Greenies

OH HOW I LAUGH at things like this. Do you know how many hours some people play WoW??? How about promoting saving home energy by having the game automatically switch off after 2 hours? See how well THAT green idea is accepted. The game totes some bullshit about possibly targeting groups of people in order to make them work as a team to use less energy in the game world? WHAT A CROCK. Meanwhile in the REAL world, their computer systems are running and draining REAL energy. Hello? Seriously?
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I realllllllllllly realllllllllly get tired of watching and listening to people who are pushing the 'stop using oil' campaigns. Yes I believe we should continue to find safer and cleaner ways to use oil, but have you noticed that a great many of the loudest activists are hyporcrites? Why would I say that? Because oil is used in pretty much every single solitary thing we use every single solitary day. Not to mention many activists flying or driving around the country to reach their destinations to speak out against oil manufacturing. That is so hypocritical it's not even funny. I have seen endless stories over the past few months where people are angry about, for example, CEOs arriving by jet to attend 'bail me out please' meetings. Endless reports of bailed-out companies going on retreats and spa days, wasting money. Well I'm sorry, but if the green activists arrive at a conference in any vehicle, are wearing clothes, carrying around a water bottle, etc then they are just as bad. Seriously, just think about it. Oil is used to make everything and then to transport everything we use. Computers, clothing, shampoo, televisions, radios, cameras, pens, paper, eye glasses, shoes, you name it - it was made or consists of oil. THIS LINK shows a partial list of petroleum products but also keep in mind that any food we eat (unless we grew it all in our own back yard) was also made using oil in some way - whether it was the machinery to collect it, process it, and transport it, or the utililties used to process, store, and keep it fresh. EVERYTHING we use today has come in contact with or contains oil.

That is why I am so tired of seeing people on the news, dressed in their suits, carrying a briefcase, driving a car, speaking into a microphone, using the media, etc to shout out that we need to stop using oil and find other ways and means for fuel. According to the above link and others that I checked, less than half of each barrel of oil is used for fuel, the rest is used for the clothes on our backs, the plastics we use every day, the microphone the speaker is yakking into.... So even if we did come up with an amazing form of green fuel to put into our cars, what about the other half of that barrel? And while you're at it, think about what fuel, equipment and supplies are used to make THAT green fuel. Hmmm.. could it be products made from the dreaded OIL? The whole thing is a farce to me. I have read so many blogs on the net from people who are screaming about alternative oils, and then another day they write about their FLIGHT to go on holiday. What? How dare they polute the very air they are trying to save. How dare they criticize others and then hop on a plane to contribute to the polluted skies. HYPOCRITES.

I saw a t-shirt a few months ago that said "If you Bought it, a trucker Brought it" and that reinforced my thinking even more. If you shop at a grocery store, how did the food get there? How did the packaging get put on? How was the food processed? How was it collected in the first place (ie: gas and diesel guzzling farm machinery for wheat crops)? How was the shopping cart you are pushing made? Every single thing comes from oil or is available because of oil. Until I see a prominent activist walking to a conference, wearing a hand-made from scratch ensemble instead of a suit, chewing on a carrot he picked from his own garden, wearing hand-sewn hemp boots (no machinery involved), and refusing to enter the oil-infested conference room in favour of the grassy lawn out front, I will feel no respect for them.

Yes we need to keep working on greener ideas but the answer is not to stop it's use all together is it? What would the world look like right now if oil had not been discovered and manufactured? Mud huts with thatched roofing? Cobblestone walkways, loin cloths, bark sandals? It is repulsive to me that leaders will FLY to world confernces on Save The Planet. It is revolting to me to listen to musicians cry out about saving the earth while using God only knows how much electricity to run their concerts and who the hell knows how much oil for their cds, equipment, homes, clothing... REPULSIVE and HYPOCRITICAL to say the very least.

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While trolling the net for links on 'ending our dependence on oil', I really only ran into things related to transportation (automobiles, etc). So I ask again, what about the OTHER HALF of every barrel of oil? Is it 'ending our dependence' when every other friggin thing is made with oil in some way or another? WAKE UP. It's important to note that I could only access this information by using a Computer (made with oil, transported to me with oil, using up precious utilities also run by oil), or I suppose I could hop on the bus (made with oil) to the library (built with oil) and find a paper copy (made with oil) instead? It's pretty damn cold out so I better put on my parka and boots (made with oil) before I leave my house (made with oil).... It's not just emissions that some people are talking about, they are talking about halting drilling, stopping the use of oil and our dependence on it. Listen to their wording - some say 'reduce' our dependence, some say 'end' our dependence.
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Ethanol... still a mystery to me.

I watched a 20 minute long program recently about an ethanol plant in Ontario. It talked endlessly of the environmental benefits, using wheat and sometimes corn, to create the fuel. But not once did it mention HOW MUCH of those crops was needed to make a substantial amount of fuel. I went to the Govt of Canada website for Ethanol and ran into the same problem. And again with the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association site. I noticed a few interesting things tho - it announces that Canada is 'well on it's way' to reaching the 5% renewable fuel standard, but also says it is now producing 1 billion litres per year (across Canada with numerous plants). If 1 billion litres a year is not even 5% of the fuel we use per annum, how much would we need to make a huge impact? Apparently this amount is equivalent to removing 1 million cars from Canadian roads (regarding enviromental impact). According to Stats Canada there were almost 17 million cars registered in Canada in 2000 and over half a million trucks, so that would be about a 6% change in emissions. Not that it's a bad thing, but if we are only at 5-6% change after all these years of increasing Ethanol production, is it really plausible to even reach 20% or 50%, let alone 100% like some people call for?

What I want to know is, how many crops are razed for Ethanol production???? If you were a farmer and had to feed your family but also sold your crops for Flour processing (to be used in countless foods around the country), and someone came along and offered you more money if you sold your crops for Ethanol, would you do it? What if this Clean Fuel business comes down to choosing between feeding people and reducing emissions? It gets called a renewable resource, but a bad year for crops cripples foods as it is, so add Ethanol fuels to that and what happens? Is it saving us at all? Is it really? It's a good idea at heart but is it REALISTIC? Long drought or extra damp weather and suddenly this renewable resourse isn't all that great. Then what - do you choose between making the wheat available to citizens for food, or do you send it off to the ethanol plant so we can all drive around? How expensive would food AND fuel be during and after a rough crop season? Why don't I hear people asking these questions??? All I hear is 'oh wow, that is great, Save the Planet'.