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S. Gopikrishna Warrier

An average American moves more than one tonne of steel to get to work, or to the mall. Why should he not do it, even if his car drinks petrol like a camel after a desert trek?

From Washington/Phoenix

MARTING Sheen acting as the President of the US in the serial The West Wing discusses his views on opening the Alaskan Wildlife Reserve, as the American public sits glued to their television sets.

Whether the viewer agrees with his view or not, he strikes a chord since discussions on energy and environment are topical in American society. Apprehensive that developments in West Asia and the Gulf could cut off supplies to the gas-guzzling American economy, US President George Bush has suggested that large tracts of federal land under the Alaskan Wildlife Reserve be opened for oil exploration. These lands are expected to hold large oil deposits.

The controversy that this suggestion has given birth to is still echoing in the US. While supporters of the oil industry want the reserve to be opened, environmentalist groups are lobbying hard to see that this does not happen. President Bush opened Pandora's box when he announced his administration's decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol during the early part of 2001.

This upset the apple cart of negotiations on climate change since the US contributes nearly 25 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions. Being a party to the Protocol would have meant an US commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2012.

This was followed by an energy policy statement in which Bush had suggested looking at resources within the country to reduce dependence on outside sources.

More recently, the Bush administration has followed up with a `New approach to climate change strategy', which wants to "harness the power of markets and technological innovation".

This makes a rather ambitious commitment to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the US economy by 18 per cent in the next 10 years. The target, however, is linked to the GDP, and not to the 1990 emission figure, as with the Kyoto Protocol commitments. "Sustained economic growth is an essential part of the solution, not the problem," it states.

The question that any visitor from India will ask is whether the US can ever make the transition to using less energy.

Everything is huge in this country — from the distances to the vehicles used to cover them. The cars that people normally drive to work are certain to choke the roads in Chennai or Mumbai.

An average American moves more than one tonne of steel to get to work, or to the mall. Why should he not do it, even if his car drinks petrol like a camel after a desert trek? At an average cost of $1.50 for a gallon of petrol, he would never be able to sympathise with what I feel at a fuel station back home.

As the aircraft comes in for landing at sun-kissed Phoenix one can see thousands of these cars, SUVs and recreation vehicles running like ants on kilometres of asphalt. The city itself has been built on the Arizonian desert in recent decades by moving water through an expensive network of dams and canals.

On Sunday, I take my clothes to the centralised laundry in the hotel. When the outside temperature is above 40 degrees Celsius in this desert city, I have to go through a 45-minute cycle in the electric dryer. The hotel would not permit me to hang my clothes in the balcony to dry since it affects aesthetics.

So much for efforts to control the use of fossil fuels.

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