• mojo_raisin@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Almost everything about modern American life is based on oil. If we didn’t “liberate” countries on top of fossil reserves we’d send ourselves back to 1800. So in a fucked up way, the things many of us consider “freedom”, i.e. the “freedom to drive where I want”, the freedom to grow crops, etc is in the Middle East.

    Even if we used 100% electric cars and buses

    • Tires are made from oil
    • We can only make enough food because we can make fertilizer out of oil, and use oil to mine for phosphorus and potassium
    • Plastic is made from oil and most of our stuff is made out of plastic

    Without oil, only nuclear power has the energy density to even come close to supporting modern American life, but of course, nuclear could only cover the energy side of the equation, not the materials side. You can’t make tires out of nuclear power.

    • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Don’t think we even got enough oil to justify the cost. More likely it was to dump money into the MIC, and generally distract from the erosion of privacy.

    • marcos@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Hum… So that makes it’s ok for one to just go there and take it?

      Anyway, last I checked the US produced enough oil for their needs. Besides, ammonia and urea are made with natural gas, not oil. Plastic is also mostly made of natural gas, but it’s a general name for lots and lots of different things, so it varies.

      • mojo_raisin@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Hum… So that makes it’s ok for one to just go there and take it?

        No, I suppose the agenda of my comment was unclear. I was implying that modern American “freedom” is inherently unsustainable and only possible due to oil, no alternatives suffice. The answer isn’t more oil, it’s changing how we live.

        Anyway, last I checked the US produced enough oil for their needs. Besides, ammonia and urea are made with natural gas, not oil. Plastic is also mostly made of natural gas, but it’s a general name for lots and lots of different things, so it varies.

        I sometimes use “oil” to refer to fossil resources in general.