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Your top ten national addictions
Thursday, November 13th, 2008 12:50 pm.
So, I'm watching Jon's interview with T. Boone Pickens, where the man's hawking his wind-and-natural-gas energy propositions. Very interesting stuff, and I hope the basic ideas get implemented.
But I'm starting to get more than a little exasperated with the nearly exclusive focus on gasoline and cars when talking about petroleum independence. Gasoline accounts for only 20% of the use we get out of a barrel of crude oil. Why is nobody talking about the ENORMOUS number of other things made from petroleum? You can't make a lawn chair out of natural gas, for example, or fill inkjet cartridges with wind, or fertilize thousands of acres of crops captured sunlight. (And let's not get started on computers.) Unless we find replacements for every one of the things we make with petroleum - every single item made from plastic, for a start, so good fucking luck - we'll still be using crude oil.
I'm fine with using my car less (hardly use it at all these days anyway), and will happily buy an electric when they finally become available, but I wish the focus could be shifted onto all 6,748,432 other solutions we'll have to figure out. 'Cause those won't wait, either.
So, I'm watching Jon's interview with T. Boone Pickens, where the man's hawking his wind-and-natural-gas energy propositions. Very interesting stuff, and I hope the basic ideas get implemented.
But I'm starting to get more than a little exasperated with the nearly exclusive focus on gasoline and cars when talking about petroleum independence. Gasoline accounts for only 20% of the use we get out of a barrel of crude oil. Why is nobody talking about the ENORMOUS number of other things made from petroleum? You can't make a lawn chair out of natural gas, for example, or fill inkjet cartridges with wind, or fertilize thousands of acres of crops captured sunlight. (And let's not get started on computers.) Unless we find replacements for every one of the things we make with petroleum - every single item made from plastic, for a start, so good fucking luck - we'll still be using crude oil.
I'm fine with using my car less (hardly use it at all these days anyway), and will happily buy an electric when they finally become available, but I wish the focus could be shifted onto all 6,748,432 other solutions we'll have to figure out. 'Cause those won't wait, either.
