybrid, which is basically just a half-ass compromise. Hybrids still run on gas; albeit less. Realize, it’s really only been the last couple of years that people are starting to become aware of these problems. Just 5 years ago, the word eco-friendly didn’t really exist.

Good news: It isn’t too late. You and your family can change the way you live and make new choices. Think about the world you’re leaving to your grandchildren. Granted, it’s so much easier not to care. One of the common arguments I’ve heard over the years has been “By the time the Earth is totally fucked, I’ll be dead” or “We can’t destroy the Earth, it’s been here for billions of years! It’ll survive long after we’re gone“. True indeed. True indeed. So why then is it important to care for the planet? It’s true that Planet Earth will be here long after we’re gone and the sickly world that Phillip K. Dick wrote about in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (AKA Blade Runner) is pretty far off. The time when the air is so thick with chemicals that human beings cannot breathe it is surely down the road.

I suppose the point is that we, this generation, are stewards of this world we inhabit. We live here now and it’s our job not to fuck it up for future generations. I’ll never meet future generations, what do I care? I have step-kids now and I care about the air their children breathe and the food they eat. Even before step-kids, I knew one thing: I didn’t want to be part of the problem. Naturally, we’re not just screwing up the environment for our nameless grandchildren. The problem is already here, as proved by the Gulf Spill. We’re seeing the world become noxious in our time, our food is poisoned and our water is undrinkable.

Ramble ramble ramble. You know what to do and if you don’t, get in touch. I’ll help.