Mark - Thank you posting this article. I hung on every beautifully-written lucid word. It brings a sharp focus to many things I have pondered in the past few years. I live and work in an area with six very large oil refineries within six to ten miles. I know a senior chemist working in one, and two fire chiefs working in two of the others. It was pointed out to me years ago by one of these men that his workplace was the newest refinery on the continent, and it was already over twenty-five years old. He knew of no plans to build any newer ones. Fires and industrial accidents are common and the senior managements are not only cavalier about the situation, but in all cases uncommunicative, even when the local authorities attempt to force them to shut down temporarily to see to safety measures. I can see that they don't care about anything except processing as much as they can run thru the system as quickly as possible without incurring any further production costs or capital investment. And charging the drivers closest to the refineries more per gallon than anywhere else in the country... I can't be very hopeful about enough people changing their lifestyles to make a difference--it is just too easy to go along in the same old manner until they reach the end of the road. The other bothersome item is the ever-burgeoning world population; six billion is 'way over sustainable limits, even if everything was shared out equally, and it won't be... The end of oil is only one of the bad items on our plate, but it will most probably be the first one we will collectively gag on in our highly-dependent culture. I cannot think of a single item in my office or my home, that does not require the use of petrochemicals in its manufacture or production. I have spent my entire working life in a business that could not exist without it--and that is just the production processes, never mind all the rest of what we daily use and toss and never think of how it came to be... Not only do I mourn Mike Neligh because of his words, and mind, and heart, but I look about me in the course of my day and begin to mourn all I have used and enjoyed and known, because these are the last years and days of this level of insouciant materialism. As we continue to squander merrily off the edge, remember to hold precious that which will become even more rare. Color requires oil to carry the pigments. '1984' was not written and played in tones of grey merely as a stylistic device... Who will decide what the last oil should be used to produce? I'll bet it won't be the little people. Joan _______________________________________________ Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
