Boycott Big Oil? Prepare to give up everything

[babylonsister]

Boycott Big Oil? Prepare to give up everything
Shampoo, furniture, computers, vitamin capsules: Petrochemicals are everywhere, even in you
By SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press

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Has the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico got you so mad you're ready to quit Big Oil?

Ready to park the car and take up bike-riding or walking? Well, your bike and your sneakers have petroleum products in them. And sure, you can curb energy use by shutting off the AC, but the electric fans you switch to have plastic from oil and gas in them. And the insulation to keep your home cool, also started as oil and gas. Without all that, you'll sweat and it'll be all too noticeable because deodorant comes from oil and gas too.

You can't even escape petroleum products with a nice cool fast-food milkshake -- which probably has a petrochemical-based thickener.

Oil is everywhere. It's in carpeting, furniture, computers and clothing. It's in the most personal of products like toothpaste, shaving cream, lipstick and vitamin capsules. Petrochemicals are the glue of our modern lives and even in glue, too.

Because of that, petrochemicals are in our blood.

When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested humans for environmental chemicals and metals, it recorded 212 different compounds. More than 180 of them are products that started as natural gas or oil.

"It's the material basis of our society essentially," said Michael Wilson, a research scientist at the University of California Berkeley. "This is the Petrochemical Age."

more...

http://www.salon.com/news/louisiana_oil_spill/index.html?story=/news/feature/2010/06/11/us_sci_oil_in_everything

[JuniperLea]

1. If we'd listened to Carter...

We would be a lot further along that particular road right now.

Corn, and oil. We are mostly corn, our surroundings are mostly oil.

We can find other means. It will be hard, but it truly is necessary.

[peacebird]

2. Change will not happen overnight, and it will not be easy, but we will move from petrol fuel

and petroleum based life. Whether we learn the lesson of this spill and START finding solutions now, or whether we hide our heads in the sand and do nothing until we have absolutely NO choice - that I do not know. But we will move beyond petroleum one way or the other.

[FBI_Un_Sub]

3. Most petrochemical products

can be synthesized from coal tar and from vegetable oils. The heavy replacement of coal tar and vegetable oil sources started during during WW2 when we had massive amounts of domestic crude oil. See http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Polymer-Systems-Ferdinand-Rodriguez/dp/1560329394/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276296696&sr=8-1">Principles of Polymer Systems, Ferdinand Rodriguez, which is replete with piping diagrams and flow charts. Been through five editions and is still the standard.

[tiny elvis]

4. omg no deodorant. we'll all be frenchmen

thanks for boldly defending the status quo in the face of the society destroying hippie agenda
the salon writer seems to have had a university freshman's revelation
it could take him years to get up to speed on our problems

[Go2Peace]

6. every post on DU has to be vetted in "talking points". It is almost impossible

and the Presidency is too weak an office. That is the "message".

[Go2Peace]

5. It's not "all or nothing" and it will take *leadership* to wean our dependance

These posts implying that we have to quite cold turkey are distracting. We can significantly reduce oil consumption yet still use it in moderation. It is primarily the uses that *burn* it that are the main culprets. Uses that cosume it aren't always great, but neither are a lot of other product manufacturing material. Deal with those like any other environmental issue.

As for the talking point that people have to do this individually. That is just silly. Only government leadership through policies can do what we need to do. That is what Europe did. They taxed the heck out of oil while building some alternative infrastructure. They were paying 4x as much for gas for the lat 20 years.

Why, on a site that is supposed to have more intellect, do we still have to go over and over about this to try and get people to understand that this is not impossible to impliment in a sustainable and reasonable way,

The only barrier is POLITICS.

[Imajika]

7. Most people are not willing to give up their lifestyle...

Oh, they say they would, but the vast majority have no idea how much they depend on oil. It isn't that we are "addicted" so much as that oil is part of virtually everything we have or do. Whether that be products we buy, or items we expect to be able to obtain, or places we want to go, things we like doing, etc.

Virtually all these people who post ridiculous things about being happy to give up oil are living in a fantasy land. They sit behind a computer (assembled thanks to oil) and play keyboard commando (keyboard also created thanks to oil) informing us all about how they are ready to give up oil when what they really mean is OTHER people should give up oil. I am sure they have the best of intentions, but it really is living in lalaland to think in our lifetimes we will be any less dependent on it. The pressure to find alternatives is a good thing, so people calling for change are doing some good - but mostly I really don't think many people are willing to actually give up much to transition to the new energies.

One day the oil will start to run out. Could be 100 years from now, but it is going to happen. When oil becomes too expensive we will find ways to adapt to new energies because everyone will be forced to do so all at the same time. We will hopefully make some progress with the help of environmentalists and green energy activists pushing the government and public opinion in the right direction, but there will be no major move from a fossil fuel based society anytime soon.