Fuel Ghoul

Corporate Halloween Hegemony

The Rise of Retail Helloween

Do you check the candy your child collects on Halloween? Would you let older children age 12+ go door to door unsupervised? Do you trust your neighbours?  Most people today don’t even know their neighbours, and they have no time or any desire to meet them. Those folks among us who advocate their children attend ‘safe schools’ with metal detectors and armed guards at the door, usually encourage little or no congress with neighbours between the two points. Halloween is an alien concept.

 

Every October, corporations challenge their marketing executives to extend their brand into a more logical position inside the lucrative Halloween holiday market. Just last year, the National Retail Federation of America found Halloween has become the sixth largest spending holiday in the United States behind Christmas ($457.4 billion US), Valentine's Day ($13.70 billion US), Easter ($12.63 billion US), Mother's Day ($13.80 billion US) and Father's Day ($9.01 billion US). The study found that Halloween sales have grown by about $2 billion since 2003, to just over $5 billion in 2006.

 

Fuel Ghoul can see that Halloween is growing in all the wrong places. Most folks living today don’t know anything about how the pumpkin came to become the ubiquitous welcome lantern at over 100 million homes across North America, or why October 31^st is sometimes called All Hallow’s Eve. The myth is being masticated by merchants in a sales trend called the ‘Christmas creep’.

 

Fuel Ghoul shudders with rage and conviction when he thinks about his own sister and her children; they won’t be frolicking down lamp lit residential lanes this year, they won’t be crossing dark streets or taking candy from strangers. They’ll be heading for the West Chester Mall, a shopping center near their home, to trick-or-treat among the stores there. “I’ll take them to Reggie and Carol’s and to Rob’s mom’s house, but we’re going to the mall,” She said to him, and when he asked why not meet some of the neighbours on her street she protested, saying that “the kids want to go to the mall. Its fun, convenient and most importantly it is safe.”

In Fuel Ghoul's opinion, it’s also fundamentally wrong. He loathes corporate ad bucks promoting retail trick-or-treating as a safe alternative to walking about your neighborhood. Shopping malls offer a stale, pedestrian-only, lights-on, shallow smile sales-clerk kind of experience. All spookiness has been exorcised -most shopping malls insist that no scary costumes or masks be worn.

Come to K-mart and get your free bag of Halloween candy on Oct31st. Retailers use candy to bait strangers. Sugar coated offerings lure potential new customers into a venue where they've never shopped before. And even if the families don’t buy anything on Halloween, they’ll remember the store when shopping for Christmas.

Corporate hegemony is hurting Halloween. Unwarranted issues of safety and morality are spiked home by media scares. Watch the papers the week before Halloween, there is at least one ‘it could be your neighbour’ story presented to plant seeds of doubt and sell more copy.

 
Yesterday, a ‘human interest’ story in an American newspaper advertised the fact that the SPCA would not allow black cats to be adopted in the month of October, fearing perhaps local residents might be tempted to use the creatures in Satanic rituals. I checked Toronto; it’s true. The Toronto Humane Society will not allow black cats to be released from their protective custody this month either. (I was actually going to write a piece on that, but then found myself on the wrong side of the media – a story like that would help foster the myth of fear away from neighbourhood trick or treating).

Beware the ‘razor blade in the apple’, and fear the possibility of eating adulterated candy is the message promoted by retailers, and this is the most pervasive of all corporate lies; there is little or no substance to this tenacious urban myth. Yes, it happened once in 1974: An 8 year old boy died from a cyanide-laced candy which he picked up at Halloween. Investigations revealed however that the boy’s own father had intentionally spread cyanide on the candy in order to kill his son. He wanted to collect the insurance. He was charged, tried, convicted and executed.

 
In 1982, fifteen kids and one adult became ill at a school Halloween party. It might have been caused by the candy and cakes that they ate. But the newspaper reports of the lab tests on the food are contradictory. Although nobody died, the story hasn’t been forgotten and is preserved by our fear of predators.

