Don't We First Need to Use LESS???

Question

Isn't most of the problem that we use too much oil to begin with.

I know the oil companies are making huge profits but it's supply and demand.

We have become fat and lazy. How often do you see someone driving a huge gas guzzler like a Chevy Suburban, Toyota Tundra of a Hummer on their own?

Don't we need to let go of this image and adopt one that suits our needs?

We need to drive small cars that have over 30mpg in the city. Or mopeds with over 70mpg for our daily commutes.

Think about this if we could halve our oil consumption we would hardly have to buy any from overseas which would mean we wouldn't have to pay high prices.

But this won't happen because people have the idea that let someone else cut back and not them.

Answer 1

When you say "we" do you mean Americans? If so I agree. I have adopted a very conservative view on using gas and power. I don't have a car but I do walk everywhere and try not to use cabs. I also conserve water and energy by turning off my lights and A/C when not in the room and taking mostly waterless showers (lathering my body with the water off). I've converted to the energy efficient light bulbs where possible. They don't fit in my wall fixtures but I don't use those much and I've been very cautious in trying to not overeat. No more thirds or even seconds.

Good idea.

Answer 2

true toyta sells cars that use up a lot of gas, but doesn't toyota sell hybrids too?

Answer 3

You are seeing more people conserve, but you can only conserve so much and the oil companies have shown that they don't nessecarily follow the law of supply and demand. When demand goes up, they refine less so the price will go up and when demand goes down, they refine more so prices go up. Besides, some people don't have the option of driving a moped to work. Many people (through their own stupidity) must comute very long distances over highways, were mopeds would not be safe. What about the people who are carpooling, are they supposed to fit 5 people in a Mini Cooper? Did it occur to you that some people drive those huze gas guzzlers like a Suburban or Tundra (not the Hummer) for work because they need to tow and haul things, or go on rough roads (or even off road)? And don't say that they shouldn't drive the truck if they aren't working because that may be the only vehicle they own or they may be taking it home. Contrary to popular beleif, there are people other than you ("you" is not aimed at anyone in particular) are trying to conserve as much as they can?

Answer 4

You are totally right.  I now drive a GMC Jimmy SUV that I have had for awhile and plan to get rid of.  I will take a loss on it, but I dont care.  Im going to a smaller car ASAP.  I have begun to recycle with a fever also. I am so sorry that I did'nt do more of this in the past, but better late than never.  I no longer live near public transportation (bus, trolley, etc) but I have greatly limited any trips to the store and do not make uneccessary out of the way trips for anything.  My daughter was recently in the Netherlands and was amazed by the number of bicycles used.  Any cars were ultra small.

Answer 5

Yes, we need a dual edged approach of first decreasing the amount of energy we consume to live a decent quality of life (which is not about reducing quality of life but rather making it more efficient) and secondly start using alternative methods to produce the energy that we do and will invariably need to consume to support a global population of over 6 billion people.