Less Needs to be More

In today's video we saw how Cuba had to react to an overnight change in the availability of oil. They were forced to make changes so they would be able to survive. According to the video, Cuba uses one-eighth of the energy that the United States uses. That is a significant difference in energy. One would expect or at least i expected that their life expectancy would be lower than ours roughly based on the energy consumption. Well boy was i wrong, Cuba and the United States have equivalent life expectancies. I feel that this speaks worlds about the excess energy the United States uses. There is no excuse for the excess energy. We can't argue that that it is necessary for human life to continue or for longer life expectancy when we can see that Cuba is doing just fine. I believe some of the speakers hit the nail right on the head, Americans need to change the way they think. One example a man used was about asking everyone to turn off lights to save energy. The Cubans turned off the lights because they knew it would hep. He said that if you ask americans the same question they're going to ask why? and say that they pay for it. I agree with his answer on this. As Americans we grow up learning that if we do well in school we'll go to good colleges and if we go to good colleges we'll get good jobs and good jobs have high salaries and benefits. We know that if we work hard we deserve the credit and should have something to show for it. We pride ourselves in the fact that we "have come so far" technologically. We currently crave biggER, fastER, newER, bettER things. The "ER" implying that its improved upon the old. We update cell phones, ipods, and TVs like its a necessity when most of the times it usually cosmetic. I feel like this notion is apart of why it's be so difficult for people to accept living differently and using less energy. Our way of life consists of working hard to improver or better ourselves and with that comes more possession and better possessions. The luxuries of not having to wash dishes but have a dish washer, or having a maid, or a driver. Just the other day i was saying that i hope i am wealthy enough to never wash my own clothes or my own dishes. It's the society that we live in. I can not imagine living a different life style and i am sure there are plenty of other people that feel the same way. Matter of fact at the begining of the semester when i was reading the cartoon guide for this class my friend asked what class the book was for and i told him and we started talking and he said "oh stop it Katie, you know we not gonna have to worry about a shortage of oil during our life time" and he's not the only on i know who feels this way. People do not think its as real of a threat as it is. They don't feel that they are the one who should be responsible for fixing the problem either. So i can't imagine the US handing the change very well. I believe if it was a necessity we'd be able to but if it was a voluntary attempt was made to be less reluctant on energy it would not go over well. I hope that we can learn from the Cuba video. I would love to see Americans working with one another to change the fate of the planet but were gonna need a lot more education on the topic. The video also pointed out just how many books and articles that have been written and they've helped but still its not enough. It makes me wonder what type of catalyst would be needed to really get the ball rolling. Especially among government officials.