Most anyone aware of current events and the ecological situation on this planet will surely know the state our fossil fuel economy is in. According to the best estimates of oil industry executives, there is about a 30 year supply of oil left on this planet if the current rate of consumption is maintained. Knowing that the rate of consumption is increasing with each passing year, while the supply of oil is decreasing every year, clearly puts the politics of the War on Terror and its focus on the Middle East in proper perspective. The situation is grim and, more importantly, not winnable.

Even if the industrialized nations were to shore up some as-yet-undiscovered oil reserves, this would present no real solution to the impending energy crisis, nor remedy the current ecological one. Far seeing scientists, ecologists and citizens have been sounding the oil alarm for more than a decade now. Our planet's failure to heed these warnings leaves little chance that the changes ahead will go smoothly for all.

Those on the cutting edge of science have sought to soften the blow by encouraging the industrialized nations to switch to a hydrogen based economy. The advantage of renewable hydrogen over fossil fuels is simply enormous. The quality of life would be dramatically increased on this planet, as hydrogen leaves no by products that are harmful to the environment. Why such a common sense idea was not invested in nor implemented long ago reveals more of the sick mindset of the current power paradigm that controls our governments and corporations.

Like all good reform movements, the push for hydrogen began in the grass roots. Concerned citizens everywhere got involved in small organizations that sought to promote hydrogen education and financially support hydrogen inventors as well as lobby politicians to fund hydrogen initiatives. How easily the best of intentions can be turned into poisonous results once Big Business and their government lackeys get their hands on it.

Hydrogen proponents were overjoyed to hear President Bush announce in his most recent State of the Union address that his administration was for heavily funding research and development for a hydrogen economy. For them, it must have been a validation of all their years of hard work. What many of those hydrogen proponents now realize is that they have been boondoggled.

President Bush and his administration, the Democratic and Republican parties in Congress, are bought lock, stock and barrel by the oil industry. Why they would all so suddenly embrace a competitor such as hydrogen escaped much of the public's notice. Obviously, this was a case of "too good to be true."

The laws proposed by the Bush administration make sure that the hydrogen used for fueling the "new" economy is manufactured from fossil fuels. In truth, all this will do is move the pollution from multiple sources like cars to more centralized locations, such as processing plants. In appearance possibly, our world may one day seem to be getting cleaner while in all actuality, the pollution problem will continue to be exacerbated.

The con deftly occurs because the governments and corporations pretend to be in favor of improving the quality of life. Slick public relations campaigns only disguise the seedy intentions of the oil cartels. Are we to believe that BP Oil Company, for example, is a proponent of the environment simply because they changed their name to "Beyond Petroleum" instead of "British Petroleum"? Humans who still believe in the current worldview fall for such tactics time and again.

The Institute of Unlearning only supports hydrogen initiatives that are based on renewable sources, such as water. To rely on fossil fuels for hydrogen production does nothing to neither alleviate the environmental crisis nor liberate humanity from the control of the corporate energy cult. Instead, things will continue to get worse at an accelerated rate. In the meantime, the unlearner is encouraged to study how many other reform movements have been sidetracked as well. Only then will you wake up to the fact that change must be brought about by you, and not the politicians who you used to think worked for you.