[LINK] [OT] The Australian Economy Runs on oil.

[Kim Holburn]

There's a lot of things we do that we could easily change and gain benefits from efficiency. 

I have noticed for a number of years a curious thing:  In many other countries as a general rule, when you eat at a restaurant, the smaller and more remote the village the better the food.  In Australia it seems to me the opposite is true.  Go to a small country town, say on the Hay Plains for instance and the food is terrible.  The best food in Australia is in the large cities.

My theory about why this is, is that our food distribution system is based on oil.  All our horticultural produce is freighted in to the capitals and back out to the towns.  The result is that the lettuce in country towns is limp iceberg only, sometimes in sealed manufactured blister packs with satchels of dressing.  In other countries, from long experience they grow a lot of their own food right there locally.  When you eat in a small town in many countries you get the result of the best local produce.  We Australians, only have this silly system because of our use of oil (and concentration of food corporates).  Fixing this could only do us good.  Will putting up the price of oil fix this?  I don't know.


On 2011/Feb/28, at 10:46 AM, Tom Koltai wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au 
>> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Gordon Keith
>> Sent: Monday, 28 February 2011 9:02 AM
>> To: link at mailman.anu.edu.au
>> Subject: Re: [LINK] The Australian Economy Runs on oil.
>> 
>> 
>> On Sat, 26 Feb 2011 08:46:57 AM Tom Koltai wrote:
>>> Now would be an etremely good time for the Australian Government to 
>>> stop exporting oil for parity, address the Taxation on petroleum 
>>> [reduce it] and keep a balanced price at the pump. [Americans have 
>>> paid the same prices at the pumps since 1982.] Some legislative 
>>> interference mandating a maximum of $1.35 at the pumps 
>> might possibly 
>>> be in order until LPG can be effected wholesale.
>> 
>> Actually we'd be a lot better off in the long term if the 
>> government was to 
>> introduce a carbon tax that significantly increased the price 
>> of petrol.
>> 
>> Since they don't seem capable of that then outside events 
>> driving down the 
>> supply of oil may be our only hope of responding to the 
>> climate crisis.
>> 
> 
> I agree Gordon, but my posting was more about the fact that if oil goes
> over a certain price or becomes a scarce commodity, the "civilised
> industrial" world as we know it ends.
> BEFORE climate concerns can extinguish all life on spaceship earth.
> 
> I think we had a thread a couple of years ago on link about a bicycle
> based economy and discussed cities in Europe that were being designed
> predominantly around bicycle travel as the vehicle of choice.
> As Oil is the main gear cog in our economy, all other arguments over
> longevity pale in comparative Google ranking...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Kim Holburn
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