A Day Without Oil

I woke up late today because my alarm clock didn’t go off. Wait there is no alarm clock on my nightstand, just a pile of copper gears. I reach for my cellphone but all that’s where it should be is some solder. What’s going on? I jump out of bed and run to the bathroom. Something is really wrong. There is plywood on my floor where carpet should be. And someone has stolen my toothbrush. I run to the closet for my clothes but there are no clothes in my closet. Why? Because the farmer didn’t plant cotton, didn’t harvest cotton, didn’t ship cotton to the gin and the weavers couldn’t weave so the designers had nothing to design, and the truckers had nothing to deliver.

I frantically make my way to the kitchen to grab a bite.But there is no bite to grab. The grocer had nothing to put on his shelf because the trucker couldn’t deliver what the farmer couldn’t produce.

There is absolutely nothing in my house to cover my nakedness. I run outside to my garage only to see other naked people panicking, looking totally confused. In my garage where my totally electric car sat last night, is a pile of bare copper wires and a smattering of metal.

By this time my embarrassment from being naked has diminished somewhat, so I run to the street to catch a cab in order to get to my business to check on things there. But there are no cabs. I run (gingerly) the 20 blocks to my office. Once there I see nothing but bare floors and piles of bare wires where phones and computers once sat.

Then a very strange thought came to my mind. A line from the 1967 movie The Graduate.

“Plastics.There’s a great future in plastics.”

In 1967, oil was $2.92 per barrel and gas was $0.33 per gallon. Yes, our consumption of oil has increased because of cars, airplanes and other conveniences like A/C. However, our lives are dependent on oil in so many ways to which we never give a thought.

Those who malign and protest oil need to realize, a day without oil would be a very different day indeed.