 
Fuel Ghoul is greatly discomfited by the general trend away from neighborhood-based trick-or-treating.  He would like to see consumers simplify their lives and buy fewer disposable goods, and he believes that trick-or-treating in shopping centers replaces community with commercialism, and soon children will begin to associate Halloween with local retailers, rather than with local friends and neighbours. As an alternative, FG suggests community-center costume parades, school carnivals and block parties. Can you find a destination where the myth and stories of Halloween can be shared? Yes he's sympathetic to parents’ concerns, but can you not celebrate Halloween safely without salespeople?

Shopping mall trick-or-treating is scary because it’s hurting Halloween. Media fed urban myths propagate fear and destroy neighborly interaction, the very thing that makes the holiday such a great asset to society. Many people don’t realize the importance of knowing and trusting those who live near their residence. There may come a time when you need each other, whether its to mobilize together to face an environmental disaster, create a crime watch, find a baby sitter, or borrow a ladder - Halloween helps.

What's the Deal with Myanmar?

Fuel Ghoul wonders, what’s up with Myanmar? Even the country's name is controversial. The ruling junta calls their nation ‘Myanmar’, which is a close approximation of its 13th century name, while all others, including the USA still officially recognize the country as ‘Burma’ – the nation’s ruling generals changed the state name in 1989 and then promptly dissolved parliament before the change could be properly ratified by its people.

Exports of natural gas from Myanmar (which generates twenty percent of all electricity in Thailand and keeps the lights on in Bangkok) fuels one of the world’s most oppressive military governments. This valuable gas, and the $2.8 billion US dollars it costs Thailand, is the largest single contribution to Myanmar's otherwise impoverished economy. Largely because of the gas deal, Thailand is Myanmar's biggest trade partner, not China, as is widely reported. 

Thailand's natural gas deal highlights the dilemma facing China, India, Singapore and Malaysia, among other countries, as they vie for Burma's hardwoods, minerals, gems - and access to its market of 47 million people.

At a time of spiraling energy prices, the prospect of extracting such resources appears to override the ignominy of dealing with a despicable military government that has attracted world wide notoriety. The countries that have the most leverage over Burma seem the most reluctant to use it, Fuel Ghoul notes.

Fuel Ghoul understands exactly what’s going on here - from the perspective of Myanmar's leaders, the gas purchases by Thailand are only the beginning of what could be a massive infusion of cash; the country will soon announce the winner of a concession in the large Shwe gas fields off its western coast. Companies from India, China and South Korea have placed bids for those contracts.

The latest protests began Aug. 19 in response to sharp, unannounced fuel price increases of up to 500 percent, immediately raising the prices of goods and transportation.

They were led at first by former student protesters and other activists, but most of the leaders had been arrested or were in hiding when the monks began their protests last Tuesday. 

The monks were apparently motivated at first by an attack on a small demonstration at which security officers fired shots into the air and beat protesters with clubs.

 
At a recent academic seminar in Singapore, while his fellow Burmese reeled from the shock of fuel price increases of between 100 and 500 percent, Soe Myint waxed eloquently about Burma’s future as an energy “bridge.”

 
“We hope to become a sort of [energy] bridge between Southeast Asia and South Asia,” he told a select gathering at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in late August. “Our dream is that Myanmar will eventually become a major energy supplier in this region.”

Burma also plans to become a major biofuel producer and exporter, said Soe Myint. Without giving specific details, Soe Myint told the Singapore seminar that Burma has oil reserves of more than 500 million barrels and another 100 million barrels off shore.

Natural gas reserves are much higher, he said—about 16 trillion cubic feet.  If true, this would put
Burma among the world’s top 10 holders of known gas resources.

Unfortunately, the rich natural resources of the country are nowhere near helping fuel
Burma’s energy needs, or delivering hard currency income which could enable the government to import larger amounts of refined oil fuels at affordable domestic prices.

The A-1 and A-3 blocks of the Shwe field, about 60 kms off the Arakan coast near the port of Sittwe, hold as much as 7.7 trillion cubic feet (220 billion cubic meters) of recoverable gas, says South Korea’s Daewoo International, the main developer.

But behind-the-scenes political and financial wrangles over who will be allowed to buy this gas have been going on for more than a year, with at least five countries bidding for the rights. Both India and China want to build pipelines costing more than $1 billion to import the gas to power their growing economies.

