How to Think Differently About The Gas Crisis

May 28th, 2008 |  by clare munn

I love the gas crisis – and for one simple reason: it’s forcing me to think.

No longer can I blindly fill my tank, strap on my leather gloves, don my Windsor and take a “leisurely drive” for the sole purpose of relaxation, sightseeing, incessantly listening to my new favorite song, etc. Now, I think – can I afford this shit?? Will this car trip yield positive ROI???

I even find myself subsequently considering the environment, as if the thought of the depletion of my wallet is somehow linked to the depletion of the ozone layer.

Basically, nowadays, the mere idea of driving to no particular destination for no particular reason fills me with overwhelming guilt, apprehension, and uncertainty.

Yes, the age of innocence is fading – the age of the mini cooper is dawning.

Now whenever I go to anywhere-outside-of-the-big-city, and see the corpulent cowboys in their enormous white pickups, I try to imagine the epic battle raging inside their heads. Are they trying to reconcile with the fact that they may have to shed their manhood and downsize their mode of transportation for the sake of feeding their kids? Some of them must be going back and forth: “I can’t buy a fuel-efficient Japanese car and still call myself a true American – can I??” “I can’t drive a Hybrid and not look gay – can I??” “If I start jogging to work, what could I possibly wear that won’t look gay??”

(I, of course, must ask you, the audience: “Can I make a social critique of a prevalent American homophobic mindset without seeming insensitive??”).

Sorry – back to the gas-related rant.

It hasn’t been the easiest transition for me either. I walk places now.

The grocery store is a convenient, five-minute drive from my house but now that I’m trying to save every goddamned drop of precious fuel possible, I find myself walking a mile for a Camel, so to speak
(I don’t smoke BTW) (Like my outdated ad reference?)

On the upside though, I’ve been getting some pretty good exercise. I even ran to work once a couple weeks ago (and quickly got lost, as streets and landmarks tend to look a bit different when not viewed from the inside of a moving vehicle).

Of course, not every cupcake has a creamy center: my roommate sold his car recently and now asks for rides to work everyday due to the lame coincidence of him working in the same building as me. I have to admit this sucks. He talks my fucking ear off the whole way over and adds extra weight to the vehicle, which costs me more gas. Sometimes I find myself driving like an asshole when he’s in the car, in hopes that he’ll fear for his life too much to ride with me in the future. No such luck so far.

So I guess I could very well represent the average consumer confronted with this ‘disastrous’ energy crisis.

So I’ve had to change my patterns a little bit; change the way I think – and somehow, this has led to me reducing my environmental footprint as well.

Actually, I’ll go so far as to say that overall: this crisis has helped me as a person. A part of me is even thankful to the large oil corporations, corrupt politicians and everyone else who has contributed to the creation of my new, superior lifestyle.

Thanks everyone. I think everything is going to be … alright.

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Responses

1. actdeveloppement says:
   

   June 3rd, 2008at 10:19 am(#)

   We love wind energy…

   Wind energy to overtake nuclear ‘by 2013’

   BWEA figures reveal ‘phenomenal growth’ in wind sector over next decade.

   Leaders of the UK offshore wind industry meet 4 june for their annual conference in Westminster. Figures released by the BWEA, the UK wind industry trade association, reveal that installed wind energy generating capacity will have surpassed installed nuclear within the next 5 years.

   BWEA Chief Executive Maria McCaffery said “Wind energy is no longer a minority pursuit. With nearly half a gigawatt already installed and a further 8GW of schemes in the pipeline we are now a mainstream energy supplier.”

   BWEA’s Offshore 08 conference is being addressed by Environment & Rural Affairs Secretary Hilary Benn, who is expected to outline the potential for jobs and investment the Government sees in offshore wind energy developments. The conference will also see an announcement from the Crown Estate, who are expected to set out their timetable for the next round of offshore site awards.

   While industry leaders are optimistic about delivery of projects already in the system, many believe the approval’s process for the next generation of offshore wind farms needs to be speeded up.

   BWEA Chairman, Adam Bruce – Head of Sustainability at Scottish & Southern Energy, said ‘If the UK wants to reach our 2020 renewable targets then we need to kickstart the process. The current 2-3 year site assessment process must be halved, with sites being awarded to developers by the end of next summer.” Bruce added ‘Overall average time it takes to get a scheme approved, built and connected must fall from the 8-9 years in Round 2 to 5-6 years for Round 3.”

2. actdeveloppement says:
   

   June 3rd, 2008at 12:08 pm(#)

   We love solar energy…

   California School Sees Benefits of Solar Energy

   California is home to some of the best solar resources in the U.S., a fact not lost on its residents and policy makers when it comes to adopting and supporting solar energy. One application for solar that is becoming increasingly popular in California is using photovoltaics to power schools.

   Schools both private and public in San Francisco, Oakland, Pleasanton, Lemon Grove and Monterey have all realized the benefits of solar solar energy. One such project was put up at York School in Monterey, California in 2007. The 37.5-kilowatt (kW) system was installed by Blueline Power. The project was financed by Solar Power Partners (SPP) through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), which brought down the upfront costs of the system for the school.

   “Our claim to fame is to find those people who want to stand out in their particular industry or community. Their solar and renewable energy systems serve as models for people to look and say, ‘maybe I could do something like that’,” said Ed Bless, Business Manager of Blueline Power.

