Why I love oil

While some of us may still get a visceral kick out of the “smell-of fuel-in-the-morning”, with its memories of summer boating and muscle cars - no one, I think, craves a lungful of exhaust. 

And I don’t think it is the exclusive domain of the ecologically minded to dream of, yearn and agitate for a richer, fairer, safer and cooler world.

No one, save for the Fossil-Fuel giants, is against the job-creating idea of benign, affordable energy for all and forever.

Where we environmentalists too often diverge from the mainstream and the Business Community, is in our demands for perfect, immediate solutions, and in our rejection of any transitional strategy that fails to meet our idealized standards.

This has the unfortunate effect of sometimes placing us in opposition not just to those causing the problem, but to those offering solutions. We seem to forget that It doesn’t have to be perfect to be good and just cause it’s not the best doesn’t make it bad.

Business however sees things differently. They look for what is possible, practical and profitable. And contrary to the typical environmental reaction of being against Business, as a permaculturalist, I have come to see the truth in Bill Mollison’s paradigm shifting axiom “ The problem is the solution”.

Now you might be wondering how to overcome the obvious disaster that is Big Oil’s “business-as-usual” - And the answer is you can’t and nor can they. “Unsustainable”, in case there is any doubt, means literally that it can’t be sustained. It can only be propped up by perverse subsidies borne of political strangleholds.

And like a cancer run rampant and unchecked in a human body, the cancerous behavior of business-as-usual guarantees its demise. If nothing is done, the cancer will consume its host and die along with it.

But like a human immune-system response, anti-bodies are being created in the form of Green responses to the eco-century’s demands. The companies that rely on bully-boy lobbyists and not innovation to ensure their survival are doomed.

Why ?

Because if you fix the problem and your competitors don't, you get the business.

I love oil not because it runs my car and powers my bus, not even because it largely grows and ships my food.

No, I love oil for the1001 by-products we take for granted and rely on  and especially because it is the seed-stock with which we will build tomorrow’s sustainable economy. And for that reason, it is vital that it be conserved, preserved and protected.

How? Business innovation that delivers (IN SPITE of government foot-dragging), factor four and even factor ten efficiency improvements.

Until perfect solutions arrive, I applaud and champion the many companies who have understood the obvious and are acting on it for the benefit of people, planet and profits: saving and replacing fossil-fuels works better and costs less than buying and burning them.

The problem is the solution.