Gulf Oil Spill – What Oil Habits Will You Change?

[swilton]

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/0521/

Gulf-spill-What-oil-habits-will-you-change

Mary Richert, a Louisiana native from Sulphur, La. educates us on the feasibility of a petroleum free lifestyle. Growing up dependent on oil and the chemical industry, it has not been easy for Richert to examine her family and state’s dependence on oil. But the Deepwater Horizon accident was an epiphany. Sulphur, La was named for the chemical and mining industry that helped establish Calcasieu Parish in the late 19th century. Located just west of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, its residents’ mixed emotions as the spill moves eastward toward Florida are not surprising: relief, apprehension, sympathy, lucky etc.

As dependent on oil as her society was was – perhaps more than states whose industries are less reliant on fossil fuels, Richert concedes that reducing dependence on oil will not be easy. Yet she argues that consumers have the buying power to demand non-petroleum based alternatives and breaking the habit becomes more doable through small steps. The presence of petroleum based products in our lives is so ubiquitous everyone can cut a corner through small and large steps and ways they may not have recognized.

Richert has committed to reducing petroleum use by one product and one day at a time and to make her decisions in public view through a blog of everyday solutions.

Although I’ve long been an environmental activist and use a solar powered clothesline and a push-me lawn mower, I have found her list of everyday suggestions to go petrol free edifying as well as consoling.

http://notanactivist.com/

[Robb]

1. Irony is buying petroleum-free toothpaste from Whole Foods.

[readmoreoften]

2. Well, for one, instead of acting like this is my fault and adopting consumer solutions...

I'm personally fighting like hell to overthrow this system and replace it with something sustainable through political and strike agitation. And if I have to drive my car to the rally, or drive my car to organizers war resisters who live an hour away (by car) I'm going to do it. And I'm going to encourage other people to do the same. And I'm certainly not going to tell my working-class neighbors, who make per capita $9K a year that they should agonize over buying a $7 green toothbrush, organic food that they can't afford, and that they bike to their 14 hour a day workloads after biking their kids to school.

Marx did not advocate social transformation through "buying ethically", but through economic and political agitation at the level of production, not consumption.

We cannot simply ABSTAIN our way out of oil dependence. We need a systemic change, one that isn't based on corrupt government indebted to profit, and that change comes from struggle, not nifty consumer analyses by self-proclaimed "non-activists."

[bhikkhu]

3. In other words, you won't change

unless "the system" changes first, in spite of "the system" living and breathing according to and dependent upon our habits.

[bread_and_roses]

4. hurrah! yes! +1000++++++++++++++++++++

to every word. We need law and policy and tax structures and regulations that promote sustainability - we can't "buy" our way out to the profit of the union-busting Whole Foods, may they choke on one of their "fair trade" products.

[amborin]

6. is anyone advocating 'buying' our way out?

biking to work is the opposite of that, as one example

so, too, is growing some of the produce one consumes

it's diminishing dependence on corporations

[bhikkhu]

8. I'd advocate non-participating our way out

An oppressive, corrupt and wasteful social system simply vanishes if it lacks participants. Changing their own habits is the one simple thing anyone can do.

[amborin]

11. totally agree; the system collapses w/o its supporters/participants

[amborin]

5. disagree; Frankfurt school Marxists stressed the sphere of consumption

it's not only within production that workers can resist; they can do so as consumers, too; and while we're waiting for the revolution, *many* Marxists argue for reforms; it makes workers' lives that much easier, until the revolution occurs

otherwise, I disagree with your post

it's empowering for everyone to make efforts to be 'green', and it weans us from our dependence on exploitative corporations

[swilton]

12. We need systemic change at the top as well as at the bottom

Afterall Marx was arguing about a workers' revolution - i.e., a revolution from below.

Chris Hedges wrote eloquently about confronting the oligarchy by creating a counter economic culture from below - he likened this to the way the Eastern Europeans defeated the state-sponsored indoctrination during the communist era.

I find it so interesting that a recent post on DU had a movie clip of Jimmy Carter advocating changing our consumption habits..and this was more than 35 years ago! What has changed since then? Nothing as far as consumption. The American culture, the only culture on the planet that seems to thrive on the notion that we can drive our SUVs to energy independence, is just about the only nation on the planet that hasn't changed its consumption habits since the late 1970s. Yes we've put up a few metro stations here and there but the urban sprawl, the reliance on our independent automobiles remains the predominant way of life.

I don't believe that the author of this article intends for everyone to buy Whole Foods marketed tooth brushes. I do read her message as examining the destructive way that the petroleum industry infects "the American way of life" to the extent it is like a cancer. The domination of this life should be examined and through that resisted. The extent of the domination is so great that even through small steps - she has provided some examples but these are not the only ones - that change can be brought about.

[Dj13Francis]

7. I know one thing I've changed-

I no longer fill up at BP. Nor do I set foot inside. And I give the place the finger and honk every time I go by.

[Fearless]

9. +1

[texastoast]

10. Continuing my public transportation

I just wish I could bike every day, but if I tried, I'd be dead in a week. Too many SUVs, big pickups, and no bike lanes.

We could all work for a more bike-friendly environment.