by Noel Cleland
The tragedy in the Gulf will haunt us for years to come, as different elements of the devastation come to light. The news reminds us of how many times our modern way of life comes at the peril of the planet. In fact these crude oil catastrophes happen more often than we care to know about. The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation is keeping track of the more than 9,500 spills in the past 40 years – (and the Exxon Valdez didn’t even make the top 20 at only twelve million gallons). Just look at the 5 worst prior to the Deepwater Horizon:
1. Kuwait (1991) – 520 million gallons
Iraqi forces opened the valves of several oil tankers in order to slow the invasion of American troops. The oil slick was four inches thick and covered 4000 square miles of ocean.
2. Mexico (1980) – 100 million gallons
An accident in an oil well caused an explosion which then caused the well to collapse. The well remained open, spilling 30,000 gallons a day into the ocean for a full year.
3. Trinidad and Tobago (1979) – 90 million
During a tropical storm off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago, a Greek oil tanker collided with another ship, and lost nearly its entire cargo.
4. Russia (1994) – 84 million gallons
A broken pipeline in Russia leaked for eight months before it was noticed and repaired.
5. Persian Gulf (1983) – 80 million gallons
A tanker collided with a drilling platform which, eventually, collapsed into the sea. The well continued to spill oil into the ocean for seven months before it was repaired.
Meanwhile, we wait for the corporations and the politicians to come up with a solution that will keep this from happening again. The problem is, it will happen again. The larger our demand for petroleum, the more exploration for oil, and the more accidents that can and will occur. Although we may not be ready to completely give up our cars and get our homes off the grid, there are things we can do as individuals that will help reduce our oil addiction. Our demand created this problem and so our personal choices can be part of the solution. Public transportation, bicycling, and car pooling are all direct ways of reducing your thirst for gas. But don’t stop there! You can also install fluorescent lights, use a clothesline instead of a dryer, or adjust your thermostat higher to reduce your electricity usage. That’s right electricity also requires fossil fuel consumption. These are common sense ideas that most everyone is familiar with, but sometimes require too much of a lifestyle change.
How about something else that has a tremendous impact on our energy usage – our diet. Did you know that there is a gallon of gasoline in that hamburger? No, cows don’t drink gasoline directly, but look at what goes into that pound of beef in terms of energy consumption:
40% for fertilizer and pesticides
20% for the operation of field machinery
15% for transportation
10% for irrigation
05% for raising livestock
10% miscellaneous
The biggest culprit of fossil fuel usage in industrial farming is not transporting food or fueling machinery; it’s the chemicals. As much as forty percent of energy used in the food system goes towards the production of artificial fertilizers and pesticides.
It’s also true that some of those same energy numbers apply to vegetarian foods, but when you consider that it takes 14 pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef, then savings really mount up by not putting a cow on your plate.
What this all means is that the amount of gas you use isn’t just related to how you get from place to place, it’s also related to what you eat. Meatless diets require half as much fuel to produce than the standard American diet. The typical American could save more gas by going vegan than by giving up driving two days a week. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon recently estimated that by eliminating meat from your diet just one day per week, you would reduce the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as driving 1,000 miles less per year. Taking that a step further, they say that going entirely vegan would reduce the same amount of emissions as driving 8,000 miles less per year.
What about all of those miles the food traveled to get to your plate?
The systems that produce the world’s food supply are heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Vast amounts of oil and gas are used as raw materials and energy in the manufacture of fertilizers and pesticides, and as cheap and readily available energy at all stages of food production: from planting, irrigation, feeding and harvesting, through to processing, distribution and packaging. In addition, fossil fuels are essential in the construction and the repair of equipment and infrastructure needed to facilitate this industry, including farm machinery, processing facilities, storage, ships, trucks and roads. The industrial food supply system is one of the biggest consumers of fossil fuels and one of the greatest producers of greenhouse gases.
What You Can Do
Buy foods grown locally. The equation is simple: the closer the farm is to you, the less fuel is needed to transport its food to your table. You can find local foods through our Eat Well Guide by visiting a local farmers market, or by joining a food co-op or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group.
Want to have lettuce that’s truly local? Plant a garden and grow your own fresh produce!
Avoid purchasing processed foods. These foods take more energy to produce (and have less nutritional value than whole foods). In addition, choose foods with minimal packaging. This reduces the energy used to produce the packaging and eliminates these materials from the waste stream.
Get the meat out! As much as Americans love to eat it, meat is the least fuel-efficient food we have. Large quantities of energy are required to cultivate, harvest, and ship animal feed, house, transport and slaughter animals, process and package their meat, and refrigerate it until it’s cooked.
So, let’s each make our oil leak smaller, and maybe BP can figure how to do the same!!!