Fuel Prices

OK so I’m spewing that I didn’t bother to fill up yesterday when I saw the 1^st petrol station I passed selling unleaded for $1.22 per litre and then 1 hour later everywhere I passed was selling for $1.34 including the 1^st one I’d seen.

But this whole debate about the price of petrol and being ripped off by the oil companies and being ripped off by the petrol stations themselves etc etc is annoying because we’re refusing to see the bigger picture.

1.     We all want to reap the “benefits” of capitalism by leading the lives we’re living, so who are we to be annoyed at capitalism in process.

2.     The oil companies have been ripping us off for years, ditto petrol stations, ditto our governments with taxes on petrol, ditto the deals our governments make with all the oil rich nations, including turning a blind eye to human rights’ abuses in those countries.

3.     If our governments really cared about our hip pockets they’d invest huge amounts of money and intellectual resources into finding a real solution to stopping using fossil fuels to making it mandatory to use renewable fuels.

4.     If we don’t want to change anything about the way we’re living e.g. drive less, or better take public transport, turn off every power point in your house when not in use, buy local everything, take fewer plane trips, give up a lot of the pleasures of household living we take for granted, use man power instead of machine power (take note big manufacturers) – I could go on and on and on.

I’m raving and may not be making sense, so basically what I want to say is this:

We’ve all been living on borrowed time from the minute our forefathers started the Industrial Revolution. Since that time we in the west have significantally benefitted from a ridiculous increase in the quality of life. The developing and 3^rd world countries weren’t as lucky of course. Using fossil fuels had to have a time limit. Supplies are apparently at today’s rate of use going to run out by 2040. Around the same time we’ll have stuffed up the earth with global warming. We should be using this opportunity of feeling the pinch to our personal financial situations positively rather than whinging the whole time. We should be demanding our government take action. Think long term not short term. We are faced with huge problems right now and our governments are being all hush hush about it and actually trying to make us feel more scared about terrorism. Are they trying to divert our attention? We as humans living on planet earth need to step up and be accountable right now because if we don’t we are going to be living in an energy economy – and then things will become so desperate and so bleak and we’ll have no time to change a thing.