I heard about somebody making a 1500-mile (~2500 km) journey to protest oil pipeline stuff…in a sports utility vehicle…alone (read: no carpool). That’s about 150 gallons (~600 liters) of fuel for the round trip. For this person, it seems that their actions say something different than their protests. I visited with about a dozen other people who made the journey to this same protest – but none of them burned through 150 gallons of petroleum to protest against petroleum.
I’m glad that people protest. It’s a critical part of how we get things to work out for the best. At the same time, I wonder if their time would be better spent demonstrating lifestyles that reduce their petroleum footprint, followed by telling the world about those lifestyles.1
(Shhh…sneaking in a political note. Did you know that the unsubsidized price for a gallon of fuel would be more than three times higher?2 I think that if we got rid of the oil subsidies, this problem would end instantly.)
If oil consumption can be reduced by even 10% across the board, then the effort going into building a new pipeline would fall into the space of “not worth it” and the companies would drop it.
Petroleum is used in many ways – such as producing plastic, pesticides, and fertilizer – but roughly 70% of petroleum is used for transportation. While there are a number of suggestions in this book for reducing the presence of petroleum products in your life, this chapter is going to focus primarily on petroleum used for transportation.
As with many things in this book, it would be impossible to provide an exact recipe for reducing petroleum use because every person comes from a different situation. For the sake of getting some ideas across that could have a solid impact on our petroleum footprint, I am going to simplify this whole discussion by suggesting a scenario that is extremely close to the US average…
Rudy lives in a house by himself and has exactly one car. Rudy uses 1000 gallons (~3800 liters) of fuel each year. 500 gallons (~1900 liters) go directly into his car and the other 500 gallons are indirect – from the stuff he buys. Mostly food. Rudy commutes to work each day, 25 minutes each way (the US average).
The following are some commonly offered solutions that you are probably already familiar with:
Taking exceptionally good care of your car:3 This is, unfortunately, by far, the most common suggestion for reducing fuel consumption. Perfect tire pressure, a well-tuned engine, clean air filters, etc., might save Rudy 25 gallons (~95 liters) per year.
Hypermiling:4 Hypermiling is a collection of techniques that help folks get better mileage with their existing vehicle. Things like driving slower, accelerating slower, gentler braking, and maybe even some small modifications to your vehicle. If Rudy does a little of this, he might save 20 gallons (~75 liters) per year. If he is super passionate about it, he might save 100 gallons (~380 liters) per year. If he gets to the top 1% of all people trying this, he might even save 180 gallons (~680 liters) per year.
Telecommuting twice a week:5 140 gallons (~530 liters) per year.
Reduce commute time: If Rudy commutes 5 minutes each way instead of 25 but still drives everywhere else, he might save 250 gallons (~950 liters) per year. Special note: Although this does save petroleum, most of the pollution associated with driving comes within the first 5 minutes of driving while you wait for the catalytic converter to kick in – so this doesn’t cut as much pollution as you might expect.
Get a car with better mileage:6 Switching from his thoroughly average car (25.5 mpg) to a Prius (50 mpg) would save Rudy 250 gallons (~950 liters) per year.
Telecommuting full time: 350 gallons (~1300 liters) per year.
Have no car and use public transportation: 450 gallons (~1700 liters) per year.
Walk or bike everywhere or get an electric car:7 Rudy saves 500 gallons (~1900 liters) per year. That’s HALF! – but only half.
I think that, for a lot of people, most of these ideas sound like living a less luxuriant life. Some people might even use the word ‘sacrifice.’ While these things will make an impact, we are looking for solutions that both solve problems and allow us to live a more luxuriant life. We can do better!
The following are some solutions you may not have considered that I think can have a huge impact:
Sharing a home:8 (Assuming Rudy still commutes) People just don’t need as much stuff. Even food can be purchased collectively. The reduction of overall stuff and food transportation costs saves Rudy a total of 150 gallons (~570 liters) per year. Note that these savings are right up there with being a superstar at hypermiling. And while this may sound like a heart-wrenching sacrifice featuring a slow death by a thousand petty dramas, I will address that problem later in this book.
Gardening: Rudy uses 500 gallons (~1900 liters) of petroleum per year for food. 200 gallons (~760 liters) is to fetch the food (direct), and 300 gallons (~1100 liters) is to produce, package, and transport the food to within Rudy’s fetching distance (indirect). Growing a really great garden and meeting half of his total food needs saves Rudy 250 gallons (~950 liters) per year. An utterly massive garden that meets 90% of his own food needs, and manages to provide 10% of the food needs of ten neighbors, saves 950 gallons (~3600 liters) per year. With acreage, Rudy might grow enough food to feed five people year-round and thus save 2500 gallons (~9500 liters) per year. That’s right, he would effectively use negative amounts of petroleum by reducing someone else’s footprint! To some people this might sound like a lot of work, but in chapter 17 I’ll talk about growing twice the food for one tenth the effort.
Telecommuting from a place where a group of people share resources and a gigantic garden: This is an attempt to paint a best-case scenario for petroleum footprint. This is a very large food system that is cared for by twenty people sharing resources on a large property. There are three cars shared by the group. Rudy finds himself driving somewhere about once a month – not because he is trying to reduce his footprint or make sacrifices for the greater good, but because he has a full, rich, and wonderful life where he is and he rarely wants to drive anywhere. Nearly all the food he eats comes from the property, and the property feeds another 100 people year round. Rudy’s portion of the group’s savings: 3000 gallons (~11,000 liters) per year! That’s the footprint of three people, and that’s just Rudy’s portion!
It might not be entirely true, but I think there is a whole lot of truth to it when Geoff Lawton9 says:
“All the world’s problems can be solved in a garden.”