No-win situation

I had a conversation at work today with a few of the guys. We were discussing various topics, mainly just bitching about the gas prices, when the conversation took a twist. One of the guys, who shall remain anonymous in order to protect his identity, mentioned that cars that run on gasoline are not good for the environment. You know when I heard that my ears perked right up.

me: Cars that run on gasoline are basically the only affordable technology out there right now, so you're just going to have to deal with it.

him: Well, then I want to buy one of those all electric cars. I'll just plug it in every night to charge the batteries, just like my cell phone.

me: (all smart-ass like) Well that sounds like a great idea, but just like the gas prices in six months from now you'll bitch that your electric bill is too high.

him: (Looking over at me nodding his head, he changed his approach slightly.) I heard they have cars that will run on water. Water doesn’t cost that much.

me: That’s all well and good but you’re going to have to deal with some environmental group or another complaining about how we’re killing all the fish or the animals are thirsty because we're stealing all the water.

him: (Now looking my way in disgust.) Well what about a bike, smart ass?

me: (Just short of cracking up, I had to shoot this idea down too.) Rubber tires are petroleum based and now we’re back to where we started with the oil.

him: The bike will have wooden wheels then!

me: Save the rain forest!

In a last ditch effort to stump me.

him: ROCK! I’m going to have the bike made out of rock!

me: Rock, huh? That’s a great idea! Oh, but wait. What about the furry woodland creature’s habitat that you destroyed to get the rock?

He laughed, shook his head, and walked away in frustration.

The point of this story is simple. No matter how we try to fix a fictional or non-fictional problem we have with the environment, someone is going to keep coming up with some stupid reason why it’s bad. Just like the ethanol situation. That was a great idea and now we are supposedly starving the world. I say we just stick to what works. Good old fashioned gasoline and oil. Oh, and how about we drill for it in our own country?