An oil industry report earlier this month predicted that prices could climb to $100 a barrel. At the same time, the House of Representatives has passed a bill with countless provisions for increasing production of fossil fuel. There is not much there to discourage consumption.
Today we conclude our series “Addicted to Oil” with a hard look at the psyche of the American consumer and why it is, given all that we know about the environmental, political and biological havoc caused by oil, we continue to pump and pump and pump.
Some say that its the American affection for its cowboy on the frontier past that’s blinding it to today’s call for global responsibility. Can a nation that defines freedom as autonomy and success as being bigger than your neighbor ever learn to stop driving alone and become a conservation nation?
Guests:
Dr. Peter Whybrow, Professor and Executive Chair, Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences Department, UCLA, author of “American Mania”
Juliet Schorr, Professor of Sociology at Boston College, author of “The Overworked American”
Jeremy Rifkin, Founder of The Foundation on Economic Trends, author of “Hydrogen Economy” and “The European Dream.”