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Part
One
Dependency
"As
things stand today, the only possible substitutes for our fossil-fuel
dependency are light from the sun and nuclear energy. Developing a way of
running a civilization like ours on those resources is an enormous challenge. A
great deal of it is social and political—we’re in the midst of a
presidential election, and have you heard either party say a word about
this extremely important subject?" (emphasis
added)
-
David
Goodstein
Introduction
It is nearly impossible to go through ones life without depending on something, whether
it be friends, family, a job, or cheap oil. What is amazing, is that never
before have so many of the things we depend on in our lives been dependent on
one fundamental resource. To tell you just how important cheap oil is to our
daily lives, It would take hours. In Part One, we will cover three subjects that
rise to the top of the oil dependency predicament. These are farming,
manufacturing, and transportation.
| Farming |
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Today's industrial, agribusiness farms are more energy intensive than their
predecessors from the slave days. An average farm may consume (AMOUNT
HERE) barrels of oil in a single harvest cycle. This amounts to (AMOUNT
HERE) hours of human labor, an amazing number considering what those
hours could produce if they were indeed worked by people on an organic farm.
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| Pesticides and fertilizers
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| Industrial farms must use incredible amounts of pesticides and fertilizers to
sustain their massive harvests. Left to nature, the crops would not grow in the
soil due to it's degradation from excessive fertilization. The arable land has
thus become a sponge for which to soak up the natural gas based fertilizers
used. The pesticides are often toxic to the land and animals around them, and
are derived from Oil.
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| Farming Methods |
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Resource Intensive - Soil Erosion
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Arable Land |
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| Depleted by unsustainable farming practices, pollution and global warming |
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| Distribution |
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| All food in the
US
travels an average of 1500 miles before reaching your plate via the oil based
transportation industry. |
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| Production (including energy)
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| Clothing |
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| Medicine |
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| Consumer
Merchandise |
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| 99% of factories that produce
consumables are powered by nuclear or oil or natural gas based power stations.
All of the components of the products they produce are mined, refined and
transported via oil powered machinery and infrastructure. |
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| Power |
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| Transportation
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| Highways
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| Our current Highway system
is a sink hole for money. As the costs of fuel go up, so do the costs of
the tar and other chemicals used in the manufacture of blacktop and
concrete. When the roads are neglected for even a short period of time,
they will break down, and safe travel will no longer be possible. Of
course, they remain as decent bicycle paths for decades. |
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| Air |
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| Fuel costs for airlines are
already pushing them into bankruptcy along with the slowing economy. As
with the decline of production, so to will the flight industry suffer. As
people (rightfully) look for and depend on more local jobs and resources,
flying somewhere will be obsolete. |
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| Sea
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| As with the decline of
production, so to will the shipping industry suffer. As people (rightfully)
look for and depend on more local jobs and resources, shipping them in
from far away places will be obsolete. |
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| Rail |
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| Rail is the only hope for
our future if we wish to have any kind of transportation network, whether
it be produce, manufactured goods, or people. Of course we would need to
start now by bringing home the troops, and putting them fast to work on
building the most ecologically advanced and extensive rail system this
country has ever seen. |
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