I use a lot of oil... you use a lot of oil... america uses a lot of oil... i am not stopping, are you?

according to the USA Today of a few days ago America, meaning the United States of America (founded in 1776) has only 5% of the world's population but is using about 25% of the world's oil, daily. 

Yes, we are number 1! 

so with this fact in mind I became bold and overconfident and I will continue to use oil. Yes, i carpool when the opportunity allows. Yes, i am thinking about purchasing a scooter, vespa or moped with the hopes that 60+ mpg will not only help the environment but my wallet. 

I use oil and I use a lot of it. I believe in central air and heating, as well as other forms of accommodation. As an american, a member of the great superpower (or evil) am I not bestowed with the right to purchase oil thus using as much oil for my benefit. Yes, i do! I pay for gasoline to fuel my car and heat my house. I buy products made by oil and similar fuel resources. If I pay for it, should I feel guilty that I only leave 95% of the world with only 75% of the oil available? Am I being selfish? maybe. Am I being heartless? possibly. Am I wrong? megh. 

I don't mind how much oil I use or how much OIL the United States of America (founded in 1776) uses, what I do mind is that we don't read about alternative fuels used. Maybe if Americans discovered that we only use 2% of the wind power available compared to (let's say) Egypt which uses 14% of the world's wind then maybe we would try harder at developing wind power. After all, America can not come third, second or fourth best to Egypt or any other country. Random thought - I want a statistic stating how much wind power exists if at all possible. 

I don't know about you but I love statistics. I once read that 66% of statistics are made up and that could be true but when I read any statistic about oil consumption, baseball batting averages or Cosmo sex survey, I feel miles smarter. 

I want to read a statistic stating how much of the energy used is provided by nuclear, wind, solar or pure sweat. (sweat = manual labor) Reading a statistic about how greedy we are doesn't do anything for my guilt reflex. USA Today should put a picture of poor children without shelter, without warm water on a broken bicycle next to the statistic if they want real guilt. 

Maybe if people stopped reading about the amounts of oil used and start reading about the benefits of alternative fuel sources then the hesitation to use wind, solar, nuclear or manual labor might dissipate. I want more statistics. I want to read that of all the energy used in this country 2% of it is powered by wind, 8% by nuclear, 9% by coal and .5% by solar. 

the United States is a greedy country that consumes more and more and more with no stop in sight. Tell me something I don't know. I do know is that the fair amount of comfort I have is brought on by the consumption of fuel and as much as I can do to conserve or promote green living is not going to change what I read in the papers or how many mpg my car allows. 

I am not suggesting that green living is bad but there is a bias. People are resistant to change, naturally and we all must do our part to convince one another that the world must behave more properly and green is more proper. But how? I think once we start to focus on what we should be doing and what we aren't doing instead of all the bad that goes unnoticed then we can start making some changes. You aren't going to convince people to conserve or learn more about alternative fuel by telling them how much oil they use.  It is like telling a hunter to stop hunting because he/she has killed too many animals when all you have done is state how much of an accomplished hunter he/she is.

but heck what do i know, i could be wrong but i might be right. 

 

Extinction - I am not talking dinosaurs but more important things like Honeybees... and yellow pages.

I was online checking my email (on AOL) and I was caught by one of their headlines, which was 25 Things That Won’t Exist.

 

In the near future there are 25 things (at least) that will no longer be part of the American imagination. Some of these things don’t really matter like pit toilets and the yellow pages. I think as a nation we would want people to have indoor plumbing and have little problems with the amount of trees and recycled paper used to make phone books. These days you can easily look up phone numbers online or use a magic three-digit number, 411. Along with phone books other forms of paper materials are vanishing such as want ads, news magazines, checks and hand written letters. I think the best thing to do is blame the Internet. The Internet is killing the use of paper and killing social interaction. Yes, I can pay my bills electronically. Yes, I can read the want adds online or use Monster.com. Yes, I can read CNN, ESPN and the countless blogs without having to pay 50 cents per day or yell at the delivery kid that cannot throw the paper on my front porch. Yes, I can write an email or a facebook message and not worry about stamps, mail delays and incompetent mail employees. Yes, I can live my whole life and never leave my house because of the Internet.

