God in the Mayonnaise Jar
Sometimes, when someone visits my house for the first time, I'll ask them offhand if they'd like to meet God. Hearing me say this, most often, my visitor will look puzzled. It sounds like I'm talking nonsense, but I assure them - God is right here in my house, specifically in a mayonnaise jar in my kitchen. What?!? I'll then lead the way to the cupboard over my stove, take out a simple glass jar with a black liquid inside, and hand it to my visitor. Then, I'll say something like, "Behold, the God that created our modern world; the God that made your very existence possible and brings you every imaginable comfort. Behold, the life blood of civilization itself -- crude petroleum!" Hearing that never fails to grab and hold their complete attention...
It really does fascinate people when they see the Real Thing right there in their hands. I have yet to meet anyone who, previous to this encounter, had ever even laid eyes on crude petroleum before. Have you, gentle reader? Have you ever been in the physical presence of the liquid fossil mineral itself? Do you know what it looks like, feels like, smells like, tastes like? This substance - which makes our entire civilization possible - is a complete enigma to most people. You should see their reaction when I open the jar and let them smell the petroleum. It smells delicious. It really does smell like something edible. It smells good enough that you might for a brief moment imagine marinating meat in it, or putting it on breakfast cereal, or spooning it onto warm rolls, like honey. It shouldn't be any wonder, because this aromatic carbon soup is the liquified distilled essence of Life on Earth. And it is precious.
I think a lot of people are in denial today (or maybe they are simply ignorant) about how important essential petroleum and the other fossil fuels are to the sustainance of our civilization. Without it, life as we know it would be impossible. Sure, there are alternative sources for power generation, but nothing will ever replace petroleum in its versatility to create practically every modern convenience.
One of the most memorable lectures I ever attended was the welcome address to us incoming freshmen given by the new Provost of Revelle College at U.C. San Diego, in September, 1972. The speaker was professor of organic chemistry Dr. Murray Goodman. His talk was all about "the wonders of modern chemistry" that can be synthesized from petroleum. Sounds achingly boring, doesn't it? It was anything but.
The main message of Dr. Goodman's talk was that he considered it to be a high crime that our present-day society is burning up all those "elegant" long, liquid hydrocarbon chains simply to power automobiles. He predicted that future generations will curse us for all time for squandering our irreplaceable petroleum in internal combustion engines. I've never forgotten that lecture's perception-altering impact. I recall it every time I fill up my car with gasoline. This is a finite resource, and some day, it will all be gone.
The problem isn't merely supply, though. It's that our society has produced no truly effective or safe alternative to burning fossil fuels to power the engines of civilization. (Electric cars are not the answer, since almost all electricity in the U.S. nowadays is generated at the source by fossil fuels - you're just burning up your oil/gas/coal higher up in the energy feeding chain. Even co-generating "hybrid" cars use gasoline to generate their electricity.)
So if you own, drive, or employ any manner of motorized transportation, you have to face the inescapable fact that you are an active participant in the depletion of world petroleum supplies. It doesn't matter how high and mighty your political rhetoric is - YOU - all of us - are the basic source of the problem.
You know, like you, I don't like the way gasoline prices are going up. It's an inconvenience, having to pay so much more just to get around. But whenever I start to grumble too loudly, I remind myself of crude oil's preciousness, and instead, I count my blessings. Most of you reading this weren't alive when, back in the mid-'70s, a consortium of Arab countries decided they didn't want to sell us any more oil because we allied ourselves with Israel. If that was before your time, then you have no notion of what a true oil-supply crisis is like. I've never forgotten when it was actually against the law for a gas station to sell you any gasoline except on certain specified days. I've never forgotten having to get out of bed at 4AM to get in line at a gas station to buy a limit of 10 gallons, and finding the line of cars already waiting there stretching 3/4ths of the way around the block. Most of all, I've never forgotten the feeling of helplessness that came from the realization that we are all dependent on a resource whose supply is unquestionably finite, and whose availability is totally beyond our personal means to control.
Now crude oil prices are around $55 a barrel, and are sure to go even higher. Are we headed for another supply crisis? Maybe not in the short term - not in the next few years, at least. Being 50 years old now, I believe I might actually live out the rest of my life with gasoline remaining under $20 a gallon. But you who are in your 20s now - you are very likely in for some deep shit by the time you reach older middle age. And your kids... it wouldn't surprise me if they see $500/barrel crude oil when they are older. In 50 years, it might actually be a crime by then to burn petroleum distillates in an internal combustion engine. Privately-owned cars as we know them now - even hybrid vehicles - may be illegal by the late 21st century.
But returning to the present - maybe you are one of those who think our war in Iraq was mostly about oil. Man, you don't have any conception of what a real war for oil will be like. You may think G. W. Bush is a dick for his policies today, but there may come a day in your lifetime when you get down on your knees and beg for a leader who will restore a regular flow of petroleum into this country. It's a measure of human folly that we don't appreciate what we have until it's gone. Look around you, right now. There probably isn't a single object in your apartment or house that wasn't either made from petroleum or whose manufacture wasn't powered by a fossil fuel. If the day ever comes, and there is no more petroleum, your life, as you know it now, is over. And I mean really over.
