Having No Fossil Fuels Will Take Us Back to the Stone Age

When I awake in the morning, the first thing I do is shave with my Norelco shaver, holding the plastic case made from petroleum. I then take my blood-pressure medicine, which is made from petroleum, held in plastic containers, also made from petroleum. To take my medicine, I drink water purified by a petroleum product out of a plastic cup made from petroleum. Then I need to take food with my pills, so I eat a banana shipped from South America by vehicles that run on petroleum and consume yogurt held in a plastic container and consume it with a plastic spoon; both plastics petroleum derivatives. I also notice most of the food in my house is preserved by being covered in plastic containers. All plastics are ultimately derived from petroleum.

Next comes my morning shower in our remodeled bathroom. The shower stall is all plastic (made from petroleum) except the glass doors, which require fossil fuels to produce the heat required to mold the glass. Next, I dress myself with clothes that are part-cotton and part-artificial fibers, such as polyester or nylon, also made from, you guessed it, petroleum. Then I comb my hair, or what is left of it, with a brush made from plastic made from petroleum. Next, I spread some hand-face cream made from petroleum, then wipe the excess off and throw the tissue in the nearby waste basket made from petroleum. Then, after using the toilet, I put the plastic lid made from petroleum, down. As I leave the bathroom, I admire the newly painted wall color, containing color pigments and binders made from petroleum. I finally slip on my walking shoes constructed from materials made from petroleum. Next, I may glance at the new Village Reporter newspaper that uses various ink colors made from petroleum.

My dog, Rudy is, by this time, getting impatient. After I locate his plastic dog leash made from petroleum, we are ready to go. The grass outside looks green due to the fertilizer made from petroleum. As I walk toward the fairgrounds, I notice the black-top road, also made from petroleum. As we walk, I admire the different-colored vinyl siding on the homes nearby made from petroleum. Once home, I have to begin working on several papers for my publisher using my Apple computer, the plastic shell and many of the internal parts made from petroleum. Using my plastic mouse, made from petroleum, I search for my book that I am completing the final editing on, and the landline phone rings, which plastic case is made from petroleum. It turns out it is a junk call wanting to sell me something I don’t want or need.

At this time my wife asks me to drive to Millers Grocery to pick up an ingredient she needs to bake a batch of cookies. I drive to the store in my Chrysler and notice that much of the interior and the seats are made out of plastic or vinyl, both made from petroleum. As I drive to Millers, I note my car needs gasoline, which is made from petroleum. When I return home a news report states that the intransigent Republicans are calling out President Biden for ending the Keystone XL Pipeline and wasting many billions of dollars on unused pipes that now have to be sold for scrap, or so they claim. Then they complained about Biden greatly limiting new drilling for petroleum in an effort to reduce fossil-fuel use to deal with global warming; oh, excuse me, um, “climate change.” Then someone reminds us that under the Trump administration, the U.S. was a major energy exporter; now we have to purchase billions of dollars of petroleum from some of our adversaries, such as Venezuela and Iran. It makes sense to me that Biden's critics are correct, and he is taking us back to the Stone Age. Our entire Western world is built on fossil fuels. Before fossil fuels, 90 percent of the adult males in the Western world were forced to work at back-breaking, manual-labor jobs. Now, in the Western world, only two percent of adult males are required to perform this heavy work.  But what do I know? I majored in Chemistry focusing on petrochemicals for my graduate work at Miami University, not Political Science.