“The signals coming out of the Burma government on this Shwe gas are very confused and not good for the international energy industry that might be looking to invest in the country,” said Bangkok commodities researcher Sar Watana. “Add to this Daewoo’s issuing statements that it is in charge of picking a buyer—it’s a mess.”

 
In the murky world of the Burmese government, it’s unclear who really has the final say on the Shwe gas field, although it is expected that the state owned and operated Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise will partner with whoever wins the prize.

 
Whatever the difficulties and risks of dealing with the junta, it clearly hasn’t discouraged a string of foreign investors from seeking a portion of Burma’s riches. A range of small, sometimes obscure companies, from Singapore to Russia, have also won both onshore and offshore exploratory drilling concessions.

 
Burma’s future role as a key energy supplier to Asian countries is not in doubt. The question is can the regime put together an efficient mechanism to exploit its natural resources in a way that truly benefits the Burmese people?

 

A Whale of a Cover Up: Pacific Oil Spills

Listen up. There has been another oil spill in BC. Have you heard this in the news? Probably not... For two months there has been a potentially very hazardous oil spill near the north shores of Vancouver Island. On August 20th, 2007, a barge carrying logging equipment and a fuel truck with 10,000 litres of diesel fuel spilled its cargo into the pristine waters of Michael Bigg Ecological Reserve off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. The Reserve is a sanctuary to one of the largest resident Orca populations in the world.

Imagine highly trained people in wet suits swimming around a big dirty fuel truck trying to get a sling under its belly before it spills more of its deadly poison into the water... well you can imagine it all you want because it hasn't happened yet.

 

I read a nice piece on the history recent oil spills in Puget Sound in Washington State.

 
Then I started to wonder about how many oil spills occur off US waters every year. Remarkably I found this fascinating account labeled Oil Spills in US Waters - Calendar Year 2004

 
Fuel Ghoul wonders if the Orca will survive? Up until this summer they had a pristine habitat north east of Vancouver Island. After the spill of August 2007, Greenpeace, the Living Oceans Society, and local whale watching companies called on the Federal and Provincial Governments to conduct an underwater investigation to determine the state of the wreckage and whether there is potential for further leakage from the fuel truck, which may still contain up to 9000 litres of diesel.  Click here now to help Greenpeace work to stop further damage to the Orcas and their habitat!

Due to changing weather conditions, an investigation needs to be done immediately !

Greenpeace plans to locate the wreckage using sonar technology. Then they will perform a visual investigation using a Remote Operated Vehicle and turn all data over to the Ministries of Environment and the Coast Guard. This is the only way to determine if the fuel truck is a ticking time bomb…

 
What would 9,000 litres of diesel fuel seeping into a marine ecological reserve do to the resident pods of Orca whales?  Sadly, we are going to find out.

 

APEC has no effect on Climate Change

On Sept 7-10th 2007, leaders of 21 nations, including the USA, China, Japan and Canada met at the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit in Sydney, Australia. This gathering could have helped environmentalists set binding global targets to avert catastrophic climate change… but it didn’t. The Americans and coal rich Australia instead pushed voluntary "aspirational goals" which you and I both know will amount to nothing more than CO2 rich hot air.

Fuel Ghoul has received a number of email messages asking for more details about Bush's climate plan, the one he is rallying polluters around the world to support. The core of the issue is that George Bush opposes the most critical and effective element of a global treaty: emissions targets that actually count.

 
Perhaps that's why US president George Bush has mounted a push for a process outside of the UN negotiations. In fact, he has just recently invited the world's biggest polluting nations to a summit this September to discuss his toothless approach to climate change.

 Are US politicians now thinking outside the box?

 
George Bush acknowledged the fears of some policy makers that the United States is trying to construct a successor to the Kyoto Protocol outside of international efforts already under way. The Bush administration does not support any agreement that does not included developing nations, like China and India, which are the world’s fastest growing energy consumers.

