The History of the GREENRIDE movement
It is hard to tell exactly when it happened. The day that
the tipping point was reached and the dependence upon oil became a thing of the
past. It started gradually in the first part of the new millennium when the
forces of greed and avarice were at their peaks in the world. It was assumed;
incorrectly that the masses of people around the planet would continue to be
slaves to energy source that was over a hundred years old. Looking back it
seems ridiculous that a bunch of louts from Texas, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nigeria
and other “garden spots” of the world would run roughshod over civilized people
for over a century. But as history is often full of anomalous conditions that
suddenly right themselves, this one was nearly instantaneously put right
through technology and enlightened thought that concerned itself with more than
the quarterly profits on Wall Street and the other world stock exchanges.
The initial entrepreneur who was responsible for the
greatest single change of the 21st century remains to this day
unknown. In an effort to protect their crumbling empire the legionnaires of the
corporate oil cartel did their best to erase his name from history. In a last
dying gasp of an industry that went the way of the steamboat and the railroad the
primary economic and political forces in the world produced one of the great manhunts
in history. Wars and diversions were orchestrated to disrupt the revolution
that was occurring. Ironically, the very victims of the decade’s oil wars were
the bedrock behind the movement that changed the very nature of the world and
how its people got around.
The first glimpses of what was to come started with
environmentally minded people, mostly young and old, who banded together to try
and do their part to reduce carbon emissions throughout the planet. Given the
development of social networking sites in the millennium it wasn’t long before
a new one emerged called simply “GREENRIDE.” These people developed a system by
which all participants who had been vetted and paid a monthly service fee,
could stand on a street corner anywhere in North America initially and receive
a ride for a nominal fee (sharing the costs and dividing the carbon footprint)
with others who were likeminded. The first club started off as a collection of
people who were interested in making a contribution to the environment and who
also wanted to get around. Their number s quickly multiplied and like any good
idea it was soon copied and resold by other groups with their own agendas.
Those who liked motorcycles formed a group, people who had a passion for sports
cars, luxury cars, trucks and classic cars all formed their own groups. Before
a year had passed over 100 million Americans and Canadians had joined these GREENRIDE
inspired travel clubs.
There were a few glitches initially as the computer systems
adapted to the bandwidth and traffic needs of these emerging systems. It didn’t
take long, however, for the brainiacs in places like Silicon Valley and Bangalore
to realize that their dream of working on “real science” instead of the corporate
controlled agenda of what would be developed, packaged and sold to friendly and
hostile governments around the world, depended on taking the power away from
the greedy monopolists that controlled the government, media and the agenda.
There were a few heroes in the scientific community who hailed the chance to
unseat the “faux” scientists and engineers who were at the top of the food
chain in defense contracting and high-tech companies forming an incestuous wall
of contempt and stonewalling towards anyone who “ventured off the reservation.”
Some of the techies worked round-the-clock until the software, hardware,
security systems and banking systems were developed to make the system work.
The banks bought in right away. It was so small initially
that it went largely unnoticed. Just another web-based tech services start-up
that required minimal financing and oversight is what the banks thought. That
is a growing portion of the credit card and debit transactions were going not
to gas and oil purchases, but to transportation networks that had sprung up
around the country went largely unnoticed. But the change was unstoppable.
Soon each car on the road had two, three, or four passengers
riding comfortably to their destinations instead of one. Roads were rarely
congested and the maintenance needs decreased four –fold allowing local
governments to spend more on schools, fire and police, parks or just to reduce
taxes in some cases making many in the conservative middle class quite happy.
It took about a year for the oil industry to respond. The
growing economies in China and India easily took up the slack initially brought
about by lack of consumption by the GREENRIDE areas. By then it was too late.
This is a story of how the greediest industry in the history of the world
attempted to stop progress and fight their way past technological answers to
pressing economic, political and social questions. The market answer to an
oligarchy of destructive self-serving interests ended as many epochs of history
ended. A bloody revolution was fought quietly for the most part, behind closed
doors in not –so-smoky rooms and in the
halls of oil companies, defense contractors, intelligence agencies and
ultimately in the capitals of Washington, Moscow, Beijing, London, New Delhi
and Bern. There were many lives lost in the fight. It took about a decade to
sort out the intrigue, dirty tricks and politics. But at the end of the day gas
prices plummeted to pre-1973 levels. Eventually, electric, biofuel and solar
cars took over and the world economy quadrupled in the space of ten years while
progress in social areas such as education, health and welfare made
unprecedented gains. With the cost of transportation reduced by over 300
percent, the resulting growth in businesses was exponential. It lead to the greatest
decade of economic growth in the history of the world. The reduction of oil
influence in international politics reduced the volume of the heated
discussions in the Middle East and elsewhere. Doves ruled where hawks once
carried the day. Freedom of movement inspired an entire generation of young
people to travel throughout the world.
The empowerment of this single issue spawned other types of
clubs and organizations prompting human rights movements, accountability in
government and unprecedented levels of freedom. Within this new mindset came
re-evaluations of the very concept of nation and the disarmament of countries
began to be realized. Earth finally became a true United Nations achieving the
goals of peace and development for all countries. Sadly, there were a few
casualties along the way. Companies like Exxon/Mobil, BP, Dutch Royal Shell,
Elf and Texaco were broken up into smaller “right sized” companies that could
no longer push big governments around at their leisure. This promoted governments
more attuned to serving their constituents than to maintaining the status quo
of corporate welfare and servitude. With “captive profits” no longer available
in the war industries venture capital began to take risks again and investments
in forward thinking projects like space colonies and new energy sources.
This did not come without a fight. Many of the names are
unknown who contributed to this fight. This story comes from the only source
available about a few brave souls who fought the battle for freedom from oil
and the tyranny it created at the beginning of the 21st century. It
is an anonymous journal from one of the founders of GREENRIDE. A man we will
just call Adam. All of the names in his journal are aliases so those who
cooperated with building the green revolution would not suffer reprisals from
the enemies of progress.
