TWILIGHT OF THE OIL AGE

Readers respond

Great article that really captures the geographic aspect of our fragile oil supply. Very few American consumers consider the global scale of the human misery and environmental destruction that our oil economy has caused. While it may have its own problems, one has to wonder what the world would look like today had we listened to Tesla and were all driving electric cars today. I can imagine a much healthier, more peaceful world.

Barry
Plymouth, Michigan
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Great series. Congrats to Paul Salopek for his remarkable insight. As someone who has lived in both Nigeria and Venezuela (where I worked on a project in the Oriente for PDVSA), his vignettes ring true. Too bad that all too few people read and even fewer think. Oh, well, maybe that's why we have the administration we do.

Bob Ernst
St. Louis, Missouri
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The report was perhaps the best literature I have encountered in a newspaper, and I am a voracious consumer of papers. I never read Tom Wolfe when he was a journalist, but I'm sure he didn't top your punchy, vivid descriptions and empathetic treatment of people. Congratulations on a masterpiece which should bring you your third Pulitzer.

Bennet Harvey
Lake Forest, Illinois

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"A Tank of Gas . . . " -- journalism equal to that of Kolbert's "Climate of Man" series in The New Yorker. WELL DONE!! (Ah! The return of investigative reporting!)

John Porterfield
Chicago, Illinois
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Wow. Paul's striking perspicaciousness offers a uniquely chilling and humbling picture of just how brittle the moving parts of the globally economic machine really are. Kudos to Marathon for having enough balls to invite Paul into their sphere and shame on the Exxon's and BPs who eschewed allowing the truth to be set free.

J. Wixon
Wheaton, Illinois
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Thank you for what is, for me, a pardigm-shifting article in today's newspaper. In truth, much of what you report is not "news" to me; like Laura Binning, I am a relatively aware and educated consumer, and believed that, on the whole, I make good choices (starting with choosing to live in a 750 square foot home 2 miles from my workplace), living locally as best I can (and trying to suppress my awareness of all the implications of many aspects of my very comfortable life). But your compelling and specific reporting (especially on the experiences of the staff at the Marathon gas station in South Elgin) punctured my willful need to avoid knowing the true costs of my consumer choices (even beyond the cost of gas to fill the tank in my 2004 Subaru Legacy). At the least, next I will practice my usual armchair activism, and circulate this special report to my friends, family, and students (I teach at the local community college, and many of my students have much in common with Kelly Hanson, Marta Perez, Cruz Rodriguez, Michelle Vargas, and even Sunday Jeremiah; I'm not sure how they'll react to reading this when I assign it to them in August, and I hope it is galvanizing rather than defeating). But I think I must express my intellectual and emotional reaction to this article more strongly, and for once go beyond such simple gestures. I'll begin by walking to work once a week--another small gesture, too small, but trying something is, I've gotta hope, better than trying nothing. Finally, your article impacted me so greatly, and was such a visceral reading experience, in large part because you so effectively portray the ordinary lives of the people who live at each "oil intersection." Your experiences volunteering at the gas station served you well in the authentic and unpatronizing way you write about the workers there. This is some of the best journalistic writing I've ever read (and I read it all). sincerely,

Jackie McGrath
Glen Ellyn, Illinois

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Thank you for this brilliant, thorough analysis of a growing problem in the world. I wish more journalists would shed some light into a pending global human crisis as you just did.

New York, New York

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I really enjoyed this article. I'm so sick of hearing about the ties to terrorist from urban legend e-mails. Your whole article was enthralling. I don't know if it will affect the country like it has me, but I hope so. I'm going to look at ways to curb my dependence on oil. I thought of the term "the hand that rocks the cradle" in reading this article. It looks like "the people who control the oil, control the world."

I have lots of contacts through my church missionary work in Africa and South America. This article also made me even more aware of the differences in our countries. But it also brought me closer to them. I believe that most people are just trying to live and take care of their own families, just like me. And, we seem to have the world view that we are fed regularly. Thanks for expanding that somewhat.

Again, thanks for the time you put into this article. Please pass along my praise to your whole team. By the way, I don't take the time to send out compliments very often. As a very conservative professional I usually dismiss most articles as attempting to brainwash some segment of our society. I felt that you were just putting the story out there, as it was, and we had to make the decision on our own. Well done. Thanks,

J. Keith Maxwell

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A tank of gas, a world of trouble, is the best news story that I've ever read. Thank you.

Jason Cass
Kirkland, Washington

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THAT IS WHAT IS CALLED "USELESS, POINTLESS JOURNALISM" : A WASTE OF TIME AND PAPER.

All it does is iterate problems that are blurted about by the "drive-by-media" every day. But it is an integral part of the problem because it offers NO viable solutions. Not even a hint of a suggestion of how we can work our way out of this quagmire and replace oil-power with the free power sources and cheaper sources of power such as SOLAR and NUCLEAR. tHE INTELLIGENSIA THAT CONTROLS THE WAYS AND MEANS TO DIVORCE US FROM OIL, already know these things and telling newspaper readers about it achieves NOTHING because they have NO power.

