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Frannen's guide to dealing with Peak Oil
Please note, this is 100% common sense, and thus, may actually make sense and not be alarmist or OMGOMGOMG in any way. This also will not have any dire predictions and recommendations for living in a post apocalyptic world. This will be an attempt to share a brief list of practical things to help you deal with the realities of peak oil, mixed with some mild attempts at possibly sarcastic humour.
First, the explanation for those who may not know of what peak oil is.
There is a finite amount of oil in the Earth, and a large amount of that oil is not very easy to get at, either being mixed with sand, buried very far under ground, or owned by foreign nations who dislike us. Oil that is harder to get to takes more effort and energy to be transformed into a usable state and thus is more expensive.
If you drive a car, or have to listen to someone who drives complain, you may have noticed that gas prices are rather high then what we Americans have come to expect. This is because of multiple factors, such as profiteering off of Katrina, and oil executives wanting a 7th yacht for their cat, but also is most likely caused by the fact that oil production in the US has peaked, and now the US needs to go to war and sleep with foreign nations to get the oil it needs. All those bombs and boxes of chocolate get expensive, you know.
As oil becomes more and more expensive to produce, prices on petrol derived products will rise, including gas, oil and plastics.
What does this mean for the American consumer, who's used to dirt cheap plastic crap from Walmart that's imported from China? It means suddenly, the cheap way of life will be shown to not be so cheap anymore.
So, what can be done about this?
While the inital reaction may be to run around screaming that the sky is falling and stock piling beans and ammunition, there are a few more practical and non extremist things that you can do.
The first step is a very simple one. Take a step back and look at your life and the amount of crap you have accumulated. Think about how much money you spend on things that you don't really need and how much oil it costs to ship that stuff to where you can get your hands on it. Think about how much electric you use and how much gas you burn.
If the cost of gas and electric were to double tomorrow, could you still afford to run those seven TVs at once? Would you WANT to?
Go find yourself one of the 18 million energy efficiency guides out there and go to town. Swap out your light bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs. Stop air conditioning the entire neighborhood. Remember, you're doing this for yourself. After all, spending less on electric means more beer for you!
Next step: Your car. Gas is expensive. Go find yourself one of the 19 million 'how to save gas' guides out there and have at it. The less you drive, the more you save and the more money you have for video games!
So, how that you have this nice pile of saved money, here comes the part you won't like. I lied about the beer and video games. You'll be putting that extra money where your mouth is and getting organic food.
Why organic food? Put simply, conventional farming uses a lot of petrol products. Pesticides are based on petrol, farming machines are full of petrol, chemical fertilizers are made with petrol. You may as well be eating a pile of oil for dinner. Gross thought, isn't it? Organic farming doesn't use chemicals, and thus, uses far less petrol.
Similarly, a lot of oil is used trucking foods from across the country and world. So not only should you be looking for organic foods, you should look for local as well.
Yet again, get back on google and find yourself a guide to organic foods and how to get it cheap. Find yourself a CSA. Stalk a farmers market.
Also, you should stop eating over processed foods. The amount of oil used to produce and ship those Ring Dings is astronomical, and you know that they're horrible for you. Start reading labels. If you see big long names of things you don't know what they are, you probably don't want to eat it. Go make yourself some brownies instead. Even a box mix is better then a twinky.
If you have some time on your hands, you can even try cooking for yourself. Radical concept I know, but this way you can be sure that they won't put pickles on your hamburger when you told them not too. Fast, instant and premade food is expensive anyway.
If you REALLY have some spare time, you can even start your own garden. It's as local as you can get for food. And some plants are pretty easy to grow and don't take much effort to maintain. Like cherry tomatoes. You can't kill those things even if you try.
So, we've covered efficiency and food. Now the hard part.
Stop buying so much crap you don't need.
You know you do it. You'll walk into WalMart to get one thing and next thing you know, you have a basket full of cheep plastic crap. Plastic crap made from oil and made in China by people working in sweatshops for under minimum wage that used up even more oil coming overseas. Plastic crap that will sit in a corner in your room for ages because you really don't need it, or even want it, but you got it cause it looked neat, or it was on sale or some such excuse.
So don't go into Walmart. If you REALLY need that one item, head to the nearest store and get it there. It might cost a dollar more, but you'll be paying more money anyway to drive to Walmart in the first place.
Ideally, you could even walk to the store to get it. Or bike. Or harass a friend who's going out on a beer run to get it for you.
Or, you could consider getting something that's made well and locally. It'll cost more in the short run, but it won't break so soon and you won't have to replace it 5 times in a year. More often then not, you get what you pay for.
So, now you're spending more on food, but less on electric and gas and stuff. You probably are saving more than you're spending, so you can go out and get that beer I promised before. Especially if it's organic beer. That stuff's suppose to be real good.
