And suddenly, they’re twice as likely to care about alternative energy. It’s not a case of sudden environmental consciousness so much as a case of sudden cost consciousness. They feel more strongly that something needs to be done about energy costs once they have to pay for their own gas.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being concerned about how much you pay for gas. That’s hard-earned money that could be spent on food or paying other bills. If this describes you, ask yourself this: how concerned were you about alternative fuel energy last January?

Chances are, most of us weren’t and still aren’t actively working for alternative energy, but people are suddenly much more aware of it now because there’s a crisis.

Attention Deficit Dis…look over there!

Our attention spans have shortened drastically over recent decades, and are actually hampering progress. According to Avant News, our attention spans are actively shortening even now.

Even our children are being diagnosed with ADD and ADHD more often, though researchers at Penn State caution that it may not be the actual disease, but rather the American lifestyle. We multitask constantly. This has physically changed our brains and can promote behaviors that can look similar to ADHD. Just more proof that our attention spans are in a downward spiral.

In 2007 a federally funded effort to counteract this was launched.

That’s right, it’s considered such an epidemic in our culture that there are actually funded programs in place to combat it.

We care about disasters for a while, but as soon as they’re replaced in the news cycle, it’s like we assume everything has been fixed. When was the last time anyone checked in on Haiti? Japan is also in a crisis now, but all of those months between the initial surge of coverage in Haiti and the earthquakes in Japan, we could have been focusing in on helping them recover. But it wasn’t making headlines anymore.

However, the American public is not entirely to blame for this lack of focus. The model itself is flawed – the news is designed to keep on moving, and that pushes serious problems out of the way and out of our minds. A Nieman Journalism investigation showed the sad truth, that the system of investigative reporting is designed to be overtaken by trendy tweets and celebrity scandals.

Take a look at their map of the fifty state corruption index.

Crisis Mentality

We’re content to make do with our oil and coal until there’s a crisis. And even then, some resist changing the status quo in any way, even to the point of declaring a safety review of nuclear power unnecessary.

In recent weeks, another price has surged up along with gasoline: food.

The cause? According to MIT, a major reason for this second upswing is the increase in the production of ethanol made from corn. Global food prices have been on the rise for eight consecutive months. Currently, federal mandates require a certain amount of fuel to be renewable, and most of this comes from corn-based ethanol.

But corn prices have been on the rise because it is also in demand as a source of food. And by manipulating the market in this way, we’re actually creating greater global impacts on the food supply. Corn prices are on the rise, which is raising the price of everything associated with corn ethanol, and food, because so much of our food contains corn.

The problem is, corn ethanol will still be used as long as these subsidies and mandates are in place. 40% of the energy in certain sectors must be renewable, and ethanol is really the only readily available option given that the electric car still has some flaws (namely in how long they take to charge) and other technologies still need to be refined.

Wasn’t corn ethanol hailed as an amazing alternative energy just a couple of years ago? After all, it’s a renewable resource.

Renewable or not, corn ethanol threatens food supplies under the current mandates, and it’s not even good for the environment. Green America, a global warming advocacy group, warned that it will not solve our problems of pollution or global warming. Corn ethanol is an energy-intensive crop to grow.

And, MIT warned, “biofuel produced from corn grains has environmental and health costs equal or greater than those of gasoline.”

And for the question weighing on everybody’s minds with all of the turmoil in the Middle East: it also can’t help us gain energy independence. Even if every single acre of corn grown in the US was used for ethanol, it would only meet 16% of our annual fuel needs.

Finding the Answers

Our politicians have been proclaiming for decades now to anyone who’ll listen that we need to get off foreign oil. The idea looks good, and it makes for a good sound byte. Being a politician against our energy dependency and the potential of funding terrorists isn’t exactly pushing the envelope, but so far none of them have actually taken significant steps to reduce our dependency. We’re still in a pattern of reactionary politics. See crisis, panic, crisis leaves news cycle, back to the routine.

We need to face down our short attention spans and face up to the problem before it becomes a crisis.

If the new Center for Public Integrity formed as a reaction to this unsettling discovery can improve the news model, the American people can strive to meet them halfway, taking more of an interest in stories that matter. The problem in America has never been not caring about these serious problems (in the majority, at least) but rather that we stop halfway through.

Corn ethanol might seem like a good thing in the short term, because it can balance oil prices, but it’s doing more harm than good. What will do more good is research and development. There are some problems with alternatives like the electric car or solar energy, some flaws that could be addressed. The constant argument is that the technology isn’t ready for mass market yet.

So get it ready. Look for long-term solutions to address our fuel consumption needs that are cleaner and renewable and not dependent on other countries. If the technology isn’t ready yet, develop it, don’t try to slap a bandage over the problem.

When it comes to changing the way we get our energy, we have to be in it for the long haul.