Dmitriy T.M. sent in a video put together by the Center for Investigative Reporting about some of the hidden costs of gasoline use in the U.S.:
Also check out our earlier posts on Lisa Margonelli’s TED talk about the political economy of oil in the U.S. as well as the inconsistent relationship between gas prices and how much we drive.
Comments 7
Umlud — August 5, 2011
Closing the "loop" of externalities is one thing that the relatively new field of industrial ecology can help examine and quantify. This field deals with the human systems (mostly industrial systems, thus the name) and how they interact throughout the lifecycle of different objects.
This video is a "lite" version of this style of analysis for gasoline. (And as a "lite" version, there are certain pieces that are left unsaid, such as why we choose to look at Saudi Arabian crude or how we end up with 19lbs.) The method can also be used to analyze the impacts of corn ethanol, the life-time energy use and pollution discharge between a diesel and a gasoline engine, etc.
Although I'm not in the field, from what I know of it, industrial ecology is a decent method of shedding light on the unseen and the indirect costs associated with the various industrial products and processes that we find ourselves surrounded by in the modern world. Shining light, though, is merely one point in a process; getting people to realize that these previously unthought-of things are real and (in many cases) of significance is, however, the more crucial point.
Anonymous — August 5, 2011
Is a transcript available?
wondering — August 6, 2011
I'd like to see an analysis of what price is paid (in collateral, government programs, tax credits/abatements, environmental costs, etc.) per gallon by those who DON'T drive. I commute to work via public transit but I pay the same taxes/live in the same world as my coworkers who barrel their SUVs into a large urban center to get to a job site less than 2 miles from their homes.... I'd love to see a quantitative analysis indicating in what ways I am subsidizing their dumb driving asses, even as a commuter.