I did not want to sully the bliss of the satire above by adding this in the actual article so I am adding content here! Apologies...

This piece is to highlight what is NOT usually obvious in our society in regards our dependence upon oil.

Oil saturates, quite literally, our entire existence in the West. It is the core material that provides us with (thus-far) cheap consumer goods, abundant single-use medical supplies, packaging for food and the above-mentioned consumer goods; and let us acknowledge that oil provides us the means with which mass production of food, clothing, entertainment products, computers, (and so much more) is made possible. Our American appetite for the automobile has been enabled by this truth: that we have enjoyed the benefit of being able to purchase these things and live this way because of plastic - the number one product of petrochemical manufacturing!

So we need to examine this permeation of our culture by oil and how oil actually makes our culture possible. Are we willing to change our culture, CAN we change our culture so thoroughly, as we face the future without cheap and abundant oil? We need to look beyond just heating and transport fuel as supplies dwindle and costs soar! Take a look around you today, after reading this. Where is there one thing that is not made with, transported by, or processed using oil? Let's take that sobering realization with us into the future days while we wrestle with truly becoming rehabilitated of our "crude" addiction. Sustainability must become our mantra. Cultural flexibility and humility must be the means for our transformation. More than policy needs to change.

Our demand for an artificial lifestyle of affluence needs to change. Our unwillingness to adapt our technologies until forced to do so needs to change. Our short-sightedness about the long-term impact of our actions needs to change. Our view of our place in the natural world needs to change.

We need to change.

Great lyric LiLi, when can we hear you sing the podcast version?

You're a great Climate Change Agent!

You are right to bring our attention to the omnipresence of oil - sitting comfotably in our plastic covered chair it's too difficult to imagine a post-oil world.

I am tapping on plastic keys here in Beijing China, where 1,000 cars are being added to the newly congested streets everyday... One Thousand new oil burners a DAY!

Imagine if we were still getting our oil from whales, would people still be happy to selfishly waste that precious resource?

That's the problem of course... today people know the cost of everything and value of nothing - they have no idea where anything comes from, how it is made and how they could get along without it or make it themselves.

That's why we need more Climate Change Agents like you LiLi, people who THINK, people who consider their relationship with Society, the Environment and the Economy, and people who are willing to break free of the yoke of conformity and consumer mesmorization and actually do something to improve their lives and the lives of others.

Keep up the great work, and share the "Peace + One" 3 finger Sustainability Symbol with people who are, or want to be part of the solution.

www.SustainabilitySymbol.com

Thanks!
I'm working on the audio version, but who knows?! :)

I certainly appreciate the feedback. It's important to lead by example and by insight... the concept that one must be the change they wish to see in the world is one that I hope many many more people embrace in increasingly daring and diverse ways!

Spreading the message and the sign, daily:
Li Li