{"id":1679,"date":"2010-06-15T08:38:41","date_gmt":"2010-06-15T14:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raincitypastor.wordpress.com\/?p=457"},"modified":"2010-06-15T08:38:41","modified_gmt":"2010-06-15T14:38:41","slug":"fries-and-fast-cars-the-problem-with-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/15\/fries-and-fast-cars-the-problem-with-oil\/","title":{"rendered":"Fries and Fast Cars…the problem with oil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

As the oil spill in the Gulf approaches its two month anniversary, we who read widely find ourselves swimming in an ocean of commentary on the tragedy. \u00a0There\u2019s enough blame to go around, it seems, as suddenly the tea party is begging for big government to step and solve the problem, and Obama is looking for someone to kick because, of course, it\u2019s the corporation that\u2019s to blame. \u00a0It\u2019s what\u2019s missing<\/em> in the blame game, however, that\u2019s most tragic of all: \u00a0a sense of personal responsibility.<\/p>\n

Deep water wells are being drilled because we need the oil \u2013 all of us. \u00a0We need oil because we want the cheap food, fortified with petrol-chemical fertilizers. \u00a0We want to enjoy climate controlled air space so that we\u2019re never too hot or cold. \u00a0We\u2019ve painted a grid of oil-based asphalt across America so that we can drive from Seattle to Boston to Miami to Los Angeles and back north to Seattle again without ever stopping our car, except of course, to buy gas. \u00a0We like it light in the middle of the night. \u00a0We like living in big houses, driving big cars, flying (in my case about 20k miles a year) to far places, and enjoying cheap steaks from cattle raised in South America, and cheap clothes made in Asia.<\/p>\n

Oil is a concentrated form of energy. \u00a0Potatoes that are fried in it offer cheap, quick calories. \u00a0Cars that run with it offer cheap, quick transport. \u00a0The testimony of the big puddle of destructive oil in the Gulf is this: though \u201ccheap and quick\u201d is rarely the right path, it is the wide path, the path of least resistance \u2013 the path we choose. <\/a> And, though this is a global problem, it\u2019s an American problem more than anywhere else, as we, 5% of the world\u2019s population, consume 20% of the world\u2019s oil.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll let others sort out who will pay, who will regulate, who we\u2019ll blame. \u00a0Those problems are complex. \u00a0But meanwhile, I\u2019ll own up to the fact that the tragic images from the Gulf are the result of our collective lust for cheap and easy, rather than life giving. \u00a0I\u2019ll repent by:<\/p>\n

1. buying local every Friday at my Phinney Farmers market<\/p>\n

2. riding my bike<\/a> as often as possible<\/p>\n

3. turning the lights out and the heat off<\/p>\n

4. walking<\/p>\n

5. building some raised beds in the front yard this summer<\/p>\n

6. taking the bus<\/p>\n

These are hard choices, but the results are life giving: \u00a0Health, scalable pace to life, cleaner air and food; this is the good life that eludes us in our lust for a quick fix of comfort, mobility, and the most for the least amount of money, be it calories and fries or miles and fast cars.<\/p>\n

No one person\u2019s lust for oil creates the problem. \u00a0No one person\u2019s conservation will solve it. \u00a0But I believe it was Voltiare who said, \u201cno single snowflake creates an avalanche\u201d. \u00a0I\u2019m a snowflake, praying for an avalanche of change because, God knows, we can\u2019t keep living like this.<\/p>\n

For more on spill, and learning to read the cries of creation, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the oil spill in the Gulf approaches its two month anniversary, we who read widely find ourselves swimming in an ocean of commentary on the tragedy. \u00a0There\u2019s enough blame to go around, it seems, as suddenly the tea party is begging for big government to step and solve the problem, and Obama is looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creation","category-justice"],"yoast_head":"\nFries and Fast Cars...the problem with oil<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As the oil spill in the Gulf approaches its two month anniversary, we who read widely find ourselves swimming in an ocean of commentary on the tragedy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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