Because They're Crooks

CNN is finally asking the question: Why do gas prices follow oil up but not down? They're trying to say that it's basic economics, but I think we all know that's bullshit. The commission last year that determined that price gauging was not happening outright LIED. Driving around town will make that pretty clear. Yesterday I drove no more than a mile down one road from the poor part of town into an extremely wealthy area. The price of gas (again, after driving no more than a mile) raised 30 cents when I crossed the township line. Is the government really trying to tell me that driving half a mile down the road justifies that kind of a hike, especially when we live close to refineries and there's absolutely no reason for that kind of difference? If we're going to let the oil and gas companies fuck us in the ass, let's not pretend that they're bending over as well.

And again, if we would all use less oil, buy fewer plastics, and DRIVE LESS, our troops could come home, the assholes in power would have less money, and we would be doing a lot more to help the environment.

Save Some Energy!!!

Move your thermostat down 2° in winter (or leave it at 65 and put on a sweater) and up 2° in summer (or leave it at 76 and put the quilt away for the season). Turn the thermostats WAY down or off when you leave the house, and LEAVE THE HOUSE often. If it’s too hot or too cold to do things outside, go to public places that are being heated or cooled anyway. Remember that heating and air conditioning is a luxury, not a necessity in most places throughout most of the year. Almost half of the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling. You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy has more tips for saving energy on heating and cooling.Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner. Cleaning a dirty air filter can save 350 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Really, how much does a filter cost? It only takes a minute to change.

You Are What You Eat

Frozen food uses 10 times more energy to produce, and let’s not forget how much energy it costs to store. Fresh foods taste better and are better for you. Frozen and overcooked foods lose a lot of their vitamins and almost all of their taste. Buy locally grown and produced foods from area farmers markets or Whole Foods. The average meal in the United States travels 1,200 miles from the farm to your plate. Not only does buying locally help reduce the amount of energy required to grow and transport the food to you by 1/5, it keeps money in your local community, which is ALWAYS a good thing. More farms means fewer housing developments, which means more green space and less carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. Try to make sure the farm you buy from is organic. Organic soils capture and store carbon dioxide at much higher levels than soils from conventional farms. If all of our corn and soybeans were grown organically, we’d remove 580 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere! Eat less meat. Methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas and cows are one of the greatest methane emitters. Their grassy diet and multiple stomachs cause them to produce methane, which they exhale with every breath. Besides all that, less meat is better for your health.

Global Warming is REAL

Al Gore is being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize due to his work educating world leaders and the American public about the dangers of Global Warming through his book and movie, both entitled An Inconvenient Truth. This came not long after the State of the Union Address in which the President briefly mentioned that he's like Americans to reduce their fuel consumption by 20% in the next 10 years - a statement that local and national news networks all but ignored. No one, including the President mentioned the various ways to encourage conservation and discourage fuel consumption. Here are a few of my suggestions:

1. Provide tax breaks for people working within 10 miles of their home or those using public transportation. Of course, this would require updating the public transportation system, extending bus routes, and planning future communities in a way that allows the people living in them to travel no more than 10 miles to work, school, or shopping locations. Of course, it would be even better if everything we needed were within walking distance, but that would be too much to ask.

2. Require better gas mileage for all cars.

3. Tax SUV's, Hummers, and trucks for personal use that require huge amounts of fuel. Offer tax breaks to those driving hybrids or cars using alternative fuels.

EDITED: Religious people all over the world have rejected the theory of Global Warming, including our President, who should be impeached for doing so. Since the planet was made by God, and we in God's image, many believe that we could not possibly do anything to destroy either. Religious leaders of all kinds have been rejecting scientific principles since the beginning of time. As conscious citizens, it is our duty to convince them that the care of our planet and ourselves is not only in all of OUR best interests, but it is most likely what God would want us to do (if she exists). And, wouldn't it stand to reason that if we ARE creatures of God and the Earth is her masterpiece, that we should take the best possible care of both?

So that Americans can continue consuming obscene amounts of fuel:
3,088 US Soldiers have been killed in Iraq (this figure DOES NOT include soldiers who were wounded in Iraq but died of their wounds outside of its borders)
23,114 US Soldiers have been wounded in Iraq

Use Less Oil

Why is it that no one can seem to use this phrase? Whenever anyone is interviewed about the current crisis in the Middle East or the reduced number of barrels from Alaska, their response is that Americans will have to import more oil from overseas, causing a rise in gas prices. They never say, "Americans will have to use less oil". Obviously no one but Al Gore wants to put a kink in our consumer chain (but who listens to him anyway?), and NO ONE wants to see the oil companies make less money, but how hard is it to say, "Take a walk. Take the bus or train. Build green. Cut down on your use of plastics. Recycle. Put on a sweater. Use cloth diapers. STOP DRIVING SUV's!!!"

They won't say these things because Americans don't want to hear that in order for us to do better individually, we need to make sacrifices as a nation. Americans aren't really good at that word: sacrifice. They're much better at dealing with or repressing the guilt that comes with not sacrificing, if it comes at all. Isn't it our patriotic duty to use less oil, especially when we're at war with one of the major producers of it, and every country that harbors terrorists gets most of their money from oil? This is not a game, people, and it is certainly not a dress rehearsal. THE WORLD IS NOT ENDING. We can reverse the damage we've done and do better in the future.

No More SUV's

I have several problems with SUV's, one of them being fuel efficiency. The fact that any car on the road would only get 17 miles to a gallon is absolutely reprehensible, especially given the price of gas and the amount of foreign oil we rely on. But that's not my biggest problem.

I drive a small car. Quite often, especially on the highway, an SUV or a truck will pull up behind me and drive incredibly close to my bumper. I was taught that if you can't see the bottom of the rear tires of the person in front of you, you're too close. It seems that SUV and truck drives have been taught that if you can see the bumper of the car in front of you, you're not close enough. I have been rear-ended twice by an SUV in the past 5 months. Thankfully, my car and I are fine, but most people hit by SUV's and trucks aren't as lucky. If an SUV or truck hits a regular car, the accident is much more severe for the driver of the regular sized car.

For this reason, I am suggesting that there be a special lane just for trucks and SUV's. It's just not safe for them to drive with the rest of us. It's difficult to be a defensive driver when all you can see is the big, fat SUV in front of you. Though I think it's environmentally irresponsible, I don't deny people the right to drive the car they choose, I just don't want them in the same lane with me. It's just not safe.