10 Reasons Why High Gas Prices Are Good

There was an interesting article, 10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas, on the Times website. It did give some good examples of how the high cost in gas is forcing changes.

Yes there is good to be found in just about anything if you look hard enough. So people are being forced to change their lives because of the high cost of gas. The problem is that the changes that need to be done now are not being done. People are being forced to change or go hungry. Their money is going to pay for gas and they don’t have money to buy the new products that will save them money.

It does us no good to question why alternative sources for fuel and power were not being invested into the last 30 years. It is not like we did not know this was going to happen. Most people just assumed it would not happen in his or her life. Well it is and now we have to deal with it before it takes us down. I want to be able to feed my kids not worry about being able to get to work because I have to decide to put gas in the car or food on the table.

We need to have bigger changes that just looking for better fuel-efficient cars or ones that run on alternative fuels. We need to start using solar panels, wind harvesters, water wheels, and the new H20 engines. India is doing it look at the new National Action Plan on Climate Change the Prime Minister of India just put into place. Holland and other countries have been doing this for years. We need to start incorporating their technology and know how into our way of life. Stop thinking about consumption and start thinking about creating energy. It is not good enough to try and conserve now, it is time to actually change how we do things.

If we could put solar panels on every home, and building and use the energy generated from just that think about how much of a change that alone would make. Add wind harvesters in open areas, some that we cannot live on or farm, and there is a huge source of energy. We have a lot of options now, but we need people and companies to start investing into the changes and doing it. Then we need the Government to support it, and make it easer for people to start changing. New buildings should be required to incorporate the use of solar energy technology and other forms of harvesting and conserving energy. There is a lot that can be done, but it is not being done even though we all know it needs to be done. Why can India as a country make these changes but we don’t?

The cost of food is going up, up, and away and there is no end in sight

It is going to get harder and harder to be able to buy food as prices increase. This is a somewhat forgotten side affect of the increase in oil prices. Sure people are saying it is the cost to ship food that is increasing prices. However people are forgetting that most farms these days use a lot of energy and fuel just to run. The price increases in oil, gas, and subsequently everything else must be just about killing the small and large farms. It is not like days long ago when you needed a horse to plant and harvest, and you milked the cows by hand. Everything is pretty much automated or requires specialized heavy-duty equipment. So now it just costs more to grow or raise food, so the end cost of our food goes up a little here.

Then we ship it all over to wholesalers, factories and stores. The shipping has increased in price so the cost of food goes up a little more there. If it needs to be processed or even just sorted the price will go up even more. Sorting and processing is usually done by equipment that uses energy. Very little is done by hand anymore. Even if it was done by hand the cost just to light a sorting or processing area has gone up and the cost gets tacked onto food. I don’t want to even think about the large factories that are full of equipment and machines all designed to reduce the labor force, increase productivity and sucks back energy.

Then things finally make it to the store. Well the store is facing higher costs in shipping and running the store. So food prices go up. To cut some costs they could reduce the air conditioner and lower lights but they will still have an electric bill to deal with. The increase cost has to be covered by increasing the price of food. In the end we are going to be paying more for our food.

Some people might argue that electricity should not be affected by the cost of oil, but it is. Think about just the cost to mine and transport coal, the cheapest source of energy right now. That is going to go up because they use gas. So it is going to be even harder to buy food. You have to spend more on electricity, oil, gas and any retail items. Then with what is left you have to stretch to buy food, which costs more. This is going to hit the poor so badly that the already over stretched food banks may not be able to handle the need.

What is in our food and how will it change us?

For some time now I have been a fan of Kim Harrison and her Dead Witch Walking series with Rachel Morgan. I have enjoyed how her characters have evolved, and her books are interesting in an alternate universe type of way. I love the mix of mythological characters that are all based in history and fairytales. What I find very interesting is the concept that humanity became more interested in chemical and biological science instead of space and machine weapons in this reality. And yet they still manage to almost kill themselves off.

What makes this so interesting is that in the last ten to twenty years we have started investing a lot more into chemical and biological research. The fact that we are cloning and changing the biological makeup of our food falls right into her stories. The idea is that someone created a weapon based on biological science that made it out of the research lab to make changes in a genetically altered strain of tomato. It causes a change that almost destroyed the human race. That is something we can actually do today, be it by human error or by design. The very fact that we are making changes in our food has already made changes in us, the people who eat it. It is true, you are what you eat.

If there is a cow that produces unusual large amounts of milk we don’t just breed to keep that trait anymore, we clone the cow. There are cows that have been genetically altered to produce more milk. Then we feed our chickens growth hormones to speed up their development so they can be sold sooner. Um, we are eating those hormones when we eat the chicken. Then we have the changes in our vegetables and fruits. They are changed to grow faster and larger, and sometimes changed so far from the original source that it becomes a new strain. This can be seen in a lot of grains, which is used to feed animals and us. It is scary when you think about this. What are all these changes in genetics and hormones doing to us?

I used to think people buying organic were just funny, now I think they have the right idea. The problem is that it is too expensive for the average family. So now we have girls starting the change to womanhood before they are even teenagers. There are girls out there who are 10 years old having menstrual cycles and accelerated development. They look like they are 18 not 10. We have children growing exceedingly fast, and taller then any other time in history. Now I do know that as adults we are getting fatter, and the same hormones and chemicals that are used to grow our food can cause this in some part. A fat pig is a good pig for market, not so good when we eat it with the hormones that caused it to get so fat. Don’t get me wrong; the side of fries and large pop with our ham sandwich does not help any. But you get the idea.

How long before something mutates and becomes harmful to us? Or the changes we have made to our foods changes us?