Cars - Can I fill up the tank and be green?
5/7/2010 Guardian Now that we’ve all seen the pelicans smothered in crude oil courtesy of BP’s
deepwater drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico – a visceral depiction of the reality of humankind’s addiction to hydrocarbons – the forecourt becomes a moral
maze. “Ethical petrol” is an oxymoron of some magnitude. From the small-scale –
Esso’s pet tiger Tessa apparently died in a bare concrete enclosure in a
shopping mall – to the large-scale, including ExxonMobil’s funding of
climate-change denial and Total’s links to the Burmese regime, there’s plenty of
fuel for criticism. If you are interested in more than profits, there are a few
ways to rate oil and gas companies by something other than profit. The Global
Renewable Fuels Alliance recently published a list of the top 10 most dangerous
offshore sites so you know who to avoid. The Sierraclub.org hosts An
Environmentalist’s Guide to Gasoline. Save the Children has ranked companies in
terms of revenue payments (ie if the host country benefits). And
ethicalconsumer.org has an ethical buyer’s guide to petrol (Murco is the best of
an oily bunch).
My pulse quickened when I came across “green oil” (green-oil.net) – but it turns
out that this is lube for bicycles. We all need to reduce our dependency on the
black stuff. Car-share, drive efficiently, lube your bike and ride it, invest in
an electric vehicle. To borrow BP’s own phrase, get the hell Beyond Petroleum as
quickly as you can.
Go to: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/04/lucy-siegle-not-easy-being-green-petrol-oil-green