Every school day, I see thousands of students and teachers frantically trying to find a parking spot. Sometimes the same cars circle the block several times, often taking the same time it takes a student on a bike to get from their house to campus. Eugene has 120 miles of bike lanes and an exceptional bus system, but oddly enough, a good portion of the University community still drives.
During my trip to Costa Rica this past spring, break I was astonished by the hustle and bustle of the main bus station in San Jose. I spent about five hours there last Tuesday, and during that time there must have been about 100 different buses that came through. It’s no wonder Costa Rica is called “the golden child of environmentalism.” It is common practice for residents to take the bus everywhere. For a fee of less than $10 to get virtually
anywhere in the country, why not?
Not only do Costa Ricans emit less carbon dioxide with their earth-friendly habits, but they also indirectly support what some would consider an even more important effort. By reducing their petroleum consumption, they simultaneously fight terrorism, discrimination of women’s rights, religious intolerance and the repression of free speech.
According to the Department of Energy, the United States imports about 62 percent of its oil. Among the top five countries that we import our oil from are Nigeria, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. All three of these countries have some of the worst human rights records in the world. Interestingly enough, all three of their respective governments also own the countries’ oil reserves. Some political analysts have been bold enough to point out that whenever the price of oil goes up, the measure of freedom in oil-rich countries goes down.
In Nigeria, the government has repeatedly committed acts of religious and gender discrimination, rape and torture of its prisoners, and even extra-judicial killings by authority forces. The Hugo Chavez administration in Venezuela has been accused for attacking the independent media, unlawful killings, violence against women, trafficking in persons, along with widespread corruption at all levels of government. Wealthy and oil-rich Saudi Arabia, which supplies 14 percent of U.S. oil imports, has been accused of corruption and injustices across the map. But in addition, they have been using their wealth to fund an effort that threatens U.S. national security. 
In 2007, The New York Times reported “Saudi Arabia and Libya were the source of about 60 percent of the foreign fighters who came to Iraq in the past year to serve as suicide bombers or to facilitate other attacks.” Saudi Arabians, financed by oil wealth, brought more money per person than fighters from other nations. In a paper called “Fueling Terror,” the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security explains how “many of Saudi Arabia’s charities are truly dedicated for good causes, but others merely serve as money laundering and terrorist financing apparatuses.” They go on to say, “While many Saudis contribute to those charities in good faith, believing their money goes toward good causes, others know full well the terrorist purposes to which their money will be funneled.” 
It might be alarming for some everyday vehicle operators, but it’s certainly fair to say that the more petroleum gas you consume, the more you support terrorism.
And to think that conservatives called tree-hugging Democrats “bad Americans” for not supporting the war.
Essentially, alternative transportation from driving is now not only an act of environmentalism, but it is also an act of undivided patriotism. With the recent decision to send 30,000 more troops overseas, those who both support the war or support bringing troops home have a reason to start cutting costs on the gas front. 
Think we should continue sending troops overseas? Well, you can weaken the enemy by cutting off the hand that feeds. The more you ride your bike to school, the less equipped terrorists from Saudi Arabia will be in Afghanistan. Think we should bring the troops home? The more you ride LTD to campus and around town, the less money corrupt charities will have to support anti-American terrorist efforts. 
Already ride your bike to campus every day? Props. You’re one of 13 percent of students who do. But in order to both end the war and make some effective environmental reform happen in the halls of Congress, we need everyone to fix up that old Schwinn cruiser that collects dust in the closet.
Big oil has 2,000 lobbyists in the halls of Congress. Non-profit groups like Environment America have about 12. Nature seems a bit outnumbered, yeah? But the more you ride your bike, the more the playing field between big oil and green jobs will even out. The more rainy mornings you decide to take the bus, the less money oil companies will have to squash bills that call for renewable energy. The more you encourage your gas-guzzling friends to do the same, the quicker we’ll clean up our earth — and bring our troops home at the same time.  
[email protected]