ok i have a question....and i'm just wondering if anyone had a detailed response, or links to answer it........Why does the US so dependant on oil and gas as their primary natural resource?

Well you see, many a year ago back before World War Two, we had this grand idea that oil would never run out. So we used it in cars, boats, planes, making plastics, etc, etc...

Then we figured out "Oh Sweet Jesus on a Pogo-Stick" it'll run out. What to do now?

Now instead of being smart, switching to solar, wind, etc, over a long period of time we waited and waited and waited and...well now this is what we're stuck with.

But never fear, we have 20 to 30years of oil and by then you'll be too old to worry about it, so you can kill yourself. Like I probably will. But, if we're lucky and this is a big if, we'll stop being foolish and start converting our power stations now. Building dams, placing solar panals on the roofs of houses, etc. Because we have no choice but to...or find a new form of oil or be able to manufactur oil. (Which is a possibility.)

I'll try and answer this for you and touch on some other points...

Basically, in a sense we are currently in the 'petroleum era', we use oil for fueling our cars, planes, ships, tanks and lawnmowers. Also, remember that most of our every day comsumer crap is derived from oil such as plastics, pharmaceuticals, fertilisers - we use oil for everything!

Like Odium said, during 'The Boom' in America when the petroleum era was just beginning, people never imagined that oil would ever run out and there was so much of it, so you get this whole 'American way of life' culture:

- You've got urban suburbia's, everyone lives miles away from their workplace and commutes everyday in their ridiculously huge cars!
- Nothing is recycled, everything is thrown away, nothing is repaired, etc.
- You get the idea...

Everyone took the oil for granted and it wasn't until during the second world war that Roosevelt and his advisors thought there was a crisis - they had to supply oil to all the allies to fuel the war as well as supplying America. The oil fields were beginning to run dry, oil became a national security matter as America would have to be become dependent on foreign oil reserves - this is not ideal in the slightest.

Now, this is why America has strong ties with Saudi Arabia - they need the oil. In the 70's and 80's they traded weapons and technology for the promise that they would have access to Saudi oil fields. As you know today, America still has strong ties with the middle east which incidentally harbours the world's greatest known oil reserves (as well as possibly Bin Laden).

however now we have a problem:

- America obviously has an increasing demand for oil - an increasing population, more cars, more industry, more everything.
- America's oil reserves are dangerously low (apparently).
- America has few friends, they have to import oil from 'unfriendly' countries, hence the whole 'war on terror' rubbish. Now because of this America is destabilizing the middle east region despite every effort to keep it stable, as stability is in their interest - there is more chance of an interupted oil supply in times of conflict.
- There is increasing demand for oil imports from other industrialising nations such as China and India - this increases the competition for the world's remaining oil reserves which everyone else wants.
- There are also various political and economic complications such as keeping the stock market stable which currently prevent a transition away from petroleum dependence. Also, no-one cares about it at the moment

So that's it really, the success of America is tied directly to an uninterupted supply of petroleum which is projected to 'run out' shortly.

thanks for the info