Plastic and Oil

The David Suzuki Foundation is promoting this interesting personal saga of one woman who had sworn off acquiring new plastic for one year.




You can also check out her blog at Plastic Manners


Plastic is derived from fossil fuels. A few years ago, when I discovered this I was enraged with myself for not being better informed. I had been striving to lessen my dependency on oil by focusing on fuel use and the distance my food traveled. The depletion of fossil fuels is more systemic than what's on the surface. It's not just what we drive and how far we travel. It's also about how warm we keep our thermostats, what we feed our children and what we choose to purchase at the store.

I recently read the book, Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller by Jeff Rubin. It's an excellent read, one that highlights our dependency on oil and gives solid evidence to the future COMPLETE depletion of all oil on the planet, a natural resource that takes a million years to generate. We will run out eventually, that's a no-brainer.



So why are we using this precious commodity to wrap out kids' school lunches in, or to make toys with or to package water? We should be rationing this stuff for really important things like medical supplies and anything that can not be made with alternative sources (wood, metal).

Many people have debated the validity of this claim, stating that Peak Oil was a concept brought forth in the 1970s. Unfortunately, the scientists back then offered a much more generous time line. The rate of depletion has since doubled with international travel on the rise, more cars on the road and more consumption of meaningless and down right silly products. Our houses are bigger, which need more fuel to heat. Our commutes are longer. Our consumption keeps rising and yet not many stop to think where all this is coming from...or what will happen when it runs out.