More chain letter...

[c9]

Another copy of the damned "gas is expensive, boo-hoo" letter today. I do feel for those who have no choice but to own a car and buy gas to work and feed their kids, and so forth. But those aren't the people who own computers, have high-speed internet, and forward chain letters, in my experience. Anyway. This time it was on an actual mailing list -- a GLBT issues mailing list actually, so rather rudely irrelevant content -- and I was able to respond to all guilt-free:

Hi everyone

This chain letter is just a made-up complaint about gas prices, and nothing has actually "been calculated." If you don't buy gas on that day, you'll probably just buy more gas the day before or the day after.

I suggest we all start thinking about the bigger picture: Oil is running out. Many experts agree we have reached what's called "Peak Oil," which means that we've used half the oil on Earth. Why is halfway a problem? Because we're still using more every year -- to the extent that it will ALL be gone in less than 35 years. So you should expect gas prices to keep on going up, not down. Individual gas stations are not screwing you, they're being screwed from above by the basic facts of the industry.

It's a tough cost for many, but higher gas prices do encourage less car driving (less pollution) and more research into better energy replacement (less oil needs). I consider those to be very good things.

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

Cam

Another list writer replied with this response, which is also nice:

Consider this:

If gasoline prices remain high, people will be that much more likely
to purchase fuel efficient vehicles, to plan their car trips more
efficiently, to car-pool, and where possible to use public
transportation or to walk or bike. This will decrease the emission
of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Both our ozone layer and
our non-renewable supplies of petroleum will last longer. The
overall health of the population will be improved due to cleaner air
and more exercise. We won't have to pay as much in taxes for road
maintenance because fewer vehicles on the roads will mean less wear
and tear. The rates of death and injury due to automobile accidents
will drop as well.

I could go on and on, but I think by now you see my point!

Feel free to send this on to anyone who's sent you the message re: gas prices.

I hope this thing dies a quick death, even though it seems unlikely.

Comments

[miket61.livejournal.com]

I think Snopes.com said the original gas-out letter was from 1994.

Hurricane Katrina has caused gas prices in Alabama to go up sixty cents a gallon (19 cents a litre CDN) in one day. This, of course, is price gouging.

The problem we have in Atlanta is that public transit has a stigma - you have to be dirty, nasty, probably black, and prone to peeing in corners to want to ride the subway. So businesses are relocating to Alpharetta, which is twenty miles north of town and fifteen miles north of the end of the train line. My office was seven minutes away on back roads when I started there - now that they've moved, it's half an hour on a good day, an hour and a half on a bad one.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Agreed, and that's not just Atlanta, that's North America. The prevailing attitude outside of NYC, and downtown TO, is that public transit is for the poor smelly people. Until that changes, we're just setting ourselves up worse and worse.

[socalledeconomy.livejournal.com]

Someone just posted the same chain letter on the after_b community.


GO GET EM!!!

[primary-suspect.livejournal.com]

Not just Alabama either, this morning in Ottawa it was $1.19/litre. I did hear that GW is opening up the US fuel reserves which dropped the prices of oil, but who knows if it will change the gas prices at the pumps.

[primary-suspect.livejournal.com]

I think this response is better worded than your last and more likely to get people thinking (maybe). Do you mind if I steal it? ;-)

I was going to say the same thing as you, I doubt it will have any major impact. Like you said, people will still use the same amount of gas, they will just buy it before or after the "boycott" date so it will probably just make for a boring day for the gas pump employees. If you really wanted to make a difference in their pockets, you would have to get everyone to all walk/ride/bus/train for a couple of weeks which we all know will never happen.

In your last post you said "-and yet we still pay less for gas than we do for bottled water."

Thats not really true. Sure it costs $1 for a 500ml bottle of water but we don't buy our gas in single 500ml bottles either, we buy it "bulk". You can buy a case of 24 bottles of water for under $5 so that is cheaper than gas since you are going to be buying more than 500ml of gas at a time too.

[primary-suspect.livejournal.com]

Oooh just noticed something. You said the 1st. The chain letter that I got says boycott on the 10th... So I guess we have multiple chain letters with different info going around... hehehe

[c9.livejournal.com]

Sure, go ahead and grab it.

The water thing was just to make people think, it was of course a generalization that has flaws.

[c9.livejournal.com]

I should edit to "day before or day after."

