Faggots on the Third Floor: I stole it from Sharla

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

I stole it from Sharla

Sometimes... she makes sense.

I, for one, am kinda happy with gas prices. It's finally making people open their eyes. And why I feel a bit of compassion for the single mom in the Escort... I'm just tickled over the Hummers and Expeditions...

FYI, people- Public transit is not the devil. Maybe now those "big ticket" rail systems people were pushing make sense, eh?

From Sharla-

Please take the time to read this, and repost it!
As gas prices contiue
to rise many people are asking themselves, "exactly how high can prices get" and
"what can we do to keep them from getting higher?" Here are a few things to
consider. The government has said that we are not in a "gasoline crisis" and
that there is not a plan in the near future to utilize the 224.7 million barrels
we have in our stockpile. I have to wonder what exactly qualifies as a crisis.
Gas prices are expectet to rise to at or above $5 per gallon by the end of the
summer. With the National minimum wage at $5.85/hr The average American working
a minimum wage job will be able to put one gallon of gas in thier car for every
hour worked. How many people will be able to afford to keep a job? How many
employers will be able to stay open once they have lost employess who can no
longer afford to drive to work? Does this qualify as a crisis? What does? Who is
to blame for the current state of affairs? Even the U.S. Congress is
scrutinizing oil company profits and refinery production in light of the supply
and demand issues that seem apparent in the oil industry. Americans often want
to point their fingers at the same culprits. As much as the oil companies, a
growing global economy and wars are to blame for the oil price increases,
consumer consumption of plastic products is also a culprit in keeping oil prices
high and environment issues shaky... so don't be so quick to point the finger at
big oil. When asking "who is responsible?" An unfortunate truth to who is
helping the price levels stay high could be looking back at you in the
mirror.America has a love affair with plastic. We use everything from plastic
spoons and plates, plastic/paper disposeable diapers, the ever-present plastic
bag, and plasitc bottles. America's love affair with water bottles at 31.2
billion liters of water in 2006. Due to negative press on the possible health
effects of the use, most people are aware water bottles are sold in polyethylene
terephthalate (PET) bottles. In order to manufacture these bottles over 900,000
tons of plastic is needed. The mainstream manufacturing process that produces
PET bottles requires a combination of natural gas and petroleum. The petroleum
requirement is where the statistics show that America's obsession could be
hurting their wallets at the gas pump. Bottom line, the production of 31.2
billion liters of water for the U.S. bottled water market took roughly 17.6
million barrels of oil. The simple break down is 3.4 megajoules of energy to
produce a water bottle, cap and packaging with a barrel of oil producing about 6
thousand megajoules. Taking those numbers into account you arrive at 17.6
million barrels of oil, enough oil to run 1.5 million cars on U.S. roadways for
an entire year. Americans are not alone in their addiction to bottled water.
Although America is the number one consumer, other large consumers are Mexico,
China, Brazil, Italy, Germany, France, Indonesia, Spain and India.With a total
worldwide consumption in 2004 of 154.3 billion liters. Just for worldwide
consumption of bottled water in 2004 alone it took roughly 87.4 million barrels
of oil. You can imagine that with statistics for 2008, we have arrived at a
figure in the hundreds of millions of barrels of oil being used just to produce
bottled water. At 87.4 million barrels of oil, that's enough to run 7.5 million
cars on U.S. roadways for an entire year. And that's just for water bottles, not
to mention all the other things that come in plastic bottles or jars including
saoft drinks, condiments, and snack foods. But the world's addiction to plastic
doesn't end there. Plastic bags have become commonplace all over the world for
their ease of production, cheapness compared to paper bags at 2 cents a plastic
bag and 4 to 6 cents for paper bags. The plastic bags are also light weight for
transporting. Plastic bags take oil, just like plastic bottles to produce. The
United States currently comsumes more than 100 billion plastic shopping bags per
year, and worldwide consumption is estimated to be from 500 billion to 1
trillion plastic bags a year. That is roughly 1 million plastic bags a minute
being consumed and less than 1% is recycled. The oil cost? With the 100 billion
bags consumed in America it takes 12 million barrels of oil a year. Taking that
figure and applying it to worldwide consumption you come up with a figure around
60 million - 120 million barrels of oil a year to produce plastic bags.The
solutions are tough to swallow sometimes, especially when it could mean
completely removing common and convenient plastic products out of our lives.
However, even major retail outlets are trying to make it easier, many major
retailers including Wal-mart, Publix, and Target now offer reuseable bags for
only $1.00. Grabbing 5 - 10 of these bags can drastically change your impact on
the environment by remembering to use a reusable and washable bag when shopping.
The water bottle market is a little harder to deal with, especially in countries
like Mexico where the public drinking water truly isn't safe in some parts of
the country. Home purification and refrigerator filtering systems can make sure
people in America get better quality water. Looking at recently released
reports, purifying your own water is probably more beneficial than the bottled
water industry's water anyway. Some reports claim that bottled water is
sometimes nothing more than glorified city tap water. If you decide to take a
step on your own to cut down on plastic water bottle usage, you could always get
a reusable water bottle made by companies like Sigg or Kleen Kanteen, and most
are not very expensive. Especially not wnet you consider how much you spend on
bottled water in a year, and that these will last for years to come. America and
the world's dirty little oil secret seems to be that while we are unhappy with
the rise in oil prices, we really can make a difference if we all take action.
It's hard to change the comforts that the modern world has brought us, but you
can do it in smalls steps and still have conveniences you're use to with a
little change. In just America alone, we are using 29.6 million barrels of oil a
year to have the convenience of plastic bags and plastic water bottles. This
could literally provide enough oil to fuel 2 - 3 million cars in the U.S. every
single year. If you look at world figures we are using 147.4 - 207.4 million
barrels of oil to use plastic bags and plastic bottles worldwide. That alone is
more than OPEC pumps in a simgle day at 32.22 million. By seeing these number
hopefully you will realize that you can make a difference in our oil costs, the
environment and live a greener life all around... and when you go to Target, or
wherever and purchase those reuseable bags, and the cashier puts them in a
plastic bag for you to take them home in be sure to give her the plastic bag
back give her a dirty look, and tell her that you don't want to be personally
responsible for the gas crisis.