The oil industry.

[icarus]

After watching the 60 Minutes report on Global Warming and how the Bush Administration (Dick Cheney & Cronies 'R Us) is squelching scientific voices on the subject, I decided that a lot wrong with the world today is due to the dependence on oil.

We're destroying the environment, not in a "oops, dropped a candy wrapper" sort of way, but in a "turn the planet into an unliveable Venus" sort of way.

Wars are being fought over oil. Don't tell me we'd care about Iraq if it didn't have oil.

Why oil?

Not because we don't have other options, but because oil is an easily controlled commodity. Anyone can build a windmill or put up a solar panel. Oil profits can be funnelled through a small number of people at high margins. Certain powerful people want to keep milking their oil profits for as long as possible.

Oil has a stranglehold on the world economy.

I want out of the oil economy. It's pervasiveness tells us how deep the problem is.

I've already taken a few first steps. Ten years ago I lived a 45 minute drive from work and lived in my car. I moved, and now am about a ten minute bus ride from work/school, and can walk to work if need be. I'm still dependent on oil (in the bus) but it's much less.

Four years ago wildernessguru and I were a two-car household. I got rid of my car, and because of how close I live to downtown, we've only driven 15,000 miles in four years.

I live in an apartment, so I can't rig up a solar panel on my house (or set up hydro-electric power which is probably more likely in Seattle). But I don't need all this plastic when there are other options.

How else can we cut ourselves out of the oil economy?

Comments

[rydra_wong]

Do you guys have green electricity suppliers in the US? In the UK, the system allows you to buy your electricity from a "green supplier" - you actually get your electricity as per usual, but they ensure that an amount of electricity equal to that which you use is supplied to the grid from renewable sources.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

That sounds great, but I'm afraid there's no such thing here. I think we needed Clinton in office a little longer to get to that point.

Icarus

[chasehunts.livejournal.com]

Actually, there is green power, it's just not very well advertised. Check http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/locator/index.htm

Unsurprisingly, considering how jumpy I've been about the weather, global warming has pushed to the forefront of my mind. At least ten years ago I was chatting to a man online in my area of Alaska (the Interior), and he said the weather was warmer, and the permafrost was melting.

Now it's really melting. Temps up in Alaska last year went past 80, and that was in the spring.

Chase

[katuah]

did you know there are "starter" solar panel systems that can be clipped onto a window ledge or fire escape balcony? They power-up a deep-cycle battery that can then be drawn on via a basic inverter to run small appliances like radios, small TV's, and maybe laptops. check out realgoods.com, I think they sell 'em, although I saw them on Treehugger.

Reducing your oil "footprint" definitely includes all the oil that goes into making plastics, and making electricity. Reducing use and/or purchase of excess packaging, carrying your own cloth shopping bag, eating organic food (much fertilizer is petroleum-based)...

anyway, you are succeeeding really well on your own at reducing your personal "footprint," its getting the rest of society to join in and change large-scale systems that is the real problem. like, giving up cars for public transportation, giving up McMansions for infill development, giving up foods shipped ten thousand miles so you can eat them out of season.

anyway - GO YOU!

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

did you know there are "starter" solar panel systems that can be clipped onto a window ledge or fire escape balcony? They power-up a deep-cycle battery that can then be drawn on via a basic inverter to run small appliances like radios, small TV's, and maybe laptops. check out realgoods.com, I think they sell 'em, although I saw them on Treehugger.

That's cool. Most houses in LA had solar panels in the 40s, but home owners were paid cash to give them up and plug into the new power grid.

A solar panel would work in Seattle during the summer. We have very long, sunny days. The spring, fall, and winter is so rainy there has to be other options that harvest non-stop light rain. :)

We're getting there. I really don't like what oil dependence is doing to our world, on many levels.

Icarus

[mad_maudlin]

At-home mini hydroelectic turbine? (I'm not sure how serious I am here.)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Er. Will it fit under the bed?