 "We agree these issues must be addressed in an integrated way," he said. "We take climate change seriously in America." But America is all talk and no action. The United States never ratified Kyoto, which requires 35 nations to cut emissions 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. And some press reports have indicated that the American delegation has no less than twelve SUVs (and those are just the ones on camera) while other visiting nations are content to bring two or three vehicles to the conferences.

 
Now the Bush administration has unveiled plans for global warming talks later this month that will bring together the world's biggest polluters to seek agreement on reducing greenhouse gases. The United States, one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases (if not the largest), made no statement at Tuesday's sessions, and has repeatedly rejected firm targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, maintaining this would hurt the US economy. A senior U.S. official has said that the current administration stood by its opposition to mandatory economy-wide caps. Many climate experts say that without binding U.S. emissions targets, the chance for significant progress is limited.  

Washington calls for voluntary rather than mandatory emissions cuts.

As mentioned earlier, both the USA and Australia hope the next climate change treaty will address the growing energy consumption, and resultant pollution of China and India.

China's President Hu Jintao gave only qualified support to Australia's initiative on climate change, while some developing nations criticized Australian and US moves to put their vision of climate change at the top of the agenda at the gathering in Sydney.

 
After meeting Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Mr Jintao said he preferred the UN framework for handling climate change proposals compared with the Sydney Declaration.

He added: "We very much hope that this Sydney Declaration will give full expression to the position that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change would remain the main channel for international efforts to tackle climate change."

 
The declaration should also reflect UN principles of "common but differentiated responsibilities" towards lowering harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

 
Malaysia Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said the leaders at the APEC should not be dealing with emission targets at all, while ministers from the Philippines and Indonesia also questioned the approach.

 
Climate control was supposed to top the agenda at APEC.

High-level discussions at APEC could have shaped new talks at a U.N. conference in December in Bali, Indonesia. Many pray that future conference will chart a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The U.S has called for a Sept. 27-28 conference in Washington of the 15 biggest polluters.

 
Stephen Harper hopes we'll all forget his dismal record.

While on the subject of aspiration goals and hot air, Prime Minister Stephen Harper went on record to say that simply getting the world's biggest emitters to start talking about a post-Kyoto climate change plan is a big step forward.  And that's  it.

 
Harper says nations representing two thirds of global emissions essentially "opted out" of the Kyoto protocol. "So we have to do a better job next time," says Harper. But what does that mean?  Fuel Ghoul hopes that Stephen Harper is not involved in the process. Its a well known fact that Canada also opted out of Kyoto’s emission targets when Stephen Harper’s Progressive Conservatives, bent by the resolve of some powerful Canadian corporations, released a Clean Air Act that will actually allow Canada's biggest polluters to increase their emissions !!!

 
Scientists agree, now is humanity's window of opportunity to stop a climate catastrophe.

Over 400,000 people signed Avaaz.org’s APEC petition.   On Saturday, these environmentalists are going to launch a massive 144-square meter floating canvas "target" at Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach where it will be taken out to sea by surfers and then eventually floated over the Great Barrier Reef which many experts believe will be completely destroyed by climate change by the year 2030.

The Rise of Technocracy

When our ancestors reflect back on the first decade of the 21st century, they will remember how Al Gore led a campaign against global warming that was championed by millions of people in a new age of awareness and connectivity; some might even identify this as the birth to a new system of government, technocracy. Fuel Ghoul believes people will say ‘Thank God for the internet, that was our most important weapon.’

Buckminster Fuller would have been Impressed with the web's growing power as a communication medium (and marketing tool) and Fuel Ghoul himself signs forum posts with Bucky's favourite line ‘If the people lead, the leaders will follow’; he recognizes that although online social networks have millions of members, they are still in their infancy. But these are the seeds of the first mechanisms of technocracy. What’s technocracy you ask? Technocrats desire a zero growth socio-economic system based upon conservation and abundance, as opposed to scarcity-based economic systems like capitalism. Technocracy is also closely allied to universal connectivity (web 3.0), and some experts believe it will only happen when national referendums occur every weekend, with minimal cost to the system.

Members inside organizations like Lime.com, TreeHugger.com, and Wondercafe.ca are just beginning to collect real political power as their memberships continue to grow and impediments fade.

