Petroleum-Based Products Shape Our Lives: Does that Mean We Are Irreversibly Dependent on Oil?
If oil is so ingrained in the modern world we all know — ubiquitous in the manufacturing and transporting of countless consumer products — does that mean we are hopelessly dependent upon it?
The question came to mind after receiving a comment from Morris (no last name given) on a previous post of mine here at sustainablog.org, World Naked Bike Ride: Is Anything Gained by Protesting Oil Dependency in the Buff?
Not to put words in Morris’s mouth, but he seems to suggest that oil cannot be escaped. Is he right? Even if he is, does that mean we should abandon efforts to break our addiction to crude?
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Sure, he makes a valid point in reminding us that oil has been used to make the very bicycles naked riders use in their World Naked Bike Ride protests around the world.
To quote a portion of his comment:
“If it weren’t for oil they wouldn’t be riding those bikes, they’d be walking, barefoot, naked with no glasses! Not to mention the streets would be dirt, not paved. There would be no electric lights, no drinks at the end of the ride, no music. Should I go on?”
Yes, let’s go just a little further. I did a quick Internet search for more oil-based products. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge publishes a list of oil uses on its Web site.
Here is a brief excerpt:
- Guitar strings
- Pantyhose
- Golf bags
- Dentures
- Candles
- Hair coloring
- Aspirin
- Footballs
- Food preservatives
- Shampoo
- Lipstick
- Electric blankets
- Ammonia
- Pillows
Okay, Morris. You’re right. I’m laying my head on a partially petroleum-based product to sleep every night. And I wash my hair with a product that also is partially petroleum-based. And I eat petroleum-laced foods.
Okay. Sure, that’s a tad discomforting to think the oil we ship over from the Middle East is ending up in my food, but does that solve the question about giving in to the dependency? We should just quit worrying about our addiction?
Alcoholics are not told, “Go ahead, drink yourself into self-destruction. After all, there’s tiny amounts of alcohol in hygiene products and seemingly countless food items. You’ll never escape it, so why try?”
Of course not. Alcoholics are coaxed off of the habit and, hopefully, back into productive, healthy lifestyles.
So let’s keep our eyes on the ball, huh? This topic, as most things in life, lands somewhere in the gray area between the extremes of opposing perspectives. No one is riding bikes sans clothing because of a notion that they are calling an end to all uses of oil.
It’s not either you are for oil or against it, an all or nothing, polarizing situation of ultimate right or wrong.
The call is for some reasonable re-assessments of where we stand with 21st Century environmental conditions, and the 21st Century technology we have to cope with the related problems. These issues didn’t exist on this scale a hundred years ago when the car was invented. Cars have evolved, so why shouldn’t fuel evolve, too?
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, nearly 35 gallons of every 42-gallon barrel of crude oil (shown in the graphic above) is used for one type of transportation fuel or another. The rest, in various other forms, is what goes into the consumer products we use on a daily basis.
A call for alternative energies that reduce our addiction to foreign oil, and a call to lessen our willingness to accept unnecessarily low fuel economy from automakers and the mileage standards set by the government does not mean we all have to give up modern conveniences, overall hygiene or sleeping with sheets, mattresses and pillows.
Speaking out for improvements in energy policies, even if riding in the buff to do it, is not a lost cause. The only lost cause in the debate about energy is to give up and assume our oil habit is irreversible.
Related posts:
Gas Hole the Movie: History of Oil Prices and Alternative Energy
Addressing Peak Oil at the Local Level
Biofuels Part I: Corn Ethanol Isn’t the Solution
Graphic Source: U.S. Department of Energy
I only recently discovered that Artificial Vanilla floavoring was a petroleum-based product. I’m not really suprised, though.
Just an extra note- many eco or green versions of the “modern” comforts that you mentioned can be found at your local (and some even at wal-mart!) health food store. For example- My toothpaste, nailpolish, nailpolish remover, shampoo, conditionner, facewash, body lotion, body wash, pillow, towels… are all petroleum (and SLS & paraben) free. They weren’t super duper expensive to buy or find and they work great!
Thinking about food- i am slowing introducing the top ten produce offenders for chemicals (i.e. apples, peaches, brocoli, lettuce etc) as organic- reducing my “petroleum” food intake while staying in my budget.
So- we actually CAN decrease our dependency on oil and petroleum beyond transportation/fuel while still staying beautiful/handsomely groomed
Lisa
Many of the seemingly oil dependent products we use were developed as replacements for coal based products used in the past! many new bio-based products will make it to the marketplace once the oil dominance is over, non the less,If the U.S. had chosen to be a moral people, and leaving Iraqi oil alone, and following Al Gore, decided to develop the South Western deserts, with the technology of the times - solar/thermal-molten sodium - electricity installations, for the same amount of money as that war cost, ($650 Billion), today, we would be tapping into the largest, renewable, sustainable, energy source the world has ever known. It would have paid every energy bill in the U.S.A. for maintenance fees only - FOREVER! It would be equivalent to an oil field that can NEVER run dry! Low cost electric power, and storeable hydrogen gasoline replacement from the electricity, for all!
After the millions of murders, and $650 billions of dollars, borrowed from our children’s futures and pissed away, with thousands of our own and others maimed and disfigured for life, millions of families utterly destroyed, ours and theirs, we are no closer to Iraqi oil production than the Iraqis are!
The next time you hear a blithering idiot spoiled brat, drunken, drug addicted, sociopath, rich Arabic saber dancing daddie’s boy oilman, stand at a microphone and threaten YOUR safety with someone ELSE’S weapons, remember what you lost America, remember, and weep! (also see http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-grand-plan)
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