Up for more? Stay tuned for part too of Frannen's guide to peak oil!
[thanks to Mina for the Icon!]
First, the explanation for those who may not know of what peak oil is.
There is a finite amount of oil in the Earth, and a large amount of that oil is not very easy to get at, either being mixed with sand, buried very far under ground, or owned by foreign nations who dislike us. Oil that is harder to get to takes more effort and energy to be transformed into a usable state and thus is more expensive.
If you drive a car, or have to listen to someone who drives complain, you may have noticed that gas prices are rather high then what we Americans have come to expect. This is because of multiple factors, such as profiteering off of Katrina, and oil executives wanting a 7th yacht for their cat, but also is most likely caused by the fact that oil production in the US has peaked, and now the US needs to go to war and sleep with foreign nations to get the oil it needs. All those bombs and boxes of chocolate get expensive, you know.
As oil becomes more and more expensive to produce, prices on petrol derived products will rise, including gas, oil and plastics.
What does this mean for the American consumer, who's used to dirt cheap plastic crap from Walmart that's imported from China? It means suddenly, the cheap way of life will be shown to not be so cheap anymore.
So, what can be done about this?
While the inital reaction may be to run around screaming that the sky is falling and stock piling beans and ammunition, there are a few more practical and non extremist things that you can do.
The first step is a very simple one. Take a step back and look at your life and the amount of crap you have accumulated. Think about how much money you spend on things that you don't really need and how much oil it costs to ship that stuff to where you can get your hands on it. Think about how much electric you use and how much gas you burn.
If the cost of gas and electric were to double tomorrow, could you still afford to run those seven TVs at once? Would you WANT to?
Go find yourself one of the 18 million energy efficiency guides out there and go to town. Swap out your light bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs. Stop air conditioning the entire neighborhood. Remember, you're doing this for yourself. After all, spending less on electric means more beer for you!
Next step: Your car. Gas is expensive. Go find yourself one of the 19 million 'how to save gas' guides out there and have at it. The less you drive, the more you save and the more money you have for video games!
So, how that you have this nice pile of saved money, here comes the part you won't like. I lied about the beer and video games. You'll be putting that extra money where your mouth is and getting organic food.
Why organic food? Put simply, conventional farming uses a lot of petrol products. Pesticides are based on petrol, farming machines are full of petrol, chemical fertilizers are made with petrol. You may as well be eating a pile of oil for dinner. Gross thought, isn't it? Organic farming doesn't use chemicals, and thus, uses far less petrol.
Similarly, a lot of oil is used trucking foods from across the country and world. So not only should you be looking for organic foods, you should look for local as well.
Yet again, get back on google and find yourself a guide to organic foods and how to get it cheap. Find yourself a CSA. Stalk a farmers market.
Also, you should stop eating over processed foods. The amount of oil used to produce and ship those Ring Dings is astronomical, and you know that they're horrible for you. Start reading labels. If you see big long names of things you don't know what they are, you probably don't want to eat it. Go make yourself some brownies instead. Even a box mix is better then a twinky.
If you have some time on your hands, you can even try cooking for yourself. Radical concept I know, but this way you can be sure that they won't put pickles on your hamburger when you told them not too. Fast, instant and premade food is expensive anyway.
If you REALLY have some spare time, you can even start your own garden. It's as local as you can get for food. And some plants are pretty easy to grow and don't take much effort to maintain. Like cherry tomatoes. You can't kill those things even if you try.
So, we've covered efficiency and food. Now the hard part.
Stop buying so much crap you don't need.
You know you do it. You'll walk into WalMart to get one thing and next thing you know, you have a basket full of cheep plastic crap. Plastic crap made from oil and made in China by people working in sweatshops for under minimum wage that used up even more oil coming overseas. Plastic crap that will sit in a corner in your room for ages because you really don't need it, or even want it, but you got it cause it looked neat, or it was on sale or some such excuse.
So don't go into Walmart. If you REALLY need that one item, head to the nearest store and get it there. It might cost a dollar more, but you'll be paying more money anyway to drive to Walmart in the first place.
Ideally, you could even walk to the store to get it. Or bike. Or harass a friend who's going out on a beer run to get it for you.
Or, you could consider getting something that's made well and locally. It'll cost more in the short run, but it won't break so soon and you won't have to replace it 5 times in a year. More often then not, you get what you pay for.
So, now you're spending more on food, but less on electric and gas and stuff. You probably are saving more than you're spending, so you can go out and get that beer I promised before. Especially if it's organic beer. That stuff's suppose to be real good.
Up for more? Stay tuned for part too of Frannen's guide to peak oil!
[thanks to Mina for the Icon!]