Happy Independence Day

The 4th of July is tomorrow. Independence Day for the U.S. Like any other holiday, it's much less about the creation of our country than it is about picnics, BBQs, Super Sales, and blowing crap up. Here in Idaho you can buy just about any form of explosive device legal for the 4th in the most lenient of states. You just can't light them off. Funny law, that. Makes the state a ton of money in tax revenue, as well as for all the fireworks vendors on every corner. A lot of that state income goes to pay for firefighting (federal and state funds), rescue, and law enforcement (when things get out of hand, there's otherwise not much patrolling going on - if that were the case then my street would be a ghost town with everyone in jail).

I don't know if our forefathers envisioned our Independence as one of the major economic times of the year. Sure, there were celebrations, and more likely than not there were illegal celebrations as well, maybe even more so than today. I suppose it's our rebellious (ore revolutionary) nature.

I read an article the other day about a growing movement for the U.S. to become much less dependent on oil (like the tie in?). Not new news by any stretch. However, much of the discussion I've seen in print, on television and heard on the radio as well as around the "water cooler" centers around gasoline and other petroleum fuels. Certainly, oil is used to produce fuels. Gasoline, Kerosene, Diesel, jet fuel, heating oil, etc. and the use of these by-products is apparent to most everyone. Fuel to power vehicles, machinery, and to heat buildings is important. The Handbasket of Hell would arrive that much sooner if we no longer had any oil resources available.

But, how many consider the other products that we depend upon equally as well (or more so) than fuel? Think of those things you use every day that are made from plastic or some synthetic material. Most of those products are made from oil derivatives. Some food products come from oil. There are literally thousands of products other than fuel that we use every day that are created from oil. While hybrid cars, hydro, wind and solar power (which have their environmental downsides as well), and other alternative energies are great ideas way past their time already, what about the other stuff?

Now, I'm all for conservation of resources, clean alternative energy, smart management and all that. I also hold the belief that the faster we use it up the quicker we can move on to those alternatives. We're going to run out, why prolong the inevitable? We're not scrubbing the atmosphere yet to reduce global warming and we've just about run out of time on that front. It's all about momentum. It takes a train a while to get up to speed, but once it does it's going to stay that way for a while before it slows back down. Unfortunately, our recording devices aren't as accurate as a speedometer (over geologic time), nor do we have a lot of hard data from thousands of years ago to make it perfectly clear. There's a ton of inferential as well as empirical data; gasses locked in ice, soil strata, tree ring data, etc. that together are adding up to just about the same thing. But, again, we don't have direct experience with the last global warming event so we're making educated guesses as to the potential outcomes, albeit very educated guesses. Those estimates vary widely as to the severity and the timetable. the closer we get to the event, the more accurate the predictions will be. Like forecasting the weather a week out. Every day the confidence interval gets smaller, but sometimes it rains a day or two early or a day or two later or not at all, despite what the computer model says. Forecasting global warming has a pretty wide margin of error (decades). But, I'm getting off the subject.

I have to qualify my "use it all now" statement. While theoretically it makes sense, dumping all those greenhouse gasses and other matter into the atmosphere in greater quantities than we are now, all at once, say, would be definitely bad for us. The other way, a more prolonged depletion, might allow some of us to make it.

So, back to oil. Here's a short list of some of those products. What can you do without from this list? How are these products going to be maintained in the "no oil" regime? Some of these products were originally made from corn and other crops but due to the oil lobby and the fact that it was cheaper to make these things from petroleum, put an end to that. We have to make a decision as to what we're willing to pay for the freedom from oil dependency.

Ammonia, chemicals (thousands), Drugs (anasthetics, antihistamines, antiseptics, aspirin, cortisones, etc.)
All plastic (naptha is the base agent)
Synthetic fabrics (nylon, rayon, polyester, polypropolene, vinyl)
nail polish, Petroleum Jelly, insulation, deodorants, waxes, lubricants, fuels, skin lotion (components), fertilizers, insecticides, insect repellent,
food preservatives, food coloring, dyes, crayons, ink, asphalt (bitumen), synthetic rubber, glue, detergents, glycerin, kerosene

Specific products:

artificial limbs, auto parts, computer parts, building materials, highways and city streets, boats, cameras, awnings, ballpoint pens, carpets, disposable diapers, eyeglasses, contact lenses, fishing rods, nail polish, milk jugs, shampoo, rubbing alcohol, hair coloring, garden hoses, food packaging, paint, credit cards, curtains, caulking, bandages, artificial turf, heart valves, hearing aids, vitamin capsules, toothpaste, shaving cream, shampoo, lip stick, perfume, styrofoam, floor wax, electrical tape, movie and still film (nylon), rubber cement, putty, bubble gum.

Here's another thought regarding independence. We think we're pretty on top of things, that we've got the life here in America, we don't have to depend on anyone. It's never been like that and actually back in the day we were less dependent upon outside help than we are today. Loss of farmland and depletion of other natural resources, cheap labor, and other factors have caused us to outsource to a greater degree than we have in the past. Next time you're at Wal-Mart pay attention to where your fruits and veggies come from (fresh ones, not the canned variety, although check those as well). Check out your frozen dinners as well. South and Central America, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, China, are all partners in helping to keep us fed.

When I was an undergraduate in Colorado in 1990, I had a conversation with a friend of mine who was of the mind set that we as Americans were noble, setting the example for higher standards throughout the world, making life grand for everyone. She hated slavery, which is still practiced around the world, even in the U.S. I asked her to think about the people working for her. She gave me a blank look. "Nobody works for me" she said, like I was trying to trick her or something. We went through a list of products, clothing and produce primary among them, where other people labored, sometimes or often, in poor conditions, paid cheaply, here in the U.S. and around the world, so she could have the things that made her lifestyle possible. Also, what environments are impacted? How many people are giving up their land to provide for us and other "developed" countries? At the time it was more of a mental exercise than a practical one. Difficult to find the resources to have an idea of the impact our middle and upper class lifestyles actually had on the global resource.

Now, here's a site that attempts to figure that out. To calculate your individual "global footprint", your personal impact on the world. The Ecological Footprint estimates the amount of land a person in the United States needs to be provided with basic subsistence (food, water, shelter). Space is not considered, probably because it's a hard one to quantify. We need a small space to survive (you could stay in your house your entire life as long as you had food and water), but we also need larger spaces for our mental well-being, to fuel our creativity and inspiration.

What we do, what we require, what we enjoy, is not in isolation. It's a complex world full of interdependencies. We have a lot of people working for us.

Happy Independence Day.