Thanks for your comments. I am from Holland, a very Western nation, and I am not an immigrant either. In fact, when exposed to sunlight I get red and get blisters.
Now, the main point. Western nations have not unfairly used too much oil, that is your interpretation of my words. About your claim that the West produced that much oil for its own needs I have my doubts (no offense meant in any way, mind). I was taught that we (the West) are for a very long time now dependent on crude oil production in Arab states (non-democratic, lots of poverty), Russia, and others. That is not good. It gives others, among them rogue states, leverage over us in many respects.
I don’t want to step in any climate change discussion at this point. But IMHO we have reached a point in time where we can fortify our positions in the world by investing in solar energy, hybrid car technology, nuclear energy (e.g. as a stopgap until nuclear fusion is in our reach), and so on. If there’s one part of the world where all of this can be done in a sound, competitive way, it’s here. I would consider it a grave mistake to regress and cling to old-fashioned ‘gas-guzzling’ obsessions - not because I fear that the earth will heat up so much in the next decades, but we simply might lose the competition. I reiterate: Putin is looking at us, and so is China.
I hope I clarified a couple of points.
I didn't mean the west produced most of its oil, my consumption statement was about the US and its western sources for oil. The US still uses more of our own oil than we import from any other single nation. Canada is our largest external supplier followed closely by Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Venezuela. 3 out of 4 of our million barrel a day suppliers are from the Western hemisphere (4 out of 5 if we include ourselves).
http://www.damonclifford.com/blog/2008/08/01/nozzle-rage-americas-dependency-foreign-oil-opec/ http://www.damonclifford.com/blog/2008/08/01/nozzle-rage-americas-dependency-foreign-oil-opec/
Your response makes good sense to me.