Canadians, like the citizens of most other nation states, can now do more than ever before to help their elected leaders govern their homeland. Of course many citizens will still choose to silently believe their leaders’ promises, but more responsible voters can now effortlessly interact with new management teams, and more importantly everyone can now interact with each other. Voters can and will eventually join into cohesive constituencies that can’t be ignored by politicians hoping to hold seats.

Some organizations already use their solidarity to affect policy change. Greenpeace is so powerful it can affect this nation's election platforms. Greenpeace Canada does it right – they are marketing geniuses! This member financed organization stages sensational protests and creates news worthy events across the nation, and then campaigns for donations (and new members) on the streets of Canada’s largest cities. Fuel Ghoul has twice encountered Greenpeace representatives with clipboards and brochures standing in the shade of the mulberry trees on the south east corner of King St and John St (upwind of the hotdog vendor).

As a member, I will advocate, the Greenpeace action plan really works. I admire most how Greenpeace Canada can now harnesses the political clout of a cohesive membership to send angry messages to Canadian politicians. Check out this email campaign against Ontario Energy Minister Dwight Duncan regarding Liberal Premier Dalton McGunity's broken promise to close the coal plant in Nanticoke.  Avaaz.org is perhaps even more of an internet success story - check out Avaaz.org media here.

 

Election Campaigns should change the reality of day to day life – the citizens of every nation should see improvements in their communities within two years of electing new officials. That’s because appealing to millions of people is no easy feat, and the more pressure that’s applied to these schmucks, the more positive change Canadians can extract from wealthy corporations and big polluters.

 
With the 2006 release of Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth, there came a small glimmer of hope that politicians might be ready to heed the warnings of our human impact on the world. But don't be fooled - nothing is going to happen without a fight. Now is the time to come together and demand change!

 
The Ontario general election of 2007 is scheduled to be held on October 10, 2007 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, Canada. Its August and already the environment has moved to the front of the issues in each candidate ’s platform. Because of the internet, our politicians know they must do more than just talk a green campaign, they must act environmentally friendly too.

Ontario politicians have adopted some interesting ideas on how to travel across the province this fall. The Liberals will be using buses that produce low sulphur emissions, while the Progressive Conservatives plan to run their vehicles on biodiesel. The New Democrats are eliminating the party leader's bus altogether; Howard Hampton will travel in a hybrid SUV.

 
Green Party Leader Frank de Jong will tour the province in a biodiesel vehicle, while also campaigning largely on public transit and on a bicycle for a few stops, the Green party said. All four parties will be buying what are called carbon offsets for the greenhouse gases they do emit.

 
Carbon credits can also be recognized by technocrats as the currency of the next age. They provide a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by giving them a monetary value. A credit gives the owner the right to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide. Carbon credits are generated as the result of an environmentally positive project that will result in emissions reductions such as reforestation, fuel switching, and carbon capture and storage.

 
Fuel Ghoul would like everyone to read Buckminster Fuller's Utopia or Oblivion.

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NAFTA could force Canada to sell water to the USA

Fuel Ghoul is drowning in water disputes this summer!  First it was the lunacy of letting Coke and Pepsi bottle our public water, and now its become clear that the US government is plotting to capture a large percentage of Canada's fresh water supply using the North American Free Trade Agreement! This discussion on WonderCafe.ca serves to educate everyone on the perversions of certain US political organizations and their thirst for this most precious Canadian resource.

Travis Lupick, a reporter for an online newspaper called The Straight wrote on August 16, 2007 about a noisy demonstration outside the Westin Bayshore hotel in Vancouver two days earlier. It seems this dispute is the latest in a growing campaign of resistance to the proposed Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America.

Police kept protesters out of the Vancouver hotel on August 14, where international trade representatives from Canada, the US, and  Mexico  were holding talks. Apparently the SPP meeting was focused on the possibility of bulk-water sales and diversions of fresh water from Canada to the US.

Do you feel like demonstrating? On August 20 and 21, the SPP will host a North American Leaders' Summit in Montebello, Quebec. Peter Julian, MP for Burnaby–New Westminster, believes that Canada's fresh water will once again be on the table.

