The larger picture...

[Javaman]

There have been many many posts today regarding oil and speculation and how joe commuter is going to survive the price of gas at the pump, how we are going to feed ourselves, etc.

folks, we need to take a serious step back and look at the over all picture.

population grow/infantile survival are directly connected to oil.

obesity and lethargy are directly connected to oil.

pollution and the growth of the exoburbs are directly connected to oil.

Prior to the late 19th century, the population of the earth grew at a slow rate. As technology expanded, so did the population growth. As medicine improved so did the population.

However, as the use of oil lead to the industrial revolution/replacement parts/assembly line so did population.

The infant survival rate improved with both sanitation, plumbing and improved medicines. All three in it's current forms become available via mass production through oil.

We live, breath, eat and poop, oil.

Pharmaceuticals are made from oil. Food production is fertilized with products from oil and natural gas. We move through life via means provided by oil.

We as a nation use 25% of the worlds oil reserves yet only have 5% of the population.

If you honestly believe that we can come up with an energy source that can fill the vacuum soon to be left by oil, you are seriously deluded.

People complain about 80 mile one way commutes. People complain that the price of food is going up. People complain that there is no public transportation.

Folks, this is what a life/existence looks like when you base an economy and society on a finite source.

We have to, we will need to, we will be forced to change. no way around it.

People spout off about solar, wind, thermo, tidal, nuclear energy sources, that's great.

Will any of those provide the means to feed the nation? Will they fertilize the crops? Will they be able to smelt metal to create the replacement parts we will no doubt need? Will they be able to create the lubricants to allow machinery to continue working?

This issue/problem is vastly larger than any one person could hopefully wrap their head around.

Take a moment and look around your immediate area. What is a product of oil? More than likely, everything. Transportation, manufacture and disposal all are possible, by way our society is currently set up, via oil.

Next time you are out driving, notice how many cars are on the road. this is just one road with hundreds of cars. Now expand that to your city, then to your state, then to the nation and finally the world.

We in the US alone use roughly 390 million gallons of gasoline per day!

http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html

Just think of that. We have built a society gleefully around the car and have built up an infrastructure that caters to the car and now we complain because we willfully bought into this fantasy.

Who bought that home 80 miles from the job? we did. Who bought that car that only gets 19 miles to the gallon? we did. Who time after time after time, voted down mass transit? we did. Who underfunded the Amtrak? we did. Who looked the other way when ray-gun set back energy policy decades? we did.

Yet we complain to congress and bitch about moron* when nothing is done or are pissed off over how he* got us into this position. No, we got us here. We bought the SUV's. We didn't demand fuel efficient cars. We complain about the big three US auto makers not listening to the American public for not giving us better alternatives for fuel efficient cars, yet hail japanese auto makers who do. The big three sold us SUV's because as americans we felt entitled to drive in a stupid and wasteful way. Japan, historically know for its lack of resources have always had fuel efficient cars. They saw an opening and took it. Now we blame GM. Who's really to blame? we are.

Until we understand the larger picture and stand up and take responsibilities for our actions, nothing is going to change.

one last thing: have we signed on to the Kyoto agreement? nope. Who's to blame. I'll give you one guess.

[freesqueeze]

1. Poeple do get the government they deserve

But the environment is a slightly different animal. There are factors beyond the general populations control.

But I mostly agree ... we have screwed the pooch on energy policy. I had a guy once explain to me that he got so many tax breaks for his new Expedition that he considered it a profit center. Now, when I see one of those 15 MPG monsters coming down the road I tell me kids to look at the driver to see what a real idiot looks like.

[stuntcat]

2. rec'd

The thing of it is.. I can't help where I was born and grew up. I never realized until I was old enough to really look that I was relatively so rich. And now I get the feeling my neighbors don't look far beyond their things and their families at all. My fellow lovely Americans should be shown every day how billions of people are living, and what goes on in the factory farms, and what 390 million gallons actually looks like.. even though it still wouldn't matter to some of them I bet just having to look at the truth would make a difference for some people.

I have fat, baby-craving inlaws who love buying expensive things and can't conceive of why I don't want to give the next 80 years to a new little version of me. They're pressuring my husband all the time to buy a new car, when his old Saturn gets 40 miles a gallon. They want him to get a truck as big as one of the 4 in their driveway.
Sorry to get personal, I'm just ashamed of this life, I have doubts about humans really changing. I'm only sorry for the animals.

[hogwyld]

4. Oh, believe me, we will change

either voluntarily, or it will be coerced by Mother Nature. Without oil, food production will plummet, and the resultant decline in carrying capacity will take care of the rest. It sounds cold, but facts are facts.

[many a good man]

6. How rich are you?

For a little perspective, everybody should click on this link:

http://www.globalrichlist.com/index.php

[stuntcat]

7. great site

I grew up on the wrong side of town and never had the right brand clothes or cool new toys. I felt poor until I learned enough to realize. Now consumers just make me sick x(

[tama]

3. No-till

No-till farming: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-till_farming
Among first priorities is curing food production from oil addiction and soil regaining it's health.

[LaurenG]

5. We have been warned and yet do any of us have the basic tools/knowledge to survive?

Compost makes a great fertilizer for home gardens, I can do that but I am ill prepared to dig a well or walk 10 miles to the river to get water. I have no knowledge of ways to heat my house or make shampoo and toiletries. I'd be in big trouble if suddenly oil was gone, big trouble...

[kgrandia]

8. More oily facts

US Petroleum Consumption per day: over 20 million barrels per day (one barrel = 42 gallons)

US Motor gasoline consumption per day: over 9 million barrels per day (384 million gallons)

Share of US oil consumption for transportation: 69%

[tom_paine]

9. Well said! I remember just beginning to see the outlines of one facet

of the Big Picture, back in the mid-90s with the SUV explosion.

I rember driving amidst a sea of them them thinking, "Am I crazy or did we just have a MAJOR energy crisis here not 15 years ago? It's like it never happened, with all these idiots and their SUV behemoths. Don't they remember?"

Now, don't get me wrong. I know that one of the people to blame is the guy who stares back at me from the mirror when I shave in the morning.

It may be that I am more guilty than others who do what they do out of ignorance, since I know, and have known much of this for a long time now.

Sure I changed my lightbulbs and I have a smaller car, but those aren't lifestyle changes, not really. More like putting lipstick on a pig, and I know it.

But I am as almost as much of an oil junkie as someone who is wholly ignorant of the environment, as are most people, even we who know the problem and see it's shape.

(exceptions noted here at DU of people who are ahead of the curve on the post-oil lifestyle by growing some of their own food, and making other SUBSTANTIVE changes.)

Anyway, excellent summation. :toast: K & R!

[madokie]

10. So how very true

Rec'

[Tashca]

11. I couldn't agree more.

You put the blame directly where it belongs. With each of us.
I see so many people pointing fingers.....without looking at what you call the bigger picture.
I am certainly just as guilty.

Sometimes it all just seems so overwhelming. I think people feel so powerless. I know I do.

We have to change as a society.....we need leadership. I just think most of us are looking to the wrong places for leadership......I don't believe it will come from government.