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

[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.