What $2 bil could do

According to at least one estimate, we are spending around $2 billion dollars a week in this senseless and obscene war in Iraq, all in an effort to obtain oil.

Oil for our SUVs, oil for our snowmobiles, oil for our ATVs, oil for heating our homes, oil to transport our foodstuffs across the country, oil for the manufacture of plastic for the ubiquitous bags handed out so willingly at every shop and store in the nation, oil for the pesticides and chemicals used on the fruits and vegetables that make up so much of our daily diets, and oil for the manufacture of the very computers on which I expound.

The oil industry reported record profits for the recently ended fiscal year. In spite of this our Republican-controlled Congress recently, as part of the newest energy bill, granted billions in tax relief for this very industry while neglecting the so-called alternative energy sources.

And our oil supply is finite. In his brief and well documented book, “The End of Fossil Energy and A Plan for Sustainability,” John Howe predicts the world will be running out of fossil fuel in about 55 to 60 years.

Two billion dollars a week. Imagine it.

We could insulate every home in New England creating thousands of jobs. We could install solar collectors for water and electricity for every home in Maine and build enough wind generators to supply most of New England’s energy needs forever with one week’s cost of the war.

With the second week’s cost we could begin to make amends for the horrible neglect of the hungry and ailing in the poorest parts of our world and bring about a solid basis for a real and lasting world peace.

I pray we bring it about in our lifetime.

Dick Hoyt

Lubec