All Things
Breaking the Addiction to Oil
While we were all bemoaning the damage done by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, China experienced a major oil spill. According to official figures, 470,000 gallons of oil were spilled. But private estimates set the amount of oil spilled from 40 to 80 times higher. Last week a pipeline ruptured and filled the Kalamazoo River in Michigan with 800,000 gallons of oil.
These continuing oil spills are only one reason for wanting to reduce the use of oil world wide, if not to eliminate it entirely. The use of petroleum is a major contributor to global warming. Well meaning folks therefore are all in favor of wind farms, solar panel installations, electric cars.
But all the solar panels and wind generators in the world will only have a limited effect on oil consumption.
Consider this:
How will we power our airplanes if we do not want to use jet fuel? Are you ready to get on an electric train and an electric (or perhaps atom powered) ocean liner to travel to China or India? Or will you limit your travels in the future? Can we hope for solar airplanes?
Petroleum products do not only power transportation, or factories, or our homes. Roughly one fifth of the world’s petroleum is used in a very wide range of consumer products. A few examples are:
In Industry: Solvents, Dyes, Epoxy, Paint, Yarn, Fertilizers.
In the home: Ink, Floor Wax, Ballpoint Pens, Upholstery, Sweaters, Nail Polish, Dresses, Tires, Perfumes, Cassettes, Dishwasher parts, Tool Boxes, Shoe Polish, Caulking, Petroleum Jelly, Transparent Tape, CD Player, Faucet Washers, Antiseptics, Clothesline, Curtains, Food Preservatives, Soap, Vitamin Capsules, Antihistamines, Purses, Shoes, Cortisone, Deodorant, Putty, Panty Hose, Refrigerant, Percolators, Rubbing Alcohol, Linings, Shag Rugs, Electrician's Tape, Tool Racks, Car Battery Cases, Mops, Slacks, Insect Repellent, Umbrellas, Hair Coloring, Roofing, Toilet Seats, Lipstick, Denture Adhesive, Linoleum, Speakers, Heart valves, Shaving Cream, Toothpaste.
In Sports Football Cleats, Boats, Insecticides, Bicycle Tires, Sports Car Bodies, Fishing lures, Golf Bags, Motorcycle Helmet, Basketballs, Dashboards, Life Jackets, Skis, Fishing Rods, Surfboards.
This list is not meant to render us hopeless of ever freeing ourselves from dependence on oil. But it is important to think seriously about how much work is ahead of us to find substitutes for petroleum products.
Our recent experience has underscored that reducing the use of petroleum products is absolutely essential if we are going to preserve at least a portion of this planet. But that job is much more challenging than building windmills and installing solar panels. We need to find non-petroleum sources for a wide range of consumer products or, if that proves impossible, find different ways of living without those products.
Above all we need to be serious about oil independence.
-
Capitalism or Socialism According to a recent Associated Press story, the weeks before the election sent many Americans scurrying to their dictionary to look up all sorts of things. According to Merriam-Webster's the words most often looked...
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p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Greening America I am happy to quote a few paragraphs from Robert F. Kennedy's Foreword to Van Jones' The Green Collar Economy: How one Solution can Fix our Two Biggest Problems (New York: Harper Collins ebooks:...
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p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Competition Many people believe that competition produces our high standard of living and well-being. They point to the personal computer, smart phones, to tablets like the IPad and ascribe those marvels and their rapid...
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How to listen to the Tea Party message--II Our society, I pointed out in an earlier blog, has become so complex that individual citizens cannot understand, let alone manage large parts of it. Do you really understand the causes of the present economic...
- Our Energy Future--part Ii
Our Energy Future -- II In order to avoid future environmental disasters like the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, we need to reduce the use of oil by the military, and by agriculture. We also need to return political power to the people and take...
All Things
Breaking the Addiction to Oil
Breaking the Addiction to OilWhile we were all bemoaning the damage done by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, China experienced a major oil spill. According to official figures, 470,000 gallons of oil were spilled. But private estimates set the amount of oil spilled from 40 to 80 times higher. Last week a pipeline ruptured and filled the Kalamazoo River in Michigan with 800,000 gallons of oil.
These continuing oil spills are only one reason for wanting to reduce the use of oil world wide, if not to eliminate it entirely. The use of petroleum is a major contributor to global warming. Well meaning folks therefore are all in favor of wind farms, solar panel installations, electric cars.
But all the solar panels and wind generators in the world will only have a limited effect on oil consumption.
Consider this:
How will we power our airplanes if we do not want to use jet fuel? Are you ready to get on an electric train and an electric (or perhaps atom powered) ocean liner to travel to China or India? Or will you limit your travels in the future? Can we hope for solar airplanes?
Petroleum products do not only power transportation, or factories, or our homes. Roughly one fifth of the world’s petroleum is used in a very wide range of consumer products. A few examples are:
In Industry: Solvents, Dyes, Epoxy, Paint, Yarn, Fertilizers.
In the home: Ink, Floor Wax, Ballpoint Pens, Upholstery, Sweaters, Nail Polish, Dresses, Tires, Perfumes, Cassettes, Dishwasher parts, Tool Boxes, Shoe Polish, Caulking, Petroleum Jelly, Transparent Tape, CD Player, Faucet Washers, Antiseptics, Clothesline, Curtains, Food Preservatives, Soap, Vitamin Capsules, Antihistamines, Purses, Shoes, Cortisone, Deodorant, Putty, Panty Hose, Refrigerant, Percolators, Rubbing Alcohol, Linings, Shag Rugs, Electrician's Tape, Tool Racks, Car Battery Cases, Mops, Slacks, Insect Repellent, Umbrellas, Hair Coloring, Roofing, Toilet Seats, Lipstick, Denture Adhesive, Linoleum, Speakers, Heart valves, Shaving Cream, Toothpaste.
In Sports Football Cleats, Boats, Insecticides, Bicycle Tires, Sports Car Bodies, Fishing lures, Golf Bags, Motorcycle Helmet, Basketballs, Dashboards, Life Jackets, Skis, Fishing Rods, Surfboards.
This list is not meant to render us hopeless of ever freeing ourselves from dependence on oil. But it is important to think seriously about how much work is ahead of us to find substitutes for petroleum products.
Our recent experience has underscored that reducing the use of petroleum products is absolutely essential if we are going to preserve at least a portion of this planet. But that job is much more challenging than building windmills and installing solar panels. We need to find non-petroleum sources for a wide range of consumer products or, if that proves impossible, find different ways of living without those products.
Above all we need to be serious about oil independence.
-
Capitalism or Socialism According to a recent Associated Press story, the weeks before the election sent many Americans scurrying to their dictionary to look up all sorts of things. According to Merriam-Webster's the words most often looked...
-
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Greening America I am happy to quote a few paragraphs from Robert F. Kennedy's Foreword to Van Jones' The Green Collar Economy: How one Solution can Fix our Two Biggest Problems (New York: Harper Collins ebooks:...
-
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Competition Many people believe that competition produces our high standard of living and well-being. They point to the personal computer, smart phones, to tablets like the IPad and ascribe those marvels and their rapid...
-
How to listen to the Tea Party message--II Our society, I pointed out in an earlier blog, has become so complex that individual citizens cannot understand, let alone manage large parts of it. Do you really understand the causes of the present economic...
- Our Energy Future--part Ii
Our Energy Future -- II In order to avoid future environmental disasters like the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, we need to reduce the use of oil by the military, and by agriculture. We also need to return political power to the people and take...