Dear George,
When you were President Mr. Washington, what caused inflation in the colonies? For heat there was wood, coal, peat and/or colonizing other warmer countries. For light there were candles, that too often set things on fire or oil lamps that weren't much safer. For clothing there was wool, cotton, linen and silk. For transportation there was horses. But, in Colonial America, no oil...
The discovery of oil in 1859 changed everything. Though the invention of nylon was another 76 years away with Spandex and Lycra an additional 24 years beyond that. When nylon surfaced in 1935 the fashion world took swift notice.
Leap two decades into another century and by 2022 thousands of clothing items from formal evening wear to workout togs contain some or mainly Spandex. I'm not sure the Olympics or even any sport is possible today without clothing made from Spandex!
My convoluted point here, is, that none of these inventions [or the 500,000 others] were possible without the discovery of oil--of which [most critics 'still' drive vehicles with combustion engines] none have seen objections even though plastic-based products increased by 8.7% each year--every year--since 1934...
The [Jan 2018-Jan 2019] estimate for the number of disposable diapers just in the United States for one year was between 28 and 34 Billion! For America alone this meant about 250,000 trees were used as well as over 3.4 billion gallons of oil. For that amount of fossil fuel we could have powered over 5,222,000 cars in that same 12 months. [Do I see a show of hands from the gallery of environmental activist switching immediately [back] to cloth???]
But hey - I'm just getting started so strap in with your tray tables up...
When I was contracted by Oil Week Magazine in 2010 to write a feature on wind-power, my research did 'not' make several advertiser/investors happy - at all. They weren't happy because even with huge government subsidies wind-power wasn't ever going to be cost effective nor was it ever going to supplement our energy needs/electrical grid--unless--there were much smaller turbines beside every chimney on every roof. AND-- none of the utility companies would allow that. Infact--they have steadily acquired vast acres of land for wind farms and solar-farms and no longer encourage individual solar panels on residential or commercial roof tops.
And speaking of SOLAR...Making one 320 watt solar panel requires 16.4 barrels of oil. [One barrel of oil refined for vehicle gasoline use equals 19 gallons.]. However, not all solar panels are created equal which means the best [golden] efficiency standard of all available photon rays emitted by the sun and absorbed, is 24%.
We absolutely need to be responsible caretakers of this planet we all share--but not at the fraudulent expense of creating pseudo solutions with consequences that are more trendy than remedy. One prime example has been the push for gas powered vehicles to be more fuel efficient...Great cause, but in order to make our trucks, vans and cars more fuel efficient they had to be lighter. But, in order to be lighter many parts and the outer shell designs had to be made from plastic instead of metal. Today 50% of our cars are plastic including safer/softer dashboards and durable airbags. [More plastic, as you realize now means more fossil fuels.]
From oil industry byproducts 21st Century consumers [here and everywhere] have toys, car seats, small and large appliances, computers and cell phones, IPads and electronic Notebooks. There's synthetic rubber for tires, doors, window profiles, flooring, insulation. From paraffin wax there's shoe polish, cosmetics and safe covers for wires that conduct electricity. Farming uses fertilizers synthesized from fossil fuels like nitrogen and potassium - as well as pesticides. Detergents, made by heating fats and oils react with alkali and glycerin in soap making. Besides Tupperware and Glad food containers there's shipping and packing materials - and - furniture...And...
To even suggest purging America of fossil fuels [by 2030] is somewhere between ignorant and irresponsible. [Just visualize the few items I listed above as gone by 2030.] A good deal of the 'supply-chain' begins with the 131 operating refineries. Eliminating them eliminates most of the U.S. manufacturing sector. Just the medical field alone requires ultrasound systems, defibrillators, exhalation and inhalation valves and tubes, CT systems, X-ray machines, dozens of types of surgical and general band aids, protective masks, gloves, gowns...Just the numerous types of sanitized packaging alone is critical to medicine.
An environmental tug-of-war between special-interest-groups [Green-New-Deal] who perceive the rest of us [Main-Street] as living with a callus disregard for the planet's environment - shouldn't be an all-or-nothing attack. What happened to major recycling? The recycling rate in the U.S. stalled at 34.6% in 2014. Since then greater federal subsidies went to far more expensive programs like solar, wind and EVs, while scaling back on the smaller residential and community based collection projects for paper, plastic, metal and glass has caused increased dumping in our oceans and landfills.
**Inflation and supply-chain issues can be resolved by increasing oil production and the refining of our cleaner gasoline and clean natural gas. And a more "thoughtful-transition" will improve our ability to reduce threats to ocean life and land, but understand the climate IS changing because Earth's climate has been changing for 4.3 billion years...Just saying...
Sherrie Todd-Beshore is an award-winning novelist and former journalist...
