Lubricating the Moving Industry
Today I had all of my household goods packed and shipped. They’ll be meeting me in Las Vegas when I arrive there in October. While watching the packers box and tape everything up, I was taken aback at how much tape was being used to secure each box. (Not that I was asking them to use less, mind you.) At least three ribbons of the stuff was used to secure each seam of every box. Now imagine all of the stuff that gets tape… boxes, presents, kids projects, envelopes… Painters tape, masking tape, Scotch Tape, duct tape, electrical tape. There must be tons of the stuff produced every year (still searching for a reference). What is it all made of?
Surprise! Buttseks! I mean, oil! The sticky part is made of rubber which, in the vast majority of cases, is synthetic. Where does synthetic rubber come from? Oil. The non-sticky part is usually plastic, typically polyethylene, which is again made from oil. The truck arrived on asphalt roads (oil) riding on synthetic rubber tires (yep, oil) driven by a diesel-powered engine (oil again). The corrugated cardboard that composes the boxes my stuff shipped in was held together by corn starch glue… corn that was fed and protected from pests by oil derivatives. The plastic in the tape guns… oil. The synthetic rubber soles of the movers’ shoes… oil.
Is there anything oil can’t do? We pave our roads and shingle our roofs with it. We fertilize, protect and build our food with it. (How ridiculous it is that I can use the word “build” in that sentence?) We even brush our teeth with it. The stuff is everywhere… literally. It’s all really impressive actually. The complex chains of carbon that make up oil can be twisted and shaped into pretty much anything and I don’t have a problem with that (except using it in/on food). Oil really is the substance that made modernity possible and it is still fueling the world’s immense population growth. We just must remind ourselves from time to time how dependent we are on this sticky black stuff and, as the price of oil continues to rise—and be certain that it will (Finite resource, increasing demand. Do the math.)—so will the price of most everything else. Remember folks… you heard it here first.