I'm having the worst time finding your email.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting point about foods shipped ten thousand miles... I hadn't thought about that.

infill development

What's infill development?

Icarus

[katuah]

oops, sorry, i forget other people aren't planning geeks. :-/ infill development is when you build new places onto un/under-used lots or brownfields in the city limits to create a more dense - and theoretically therefore more walkable/public-transit-friendly - urban environment. you "fill in" the spaces of what's already an urban area. this would be instead of just sprawling outward into farmlands, breaking up farms and forests into ten-acre "amenity lot" subdivisions that will always require a car to live in.

infill & it's cousin "New Urbanism" are NOT very in-line with the Old American Dream of a McMansion and an SUV, but they seem to be a good way to economize on public infrastructure and also create an economically diverse neighborhood. I dunno if you ever peruse my del.icio.us links, but if you do, click "planning" and there are some fascinating articles there if you are ever really into learning more. not that you would have time!!!! :-) you have Other Good Things to do instead :-)

[rydra_wong]

That's an interesting point about foods shipped ten thousand miles... I hadn't thought about that.

Possible strategies include: find a local farmers' market (in the UK at least, they often have regs that only allow the selling of local-grown food, as a way to support small growers), and/or grow a bit of your own. In an apartment, you can do a quite a bit even with indoor window-ledges (I ended up with a jungle of tomatoes growing over my hard-drive last summer) - probably not enough to make any significant difference, but it's definitely an interesting education in the realities of food production.

[quilt-stitcher.livejournal.com]

This was what got me about the State of the Union address. More money for science education, right. Why train 'em if you aren't going to listen to them? I'm glad I live close enough to work to walk. I started walking just to get some exercise, but it has other benefits!

[jaig.livejournal.com]

In California, a city- I'm not sure which- has a rather genius power grid: anyone can hook up solar panels to their houses and generate their own electricity, and the spare power generated is funneled into the whole system.

[frogspace.livejournal.com]

How else can we cut ourselves out of the oil economy?

Nuclear energy. :(

It's depressing how much energy we need. If you want to get a better idea about your own consumption, you could calculate your households CO2 emissions and find out how to reduce them.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Nuclear energy. :(

Uh. I think they'd better work out that little Leukemia and hazardous waste problem first....

Kind of cool though, I'm going to check our footprint.

Icarus

[singtoangels.livejournal.com]

Well, one obvious conclusion would be to smite Shrub & Co in biblical fashion, a la fire and brimstone. Very in now with the Christian Right, all that apocalyptic stuff. And we all know that Bush is trying very hard to fulfill the prophecies of some old Jewish guys who lived in the desert a few thousand years ago. He'd probably enjoy it!

Perhaps the next step would be a true anarchist society in which self-government collapses and we all live like animals for the next couple of hundred/thousand years. That would give us time to rediscover technology and do this all over again. But hey, it would give the world a bit of a breather.

Or we could just get everyone to get together, force our government to sign the Kyoto Accord, and live in happy peace and harmony.

I honestly don't know which option I'd prefer. I think I'd do well with number two, though. I'm down with the home canning and lack of microwaves already. :p

Sing

[korestemenos.livejournal.com]

I couldn't resist putting my 2cents worth in here. Anything that you do to reduce your footprint is good.

One small thing you can do is not to put the vegetables that you purchase into individual plastic bags, just put them all together into your shopping basket. Also, take your own bags to the supermarket with you. In Ausralia there's a big drive to reduce our plastic bag use, and purpose-made re-usable fabric shopping bags are seen everywhere. If you don't have them in the States, you could improvise.

I've got lots of web-sites about reducing oil consumption, but unfortunately a lot of them are Australian and refer to Govt programs here... If you want something closer to home, Canada is very progressive with it's environmental policies and would probably be more relevant than Australia. Here's a good place to start Canadian Environment Week (http://www.ec.gc.ca/e-week/index_e.htm). If you know some of the stuff that they're talking about, it may provide a good launching place for you...

Good luck! The more of us in the world, the better :-)