   According to Kevin Brookhouser, York School’s Communications Director, to celebrate earth day the students at York made the decision to use as little energy as possible. The result was that for that day the school’s meter ran backwards as the solar system produced more than was consumed. Brookhouser said the solar system was installed for more than just a lower electric bill for the school.

   “York has a philosophical commitment to building green,” Brookhouser said. “I think the debate is over and that we need to find solutions to our energy problems and solar is one of those solutions. We installed our first solar array in 2003 and now any new building projects at the school require renewable energy and green elements. It’s a way we can teach students about sustainability and alternative energy.”

   The York School solar system consists of 195 Evergreen Solar modules mounted on the roof of the school’s library. The system is projected to produce approximately 49.7 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity per year and provide close to half of the power consumed by the school. So far in 2008 the system has produced 25.48 MWh of power for the school. York is also the first school in Monterey county to be designated an official “Green Business” by the Monterey County Green Business Program.

   by Graham Jesmer
   California, United States

3. Allan Munn says:
   

   July 23rd, 2008at 11:55 pm(#)

   These days, manhood is about caring for the planet and everything on it. It is no longer about enormous anything, white pick ups included.

   The minds that control the supply of crude oil and the deathly machines that run on them, are short term blinkered, avaricious opportunists, who have forgotten that they and their progeny are just living cells like all the rest of us.
   They are rich, unhappy, long term kamakaze pilots, flying towards self destruction.
   Sadly they are also carrying all of us along as passengers.

   They seem to have forgotten however, that we as the consumers can control the variables, if we, like Ned, start to use our natural appliances, like legs, a little more.

   We too, seem to have forgotten that supply cannot exist without demand and that we are the demand.

4. Scathian says:
   

   August 29th, 2008at 3:42 pm(#)

   Yoh love the gas crisis? You are a sick, cruel man. People in developing countries are starving because of rising gas prices and all you care about is the environment, which you are in fact not leaving any noticeable footprint on whatsoever.

5. Ned says:
   

   September 4th, 2008at 3:11 pm(#)

   Thank you for your provocative feedback.

   To first address your question of whether or not I love the gas crisis, let me first clarify for you my intent in creating this post. Through humor and a bit of sarcasm, I’m exposing the light side of a dark situation; i.e. gas is expensive, the economy is terrible but at least we’re getting a bit of exercise out it. It is a fairly common comedic device to put a humorous spin on current events in order to make a social critique. I find this method can be far more compelling than judgmental, emotional outbursts towards the object of your criticism.

   To address your statement of me being a “sick, cruel man”: I’m actually a pretty nice guy. I’ve even performed countless hours of community service, I mean volunteer work, at a retirement home and an animal rescue shelter.

   I agree that people in developing countries are starving because of rising gas prices but I would also say that it is important to look at the larger picture. The global Oil Economy is spurring dictatorships in which the very few get rich and the general population are oppressed. Almost the entire Persian Gulf lies under despotic rule. Almost half of the countries in the world with the worst human rights records are oil producers with at least .5 bbl in oil reserves. Oil wealth has been shown to encourage secular nationalism and fundamentalist extremism. Read your history books and you will see a pattern of oil producing countries being marred by countless famines, military coups, oppressive dictatorships, bankruptcy, genocidal tribal massacres and bloody civil wars. We often see this level of corruption when we are dealing with an irreplaceable, valuable commodity such as oil. Another example is the diamond trade in West Africa, which has also resulted in genocide, slave labor and countless other human rights violations, not to mention providing funding for the terrorist Lebanese Hezbollah movement.
   Since oil is a finite resource, it will become increasingly rarer and more expensive and we will see new kinds of fuels being developed, such as Hydrogen Fuel Cells and other bio fuels which can be produced using simple, renewable resources such as water. These new types of renewable energies will help the people as well as the environment, which I feel I need to remind you, encompasses the entire planet and everything on it including people, and therefore holds paramount importance over anything.

   We need to stop worrying about the price of oil and start coming up with alternatives to using it.

   In terms of your statement about my contribution to the environment; I appreciate you saying that I’m “not leaving any noticeable footprint” on the environment in general but the truth is, by not driving as much, I have reduced my environmental footprint, but have not eliminated it. We all make some kind of environmental footprint as human beings, whether is through our electricity use, waste production, or our consumption of products that were produced/transported by means of fossil fuel consumption. For the record, it is possible to completely negate your environmental footprint by purchasing carbon credits. This is a process by which you donate money for instance, so that trees will be planted which consume the Co2 you are putting into the atmosphere, replacing it with oxygen.

   I am sorry that you felt I was being flippant with the lives of people in developing countries. I hope you can see this was not my intention. I imagine you are making donations or working in some form to aid people in developing countries, as this seems to be a big concern of yours. It is also a concern of mine; it is just our approach that differs.

   Ned

   PS – for some great information on the newest developments in alternative energy, check out what the Rocky Mountain Research Institute is doing: http://www.rmi.org/
   (We are currently re-doing their website and I have had a great time reading through their content)

6. Lillian King says:
   

   May 11th, 2010at 1:00 pm(#)

   Gas prices these days are just getting higher, i think the government should focus more on alternative energy.”.~

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