Boycott Big Oil

[arcadian]

Check out what comes up when you Google "Boycott Big Oil". Talk about message discipline:

PREPARE TO GIVE UP YOUR LIFE!!! You can't boycott big oil!!! We are everywhere!

Looks like big oil is very threatened by a boycott.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=boycott+big+oil&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

[Javaman]

1. So...

if you are to boycott, will you be giving up all the various products that are produced via oil as well?

My wife and I have made a concerted effort to try and remove all plastic products plus all byproducts produced by oil from our household.

Let me tell you, it's virtually impossible, but we continue to search for wood, metal or clothe alternatives.

[leftstreet]

2. I don't think that was the OP's point

I thought the issue was the corporate talking points stacked in line at Google, not the advisability of the boycott itself.

:shrug:

[anarch]

4. I don't see them as entirely corporate talking points

People need to understand what they will have to live without, or ration considerably, or find an alternative for in the coming decades.

[leftstreet]

5. Then why don't 'alternatives to oil' come up first on Google?

That'd be more useful and less corporate message discipline

[anarch]

7. because the search as entered is actually the title of an AP article

so there's like several dozen hits on it. But I take your point, it's just that I get a totally different message out of that...being that we need to change or die. I guarantee you none of us, if we live long enough, will have to worry about boycotting Big Oil after a while. Perhaps none of us will live that long. But the point I get from it all, aside from what you perceive as message discipline, is that there really is oil or some kind of petrochemical involved in very nearly everything that makes up our modern, convenient lifestyle. It will change profoundly over the next couple of hundred years, like it or not.

[anarch]

3. and any food that uses modern farming or transportation methods

so, grow your own or buy from someone local who doesn't use petroleum products. Or hunt and gather, but don't use any hunting implements that incorporate petroleum products, or any plastic gathering buckets and so on. Good luck!

[Javaman]

6. We have a very large garden, actually...

And we only buy our balance from a local farmers market. That includes our beef and eggs as well.

The one farm we get our veggies from, doesn't use any fossil fueled equipment. Hand work and bio-diesel is how they do it.

The cattle ranch, uses a closed system. Much like Polyface farms. They grow their own feed as well.

We don't use plastic buckets, we have canvas ones we have bought, sadly, from India. (none are made here in the US any longer).

All our gardening equipment is wood and metal, no plastic.

The plastic we do have to use, like our 330 gallon water totes, are plastic, but all the material is recyclable.

No one makes rubber garden hoses anymore, they are all plastic, so we use metal watering cans.

The list goes on and on, believe me, we are really trying.

[anarch]

8. that's great! you are ahead of your time

living where I do, I can only hope that either I die or something changes before the world catches up with you.

[Javaman]

9. I live in Austin...

It an oasis in an other-wise crazy state.

Given the state of the climate change, it will be nothing but an uphill battle from here. :(

My biggest issue it water. Our barrels ran out last summer around this time, so we invested in 2 huge totes this year. (we are thinking of getting another one)

Things were looking pretty bleak rain-wise until today. :) We finally got some today. (rare for this time of the year)

But still, it's a constant struggle to manage the watering of our garden. Last count, 160 square feet, that's not including herbs, fruits and berries. :)

[pipi_k]

15. You make a very good point...

It's nearly impossible.

Even giving up one thing...plastic buckets...opens up a new problem...namely, having to use canvas buckets made in India.

I'm sitting here looking around my kitchen. So much plastic stuff. Right down to the liquid detergent used for washing dishes...even if it's not produced from oil, it usually comes in...plastic bottles.

Coffee maker...lots of plastic there. I could use a French Press, but even that, aside from the glass carafe and metal frame, has plastic in the lid.

Some of my pots and pans have plastic handles. Although as they wear out I'm replacing them with cast iron and stainless steel. I buy wooden cooking utensils whenever I can.

Medication. Prescription drugs come in plastic bottles. Mr P is on lots of meds so those bottles are literally everywhere. His insulin injectors...plastic.

there's no way to escape it...

[backscatter712]

10. What about bioplastic?

It is possible to make plastics out of corn, rather than oil. It's gone into products from shopping bags to surfboards.

[Javaman]

12. Actually, you can make plastic out of a number of things...

corn only being one, potato and milk are the other two that I can think of off the top of my head.

Milk "plastic" was actually pretty popular at the turn of the 20th century. Google "milk buttons".

Also there are now "plastic" utensils made from potatoes now as well.

bio-plastic is good per say, as long as it is compostable. Many make that claim, but sadly, what they call compostable and what I consider compostable are two very different things.

Compostable to me means, it breaks down within a year. Not several and still counting.

So, the jury is still out for me on the bio-plastic until I find one that doesn't out live me. ;)

[Swamp Rat]

11. I am

:hi:

[taterguy]

13. I only purchase oil made by independent craftsmen

Somewhat less snarktasticly, I don't think a boycott would be feasible.

But if everyone made a concerted effort not to use oil when they didn't have to, Big Oil would shit bricks.

Based on my neighborhood, I think a 20% drop in consumption could happen overnight, if people wanted it badly enough.

[Javaman]

14. Exactly right.

conservation is what needs to be done, but no one wants to do that.

They are just choosing to displace their misplaced anger with something they feel they have control over.

Which is only a masquerade for doing something instead of actually doing something like conserving.

All good energy policies start with conservation.

[Orsino]

16. If we could boycott Big Oil, Big Oil wouldn't be big.