 Have
you watched the news recently and felt like something is
missing? Sure, there's foiled terror attacks and plenty of
global warming fear mongering....but think about what you're
NOT hearing.
Where are the stories about how high gas prices are? Where
are the politicians standing outside gas stations demanding
investigations and hearings as to why the national average
is still about $3 dollars a gallon?? Hello, Chuck Schumer,
are you still in office?
It seems that Americans, including our politicians, have
finally woken up to the fact that $3 dollars a gallon is the
new $2 dollars a gallon. Great news, right? Sure it is,
until you consider that we're at $3 dollars without any
hurricanes bearing down, no Middle East wars heating up and
no threats of OPEC shutdowns. So what happens when one or
more of those things inevitably occurs?
The Real Story is that we've all once again become
complacent without ever bothering to solve the actual,
underlying problems. Oil prices are now around $72 dollars a
barrel, that's up forty percent this year alone. To put
that in context, oil was about $78 dollars a barrel after
hurricane Katrina, so we're just about $6 dollars away from
that and, if you haven't noticed, New Orleans isn't
underwater this time around. But look at what's
missing...there's barely any media coverage, and worse,
there's no fear; there's no concern about what this means
for the future or what it could do to our economy.
Earlier this year, a rumor about a U.S. warship firing a
missile in the Persian Gulf made it to the trading floor and
oil prices jumped $5 dollars a barrel in seven minutes.
Imagine if that wasn't just a rumor. Experts say that any
kind of major supply disruption, whether natural or through
a terrorist attack --and remember, al-Qaeda has clearly said
that they intend to target our oil supply -- could easily
send gas to over $5 dollars or more a gallon. Is that when
we'd all start caring again?
Instead of being reactive and complaining every time gas
prices hit a number we don't like, why don't we use this
new-found ambivalence towards $3 dollar gas as an
opportunity to be proactive and come up with real
alternatives. After all, rising gas prices aren't the
problem, they're only a symptom. The real disease, which
will likely be terminal unless we stop it, is our massive
addiction to oil.
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Send us Your Real Stories!
If
you've seen a news story lately and thought to yourself that
the media has it all wrong, we want to hear from you! Send
us the story you saw, along with what you think the Real
Story should be, by filling out the form below.
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