How Will You Sacrifice? (3/30/03)

by Dean Hartwell

Whether one agrees or disagrees with the war the United States wages against Iraq, few dispute that our nation fights for control of oil. For that reason, we should each ask ourselves how we can make a difference in making sure we no longer need to fight wars for that reason.

There are several sacrifices that every person could make to reduce our dependency upon oil:

Reduce your driving. Our automobile burning of oil would be alleviated considerably if every driver gave up driving just one day out of the week. Some of us could move closer to work (or even telecommute) and some could buy more fuel-efficient automobiles, walk more frequently or take public transportation.

But automobiles are not the only problem.

Recycle and reduce your use of plastics. Few realize that plastic products are made from oil and other fossil fuels. Recycling them saves those fuels.

Recycling other products helps, too. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to power a television set for four hours. By saving this energy, we ensure that we do not have to use oil or any other non-renewable source.

Which brings me to my last point.

Use renewable sources of energy. Put up a solar light. Buy a solar-powered calculator. Buy stock in "green" companies that follow sound, oil-reduction practices.

The time is right for us to stop consuming so much oil. Not only is the availability of oil finite, control of it and our access to it depends upon circumstances beyond our control.

In the late 1970s, the fall of the Shah of Iran, a U.S. ally who gave us cheap oil for weapons, caused a drop in oil shipments to us. Not long afterwards, the United States restored diplomatic relations with Iran's enemy, Iraq. Who was the leader of Iraq? Saddam Hussein.

These facts beg the only reasonable conclusion: Instead of betting on our allies to control the oil for us, we should control our own consumption.