Soaring oil prices from the US$20.00 a barrel in the days of 70s to the $125.00 a barrel saw a 6 fold jump.
Recently, towards the end of the 20th century, the climb has been dramatic. Fishermen running their boats on the more expensive fuel find their profit margin dwindling, and suffer great loss if there is little or no catch. The French fishermen went on strike, blockade the port with their boats.
What can we do in our small part to reduce the impact? Here in Singapore, office workers are leaving their cars parked at home, and taking the Mass Rapid Transport Systems, such as the trains and buses. Many with the addiction to big cars are feeling the pinch in their wallets, switching to smaller ones which give more mileage per litre of petrol. Car manufacturers are making the engines smaller, and the body with lighter material for fuel economy. Cars running on motorcycle engines of less than 800 cc capacity is selling like hot cakes, while the hugh 2 litre engine cars are being left on the showrooms for dust to collect.
People are turning to energy-saving lamps, instead of the traditional light-bulbs, the new technology bulbs consume the energy of 20 watt to give luminance of 100 watts. Air conditioners are turning to the Inverter system, where the regulation of temperature is by a proportional controlled electronic chip, that varies the speed and load of the compressor proportional to the temperature deviation between the set point and the measured value.
Mass Rapid Transport system, such as the Subway trains run on electricity. This electrical energy is cheaper than the direct oil fired machines, because the energy is multi-sourced. The turbines are running on Natural Gas supplied by pipelines from the Oil fields of East of the Malaysian Peninsula, and Indonesia. There is direct gas fired turbines and the steam turbines from gas fired boilers. However this source of energy is also mounting its price in relation to the price of Crude Oil. Many people, include businessman in Hong Kong takes the underground trains, and they do not feel any loss of self esteem, as this is the part of their lives. So taking public transport is a quick solution to the rising oil price.
Working from home is also a good thing to do, in a Cosmopolitan city, one has to travel to work and be caught in the traffic jams, the parking fees, and the associated cost of maintenance, insurance and tax on the ownership of a vehicle. With a Virtual Private Network (VPN) one can work from home without having to leave and work in a office with air-conditioning, bright lights and energy consumption. Run the fans instead of the air conditioner helps the save Mega watts of energy.
Please tell us your take on how you can cope with the rising oil prices, and be rewarded with 100 MVPs.
Street Smart
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