So don't waste or curse that which is the ultimate Creator of your world. Don't take any of petroleum's blessings for granted. Crude oil is, in actuality, an almost priceless commodity - one we really haven't even begun to value in proper relation to our need.
-- In Memoriam, Murray Goodman, Ph.D. (1929-2004)
Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, U.C. San Diego, Revelle College
It really does fascinate people when they see the Real Thing right there in their hands. I have yet to meet anyone who, previous to this encounter, had ever even laid eyes on crude petroleum before. Have you, gentle reader? Have you ever been in the physical presence of the liquid fossil mineral itself? Do you know what it looks like, feels like, smells like, tastes like? This substance - which makes our entire civilization possible - is a complete enigma to most people. You should see their reaction when I open the jar and let them smell the petroleum. It smells delicious. It really does smell like something edible. It smells good enough that you might for a brief moment imagine marinating meat in it, or putting it on breakfast cereal, or spooning it onto warm rolls, like honey. It shouldn't be any wonder, because this aromatic carbon soup is the liquified distilled essence of Life on Earth. And it is precious.
I think a lot of people are in denial today (or maybe they are simply ignorant) about how important essential petroleum and the other fossil fuels are to the sustainance of our civilization. Without it, life as we know it would be impossible. Sure, there are alternative sources for power generation, but nothing will ever replace petroleum in its versatility to create practically every modern convenience.
One of the most memorable lectures I ever attended was the welcome address to us incoming freshmen given by the new Provost of Revelle College at U.C. San Diego, in September, 1972. The speaker was professor of organic chemistry Dr. Murray Goodman. His talk was all about "the wonders of modern chemistry" that can be synthesized from petroleum. Sounds achingly boring, doesn't it? It was anything but.
The main message of Dr. Goodman's talk was that he considered it to be a high crime that our present-day society is burning up all those "elegant" long, liquid hydrocarbon chains simply to power automobiles. He predicted that future generations will curse us for all time for squandering our irreplaceable petroleum in internal combustion engines. I've never forgotten that lecture's perception-altering impact. I recall it every time I fill up my car with gasoline. This is a finite resource, and some day, it will all be gone.
The problem isn't merely supply, though. It's that our society has produced no truly effective or safe alternative to burning fossil fuels to power the engines of civilization. (Electric cars are not the answer, since almost all electricity in the U.S. nowadays is generated at the source by fossil fuels - you're just burning up your oil/gas/coal higher up in the energy feeding chain. Even co-generating "hybrid" cars use gasoline to generate their electricity.)
So if you own, drive, or employ any manner of motorized transportation, you have to face the inescapable fact that you are an active participant in the depletion of world petroleum supplies. It doesn't matter how high and mighty your political rhetoric is - YOU - all of us - are the basic source of the problem.
You know, like you, I don't like the way gasoline prices are going up. It's an inconvenience, having to pay so much more just to get around. But whenever I start to grumble too loudly, I remind myself of crude oil's preciousness, and instead, I count my blessings. Most of you reading this weren't alive when, back in the mid-'70s, a consortium of Arab countries decided they didn't want to sell us any more oil because we allied ourselves with Israel. If that was before your time, then you have no notion of what a true oil-supply crisis is like. I've never forgotten when it was actually against the law for a gas station to sell you any gasoline except on certain specified days. I've never forgotten having to get out of bed at 4AM to get in line at a gas station to buy a limit of 10 gallons, and finding the line of cars already waiting there stretching 3/4ths of the way around the block. Most of all, I've never forgotten the feeling of helplessness that came from the realization that we are all dependent on a resource whose supply is unquestionably finite, and whose availability is totally beyond our personal means to control.
Now crude oil prices are around $55 a barrel, and are sure to go even higher. Are we headed for another supply crisis? Maybe not in the short term - not in the next few years, at least. Being 50 years old now, I believe I might actually live out the rest of my life with gasoline remaining under $20 a gallon. But you who are in your 20s now - you are very likely in for some deep shit by the time you reach older middle age. And your kids... it wouldn't surprise me if they see $500/barrel crude oil when they are older. In 50 years, it might actually be a crime by then to burn petroleum distillates in an internal combustion engine. Privately-owned cars as we know them now - even hybrid vehicles - may be illegal by the late 21st century.
But returning to the present - maybe you are one of those who think our war in Iraq was mostly about oil. Man, you don't have any conception of what a real war for oil will be like. You may think G. W. Bush is a dick for his policies today, but there may come a day in your lifetime when you get down on your knees and beg for a leader who will restore a regular flow of petroleum into this country. It's a measure of human folly that we don't appreciate what we have until it's gone. Look around you, right now. There probably isn't a single object in your apartment or house that wasn't either made from petroleum or whose manufacture wasn't powered by a fossil fuel. If the day ever comes, and there is no more petroleum, your life, as you know it now, is over. And I mean really over.
So don't waste or curse that which is the ultimate Creator of your world. Don't take any of petroleum's blessings for granted. Crude oil is, in actuality, an almost priceless commodity - one we really haven't even begun to value in proper relation to our need.
-- In Memoriam, Murray Goodman, Ph.D. (1929-2004)
Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, U.C. San Diego, Revelle College