When I was a kid, I recall peering at the ceiling, trying to comprehend the ramifications of the world running out of oil. Back in the mid 1970’s, the best teacher I ever had (Mr. Allan) said that fossil fuels were a finite resource, and we would probably start to run out in 50 years or so. The simple lesson was that we should marshal the intelligent use of our resources, so that we could squeeze an extra few decades out of the oil we had, and spend the time developing replacements, so as not to harm our economic and environmental self-interest. Not even he could have predicted the vast, unsustainable growth in demand that ensued over the next three decades. It was also sort of disappointing to discover that money turned out to be the primary human focus all along. Sigh…It all seemed so simple when I was nine years old.

And I almost forgot: Happy Earth Day (whatever that means…)