EVANSTON, Ill. -- When retail gasoline prices hit $4 a gallon last summer, consumer change in behavior got engineer and journalist Christopher Steiner thinking, what would $6 a gallon do? $20 a gallon? Steiner's new book, $20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better, is a surprisingly optimistic look at a world no longer ruled by petroleum, reported The Chicago Sun-Times.
Steiner has arranged his book into chapters based on the cost of gaswhat happens at $6 a gallon or at $8 a gallon, all the way [image-nocss] up to $20.
"Weaning ourselves from gasoline isn't a scary thing, it's an exciting thing," Steiner, 32, who writes about energy and technology for Forbes magazine, told the newspaper. "We're talking about cleaner environments, more walkable lives, better public transportation and more vibrant cities."
He argues that our current civilization is based to a surprising extent on petroleum. So much of our lifestylefrom the plastic bags that hold our groceries to the asphalt roads that carry our carsis dependent on cheap oil.
Steiner imagines that suburbs far from city centers will become slums of decaying McMansions, because no one will have the gasoline money to drive so much. Neglected downtowns like those in Detroit and St. Louis will revive because people want to live within walking or transit distance to work, shopping and culture. High-speed rail will connect cities.
Steiner also pictures more fresh, locally grown produce, because it will be too costly to ship tasteless tomatoes in trucks from California. Also possible is the death of Wal-Mart, a business reliant on cheap oil to make its plastic toys and spatulas, oil to ship them from China and around the United States, and oil to carry shoppers to its big-box stores. "Wal-Mart has built a business on gasolineas the price goes up, maintaining that global network won't be possible," Steiner said. "The Wal-Mart we know won't exist in the future."
"Change is hard," Steiner said. "People don't want to change until they're forced to change." But Steiner thinks that as gasoline prices go up, "good things will happen."
One benefit will be a decline in obesity, Steiner believes, as people get out of their cars and back to walking. People will also enjoy cleaner air and fewer traffic deaths. "We'll save 16,000 lives annually with gas at $6 a gallonan amazing effect," he said.
Some losses will be painful. Steiner predicts the collapse of many airlines, meaning the end of millions of jobs. Resort towns will shrink, Disney World will close and overseas trips will be rare for the middle class. Students will no longer feel free to travel across the country for college. He also imagines families will stay more regionally compactif you leave Chicago to go take a job in San Francisco, you can't go home every Christmas because of the loss of cheap airfare.
Steiner also foresees the loss of exotic foods we've taken for granted, such as kiwis and sushi.
To prepare for the future, Steiner recommends people take a look at where they live, and whether it will be sustainable as gasoline goes up. "Where you live determines how you live," said Steiner, "Maybe next time you're in a transitional point of life, don't go further out and buy the bigger house, but move to a walkable community, near a train. That's a change you'll profit from."
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