This "writer" should outline workable plans for achieving cheap, renewable power to rid us of oil, and submit those plans to those who have the $ and POWER to make the changes.

Don Schimpff
Redding, California

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This is the best journalism I've read in a long time. It's informative, engaging, humorous, thought provoking ... and downright frightening -- all at the same time. I commend your newspaper for giving Paul Salopek, Brenda Kilianski and Kuni Takahanshi the time and thre resources for this marvelous read.

Ellen McGregor
Cleveland, Ohio

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Thank you SO much for your breathtaking detective work and storytelling.

My parents live in Naperville and I graduated from Northwestern and I'm a DC policy wonk so I could appreciate more than most the richness and accuracy of your amazing portrait of our oil import dependent world. Thanks again.

Lisa Lyons Wright

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Congratulations to Paul Salopek on a remarkable piece of reporting. This article should be required reading for everyone in the United States. Thank you.

George Fehling
Underhill, Vermont

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Your piece on oil in Sunday's Trib was spectacular. Perfectly written. Well researched. Irritatingly true and reveling.

Strangely enough for me the most hard hitting facts you wrote about were actually more direct documentation of American apathy and self-centered individualistic servitude. Direct representation of our perceived god given right to have what we want and consume without conscience.

I have no pity for Vargo, and hatred of the Binnings attitude and behavior. We in this country do because we can and it's our right without cause or concern for anyone else.

To Vargo I say too bad you don't "feel" safe. Does that give you a right to waste recourses because it suites you? If the whole of Europe and China didn't "feel" safe in other than a Suburban and behaved as insecurely as Vargo, the world economy would have already collapsed. If she had a fuel efficient vehicle, she wouldn't be pumping three quarters days wages into the tank just to get to her job.

The Binnings behavior is far worse. The byproduct of success and affluence. No conscience and the ignorance of responsibility. If Mrs. showed up at my door for a showing with that gas sucking behemoth, I wouldn't even let her in. Her vehicle choice doesn't exhibit success to me, it exhibits excessive self-indulgence and disregard for all but her. She would need to show up in a diesel Jetta or a E320 CDI to garner anything close to a positive response from this side of the table.

We are a nation of "all about me" at the expense of the world. What further angers me is the fact, for the gross majority of my life, I have driven fuel efficient diesel or four cylinder CARS raising four children without the excess of a resources sucking V-8 status symbol to satiate personal insecurity. If this was a popular perspective, we as a nation would need very little if any foreign oil and we wouldn't be in the jam we are in now.

My choice is and will always be a choice of conscience with the benefit of economics. We are a nation of the world that represents 5% of the gross population, yet we consume 50% of its resources. Until my minority perspective gains popular appeal, the only means to bring a world view to most self-centered affluent Americans is $7 plus per gallon fuel. The downside of this process will be economic ruin. Capitalism and a market economy has given us many things that are good, but the one thing it seems to prevent, mainly because it's all about the shareholder, is a motivation to supply product that is sensible or responsible verses product that sells with the greatest profit margin. Simply asses the auto offerings of VW verses GM and I think you will see my point.

The bottom line that I have been chided for since my first four cylinder car in 1982 is still the same today, self control and avoiding excess aren't popular in a culture that breeds wealth and indifference achieving personal success.

Mark Gallagher
Chicago, Illinois

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Brilliant series. Brings the story home to folks who don't have the facts at their fingertips, and might not be able to accept them (the facts) even if they did. Thanks!

Amy Metzger
Lakewood

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Mr. Salopek will win his third Pulitizer Prize. His imagery, attention to detail and sheer scope of his recent endeavor assures Mr. Salopek of another win. Obviously, this news feature is a timely undertaking. With nations on "black juice," and more in line for the same; America and the world need more thinkers and less gas pumpers.

The picture of a real estate agent filling up her Hummer should be framed for future archeologists. The mentality in this country is beyond belief. A recent article in a real estate magazine depicts another real estate agent who because of high gasoline prices is now leaving her "Hummer" in the drivewayits replacement is a Cadillac! Need I say more?

As in the Middle East, "bombs" are bad for the innocent and business. The future of this Nation's dependency on hydrocarbons needs independent "re-thinkers and doers." In the final analysis, life and business will continueonly the "juice" will have to go.

Good health & keep walking.

M. C. Marasco

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I just want to say that this piece was truly stunning. I'm a citizen concerned with peak oil and the future of our energy supply, and I've never read anything quite like this. I'm recommending it to all my friends. Thank you for writing this.

Tyler
Kaneohe, Hawaii

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Attached is the article I sent to the editor regarding your reporting. I commend you on at least looking into the gas crisis, but you still did not answer the public's question... What is Exxon doing with 10 billion a quarter? Where or to whom is this money going to? There should be some serious investigative reporting done on these oil companies and who is getting the profits. I would like to know who the major shareholders in oil companies, like Exxon, are. If Exxon can't even help the dilapidated country that it is using to process its oil, then what are they doing with the money they make?

