Living in the World
Cheap Oil

School has started again throughout the land. I happen to live within ¼ mile of the high school in my community. I also have to make a turn across traffic heading to the school in the morning. There is a steady stream of cars and buses zipping down the highway between 7:40 and 8:00 a.m. every weekday morning. Parents hauling kid, School buses hauling kids and vehicles driven by licensed kids hauling kids. All coming to the same destination from the same area in 3 different types of transportation. Why don’t they all ride the school bus? Cheap oil.

I recently read an interview with Wendell Berry who opined that if you look at the way all our institutions are run today, behind it all is cheap oil. Education is one. How much oil is wasted in transporting kids to school. The high school near my home is built on the edge of the school district. Less than ½ of 1 % of the students could walk even if they wanted to. Why do we have suburbs? Cheap oil. Why have downtown shopping areas disappeared and folks go to malls with big box stores? Cheap oil. Why are most goods and services delivered by truck? Cheap oil. Why do we have interstate an highway system that transports us coast to coast? Cheap oil.

This past summer we were lamenting the seeming loss of cheap oil. The prices of gasoline are slowly falling now, but gasoline prices and what should be done about them is a key issue in the 2006 Congressional races. It shares equal billing with Iraq as a campaign issue, where lives are lost by the dozens each day. Cheap oil. It is important to us because we have built a way of life around it. I often think of my grandfather who was born, lived and died within a 6 mile area. He walked to work and went to town once a week to peddle what he raised on the farm and get what he needed for the coming week. He had a large family that helped tend the farm and worked at various jobs to help supplement the costs of living. The neighbors threshed together, raised barns together, worshiped together, shed tears and enjoyed laughter together. No one vacationed in a far away place, worked away from home or lived a self-sufficient life without others. We live in a far different world, but is it better because of cheap oil?

We wonder why we have such a difficult time dealing with our “terrorist enemies.” They know we are addicted to cheap oil. Our very lifestyle, much of which they despise, depends on cheap oil. And, we are not about to “sacrifice” our individuality. Many of my environmentally friendly friends want to conserve oil to save the planet. I’ve got news for them. The industrial pollution from China and India in the coming years will make our emissions problems seem sophomoric. Cheap oil has cheapened life. We know less about each other, spend less time with neighbors and school mates, and live lives separated from all forms of community. Cheap oil seems to make us what we are…and it is not very pretty. Maybe its time to park the car and ground the airliners [then there would be not worry about terrorist threats], walk over to your neighbors and see how they are doing and share the joys and sorrows of life with others. That will mean more than cheap oil.