I'm beginning to question everything. For instance things like global warming and oil supplies. Sure maybe that stuff is true and we should face it and change what's going on. But I'm also open to the possibility that these "crises" are being created by the people in charge to give others something to worry about. To me the two party system in America is just two sides of the same camp fighting over nothing, and since one side tends to push certain issues against the resistance of the other, you couldn't top fake crises.
It is really important to question assumptions. Remember the ozone hole, and the CFCs that were causing the problems (maybe you are not old enough?)? Well, how do such heavy molecules get into the upper atmosphere in the first place? Truly, the mark of a great scientist is asking the tough questions.
Global warming is a gray zone of uncertainty. Peak oil is reality, though. No doubt about it: the end of oil is coming. The dinosaurs are long gone and we probably reached the peak of world oil production a couple years ago. That's why output is not increasing even though demand and price are high. If the Saudi's increase production, they may damage their fields and lose what's left. That's why the production is in decline and has been since 2005. There are finite resources on this planet and our exponential population growth doesn't help matters.
The good news is that high energy costs will drive people (no pun intended) to seek out conservation measures, local foods, local communities and such. We will still have our global web communities as computers can be powered cheaply. But the end of globalization, is that such a bad thing? The bad news is that most of the world's population depends on petroleum-based agriculture presently, and no matter how much positive spin is placed on biofuels, the fact is that they are a negative energy gain in most cases. IOW, it takes more energy to produce them then you get in yield. No fuel on the planet matches petrol's energy yield, except maybe nuclear. So unless we greatly change our transportation system, especially in the oil gluttonous US, we are possibly in deep doo doo. But hey, it will prove once and for all that a sheep raised on my grass and slaughtered by me is cheaper for me and the planet than vegan food raised by petrol, shipped by petrol, processed with energy and cooked with energy - no matter how "ethical" it is.
So if the decline in oil has a minor slope downward with demand falling as prices go too high, then we are going to weather it okay. Maybe. The jet age is almost over for most mortals, though, probably in just a matter of years. Nuclear power will become the next big push, as it is the only energy dense choice. But nuclear planes are a pipe dream (and a nightmare!).
I just finished a biology bachelors and now I'm beginning to question some very fundamental and basic concepts of science and scientific discovery. You go through these processes to become "an expert" in something, you watch the other "experts" and see what they know or don't know and how they act, and eventually you're supposed to become like them and perpetuate the system. It's not attractive to me at all, not in the least bit. I've seen and heard my own biology professors say some stupid things, and sometimes not know basic information because it's not in their "area of expertise."
Yes, this is especially true in biology. Life is a complex web of so many variables. Physics is much harder to fake with spin and opinion, especially since there aren't big pharmaceutical companies out there trying to skew the laws of physics to sucker someone into buying their high-tech snake oil. There just isn't the market for spacecraft and telescopes as there is for "treatments" for disease. Make them sick with unnatural foods so that you have a market for your "cure."
