Want to Prevent Oil Spill Disasters? Stop Driving

[Karmadillo]

My guess is stopping driving is one of those solutions that will not be embraced by the political or media mouthpieces of our Corporate Masters.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/146694/want_to_prevent_oil_spill_disasters_stop_driving

AlterNet / By Jason Henderson
Want to Prevent Oil Spill Disasters? Stop Driving
A submerged oil well is spewing a river of oil toward Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Birds and fish will die, wetlands and beaches will be ruined -- all because we drive cars.
May 1, 2010

The BP Horizon rig blew up, listed through Earth Day, sank, and now a submerged oil well is spewing a river of oil toward Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Birds and fish will die, wetlands and beaches will be ruined. People will be outraged and people will cry. Offshore drilling -- "drill, baby drill" -- is front and center once again. But this time environmental destruction dominates the storyline.

In response to this situation political progressives need to amp it up a notch. The emphasis by many progressives on "green cars" has been a distraction. Progressives need to get over it. Green cars need oil. Too much oil. Instead, now is the time for progressives to reflect upon the relationship between oil and driving, and to question the way in which driving perpetuates the ecological destruction now underway in the Gulf.

To be sure, oil is fascinating. It is one of the most utilitarian natural resources known to humans. Oil stores a tremendous amount of energy, is easy to transport long distances by pipeline, rail, ship and truck, and can sit for a very long time without spoiling or degrading. It can be refined and distilled easily and has many uses. Its petroleum byproducts are used in plastics and pharmaceuticals, and are part of the energy system for agriculture and the transport of food. Before there was Silicon Valley and the Internet there was Houston and New Orleans and innovations in oil. Oil is in the laptops and servers that belong to all the progressives who balk at oil and oil companies. Oil undergirds the organization of everyday life in America. And we'll need to keep drilling for it.

But we do not need to keep drilling everywhere we can. We do not need to keep searching further offshore, or push into remote, wild areas, or burn nasty tar sands. We need to conserve. We need to reduce. Most importantly, we need to stop driving.

The most profound way in which America needs oil is though the system of automobility -- the combined impact on the built environment of the motor vehicle (cars, trucks), the automobile industry, the highway and street networks, and corollary services like gas stations, and the coordination of everyday life around the car and its spaces. America consumes 25 percent of the world's oil, and roughly 70 percent of that enables automobility. Much of this is for driving cars relatively short distances on a routine, daily basis. This adds up to over 21,000 miles driven a year per car. Ninety-two percent of American households own one car, and 62 percent own two cars.

more...

[tekisui]

1. How about we stop drilling, and develop alternatives out of necessity?

[glowing]

2. If there was public transportation in this country, most families would go with one small

box like in Europe or without at all. Its public transportation that is needed.

[malaise]

3. Doesn't the military use the most oil? n/t

[Delphinus]

21. That doesn't seem to count.

What would we as a country export if it wasn't war?

[kentauros]

4. Telecommute

I don't know the numbers, but would guess it's a fairly large number of office-workers that don't need to go to the office to do their jobs, my own included (draftsman.)

[endless october]

5. i can't stop driving.

i commute to work and can't move at this point.

devote the war money to developing new energy technology and i'll buy that fuel instead. but until then, myself and millions of other commuters have no choice but to buy oil.

i did purchase a very fuel efficient vehicle, however.

[howard112211]

6. Thanks. I don't.

[geckosfeet]

7. How about some high speed commuter trains?

[BeFree]

8. No

The oil polluting the gulf is coming up uncontrolled because the PTB gambled.

They didn't do everything they could to keep it from happening.

They don't allow 100 mpg cars, either.

Remember, these are the same people who laughed all the way to the bank when oil went to $140 a barrel.

We, the people, are being manipulated in a thousand ways so that the profits can grow. And the author in the OP is sucking on their trickle.

[stray cat]

9. Stop heating houses and offices and stop manufacturing that uses energy

[Greyhound]

10. Another "blame the victim" moment brought by you.

You've posted this numerous times already.
:kick: & U

[taterguy]

11. We can't stop driving, but we can stop driving soooo much

Like the article says, a vast number of car trips are very short distances.

Those trips could be eliminated today, with no changes in infrastructure.

We'd just have to change our mentality.

But that's never gonna happen.

[gov for sale]

12. 2 cars: 1 Hybrid 1 Bio Diesel, ride bike 4k miles a year... wont fix flawed oil policy

My family, with 2 small children, spends time on the FL panhandle every year. We walk the beach every morning picking up trash from the beach. This was a great lesson taught to the kids by their aunt and uncle who voluntarily walk the beach every morning picking up trash that has washed ashore each day for the past 11 years. The rest of our day would be spent snorkeling, fishing, and playing in the surf.

