Dropped into the petrol station this morning to fill up ready for the weekend and as you can see from the picture, it cost me AU$107.63 in total.
I commented on the price to a friend and said we only paid 68c a litre when we arrived here. She told me back in 1971 she could fill her car for 17c a litre!! She recalled filling the tank of her Honda 90 for 20c!! 🙂
Of course since then world demand for oil has escalated and Middle Eastern oil producers flexed their muscles after realising how the Western world was exploiting their resources.
It can’t last of course. For years people have been claiming the resources are finite and will soon be used up, yet until the recent explosion of affluence in China, there has never been any real sign of it happening, and there is now a real fear it will happen sooner rather than later. Yes there are unexplored oil fields to be
exploited but common sense tells us that even these will be used, and soon!
The answer? Well one would be to start producing oil from crops… but as this increases, so world food production has decreased with the result that basic necessities has risen dramatically in price leaving millions in danger of starvation. The obvious alternative is to reduce dependence on oil, but this is proving harder than you’d think… despite rapidly increasing costs to consumers!
Perhaps the best long term answer would be to shift to renewable resources such as utilising solar energy, but research into sustainable energy sources isn’t being seriously followed up by the largest oil consuming countries.
If we’re to maintain our current standards of living into the next centuries then people need to act now… if it isn’t already too late. Our limited oil reserves should be put to more important uses than moving small numbers of people around the planet, consumption needs to be curtailed and soon, but the only way to do this is to provide an alternative that isn’t being seriously looked for. Meanwhile we bury our heads in the sand and wait for a miracle.
The Eclectic Interweb 