Tonight (due to the documentary on marijuana on CNBC) I was thinking about how people that smoke pot without knowing where it comes from are probably supporting the Mexican Mafia and its horrible murderous acts. It reminded me of an essay I wrote on my Website in 2000, 2001, or 2002 when I didn't have a car. It was about boycotting all oil companies because they all did such horrible things. How could you be a willing customer of someone/something so evil?
At the time, the research I did on the Internet turned up zero oil companies with records clean enough that would make me want to do business with them.
The oil companies I researched back then were: BP and Oxy, Shell and Chevron, Texaco and Maxus, Unocal, Arco, Exxon, Mobil, and Amoco. Their crimes and transgressions included human rights violations (Colombia, Nigeria, Alaska, Ecuador, Burma, Thailand, Cameroon, Chad, Central America), spills and related environmental impacts, massive CO2 emissions, and being members of the Global Climate Coalition that claimed Global Warming was a myth.
I'm sure some things have changed, although the press surrounding the BP oil disaster this year leads me to believe that most oil companies are stuck in the old, outdated, and simply evil ways of doing business.
The logical next step: stop buying anything from them. But how to live without oil?
The boycott idea was to boycott a different company each month (unless you could modify your lifestyle to completely boycott all oil). With everyone boycotting the same company at the same time, the message would be delivered: shape up. At the time, 9 of the 10 largest multinational corporations produced either cars or oil. These companies have vast resources at their disposal, so there is no justification for cutting corners. And there is ample reason to think they manipulate people and governments, meaning it is even harder for us to stop using oil due to the lack of alternatives.
I'll spare you the exact text from that essay (it is pretty well encapsulated by the above discussion). After not having a car for three years (during which time I installed a solar PV system on my roof instead of buying a car), I realized that the rotating boycott idea was impractical (unless it got a lot of press somehow), and that minimizing the use of fossil fuels was the best way to change the world and lead by example--while still keeping in mind the long-term goal of either forming a responsible oil company, or cessation of fossil fuel use.
Okay, okay, here is an excerpt from my 10-year old essay:
Can you imagine a world without the negatives of cars? No traffic accidents, no noise, no pollution, no bad drivers, no road rage, no traffic jams, no vast areas of dead asphalt baking in the hot sun, less urban heat island effect, no roadkill, no oil spills, no corporate genocide in third world countries, no dependence on the volatile middle east, no global warming, no drive-by shootings...
More exercise, fitter people, friendlier people, a greater sense of community, less isolation, more pleasant surroundings, more natural landscapes, revitalized cities, vastly more acreage for public parks and spaces, less greed...
Less mobility.
Oooh, you say, that's bad. Mobility is good. Well, I'd argue that mobility is good and bad. And if we have to take all the bad stuff above in exchange for it, well, I think we might have sold our soul to the devil. Here is your mobility, now I'll rape your environment and culture and steal your happiness and your connection to the land. I'd gladly trade mobility so I can get my soul back--the soul of our landscape and culture.
In 2010, oil is no longer synonymous with cars, therefore my points in italics about a world without cars are not necessarily relevant to a world without oil. Imagine a nation of electric cars zipping around... you eliminate the noise and pollution and international problems, but all the other problems I mentioned remain... and you create some new ones. It is a far better world, but mass transit and smart planning is still needed to solve a lot of the problems that electric cars will not solve.
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