New Zealand “One day oil boycott”

So there was a oil boycott in New Zealand the other day. Which was for all the wrong reasons. My university department had an email forwarded around about it, and it was purely people being indignant about oil prices, nothing about the fact that our oil supply is running out.

This annoyed me greatly and a forwarded an email around as to why the whole idea is stupid:

“As much as the one day Oil boycott may seem like a solution this doesn’t help anybody. Oil prices are going up and will continue to do so due to increased demand and a lack of new oil drilling sites. Compound this with natural disasters destroying the majority of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico (here) and the turbulence in the middle east – it is easy to see why oil prices rise.”

“If we make New Zealand not buy oil, we don’t hurt the oil companies in the long term, but we may hurt ourselves. We’ll be known as having an erratic demand for oil and they’ll be more inclined to send their oil to nations that definately will buy it (e.g. China or the US). The oil that does come here may become even more expensive than before due to less oil supporting the same population size.”

“The government should raise petrol tax – because then they’ll be consumer demand for alternatives to oil. If we don’t change our oil based infrastructure soon then we’ll be completely unprepared for the advent of Peak Oil.”

“Sorry for the rant, but this particularly narrowminded event shows why we are in trouble in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, I own a car and hate shelling out more and more money for my spatial freedom, but the oil age is ending and we can either adapt while we can or be indignant about high oil prices.”

And this didn’t even mention how the whole boycott is fundamentally flawed. Everyone who doesn’t fill up their gas tank on that day will just have to do it later!

Meh, the masses can be stupid.

So there was a oil boycott in New Zealand the other day. Which was for all the wrong reasons. My university department had an email forwarded around about it, and it was purely people being indignant about oil prices, nothing about the fact that our oil supply is running out. This annoyed me greatly and a forwarded an email around as to why the whole idea is stupid: "As much as the one day Oil boycott may seem like a solution this doesn't help anybody. Oil prices are going up and will continue to do so due to increased demand and a lack of new oil drilling sites. Compound this with natural disasters destroying the majority of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico (here) and the turbulence in the middle east - it is easy to see why oil prices rise." "If we make New Zealand not buy oil, we don't hurt the oil companies in the long term, but we may hurt ourselves. We'll be known as having an erratic demand for oil and they'll be more inclined to send their oil to nations that definately will buy it (e.g. China or the US). The oil that does come here may become even more expensive than before due to less oil supporting the same population size." "The government should raise petrol tax - because then they'll be consumer demand for alternatives to oil. If we don't change our oil based infrastructure soon then we'll be completely unprepared for the advent of Peak Oil." "Sorry for the rant, but this particularly narrowminded event shows why we are in trouble in the first place. Don't get me wrong, I own a car and hate shelling out more and more money for my spatial freedom, but the oil age is ending and we can either adapt while we can or be indignant about high oil prices." And this didn't even mention how the whole boycott is fundamentally flawed. Everyone who doesn't fill up their gas tank on that day will just have to do it later! Meh, the masses can be stupid.