Kristian
Stipe
Writ 101
Mackenzie
Cole
4/24/2012
PAA
Everyone’s life
is affected by oil, and my life is no exception. The food I eat is
processed and shipped to me. The house I live in was made from
machines that run on oil, and the materials were shipped to the
location. The computer I use and most of the things I buy are
directly related to oil. The plastic they are made of and the
shipping, manufacturing, and processing of the product all require
oil. It is no wonder people's wallets are getting lighter and lighter
when the price of oil spikes. With the rise of gas prices more and
more people start to complain and point fingers as to whose fault all
of it is. When every detail of our daily lives is affected by the
price of oil, we feel the pressure of increasing oil prices more and
more. My question then is, what can we do to lesson the strangle-hold
of oil on our daily lives?
The more we consume
the more gas prices affect us. With record high gas prices we are
starting to feel the tightening grip of the oil companies around our
way of living. When gas prices drive the price of everything we come
into contact with daily, who is to blame for the rising gas prices?
Is it our fault, as a society, for being so dependent on fossil fuels
for so long? Or does the fault lie with the oil companies for
bringing in record profits, even in a very low economy. Or should we
blame the government for giving the oil companies subsidies, even
though they rake in more and more money every single quarter. I
don't believe that the fault lies with any one aspect. We are all to
blame. In America we complain about high gas prices and yet, when we
look at Europe, whose gas prices have been $4-$8 a gallon for a very
long time now, we don't see a trend that will soon apply to us. What
will we do when the price of gas reaches 8 dollars a gallon?
When gas prices reach $4 a gallon, roughly 48 cents of the cost
will be tax. the rest will go to the oil companies. It's no wonder
that the huge oil companies are making record profits.“The big five
oil companies' profits for 2011 are: Exxon, $41.1 billion; Shell,
$31.2 billion; BP, $26.1 billion; Chevron, $26.9 billion; Conoco
Phillips, $12.4 billion. CEO bonuses are in the millions.”
(Lichkay, 2012)
In attempts to better their bottom line, oil companies have started
to sell more and more oil to countries other than the US because they
can make more money elsewhere. When Europeans pay $8 a gallon vs our
$4 a gallon, it makes sense why they would do that.
Some things that
effect gas prices are unavoidable. Things like Iranian President
Ahmadinejad threat to stop its flow of oil by blockading the Strait
of Hormuz, Europe’s debt crisis, and the tension in the middle
east, all affect the price of gas. No one group or person is to
blame for these things.
Some people blame
the President and his administration for the rising gas prices. Some
say it is because he has refused to allow additional drilling and has
limited construction of pipelines, but the fact is this has not
effected out current production. “A projected drop in total
domestic oil production this year should amount to six-tenths of 1
percent of all U.S. consumption of liquid fuels.” (Kiely
, 2011) The only fault of this administration is
leaving the oil subsidies intact. The oil companies get money from
the government, just for being oil companys.
I would not put the
blame on any one group, but all of them. The oil companies for
charging an astronomical amount for the oil, the government for
giving them tax breaks just because, and the consumer, for being so
dependent on the commodity.
I was curious if I
could figure out the process of a single banana, from seed to the
counter. I started looking at the workers first. They all have rubber
soled shoes, polyester clothing, and rubber gloves, all of which are
directly related to the price of oil. From there I moved onto the the
banana itself. Once the fruit starts to appear on the plant they wrap
it in a plastic bag coated with pesticides. Not only is the plastic
bag a direct product of oil, but pesticides are as well. After the
bags are put on the fruit, the entire field is sprayed with more
pesticides, from a helicopter, running on gasoline. Right before
harvesting, the workers insert foam cushions between the bunches to
avoid bruising; Foam is also a product from oil. After that the
bananas are harvested and transported to the processing plant, where
the bunches get cut up, washed, then washed again. The ones that pass
regulations get a plastic sticker of the brand put on them, and from
there they are packaged in plastic and cardboard. Once packaged they
are shipped by boat to their location. Once they arrive they are
shipped by truck to the grocery store. They are then placed into
cooling cellars and await the shelves. Once on the shelves they are
bought and driven home. Once home they can finally be eaten. (The
Journey of, 2010)
Bananas
are definitely not the only thing to be effected by this process.
Everything we purchase, from footballs to soap, comes into contact
with large amount of oil and oil based products. With something this
deep-seeded, my question is, how can we make the
change? How can we become less dependent on oil? One major thing that
needs to change is America's idea of recycling. Plastic bags take up
1.6 billion gallons of oil every year. What people don't realize is
that plastic bags are 100% recyclable. We consume 380 billion plastic
bags annually and only 1% of all plastic bags are recycled. That
means 342 billion plastic bags are thrown away every year. “In
2001, Ireland consumed 1.2 billion plastic bags, or 316 per person. A
plastic bag consumption tax, 37 cents per bag, introduced in 2002
reduced consumption by 90%. Approximately 18,000,000 liters of oil
have been saved due to this reduced production.” Recycling would
greatly start to help us become less dependent on oil, but it is only
a small step.
If we want real
change we have to do something huge. We need to be able to change our
whole way of life. Hydro power, Wind power, Solar power, all of these
things are very plausible possibilities, but the problem with those
is, as of today they are not efficient enough to provide the amount
of power that oil does. In order to be headed in the right direction
we need to start developing better and better ways to collect green
energy. Natural Gas is great, but we will run into the same problem
that we are facing now with oil. It will run out eventually and then
we will be right back to where we started. Instead of just giving
away the subsidies to the oil companies, I think they should only be
able to get them if they put a certain amount of money toward
research of newer, greener energies. On a personal level, do things
like driving a hybrid or taking public transportation, buying
reusable grocery bags, making homes more energy efficient, growing
some of your own food, and switching to electronic billing instead
of paper bills will reduce dependency on oil. Every little thing
helps.
In my opinion, the
idea of completely getting off of oil, and its products seems very
daunting, but I believe it can be done. It is not something we can
complete overnight, but it is something we need to start focusing on
right now. If we wait too long it maybe be to late. It is no myth
that we have reached peak oil. There are not enough reserves of oil
to keep up the consumption rate that we, as a population sit at right
now. I don't believe any one group is to blame for the price of gas,
nor is it up to a single group to solve the oil issue. Every person,
every government, and every oil company needs to start striving for a
greener, more sustainable future.
Bibliography
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