By Craig Collins, Truthout, November 25, 2011
I'm a fossil fuel junkie. I drive a car and use electricity. My
computer, TV, telephone, refrigerator, stove, lights, water and sewage all run
on carbon-based energy.(1) All of the
materials used to build my house and furniture were made with hydrocarbons. The
wood, sheetrock, cement, metals, glass, wiring, PVC pipes, and other plastics
were all manufactured with carboniferous energy. My high-energy lifestyle
mainlines fossil fuels.
The petroleum coursing through the veins of our global economy allows
me to do miraculous things. If I have the money, I can hop on a plane and be
scuba diving in the Caribbean in a matter of hours. I can pick up a phone and
talk to people anywhere in the world. I can buy coffee shipped from Kenya, tea
from India, mangos from Mexico, rice from Thailand and bananas from Ecuador
anytime I want for a few dollars. I never have to do the backbreaking work of
growing my own fruits, grains and vegetables or raising my own livestock. I can
light and heat my home; cook my food; do my laundry and take a hot shower
without ever having to collect and chop wood, haul buckets of water, or even
start a fire. My family can toss their luggage into the car and journey
hundreds of miles in a few hours for the cost of a tank of gas. Even with a
host of servants and slaves, the great kings of old could not have imagined
doing many of the amazing things I can with do with the energy of fossil fuels.
Power like this is addicting.
It may sound odd, but I didn't realize I was addicted to petroleum
until I was about 30. Like most Americans, I was born into a lifestyle of cheap
energy and took it for granted. Growing up in the latter half of the 20th
century, cars and electricity were just part of daily life. Nobody thought of
it as addiction; it was progress. Every new electronic device and labor-saving
appliance was a testament to the miracle of modern science and technology. The
future was usually portrayed as a technological utopia where all our wants and
needs would be met by some new scientific wonder. Remember the
"Jetsons"?
I felt fortunate and proud to live in America because it was the most
modern country in the world. It never occurred to me that our prosperity had
anything to do with our dependence on oil; in school we were told our affluence
was the product of free enterprise, liberty and democracy. I knew that every
country in the world aspired to be as modern as the United States. Poor
countries were trying to copy our success and our enemies behind "the iron
curtain" claimed they would soon out-modernize us. Growing up, I felt sorry
for people who still lived without the conveniences of modern life.
It took me years to realize that our supercharged lifestyle depends on
a vanishing supply of fossil fuels and cannot possibly be reproduced on a
global scale. If the people of China lived like Americans, there would be more
cars in China than there are in the entire world today.(2)
Their cars would need all of the oil the world produces plus fifteen million
extra barrels a day. China would consume two-thirds of the world's grain
harvest, burn more coal than the entire world uses today and use twice as much
paper.(3) And this is just China. The Earth
simply does not have enough land, water and hydrocarbons for everyone to live
the high-energy lifestyle of Americans. In fact, America's coveted lifestyle is
running on empty and on the verge of going bust, like the boomtowns that became
ghost towns after the gold rush panned out.
Throughout the 20th century, the world was preoccupied with modernity,
progress, science and technology, yet no one was crediting the amazing energy
source that made it all possible. Even today, we routinely underestimate and
overlook the unique characteristics that have made fossil fuels the energy
source that has utterly transformed human life on this planet.
Fossil fuels are the most concentrated, versatile, inexpensive energy
source ever discovered. Energy is the capacity to do work and we have harnessed
fossil fuels to do unbelievable amounts of it. There are about 23,000 human
labor hours (12.5 years at 40 hours per week) in every barrel of oil and humans
use about 85 million barrels of oil every day.(4)
Just one gallon of gas can do as much work as 350 to 500 hours of hard human
labor. How much would you expect to be paid for 350 to 500 hours of hard work?
At $15 an hour, your labor would be worth between $5,250 and $7,500 dollars.
Now compare that with how much you spend for a gallon of gas.(5)
Modern industry and agriculture would be impossible without fossil
fuels. According to Michael Pollan, it takes about ten calories of fossil
energy to produce and transport each calorie of supermarket food we eat.(6) In the United States, food typically travels
between 1,500 and 2,500 miles from farm to plate.(7)
Supermarkets and fast food chains survive on a life support system of cheap
fossil fuels. Agricultural machinery, irrigation systems, petrochemical
pesticides and fertilizers, huge centralized feedlots, slaughterhouses, food
processors and refrigerated storage all rely on hydrocarbons - as do the
trucks, ships, trains and planes that move food around the world.