[c9.livejournal.com]

Now done.

[bonoboboy.livejournal.com]

Someone just copied a similar chain letter (don't buy fuel one such and such day this month!) to toronto. Not only did everyone pretty much say that it wouldn't help prices, but I had to pipe in about supply/demand economics and peak oil.

[cap-hill-latte.livejournal.com]

"...get everyone to all walk/ride/bus/train for a couple of weeks which we all know will never happen."

A quick natural disaster that takes out roads would fix that. After the World Series quake in the Bay Area closed down several major arteries ridership on public transportation shot up. And stayed up even after those roads were put back into service.

[primary-suspect.livejournal.com]

You mean like the one thats happening right now? ;-)

In Ottawa it was the opposite, when the bus drivers went on strike, people realized they didn't *need* the bus and there were faster ways to get to work, so even after they went back into service, ridership was lower than before. ;(

[cap-hill-latte.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I didn't explain that properly. It wasn't that public transit wasn't available - it was that it was the ONLY reasonable option.

How did you notice that OC Transpo went on strike? Don't tell me that you've ever lowered yourself to public transit since getting your car? ;-)

[primary-suspect.livejournal.com]

Its ok I got what you meant, just saying that the opposite of people using less public transportation happened here.

What do you mean "lowered" myself? I have take the bus at least once or twice since I got my car... Actually that happened when I was a co-op student in winter so its not like I could easily ride my bike @ -30C. We ended up carpooling with a guy who also worked at the same place. We gave him gas money instead of paying for a bus pass so he was happy with that.

People actually were being friendly. People who still go to the bus stops and people in cars would stop to pick them up and give them rides.

[cap-hill-latte.livejournal.com]

I'm just amused by the irony of someone who lives 17 miles from work and never takes public transit talking about getting people thinking about the impact of their gas use, and saying that the only way to make a difference is to convice people not to drive.

[primary-suspect.livejournal.com]

What I do is irrelevant. I'm just saying that boycotting the pumps for 1 day wouldn't do anything, you would have to make it in *weeks* timeframe.

Its not that I *wouldn't* take public transportation its just that there is nothing decent available 17 miles from work. By car its 25 minutes, by bus its 1.5 hours. Ask my wife is she is willing to look after the baby for another 2 hours a day by herself. ;-) Besides, you will notice that I haven't been complaining about gas prices...

We are actually saving lots of gas $$ because only one of us is driving to work now and that person is using the more fuel efficient vehicle so we haven't been taking a hit at all.

[cap-hill-latte.livejournal.com]

I didn't say that you were complaining about gas prices, I said that you were talking about getting people to think about their gas use and chose alternative transportation options. Hearing someone who CHOSE to live 17 miles from work in an area without reasonable public transportation options talk about how other people should change their habits is just funny to me - that's all.

[primary-suspect.livejournal.com]

Oh ok. But I'm not saying that other people *should* change their habits, I'm just saying to actually make an impact on the oil companies bottom line, they would have to boycott for more than a day.

Also, I chose to live there because I can actually afford to buy the gas I need to run the car I have. If other people aren't as smart, thats not my problem... ;-)

[cap-hill-latte.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, I keep forgetting that I shouldn't worry about the larger impact of the choices I make so long as I have the cash to cover the immediate cost to me.

You'll forgive me if I don't have time to continue this conversation, I'm going to spend the rest of my morning looking for a patch of rainforest to buy and burn down - you know, because I can afford to. :-).

[primary-suspect.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Welcome to America...

[miket61.livejournal.com]

When I go to NYC, or Toronto, or Chicago, I never rent a car. My last experience on NYC's subways was not pleasant - if you translated the Charlie-Brown's-Teacher voice on the P.A. system, you'd discover that the train entering the station wasn't actually a local but an express, whose next stop would be Rutland, Vermont...

I can walk to a train station, but work is in the other direction. If I need to do something in town after work, I just stay in the car and go past my exit.

[miket61.livejournal.com]

No one noticed that Hurricane Ivan caused similar problems last year. Of course, with the price of oil being in the forefront, the opportunities to gouge made a relatively minor inconvenience into a miserable chaotic mess.

[primary-suspect.livejournal.com]

Yeah. By the end of the day yesterday, gas was back down to $1.02/litre but today it was back up to $126.9 which is insane! You can't tell me that anything that just happened already affected the gas in the pumps right now.