Please, if you would, respond back. I wouldn't mind even sitting down with reporters and telling them how gas prices are street priced by various gas stations. And for your information there is going to be a Motor Fuel Task Force meeting in Naperville on Thursday evening at their municipal building. A local state representative is hosting it. It is open to the public. I know I will be there.

Michelle Koler

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I really enjoyed reading this well written and thoroughly researched article. I read a lot of literature on Peak Oil and global warming. This is the most enjoyable and single best newspapter article I've read about the globally circuitous path oil takes from source to pump.

I became interested in this topic about a year ago. Since then I've spent a lot of time educating myself. I'm stunned and deeply concerned by the magnitude of the incredible mess we've allowed ourselves to get into. The end of the Age of Oil and global warming are the two preeminent issues of our lifetime. This is an abject failure of government and a dereliction of duty on a colossal scale.

Congratulations on an excellent piece of reporting. Keep up the good work.

John Rogers
Sacramento, California

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Today I read your article and watched the attached video footage. I wish everyone in America had access to the article. It was a very powerful article; also a bit scary I might add.

My husband and I live in a small home (1200 sq. ft., 50 years old) in Huntsville, Al We are very conscious of our energy/resource use and footprint on the planet. We cut off lights, unplug appliances, recycle, and don't water the grass.. Anything within our power to help reduce our energy consumption. Our utility bill this past month including water, sewer, and electricity was approximately $ 80.00. We try to live a simply.

Your article makes me keenly aware that our sacrifices just maybe preparation for an existence without fossil fuels, or availability of such at a far higher cost that we already pay. With increases in fuel costs, increases in healthcare costs..I wonder what Americans have to look forward too?

I think it would be great for you to follow on with an article about what we as individuals and families can do to mediate this looming fuel crisis further. Thanks again for your work.

I don't know that you will receive this email message, however, I'm hoping you will.

Mary Morris-Billings
Normal, Alabama

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A fantastic account of such an unseen and unknown infrastructure. Many thanks to the intrepid reporting of both Paul and Kuni.

James Cascione
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

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I wanted to thank you for having the courage to link our maddening addiction to petroleum and the seeds of corruption and despair it sows around the planet.

It is an excellent multimedia presentation. I think you have covered some of the world's oil rich nations with the greatest turmoil. I also appreciate the effort you took at determining the origin of the oil the customers was drawing from the Marathon gas station. What a perfect class struggle the real estate agents with a hummer and the nigerian fisherman losing his catch following foreign exploitation of their off shore oil deposits.

Couple other suggestions: the political juggernaut our oil addiction is wielding around the planet, global climate change, statistics, increase of CO2 and finally solutions (increase fuel economy, public transportation, diversify our nation's energy production).

Laurent

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We learned about this in college biology courses. Natural environments have a strict natural "carrying capacity".

We human are blessed in that we have technologically increased the average carrying capacity of an acre of land.

Without oil, or a remarkable replacement, the undenialble fact is - that carrying capacity is going to drop - like a rock.

My great question is: How close are we, population wise, to the carrying capacity of our average American farm?

Then I'd like to know how much farm production would drop if left using cattle to pull plows again.

The difference will tell you how far our population will have to drop to be sustainable...

I'm guessing that'll be huge.

Abe Miller
Elgin, Illinois
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Mr. Salopek writes: "That particular night, according to one industry method of calculating the explosive energy locked away in crude oil, Dunbar dumped the liquid equivalent of 19.2 million hours of physical labor into the Marathon's storage tanks--or the power of a slave army of 2,200 men working around the clock for a year."

Sorry, but that just doesn't pass the sniff test. Set aside the laughably melodramatic talk of a slave army. The figures themselves are just ridiculous. According to the GAO, the US consumed 380 million gallons of gas per day in 2004. If it takes 2200 man-years to produce 7723 gallons, as Mr. Salopek claims, then I guess every person on earth, all 6.6 billion of us, must have worked non-stop for nearly 6 years to produce the gas that the US consumed in 2004, right?

Not possible. Not even close.

Oil consumption is a serious issue and deserves serious treatment. Unfortunately, Mr. Salopek's article doesn't provide it.

Ross
Atlanta, Georgia
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Excellent series. Hit home but one has to ask...How much fuel did you consume for this article?

Rich
Gilberts,Illinois
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Surely among the most timely, sobering, and best written pieces of journalism I've read in the past 40 years.

E. N. Genovese
San Diego, California
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This article is overly alarmist with its doomsday predictions. Instead of following the molecule trail of foreign oil, the writer should have been following the money more closely. With any dire prediction of future commodities collapse, there's always the option to hedge against that likelihood. If anyone were to seriously believe store of oil would be worth even five times more in ten years than it is today, nobody would continue selling it. It would be too attractive to hold.

Furthermore, it's just so un-American to think we cannot innovate ourselves out of this situation. It will not take many generations to create an infrastructure to support a new fuel source. How long did it take to produce the infrastructure that brings broadband internet to homes, something barely understood ten years ago?

Rick Casares
Chicago, Ilinois