Aug 19 2009
Stop Oil thinking, find alternatives
Nationalizing oil production is an attractive source of revenue especially if the country at hand is one of the largest oil producing countries: Brazil. Recently, the Brazilian government has announced that they’re thinking of nationalizing their oil productions and making Petrobras the only sea-oil developing company with some foreign investors. Becoming a global power is definitely on the agenda. Counties like Russia and China are seen as global powers since they are in control of all their resources and in the case of Russia, the oil industry is almost completely nationalized.
With this in mind, nationalizing such a resource would allow the country to alienate others that Brazil might not be on good terms with or halting production whenever is convenient. The power that is obtained by nationalizing oil is also derived from internal relations. People’s wages become better, more job opportunities would be generated, bringing in money to industries that need it such as health care and placing the people in a position where government satisfaction increases. All this contributes to gaining power globally and becoming one of the major players on the international field. That’s not always the case. In Gulf countries, Kuwait and the UAE for example, this global power is not seen. It’s seen only through the rich investment by Kuwaitis or by the high level of satisfaction of the government. These countries also face the problem of the lack of diversification amongst its resources.
NYTimes reports that the Brazilian president is saying that Brazil will not fall for the one-resource dependency dilemma due to the diversification of Brazilian industries. He also mentions that they want to be up to speed on technology and information. However, this illustrates that Brazil is still behind in terms of information and technology since most efforts at the moments are being diverted to finding cleaner, alternative energy lessening the world’s dependence on oil and the pollutant industry it is.
Why put so much effort into a resource that people are attempting to divert from? Why not use the money to diversify the economy and look for alternative sources. Money spent on sea-oil extraction could be spent on collaborating with other countries looking for renewable energy. Information and technology nowadays shouldn’t now focused on improving oil production but moving away from oil or finding cleaner ways of production.
What I’m about to say might sound isolationist but the each country to concentrate its effort and money on self-dependency especially in terms of alternative energy or renewables. This would lessen “war for oil” ideas and create a more internal, then external collaborative effort for a cleaner way to live.
Brazil has untapped potential such solar energy, biomass. It has in recent years used such potential but not to its fullest. Instead of using money to import oil or planning to export, countries like Brazil should be encouraged to look for something else other than oil.
Global power is not in high demand at the moment, self-sufficiency and being a high investment hub is what attracts the power. It’s the internal growth that generated global attention, it’s not about oil-related power anymore. Oil should be out, alternative and renewables are in.