 

Sure I could care less about losing dial up Internet connections or Analog TV. Losing the VCR means nothing to me as long as the DVD transfer is of high quality. Blockbuster and other video rental places are fading as well. Sure that means the loss of thousands of jobs but you can rent as many movies as you want for just 5 bucks using Netflix – hot dam! Sure you might not have a job but maybe you can spare 5 bucks a month for some awesome entertainment and if that doesn’t make you feel better about losing the minimum wage job helping you stay afloat or so you can save to buy your first car then I don’t know what will.

 

A lot of things on this list (kind of) don’t matter. Sure some of them have a tremendous amount of nostalgia such as drive-in movie theaters and hand written letters. The drive-in lost a lot of appeal after cars switch to individual seats over bench seats and when huge multiplexes with air conditioning and heating were created. I blame the lack of bench seats in automobiles because the best part of a drive-in isn’t the just the movie but the blanket and the company you share underneath it. And a hand written letter, stamped and delivered is more personal, romantic and/or unique than an email will ever be.

 

Who needs landline phones when everyone on the planet has a cell phone? I am concerned about the loss of the HAM radio. I am concerned because what will the world do when aliens attack and we lose all control of satellite and digital communication or when zombies walk the earth and vampires appear in daylight? Soon there will be no more answering machines, cameras that use film or incandescent light bulbs. The loss of much of these things could be seen miles and miles away by any reasonably intelligent person. 

 

When reading this list I actually become concerned about five things. First, the Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs. The sustainable population is about 200 million and the existing population falls short by 40%. Who is to blame for the vanishing population of this delicious treat? We are, not me, but I mean society. Over fishing, global warming and invasive species is killing this industry. Good eats, fisherman and restaurant owners should fear this downfall.

 

Second is the Ash tree. In the late 1990’s a species of beetle, known as the emerald ash borer snuck into North America via ash wood products imported from eastern Asia. Since its larvae has killed millions of trees in the Midwest and nothing seems to be stopping the ecological destruction. The loss of a native species like the Ash tree can be seen as nothing short of an environmental disaster with far-reaching effects on the entire ecosystem. The emerald ash borer is not just causing havoc in parks and forests but it is also having a significant economic and industrial effect. In the U.S. Ash is a strong and highly resilient hardwood. It is used for guitars, tool handles, sports equipment and office furniture.

 

Third, wild horses are vanishing from the American plains. I may not have grown up in during the wild, wild west or when the western was one of the dominant art forms on the silver screen but the cowboy on his trusty steed roaming the country proud and free is an image that should never be removed from the American picture book. In the early 20^th century it was estimated that around two million horses roamed the United States but as of 2001 the National Geographic News suggested about 50,000 horses remain.

 

The numbers according to the National Horse and Burro Advisory are much worse estimating that there are only 32,000 wild horses remaining. So yes, the wild horses are vanishing. Isn’t it sad? Yes of course it is sad? But the United States government is not sad, as the Bureau of Land Management is seeking to limit the number of wild horses roaming the country to 27,000. The government, using euthanasia to control the wild horse population is afraid of the overpopulation of wild horses on public lands. Believe it or not, millions of dollars is spent on controlling the population of wild horses by keeping them in holding facilities. Doesn’t reading all of this make the story much sadder? Yes, of course it sadder. The U.S. government can claim this dark victory over Mother Nature. If any of this makes sense to you then feel free to explain it to me because I cannot see the harm of wild horses running free except for the occasional driver not being careful on a dark highway road. I don’t know, hopefully horses are smarter than deer. 

