Re: Life after the oil crash

Quoting Iain Strachan <igd.strachan@gmail.com>:

> On 10/27/05, Glenn Morton <glenn_morton@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > *Michael Roberts <michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk>* wrote:
> >
> > Should it be a criminal offence to drive a car which does less than 35
> > miles to the gallon (US mini-gallons) and use central heating at 70deg and
> > always use air-conditioning?
> > Will we come to that.
> > I will now get on my bike
> > GRM: Having lived in both the UK and the US, the US is not structured the
> > same as the UK. I could walk to the nearest grocery story (4 aisles of
> > stuff) in about 5 minutes in Peterculter. But if I want to walk to the
> > nearest grocery store in the US it is a 40 minute walk
> >
> > .. or a 10 minute bike ride!
>
> OK it's not going to solve the world's fuel crisis, but one thing I do have
> in common with Michael is apparently being an evangelical cyclist. (In both
> senses.)
>
> Iain
>
AMEN TO THAT -- I add myself to the evangelist cyclist list. In fact I feel a
bit like a self-righteous pharisee about this. Of course, no sooner do I finish
thinking my horrible thoughts about all the "evil" SUVs (typically after one has
just gone careening by me on my bike) than I remember all the intelligent and
kind owners of large vehicles that have kindly offered me passenger space on
this or that trip. That steadies me a bit. But I really did delight in the
Calvin & Hobbes strip where Hobbes is musing about how Calvin's subversive dad
thought of bicycles as being the pinnacle of transportation technology. I would
surmise that Watterson was more than half serious with that wisecrack -- and I
think I would actually make a serious defense of that! Oil days are numbered &
even more so since we have been implicitly evangelizing our oil consuming ways
to the rest of the world. I was taken aback to see magazine adds from American
oil companies that were actually promoting conservation. When THEY start
talking like that -- maybe some heads are getting pulled out of the sand. But
none of this will overhaul our society in any voluntary manner -- we're too
addicted for that. Sorry -- you guys are the audience to my bottled up ranting.
  I'll try to shut up for a little while. (Lest I sound too self-righteous -- I
am an automobile owner & do drive more regularly than I bike. My only caveat is
that I view this as a cause for shame rather than pride.)

--merv
Received on Thu Oct 27 11:54:50 2005