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COMMENTARY
March 5, 2011
Lifestyle options
Who needs oil? Well, I certainly don't, for I don't drive a car, and am used to walking long distances. Haven't ridden a horse, or even a bicycle, lately; but one can always adapt. ("Adapt or die," one of my bosses used to say. All day long: it was his mantra.) I do not depend upon an oil-burning furnace, at least at this moment. My need for lubricating oils is quite restricted -- I could live with the odd squeaky hinge. And while I've developed a dependency on lighter fluid, there are other solvents for removing price stickers. (Even water sometimes works.) And matches are much better for lighting the odd cheroot.Has my reader done his inventory? We'll have to consider the issue more broadly at some point. Take the plums I am currently regarding, in a pretty little fruit basket (how very twee). No, go ahead, take one. They're cheap. I've tasted better plums in my time, but to have them here at all, in the dead of winter! Not sure where they come from -- seems I removed all the stickers -- but I daresay some oil was burned getting them here. Notwithstanding: we could get into prunes. And canning, again: for the Canadian identity once had so much more to do with ambitious "canning bees" in the autumn than with, say, single-tier health insurance plans (and the consequent service shortages). And there's much more arable land around here, than might first appear, if we scrape away the suburbs. For with the oil gone, they won't really be habitable any more. Yes, I am being facetious. Still, these were relevant thoughts, passing over the cusp from my subconscious mind, while reading reports not only from Libya, but from Iraq, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia. The Shia neighbourhoods around the Gulf are all getting disorderly, including of course Iran, although there the government seems to know how to deal with demonstrators. The ayatollahs also know that the West now declines to assist in any "regime change," in their case; even as they obviously develop nuclear weapons, and openly fantasize about using them to exterminate a few million Jews. Consider: under Bush, the U.S. only demanded regime change for a couple of deadly enemies. Under Obama, they now demand it for a broad selection of their friends. Not that I'm alleging treason on high. I'm sure it is the purest stupidity. The good news: by most accounts I've seen, only one-quarter of the world's oil now passes through the Strait of Hormuz, on its way to market. The bad news: much of the rest comes from countries like Venezuela. And while I'm sure my reader knows this already, it is worth constantly reviewing what one knows. "Ignore" is the root of "ignorance" after all, and most stupidity consists of forgetting what we already know. That for instance oil, like plums, must come from somewhere. The bituminous, or tar sands of Athabasca are worth mentioning here. As right-wing columnists like to ask, would you rather have your oil at the expense of a few slow-witted ducks, or with the blood of a million Arabs? Given the technical means to eliminate most direct environmental fallout, just what is our value system here? The very good news, as I understand, is that proven reserves of shale oil vastly exceed the reserves of liquid crude. And better yet, the principal concentrations of kerogen-rich shale, that could be extracted most economically with known technology, are in countries like the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Sweden. And then there is natural gas. It's amazing what an enormous supply of hydrocarbons was laid in on this planet. I'm personally against burning it all off, gratuitously, and even against wasting it in low-efficiency operations. (High prices fix that.) As I hinted, my own personal lifestyle leaves an unusually modest footprint, barely larger than that of an African subsistence farmer; and possibly smaller, if you consider his subsistence fuels. But what about you, gentle reader? As a person who admits to caring more for freedom and the rule of precedented law, than he does for mobs and soi-disant "democracy" -- who is imperfectly attuned to the voice of Nanny State -- I quite frankly deny myself the right to impose upon your consumer choices. Especially when I am nearly a free rider on your energy grid. We have dealt, on other days, with the environmental considerations. They are real, but not as presented by green ideologues. Most of the world now grasps that "anthropogenic global warming" is a sham; but even if it weren't, we have every reason to prefer it to global cooling. Pollution is the real question, and happily, the question to which there are ever more and better technical solutions. I cannot help but think there are two morals to this story. One is, "Drill, baby, drill." And the other is, "Dig, baby, dig." David Warren
© Ottawa Citizen
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