Posted on December 31st, 2009 by Derek Nelson
Filed under Uncategorized |
After driving tonight, I came to a huge realization. Oil companies truly play a huge part in our independence – economic, financial, and other liberties. One may not realize it, but it’s truly does. Think about it for a moment – how much of what we do is affected by what the petroleum industry dictates? How many products do we use that are derived from petroleum?
Many of us Americans just think about the cars we own and the gas we purchase to fill up our tanks, but think about it from a more wholistic approach…what does it affect?
We have been in an economic decline for some time, but how much of this can be attributed to our addiction (or what the oil companies have bestowed upon us) to oil? According to the U.S. Department of Energy, we currently import 57% of the oil we use today. In addition, it is believed that the manipulation caused by OPEC have cost our economy immensely — about $1.9 trillion from 2004 to 2008 (click on the Dept. of Energy link to see for yourself). Now, how would $1.9 trillion pumped back into our economy feel now? That $1.9 trillion is money that cost the U.S. due just to the shocks and price manipulations. That doesn’t factor in how much we actually spent. Can you imagine if we could completely relieve ourselves from oil dependency?
This is just one argument looking at the simple economic side of things – an important facet to consider as price and costs play a huge part in our decision-making process. What about others? My brain is wandering for the evening so I’ll have to leave you in deep thought until then…
Posted on July 23rd, 2009 by Derek Nelson
Filed under Twitter |
Twitter (http://twitter.com) may be in the early stages of becoming the largest and most successful social media conglomerates in today’s technology world. In one regard, the company has a user base that has been growing so rapidly since the company started that it is hard to believe. On the other hand, it is still unknown [...]
Posted on June 27th, 2009 by Derek Nelson
Filed under Going Green, Personal Development, Sustainability |
Okay…I know it’s been a long while since I’ve posted something. To all you readers who do care about this site and are actually interested in it, I am truly sorry. Life has been busy, and I have not made this a priority. Again, I’m trying to change my own personal behavior to make my [...]
Posted on March 28th, 2009 by Derek Nelson
Filed under Going Green, Personal Development, Sustainability |
Well, now that I’ve informed all of you of a few things that you can start doing to make your lives more sustainable, I am now putting my own hypocritical words to use.
This week I purchased a commuter bike in order to commute to work on. It is called a Masi Soulville 7 (see picture [...]
Posted on March 18th, 2009 by Derek Nelson
Filed under Going Green, Personal Development, Sustainability |
In Gary Hirshberg’s book, Stirring It Up – How to Make Money and Save the World, he mentions a stat that we should all look at as Americans. He states that there is an estimation that every American generates 23 tons of carbon dioxide each year. They accomplish this wonderful feat by driving, cooking, heating [...]
Posted on March 17th, 2009 by Derek Nelson
Filed under Going Green, Sustainability |
This is probably one of the coolest concepts I have seen yet. I grew up on a farm in the Midwest, so I have a large agricultural background, and this just takes the cake…
Honestly, I do not know if I can even blog about it at this point because it is better explained if you [...]
Posted on March 8th, 2009 by Derek Nelson
Filed under Going Green, Sustainability |
A lot of my friends whom I truly admire and cherish have been asking a lot of questions about my new passion of going green and sustainability (which is awesome – education is crucial at this point on this topic!). They show a lot of skepticism in the whole concept. One of my good friends [...]
Posted on March 6th, 2009 by Derek Nelson
Filed under Going Green, Sustainability |
This post was not intended for any statistical insight – just food for thought…I just want to provoke some thinking outside the box here…
Ok, I am usually not a complete space case when it comes to topics (although I am very random), but for some odd reason I was spacing off in my sustainability class [...]
Posted on March 5th, 2009 by Derek Nelson
Filed under Going Green, Sustainability |
Since January, I have been taking a Sustainability (Going Green) course in my MBA program at the University of Iowa and have been re-evaluating the way I look at business. I have always been a bit skeptical about how our society operates, but I have never realized until now how selfish and wasteful we Americans [...]