The oil industry.
Mar. 20th, 2006 11:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icarusAfter 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![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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?
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?
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no subject
Date: 2006-03-22 01:17 am (UTC)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