The NDP has obtained a "concept paper" prepared by an American think-tank involved in the SPP. It emphasizes Canada's relative abundance of fresh water and proposes rewriting transboundary water­-management agreements for the North American continent. The author, Armand B. Peschard-Sverdrup, is director of the Mexico Project for the Washington, D.C. based Centre for Strategic & International Studies.

There is something wrong with our politicians - they are weak! Fuel Ghoul predicts that everyone living north of the border can now expect our water to enter into the same power struggles that characterize energy and softwood-lumber negotiations. "Decisions around forestry policy aren't made in Victoria or Ottawa, they're made in Washington" Peter Julian told Travis Lupick, "We could be seeing the same type of thing for water policy if the SPP continues."

The Big Bottled Water Problem

Any readers that were working in downtown Toronto in 1972 might still remember the day when the first water coolers debuted in their office. It was a small innovation that created a profound ‘social revolution’ in the professional landscape - water cooler gossip was born.

 
That day also marks the first time those space age clear plastic five gallon jugs were used in the commidification of public drinking water; it was possible only because of mass production, and the proliferation of injection molding technology, and the maturation of the plastic resins industry, and of course the abundance of cheap oil. But one thing above all else helped put those big jugs on the shelf - urban myths about the fallibility of the public water supply.

 

Indeed it was in the nineteen seventies when these urban myths started, around those new water coolers. ‘Town water filters through industrial parks, sewers and graveyards, before it reaches your lips.’ That was the big ‘urban myth’ that birthed an entire new subsection of the beverage industry. ‘Purified water’ was born.

 

Few people know that purified water is just tap water that has been treated to improve taste, and quality. Spring water is water that flows naturally from the earth and has been collected at the source. Mineral Water is spring water with dissolved minerals, no more than 250 parts per million, that come directly from the source.

Fuel Ghoul can remember, not too long ago, when the bottled water section at the grocery store was primarily devoted to a few gallon jugs of distilled water. Today, the bottled water is expansive; it’s a major section of the beverage aisle and enjoys the prestige of being the fastest growing, and most profitable segment of the entire beverage industry.

 
In 2006, the total sales for bottled water in North America was estimated to be around 100 billion (US) dollars annually, and what’s more disturbing is that it’s increasing at a remarkable seven percent growth rate annually. http://www.bottledwaterblues.com/

 
The large demand is driven by several factors, including perceived convenience, perceived safety versus municipal water, and perceived potability with taste advantages over municipal water. And of course packaging and advertising work to foster these perceptions - brand bottled water is very similar to branded soft drinks. Two of the largest bottled water sellers, Coca-Cola and Pepsi, use municipal water. The unprecedented demand for their products increases demand for public water, which they purchase at a substantially lower price than households are asked to pay. 1.wiki

 
Experts speculate that if the trend for bottled water consumption continues, it could lead to the privatization of municipal water supplies.

The classic urban myths are still popular today -  according to the National Water Quality Association,  56% of North Americans are worried about the quality of municipally treated tap water. This, along with the desire for better tasting drinking water, has fueled the tremendous growth of the bottled water industry.

Proponents of Bottled Water still actively perpetuate these urban myths. Look at the CBWA, the Canadian Bottled Water Association which continues to propagate the idea of unsafe tap water by addressing all the scary things that people have ‘heard’ about inside public systems.(Fuel Ghoul is loath to provide these people with ANY exposure but yet I must expose their methods) Look here how they sow the seeds of doubt.  7) I've heard of cryptosporidium and giardia being found in tap water. What are they? Cryptosporidium is a water borne parasite that lives in hooved animals and can be passed into surface water through their waste. Cryptosporidium from animal wastes have been found in rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs, and many other types of surface water. Infection can last for months and can be fatal.

Without actually typing it, the CBWA reinforces the fallibility of municipal water.

David Suzuki was very critical of bottled water on CBC television earlier this year  when he told viewers that even when traveling, he always insists on being refreshed with municipal water, served in a glass. Mr. Suzuki informed everyone that tap water comes to us through an energy-efficient infrastructure, while bottled water is often transported long distances--and nearly one-fourth of it across national borders--by boat, train, airplane, and truck.

