View from the Strip
By Casey Lessard
Everyone seems to be concerned about the price of gas these days, and I’m certainly among the crowd. I’m not eager to face the pumps when I have to resume my commute to Toronto every week to teach this fall.
But what do you do? I’ve been trying to figure out ways to reduce my reliance on my vehicle, but in this business it would be impossible to ride a bicycle everywhere. This is one of the curses of living the good life in rural Canada.
They say gas will only get more expensive, and I guess that has always been the case. How expensive does it have to get before you would stop driving, and when does the price of gas impact your life?
My guess is that you are already feeling the effects, especially if you work in Grand Bend, own a farm, commute to London, or simply scrape by on a meager budget. As gas prices escalate, so does the price of everything else. If prices for the things you buy regularly haven’t gone up, they will eventually. Businesses can only shoulder supply and transportation price increases for so long.
With the current crisis, it is time to start thinking of other solutions. During a visit to the Green Living show (yes, we drove to Toronto for it), we could see the exciting prospects of solar power, energy efficient homes, hybrid and electric cars, etc. People want these technologies for the environmental reasons, and they are more attractive when they actually save you money.
Soon enough, these technologies will be more affordable than the fossil fuel technologies we have relied on for so long. I can’t wait for the day, and the environment can’t, either. I only hope enough of us still have jobs when that day arrives.
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