A Thing About Oil

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When people think about oil, what do they think about? Gasoline and diesel. Maybe some consider other things like propane and butane. Byproducts of refining processes. If someone's mind is particularly astute, they might think of simple petroleum jelly. But the fact is that nearly everything that exists in our lives is in some way or another, a product derived from oil. Our cell phones, for example. Our computers. Our television sets. All partly made from oil. Most of the parts inside our cars? Made from oil. Every single packaging from tubs of butter to sour cream to cottage cheese to milk jugs. All made from oil. Even an artificial heart is made from oil. I could go on and name all sorts of other things made from oil. But I don't need to. Because I could say it all in one word. Plastic. You see, oil is a carbon rich raw material. And plastic is a large carbon containing compound. Plastic is made from oil. Not only does this help us to understand the importance of fossil fuels in our everyday lives, it helps us to understand the impact of oil prices on inflationary pressures. Inflation is a product of many things, of course. Not caused by one single thing but a combination of things. But of those things, the cost of oil is a very large component. When everything we buy moves via diesel, and nearly everything we own exists via oil, the cost of transporting and making all these things is directly impacted by how much the oil costs. Beyond that, this desire to end the use of fossil fuels seems way more complicated when you consider that in order to truly get rid of it, you basically have to reinvent one of those most widely used things in the entire world. The plastic. Granted, we can create synthoil, derived from plants. And we already sort of do that with things like corn and soybeans, and in some places like Brazil, from sugar cane. But those synthoils only make up a very tiny portion of all oils used in energy production and certain kinds of plastics. In order to produce an alternative plastic product from synthoil, it would require a massive shift in crops from food supply to energy and carbon compounds to make all the things containing plastic that we need. Not only would it be hard to do that, it would be very expensive. Considering we haven't even solved the problem of hunger in many parts of the world, it would also be stupid. It is not to say that we should not explore new ideas and always work toward reinventing the wheel. But it is to say, why should we work so hard to try to fix something that works now? The easy part is getting the oil. And we know there is plenty of it as far as the eye can see. If necessity is the mother of all invention, the lack of necessity should be the reason we don't bother in the meantime. Besides, when most people think of oil, they only consider the diesel and gasoline. Few people consider the plastic. Just a little food for thought.