Cost of the Iraq Oil War
The US produces about 40 percent of the
oil it consumes, and much of the remaining oil is in politically unstable
countries. The Iraq War has cost over 2,377 US soldiers their lives; over
17,000 are injured, many crippled for life. (see
www.icasualties.org) Modern medicine has allowed the survival of
soldiers who are so severely wounded they would have died in earlier wars.
How Many Lives per Gallon Hummer
demonstration March 17
Estimates of excess Iraqi deaths in the
3 years since the US invasion range from 30,000 to over 200,000. Again
the number of injured is even higher than the number killed. A war with
Iran could be even more deadly.
The economic cost of the Iraq war to US
taxpayers is already more than $250 Billion, over $1,000 for every adult
American. Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has estimated the
eventual total cost as at least $1 trillion, maybe $2 trillion,
considering the costs of lost production and of long term health care for
injured veterans. That could come to more than $10,000 for every US
household.
Environmental Danger of Oil Economy
Hurricane Katrina is just a foretaste
of the environmental, economic and social cost of reckless burning of oil,
coal and natural gas. Scientists (except for a few on the payroll of big
energy companies) agree that human consumption of fossil fuels is already
beginning to disrupt the climate. Burning vast amounts of carbon and
hydrocarbons adds energy to the atmosphere, increasing the frequency and
severity of extreme weather events like hurricanes and tornadoes.
Recent studies have found that the ice
caps in Greenland and Antarctica are melting faster than previously
projected. Continuing to burn oil and other fossil fuels could reproduce
the climate conditions of past geological eras when Long Island, Florida,
much of eastern North America and other coastal regions were under water.
Energy Alternatives
There are practical alternatives to
trying to control remaining supplies of oil by military force. The Apollo
Alliance, a coalition of leading unions, environmental and community
organizations, is proposing a 10 year, $300 Billion federal strategy for
energy independence, climate stability and domestic jobs. (see
www.apolloalliance.org) This would be a national commitment like the
Apollo project that put humans on the Moon, to make us secure on Earth,
using abundant flows of energy from the Sun.
The new Apollo program would:
-
direct public and private investment
toward cleaner technologies, such as hybrid cars, more efficient
factories, buildings, appliances, and infrastructure;
-
accelerate development of renewable
energy supplies, including solar, wind, biomass, and hydrogen;
-
expand public transportation, improve
regional planning and revitalize communities;
-
and strengthen regulation to protect
workers, consumers and environmental health.
This program would cost no more
economically than the US has already committed to the Iraq War. Instead
of catastrophic human costs, there would be enormous human benefits.
If not us, who? If not now, when?