Thirty years after realizing that I'm a petroleum junkie, I'm still
discovering the depth and the impact of my addiction and trying to figure out
what to do about it. I find it hard to recognize my condition for what it really
is because everyone around me is addicted, too. Our entire culture is
structured to encourage and promote a petroleum-addicted lifestyle, so it just
seems normal. Our utter dependence on fossilized hydrocarbons is masked by
everyday life, where it hides in plain sight. Pumping gas is our most obvious
encounter with petroleum. Americans pump about ten thousand gallons of gas
every second.(8) But even then it stays
hidden in our gas tanks. We hardly realize that our cars are made with enormous
amounts of fossilized energy and that nearly everything in them, except the
glass and metal, is made of petroleum-based rubber, plastics and textiles. Most
of us completely overlook the fact that nearly everything we work or play with,
sit or sleep on, wear, watch, or read are made of or with petroleum.
Because we can just flip a switch, we easily lose sight of the fact
that burning coal, petroleum and natural gas generates most of the electricity
to light our cities and homes and power our refrigerators, stoves, washers,
dryers, heaters and air conditioners. Of course, the factories that make all of
these products are powered the same way; and so are the global communications
networks that keep our TVs, cell phones and computers connected with each
other. I find it unsettling to realize that even alternative energy sources -
from hydroelectric dams and nuclear power plants to geothermal technology, wind
turbines and solar panels - all use cheap fossil fuel energy to build them.(9)
These days, there is a tendency to malign fossil fuels and dismiss
their astounding value because they are so frequently wasted and misused; also,
the environmental consequences associated with their extraction and combustion
are monumental. Environmentalists emphasize these damages, while politicians
and political analysts decry our dependence on foreign sources. Social critics
point out how cheap energy has accelerated the pace of life, fueled rampant
consumerism and replaced tight-knit, interdependent communities and
neighborhoods with the lonely, impersonal rat race of modern life.
These are all extremely serious problems, but hydrocarbon energy is
not the villain in this story. Hydrocarbons are a precious gift of fossilized
solar energy passed down over eons from the primeval plankton of our planet's
distant past. One gallon of oil contains the condensed, concentrated energy of
about 98 tons of the original prehistoric plant life that collected its energy
over millennia from the sun.(10) For
millions of years, the Earth cooked and compressed this ancient sunlight into
the most potent, accessible, versatile source of power humans have ever used.
Had it been used in moderation - frugally, equitably and wisely - it could have
improved the quality of human life, making it easier and more rewarding for
many centuries with little or no damage to the planet or us. By minimizing
life's drudgeries, it could have afforded everyone with more time to pursue the
endeavors that make our lives more interesting, creative and fulfilling.
However, this priceless gift was not used prudently or for the
betterment of all. In the early decades of the Industrial Revolution, those who
gained control over fossil fuels and the technologies and weapons they
developed to exploit them, wielded their newfound power to suit their
commanding interests. Thus, the benefits of coal and oil went primarily to an
exclusive handful of industries and nations that used them to become immensely
profitable and powerful.
While living standards rose unevenly in the most developed nations and
advances in medicine, science and technology improved many lives, this has
never been the prevailing purpose of modernization. The elites that managed the
flow and function of the planet's vast deposits of hydrocarbons were
enterprising capitalists. Their primary pursuit was profit, which became the
driving force behind the industrial age, even though the poster child of the
age was progress. The promise of wealth and progress was the irresistible lure
that profit-hungry petroleum pushers used to reshape modern society around a
petroleum-addicted lifestyle.
Coming to the realization that my petroleum addiction is as
"normal" and American as TV, cars and shopping has helped me realize
that our addiction is fundamentally systemic and social, not individual. Thus,
my individual recovery from addiction must be part of a great social recovery
and collective transformation. Since fossil fuels are a rapidly vanishing
finite resource, one way or another we will eventually kick our addiction. The
real question is are we going to do this the hard way, by postponing our
recovery until we hit rock bottom and must endure the extreme trauma of trying
to rebuild society on an exhausted and ravaged planet? Or are we going to use
our remaining resources to rehabilitate ourselves and restore our communities
before we ruin our country and pillage our planet in a frantic search for one
final fix?