 

But what can be worse than ash trees, crabs and wild horses? The honeybee! In the past few years 50 - 90 percent of honeybee colonies have collapsed. Why? It is called CCD or as bee people like myself refer to it as Colony Collapse Disorder. If you have seen the ecological thriller/comedy starring Jerry Seinfeld, Bee Movie, you would have learned that bees are not only essential to making honey but are also essential to fruit and flower pollination. Plus, what else is going to roast my Cheerios?

 

Last but not least and in all actuality the most problematic one is the loss of the Family Farm. Since the 1930’s family farms have been on the decline. The USDA estimates that in the 50’s, 5.3 million farms dotted the American landscape but according to numbers published in 2003 that number has been reduced by over 3 million. Much has been written about the plight of the American family farmer. Best selling novels and even a music festival create opportunities to spread the word about the deprivation of a truly noble profession. With some stories reporting that 330 farm workers along with their families are put on the street weekly and that can be seem as nothing but tragic and problematic. 

 

How do we solve these problems, I don’t know but I wish I did and could solve them. Oh well so goes life and so goes any amount of humanity. 

a personal note - marriage and my best wishes.

This weekend a child hood friend is getting married, for the first and hopefully the only time. My friend, who I have known for over 20 years, is about to take the great step of devotion. It is also a great step of love and maturity but for some reason I choose to put devotion first instead of love.

 

As time passes I wonder if marriage is in the cards for me. Something I rarely thought about at the age of 20 but now at the age of 25 I find myself for some reason thinking about marriage and a family life more often. At 20 years old I was not ready for marriage and much could be said about me at my current age.

Am I thinking about marriage because many of my childhood, high school and college friends are making the big step towards a life I so desire? There is also a growing population of friends who are married and have been married for quite some time. Yes, I am single and I have single friends and enjoy my life but I have never let go of the illusion and the possible reality that marriage, a happy marriage is true bliss. To find someone that believes in you, pushes you, wants you, needs and cares for you is a gift unlike any other. I have my own ideas of what a true and wonderful wife would be like and some might share these sentiments while others not. I simply long for a good friend, the best of friends.  I have been accused of being a romantic but failing to live up to the title and I still believe in many if not all of the romantic ideals of marriage.

A year ago, I thought I would be taking steps towards marriage and a life I so desperately wanted. I had, who I thought was the right girl. I had my life in order, more so than it had ever been and did I mention I had the right girl? In the end it is who you marry that truly matters and why you choose to marry. Things were lining up for ol’ Alejo Ramirez. But time passes and the right girl was not the right girl at all and marriage hopes and proposals became nothing more than a fantasy and the realities of other friends, enemies, and former lovers. I even wrote a rough draft of wedding vows before the notion of marriage had even been muttered. Sad - yeah, kind of. 

It is amazing how life changes. Those unexpected turns down the road of life and the jabs life throws at you. I am man that is willing to wait till the time is right, the girl is right and until I am ready for marriage but that doesn’t mean that my heart isn’t filled with a small dose of jealousy or a gigantic ocean of it.                                                

In a day and age when many marriages end in divorce, something like 57% I can do nothing but admire anyone who decides that one person is the person for the rest of their life. They do not make that decision once or twice, as in the day of the proposal or the day of their vows but they will make that decision (hopefully) every day for the rest of their lives.

 

I cannot give advice about what makes a good marriage because I am not married and as clichéd as this might sound, maybe each marriage is like an individual snowflake or the drops of rain that fall on your bare skin. Marriage is quite simply, unique.

I wish my friend the best. My buddy Dave is a truly good person. I think we tend to throw out too many different adjectives at the people we know and like… funny, sweet, ridiculous, intelligent, sexy, whatever. I simply want to say that my friend is a good man. Dave is a good man in a day and age when good, truly good people are hard to find. I don’t know if I need to say anything else except truly emphasize good in a day and age when any positive comes at a premium.

 

Goodluck Dave and Jennifer.