 
Do you feel better because you recycle those plastic water bottles?

More often than not, the empty plastic bottle is discarded in the nearest trash pail without thought by the consumer. According to the Container Recycling Institute, eighty six percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States are not recycled, and end up in public landfill sites. Incinerating these plastic bottles produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals tied to a host of human and animal health problems. On average, buried water bottles take over 1,000 years to breakdown. More than 40% of the water bottles that are recycled in North America are shipped to China for processing, so even more fossil fuel in expended in the cycle.

Social action and mass public re-education is required to break this evil health trend. Fuel Ghoul recognizes that at least three online environmentally friendly web site communities, Lime.com and Treehugger.com, and WonderCafe.ca are spreading the word to their memberships. These recruits will tell friends who are off line, or on other social networks. Working together in this manner social networks can form political constituencies and solidify positive change.

In August 2006, the United Church of Canada tabled a motion at its general council meeting to ask members to stop buying bottled water as a protest against the privatization of water supplies. Today the UCC sponsored WonderCafe.ca hosts frequent discussions on the subject.

A campaign called “Refill Not Landfill”  is urging all of us to sign a pledge to boycott water bottles for a week, a month or a year. Fuel Ghoul has discovered that this campaign was launched by Nalgene, a company that makes reusable polycarbonate bottles. It seems proceeds from the campaign go to renewable-energy projects.

 

If the anti-bottle bandwagon succeeds, it may not be long before the ubiquitous bottle of Evian or Dasani will disappear from movie star’s hands and hopefully, store shelves. But what will take its place? Probably a reusable bottle – something you can fill and refill with tap water.

 
Let’s make bottled water the next victim of our crusading environmentalism. If you are concerned about your water and wish to purchase a filter, Fuel Ghoul found this handy comparison chart.

http://www.waterfiltercomparisons.com/Water_Filter_Comparison_Matrix.cfm

 

Perfect Storm may be the Catalyst to Peak Oil.

Just in time for summer, Canadian gas prices are creeping up toward a $1.20 a liter (Ontario average) on weekends and then bumping down six to ten cents throughout the week. This translates to about $3.56 US per gallon in case anyone wants to compare Canadian and US gas prices (Eastern US is almost at $3.00 a gallon). Yes, even though Canada is oil rich, Canadians still pay more for fuel – it’s the taxes.

High gas prices affect travel plans today

Already Fuel Ghoul’s friends and neighbours are weighing their holiday decisions using new fuel price criteria – should they go to the cottage every weekend? Should they cancel their cross country RV holiday? Should they rent that diesel houseboat this year, or now perhaps the more expensive sailboat will be the cheaper option?

 
But what if the price of gas was higher?

Fuel Ghoul asks you to stop and imagine a real oil crises; what if the price of gas was $2.00 a liter? Or $3.00 a liter? What if, in the next three years, the population of planet Earth experiences the perfect geopolitical storm? Consider this all too plausible but absolutely devastating scenario that causes a crippling energy shortage and becomes a catalyst to a new age of peak oil.
 

Here’s a Peak Oil Scenario for the fall of 2007

Imagine this - In an unprecedented diplomatic show of strength, Iran’s propaganda minister demonstrates that his nation has indeed enriched uranium. Wow. Then he describes a state-of-the-art power generating plant under construction - but of course the United States and Israel launch joint air strikes and destroy the facility (inside Iran) the next day. Immediately after which militant Islamic Fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia respond and use suicide aircraft laden with explosives to cripple two of the world’s largest fuel refineries.

At the same time the entire southern continental United States is struck by a devastating tropical storm which damages oil refineries in Texas.

In the days and weeks before Christmas 2007 gasoline prices hit record highs, food prices soar as trucks cannot afford to make deliveries, and Americans (and Canadians) begin to realize that they now live in the Age of Peak Oil - and things will never be the same.

The shocking truth is that while that this scenario seems mildly fantastic, the same results might be effected by the rising fuel prices strangling economic growth today.

An excellent discussion on Wonder Café.ca has united the membership on this subject and many fascinating insights and remarks can be viewed here.