The O Word
by Nick Cooper Saturday, Sep. 24, 2005 at 1:19 PM
nickcooper-at-indymedia.org

They said Iraq was just about oil? How about Rita?

As millions of humans and huge petrochemical industries were threatened by one of many hurricanes that have popped up this season, a few newscasters brought up global warming's role. Usually it is written off with a phrase such as "but that's a political question," or "some say it's the reason, others say it isn't."

Confronted by an increasing threat which "some say" is caused by global warming, which "some say" is caused by using too much oil, we look for oil to power our escapes from the coast. So many of us do this at the same time that we are all stuck not moving on the side of the roads which (so far) seem to have killed many more Houstonians than the hurricane itself. Ironically, although car power's usual advantage over human power is speed, physically fit bicyclists could have moved much faster than the mass of cars. Some actually ended up sitting in their cars for days just to return home.

As we squeeze back into the space of Houston, hoping again not to run out of gas, we resume our lifestyles as if gas dependency has been vidicated by the random fact that this particular hurricane turned right and slowed down.

nickcooper.com

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