Yes it may seem bizarre and hard to believe, but oil is not only whats being guzzled in your petrol tank it's literally all around you even in those innocent looking plastics toys.
Take a look around the room you are in now, almost every item made of plastic you can see is made of oil. Next time your in the bathroom take a look at your cosmetics, do they contain petroleum, or mineral oils? Then yes they too are essentially made from oil as petroleum is a by-product of oil, and we smear it on our faces, YUK!
Why are we never informed by oil companies that oil is used in so many products? Well, oil companies fear consumer power as it has the potential to greatly interfere with their profits, thus they go to great lengths to keep us stupid.
So what can we do about this?
You've probably heard it all before and to many people the environmental drone of "cycle instead of driving, carpool where possible, avoid plastics" etc etc seems to be getting lost in the busyness of our everyday lives, but where the key really lies is in our CONSUMER POWER!
When you stop to think about it you realize how powerful we really are as consumers, sure it may not seem like that when you are the only one on your street serving up veggie burgers on vintage styled crockery plates on your street, but it just takes a few people who say "Look we CAN do things differently" then people start, feeling inspired and often join in (ultimately becoming a "Green Revolution").
If we create a lack of demand for environmentally damaging products and a new increasing demand for locally produced, fair trade, environmentally sensitive products then we can essentially control the market (Yes thats right you and I can control the market, not the advertisers and not the profit driven multinational corporations). Afteral, It not out of a whimsical hope that many major supermarkets are starting to included locally produced organic products in their range, it is because of consumer demand!
So no more hesitating! Go out there and CHANGE THE WORLD WITH YOUR CONSUMER POWER!!
USEFUL LINKS TO GET YOU GOING!
Available from the World Watch Institute this is a nicely illustrated, fun, factual and inspiring guide to most of the products we use and consume in our daily lives and what the alternative are.
Another great website I highly recommend is the Story of Stuff
This is a series of free and entertaining internet films that inform you on essentially what all the "Stuff" is we consume, where it comes from and how it it produced!
And in regards to cosmetics keep an eye out for any products containing petroleum also labeled as Mineral Oils, paraffin, petroleum and petroleum jelly (the only ingredient in Vaseline!). Your local organic health shop should be able to provide you more information on this. Plus we are trying to cut down on the worlds depend of oil, so if its as simple as switching face creams let do it!
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