These days are over... this beach is in the path of the spill and will suffer the same fate as the beaches of Prince William Sound AK. These once healthy waters of AK are still ruined 18 years later after a "successful" clean up left in the hands of profit interested corporations and their political pals.

The companies that drill and lobby are international; whether we drive our hybrid, our bio-diesel VW, or ride our bikes... they will continue to want to drill and continue to lobby our government... and they will continue to send whatever they find wherever the demand is greatest.

All we can do is vote... and a lot of good that did me. :eyes:

[pipi_k]

13. And for Petes sake, STOP using products made from petroleum!!!!

Partial list:


nylon zippers
ballet tights
plastic hangers
pantyhose
permanent press clothing
flip flops/thongs
fake fur
polyester clothing
ball point pens
ink
computer diskettes
computers
copiers
magic markers
telephones
microfilm
cameras
earphones
footballs
knitting needles
tennis racquets
golf balls
baby aspirin
stuffed animals
band aids
Vaseline
rubbing alcohol
Pepto-Bismol
hair coloring
soap
cough syrup
hair spray
lipstick
denture adhesives
trash bags
egg cartons
freezer bags
candles
wax paper
nylon spatulas
Teflon pans
Formica
linoleum
garden hoses
plungers
floor wax
Plexiglas
spray paint
Anti-freeze
balloons
dog toys
flea collars
CDROMs
check book covers
shopping bags
video cassettes
credit cards
dice
watch bands

Source:

http://everydaysimplicity.blogspot.com/2007/06/products-made-from-petroleum-yikes.html



I mean, if people are going to commit themselves, they might as well know that just quitting driving isn't going to solve the problem.


(Do I really need to add a sarcasm smiley here?)

[Delphinus]

22. Pepto Bismal??

Seriously? Ew.

[uppityperson]

14. I hardly drive since I got laid off work Thank you very much but no

I would prefer there be stronger regulations (and ones that are truly enforced) on every industry's environmental impact. On the other hand, I drive as little as I can.

[B Calm]

15. I have to drive 555 miles everyday to make my living. Until they

invent solar powered flying trucks, I'll continue to drive.

If only the Supreme Court would not have selected too dumb to be president Chuckle Nuts Bush, that could have been a possibility by now!

[Warren Stupidity]

16. Great, I'll take the train to work!

Oh wait... no train to work. I know, I'll take the bus. Oh wait... no bus to work. I know, I'll walk or ride my bike. Oh wait, it's 35 miles each way and I live in New England. I could ride my bike part of the year, although some of the roads, scratch that, all of the roads are devoid of paved shoulders or bike lanes, many of them are two lane bike commuting disasters, and at least half the year the weather is unsuitable.

We moved everyone out to suburbia and then scattered workplaces all around the beltways ringing metro centers in 'edge cities'. We are for now stuck with personal transportation systems.

[Jkid]

17. The only way we can end oil usage is to end car worship.

Most American's do not have an option of taking public transport. Reasons include the following: It's simply not available, too expensive, unreliable. That is the same shit that the car industry wants to make themselves more profitable. The only possible way is to end car subsidies and expand public transit at every important city. As a matter of fact, expand rail transport to any population area of at least 5,000 people. Make it free of charge instead of charging more fares for less.

End the car culture, and we will be saving a lot of oil.

[freddie mertz]

18. How about we invest in clean public transport and energy?

Individuals can help, but national and global policy will be necessary to address these problems.

We can start by putting a permanent freeze on new offshore drilling.

[ShortnFiery]

19. Gawd not this tired old right-wing meme again? Dragged out and dusted off?

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

[MadHound]

20. Nice sentiment, but the reality is that we can't change overnight

We simply don't have the infrastructure in place. Implementing such infrastructure is going to take a change in the current paradigm, something that isn't going to come easily. Yes, individuals can do what they can to reduce their oil usage, but until we have a major shift in both government and corporate attitudes, no major changes are going to happen.

Rather than frittering our energies urging individuals to change their lifestyles, we need to instead concentrate our energies on getting our government to change focus, to start truly investing in methods of energy generation that are clean and green, to begin to build the infrastructure that would be needed to get off of the oil fix, to start forcing corporations to change their focus from oil to clean, renewable energy sources.

Individual changes are good, we should all undertake them. But in the larger picture what is needed is a change of both government and corporate direction. If we accomplish that, then we can bring this era of oil to an end.

[taterguy]

26. What infrastructure would we need to cut back on short car trips?

It wouldn't solve the problem, but it would greatly alleviate it, and we could do it tomorrow.

If we wanted to.

[Obamanaut]

23. That won't help. This earlier thread about the US military being

the largest oil consumer is interesting.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=8236894

[TransitJohn]

24. But it's so much more gratifying to demonize the energy companies

and ignore our own lazy-ass complicity, as evidenced by the <0 on this GOOD OP.

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. I wish it was that fucking simple

simple thinking...