It’s a sure bet that the Gulf oil spill will raise a lot of long-term health issues. New reports out this week warn of headaches, sinus trouble and asthma attacks. Seafood will be at risk if contaminants get into the food chain.

People in southern Louisiana have already complained about a stench coming off the shoreline, causing burning eyes and nausea. The Environmental Protection Agency is worried about water contamination, too.

So – who’s to blame? Of course mistakes were made by British Petroleum. There were building flaws. The pieces didn’t do what they were supposed to do after the explosion.

But it’s people like us who buy oil products day after day, week after week, month after month, year in and year out who are at the root of responsibility for the fiasco. We are, in essence, poisoning our own food, killing the wildlife and corrupting natural resources.

We’ve given lip service to changing our energy habits, but we haven’t made much progress. We have the Smart Car, but we also have the Hummer, which gets about 10 city miles per gallon. And that, according to what popular media tells us, is the coolest thing on wheels these days.

In the current movie The Losers, the protagonists end the flick with a ride in the vehicle of their dreams: a canary yellow hummer limousine. Wow. Heads turn when that baby pulls up.

Not everyone can afford a Hummer, but a fleet of other four-wheel drive sport utility vehicles don’t fare much better when it comes to fuel efficiency. The GMC Sierra, Nissan Armada, Nissan Titan and Land Rover get 12 city mpg.

President Obama has managed to get auto manufacturers to accept new fuel economy measures – by 2016. That’s when SUVs will have to start getting 35.5 mpg (average city and highway). But the U.S. experienced its first oil jolt in the 1970s, and you’d think we would have accomplished more in 40 years.

Oil is used to make plastic, too, and we live in an era when almost everything is plastic. When you go to the supermarket, you carry your food home in a plastic bag – a petroleum-based product. Oil is even used in fertilizers to grow the food before it gets delivered to the store – by gas guzzling truck.

In a typical 44-gallon barrel of oil, 37 gallons are used for fuels (gas, heating oil, jet fuels, etc.) and seven are converted into solvents, fertilizers, pesticides, and plastics according to Petroleum.com.

We’ve missed a lot of opportunities to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels. The Gulf “Deepwater Horizon spill” is a reminder that it’s never too late to change course.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cjc4454/3648395375/

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