Big Oil sees big risks as it places big bets - Oil & Energy

Big Oil sees big risks as it places big bets - Oil & Energy - MSNBC.com.

The big question: Can our practices of economy save this world?

We all appreciate the way our economy works. The basic supply and demand theory applies everywhere. When there is a need for biofuels, even big oil companies can’t resist the trend and start investing in alternative energy resources. Some, of course, are less adaptable to sudden changes. Regardless of the real interests of this planet itself, the sole motive of making money is seemingly powerful enough to drive people’s mind towards the right direction.

But then the question comes, can we react fast enough to stop the destruction of our very habitat? As much as we believe in our systems of politics and economy, are they sufficiently capable of rectifying some situations as serious as what we are currently in?

I have gone through the SARS crisis in Hong Kong. As far as I can tell, our economy didn’t save us, it collapsed, our bureaucracy of normal govenment operations didn’t save us, it slowed us down. We solved it by unwavering drive and UNITY. A new reporting regime was formulated quickly within the government and the figures were made transparent to the public every day. Everybody were taking initiatives to improve personal hygiene, encouraging one anothers…

We gone through it, at last, with a number of lifetime-injuries and deaths. We did, react too slow. To a relatively small crisis within a local territory, we reacted too slow.

Imagine, how soon should we react towards a global crisis like global warming? Can we still count on our normal political and economic restructuring, or should we do something explicitly in the first place?