We don’t need oil.
Articles about doing without oil now punctuate every form of media, to the point of repetition.
The same can be said of heaping blame on the oil companies for the mess we find ourselves in — -as if, suddenly at some point during the last decade (or maybe less) we’ve woken up to the fact that fossil fuels are killing us. Shell and Exxon are the culprits, so they must be responsible for our imminent demise.
I recall we all had the same revelation/denial about tobacco. The tobacco barons collectively denied that their product was death on a stick. We collectively enjoyed burning the stuff so it was easier and more pleasant to believe them and deny our own common sense.
I used to watch my dad smoking his life away — -from about 5 or 6 years old, I used to think “that’s a stupid thing to do” — -just so obvious even when learned men were assuring us that tobacco was harmless. Or even good for you. How could a 6 year old know more than they did?
The ads used to show doctors advising this or that brand of cigarette. A blatantly obvious lie, catering to the gullible.
Fossil fuel use was so obviously wrong, (even though I burned it along with everybody else, all my life). I remember seeing thousands of smoking chimneys, and wading through English fogs.
No point in running around screaming to stop doing it. — -we were all locked into the system. I used to tell my dad (and other kids) that smoking was silly too. He used to smile indulgently. Other kids said I was stupid.
Yes , 40 years ago a few were screaming warnings, but only in this last decade or so has collective panic started to kick in — “Exxon had all the information — -why didn’t they tell us?”
The tobacco companies knew — -why didn’t they tell us?
That’s when my forehead connects with this keyboard.
Retrospective common sense or what?
People still want the return of the American dream, and infinite growth, while demanding elimination of fossil fuels. One reads that we can have both. The level of disconnect is mind boggling.
We’re going to have to do without oil, but be under no illusion as to what that means:
Shell’s money is what we give them to deliver the oil we need to sustain the lifestyle we demand. Their vast profits reflect our need for oil. We must have it. It runs in the arteries of our civilization.
Those who insist the flow must stop have a single focus vision of the way their personal utopia should be.
There is no product that we use that does not carry within it coal, oil, or gas, and there are no substitutes. I’m not saying that oil will flow forever, just pointing out the consequences that will ensue when it stops.
The extinction crowd disrupt cities, but expect their lights to work, their lavatories to flush and their cheap food to be available when their protests are over. They also expect transport home. If their protest actually worked and stopped us from using oil there would be panic in the streets indeed.
BAU must go on, no matter what.
I knew, without knowing, what cigarettes would do to my dad if he didn’t change. I know, without knowing, what oil is going to do to us if we don’t collectively, and quickly, change.
This is OUR problem. It isn’t Exxon’s problem.
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