If you are old enough, you remember the old “oil crisis”
that was one of the hallmarks of the Sorry Seventies…1970s, that is. Experts at
the time said that the world was running out of petroleum, or crude oil, and
that this “Energy
Crisis” was with us to stay. After all, the planet wasn’t making any more
black gold. We were told to expect rationing and a new normal lifestyle which
would likely include shivering in one’s dwelling in the cold months and
sweating in it in the warm ones. The family vehicle might have to be a Schwinn,
they said, but, hey, we just might be healthier.
Fast
forward until today. Welcome to the
new “oil crisis,” one in which oil companies and producing nations are
trying to weather historically low prices brought on by the “coronavirus
crisis” and the discovery of vast additional reserves of oil and the technology
to extract it. We have the bizarre reality that gasoline, a product derived
from crude oil, a non-renewable resource that has to be somehow extracted from
the ground with incredibly expensive, high-tech equipment, is now selling for
far less a gallon than the naturally and continually produced milk fairly
leaking from the bloated teats of the nation’s nearly 10 million dairy cows.
Milk: $2.49/gallon, gasoline $1.99/gallon…perhaps going to 99
cents a gallon. Damn that Big Oil! (What does that say about Big Dairy?)
With
gas prices like this, I plan to “self-quarantine” by driving around the neighborhood
in my car all day, hermetically-sealed in perpetual motion.
Ponder this: in the 1970s, experts
were certain that “global cooling” and an energy crisis were going to be two of
mankind’s most serious challenges. There were long lines at the pump and
rationing of gasoline was not unheard of. Nearly half a century later, experts
are warning us about global warming and the collapse of oil
prices.
And people are standing in long
lines and experiencing rationing of another vital product: toilet paper.
Apparently, experts are full of
crap. And so are we.
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