Unless we come to our senses soon, we will have sacrificed our future
to feed our addiction. But the odds are stacked against us. We've become so
consumed by the demands, conveniences and diversions of our fast-paced,
petroleum-powered lifestyle that we hardly notice the self-destructive course
we're on. The petroleum pushers like it this way; our addiction gives them
control over us. Their commercials tell us life would be dull and empty without
the wonders of petroleum-powered progress. As long as we work long hours in
order to buy the trendy, high-powered lifestyle they push, they get rich. Like
all enterprising pushers, they'll do anything to keep us off the road to
recovery. They want us to stay hooked until the oil wells run dry, even though
the consequences would be catastrophic.
What will the future look like if they succeed? It will be grim indeed
if the petroleum pushers overpower every effort to stop them from burning
through the Earth's hydrocarbon reserves, pushing the climate past its tipping
point and unleashing ecological havoc; if nations waste lives and ravage the
planet in a series of escalating resource wars; if millions perish because
shrinking stores of fresh water, fertile land and food go only to those with
the power and money to acquire them; if corrupt, bankrupt governments and
economies can't provide jobs, social services and disaster relief, or protect
citizens from social decay, corruption and crime.
Today, denial still maintains its tenuous grip over the general
public, and even those who recognize the peril ahead are reluctant to face the
question of how to organize a mutiny against the heads of state and the
captains of industry and finance. But mutiny we must; because if they are left
in charge, they will devour, demolish and contaminate the planet that keeps us
all alive.
Mutiny is an act of courageous desperation that reasonable people
consider reluctantly. Only reckless adrenaline junkies and revolutionary
zealots romanticize rebellion and mistake reluctance for cowardice. Reluctance
is entirely understandable. It's hard enough to overcome denial and despair;
kick our addiction to petroleum; heal the planet; and build resilient
communities that can survive without the advantages, comforts and conveniences
of industrial civilization. But if success requires us to defend the future
from the wrath and greed of the powers that be, then our task seems nearly hopeless.
However - since any future under their control is a dead end - mutiny is
essential. Our most important weapons in the insurrection ahead were clearly
identified by Antonio Gramsci: pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the
will.
Footnotes:
1. Fossil fuels and electricity from the grid are the lifeblood of
conventional water delivery and wastewater treatment systems, which are
designed and built to rely on fossil fuels as their sole energy source. Without
fossil fuels, these systems would not function. See: Yang, Jo-Shing. "How
to Get Your Home Off the Water Grid" (AlterNet,
Feb. 9, 2009).
2. McKibben, Bill, "Deep Economy," (Holt, 2007): 184.
3. Brown, Lester, "Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and
a Civilization in Trouble" (Earth Policy Institute, 2006).
4. de Sousa, Luis, "What is a Human Being Worth (in Terms of
Energy)?" The Oil Drum:
Europe (July 20, 2008).
5. Martenson, Chris, "The Crash Course," (Wiley, 2011.):
140.
6. Pollan, Michael, "The Food Issue:
Farmer in Chief" (October 2008).
7. Halweil, Brian, "Home Grown: The Case For Local Food In A
Global Market" (WorldWatch
Paper #163, November 2002).
8. Margonelli, Lisa, "Oil on the Brain: Petroleum's Long, Strange
Trip to Your Tank" (2008): 14.
9. Fridley, David. "Nine Challenges of Alternative Energy," Energy Bulletin
(August 10, 2010).
10.
Siegel, Lee, "Bad Mileage: 98
Tons Of Plants Per Gallon" University of Utah Press Release
(October 26, 2003).
2 comments:
Early in the article you call America the 'most modern country in the world'. This is a fallacy only Americans could possibly believe.
Sociologically speaking, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany etc are leaps ahead.
Technologically speaking, and in terms of development, Norway, Germany, even Japan are all leaps ahead of the USA.
To clarify my previous comment, the U.S. current highest sources of innovation almost exclusively come from silicon valley.
If you go to germany or norway they're so far ahead in terms of renewables it's not even funny. In germany you've got new houses being built with solar panels - homes of the future - being built in super energy efficient communities with a strong emphasis on recycling.
In Japan you've got the forefront of research into robotics and advanced electronics.
In America you've got silicon valley and Tesla. The rest of your nation absolutely loves burning outdated fossil fuels in cars and big trucks with an average MPG that most of Europe frankly laughs at. You've got police officers who haven't even discovered breathalysers. You've got one of the most outdated and brownest national grids on the planet. You've got a wasteful approach to food production and consumption.
Please do not tell me you're the most advanced country. The only area you are is in your military budget, which your government spends billions.
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