Lighten Up: Oil research leads to new ideas

The funny thing is that my personal/political minor league obsession with petroleum has probably been the source of the most Lighten Up changes. OK, actually the internet probably counts as the highest source for chnages - but oil is at the root of those changes.

If I chose to frame it that way, I think I could make a case for everything that I've done being about oil. The current situation that we have gotten ourselves into with oil in this country, for me, represents a serious lack of - well, a lot of things: planning and foresight, thoughtfulness, sustainability. It speaks to me of where the trouble - in my own life - actually resides.

The kind of lifestyle that we are leading here in "my country tis of thee" is literally fueled by petroleum - and not just because we have sprawling cities that don't lend themselves to public transportation.

• Our basic foods log many miles to get to us - and even more if they come from a fast food chain that ships everything to some home base and then distributes from there.
• Our obsession with disposability has created a huge plastics industry which relies - as you know - on petroleum as raw material. Plastics also add a lovely range of new and exciting chemicals to our lives which allow us the pleasure of wondering about the long term effects of phthalates. ( It also makes me wonder why I know how to spell a word that looks unpronounceable....)
  
• Many health and beauty products use petroleum (and phthalates) as stable (and relatively inexpensive) bases for their specialized formulas.
• And, of course, oil is an input for creating electricity.

But all of my changes didn't start with my oil obsession, though. That is just one way that I can tell the story. It can be told from a number of other directions, too, so I'll start with those and try to track them through for you in the next few days.