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Gristmill sees the positive
Posted by Yankee on August 24, 2005 - 6:11pm
I love this post from Gristmill.
In light of this summer's wicked high fuel prices, CNN.com has started a daily "gas gripes" section where readers can spout off about how tough life is.But here's a little secret -- these aren't gripes! Today's collection, especially, is a quietly inspiring list of conscious eco-choices. These reports bring a tear to the eye: I moved back to the city. I stopped driving my SUV. I vanpool. I bought a hybrid.
It's everything that Grist and a thousand other nattering environmentalists preach every day. But money is making it real -- at least for now. Hooray for capitalism! Hooray for oil! Hooray, hooray, hooray.
“So one may almost say that the theory of universal suffrage assumes that the Average Citizen is an active, instructed, intelligent ruler of his country. The facts contradict this assumption.”
—James Bryce (1909, 35)
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Good. Well, you might have guessed this is a trick question: here are the choices: Oil companies (28%); OPEC (13%); Market Speculators (24%); Gas guzzlers (12%); China and India (14%); Other (9%).
Here is the link: http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/24/pf/gas_gripes/index.htm
They're still melting, though, highs are near 100 ever day plus humidity. It won't be "comfortable" on a bicycle for another couple months. There's a reason it's hard to buy a car in Texas without air conditioning...
In any case, I am still working on my collection of essays on "The Common Misconceptions About Peak Oil". The two I have done so far are "Oil shale will save us!" and "Tar sands will save us!" Check them out at http://beastsbelly.blogspot.com
The consumer psychology is at a critical turning point; prices have been "high" for just long enough that the non-energy-geek mainstreamers are starting to accept that this isn't just a short-term price blip. We're seeing behavior start to change at the margin, which is a crucial step in the education of the masses. If prices retreated substantially (which I don't expect to happen), it would reinforce all the bad behavior and mistaken beliefs we're battling.
I've long contended that one of the most powerful forces in this kind of market sea change is the "water cooler effect". People talking with co-workers complain about gasoline costs, and an early adopter in the group says, "Tell me about it. I got sick of paying an arm and leg for gas, so when we traded in our SUV I got something a lot cheaper to run. My [model name] gets about twice the miles per gallon, and it's more fun to drive." (The fun to drive part might just be a defense mechanism--the speaker is trying to make it sound like an even better decision by piling on benefits. It doesn't matter if it's true--it has the same effect on listeners.) It doesn't take long before all of the early adopter's friends hear his story and start re-evaluating their transportation needs and solutions, and the "you can save money and be happy" meme spreads.