Could gas prices improve our health?

This is mainly for North Americans, and you probably partly see what I'm getting at already: pricey gas = less driving = more physical activity (hopefully) = less obesity = less diabetes and heart disease. We've seen some immediate effect--more cycling, walking and public transit--and it's likely we'll see substantial reordering of culture and infrastructure to accomodate and rely on human power.

Increased fuel costs could undercut another root of American obesity, too: high fructose corn syrup. Between added production costs and new non-food demand for industrial corn crops (e.g. ethanol), we may see America's favorite opiate go the way of the Hummer. Add in the growing impracticality of shipping New York's groceries from California, much less China, and current fuel cost correction may refigure and rehabilitate our food systems as well as transportation and urban planning.

The transition, like all big culture shifts, is going to suck. Just be grateful us hippies started getting ready for it forty years ago :D

Does an astronaut farting outside the space shuttle affect their orbit?

Uh...no. No, not really.

That would really only happen if the price of gas jump skipped to $500 a gallon and Iran nuked Israel, but that would probably cause anyone with those heart conditions to simply drop dead of a heart attack anyway.

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Originally Posted by Taosaur

This is mainly for North Americans, and you probably partly see what I'm getting at already: pricey gas = less driving = more physical activity (hopefully) = less obesity = less diabetes and heart disease. We've seen some immediate effect--more cycling, walking and public transit--and it's likely we'll see substantial reordering of culture and infrastructure to accomodate and rely on human power.

Increased fuel costs could undercut another root of American obesity, too: high fructose corn syrup. Between added production costs and new non-food demand for industrial corn crops (e.g. ethanol), we may see America's favorite opiate go the way of the Hummer. Add in the growing impracticality of shipping New York's groceries from California, much less China, and current fuel cost correction may refigure and rehabilitate our food systems as well as transportation and urban planning.

The transition, like all big culture shifts, is going to suck. Just be grateful us hippies started getting ready for it forty years ago :D

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I can only see the prices going up from here: increasing demand, especially from India and China. Growing tension in the middle east.

If this continues, I think that the OP may be a credible suggestion.

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Originally Posted by Seismosaur

Does an astronaut farting outside the space shuttle affect their orbit?

Uh...no. No, not really.

That would really only happen if the price of gas jump skipped to $500 a gallon and Iran nuked Israel, but that would probably cause anyone with those heart conditions to simply drop dead of a heart attack anyway.

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So your position is that emerging trends of decreased miles driven, falling property values in exurbia, rising property values in city centers, and city planners investing in cycling and mass transit infrastructure neither reflect nor foreshadow an impact on American lifestyles? We have the numbers that bus and train ridership is up nationwide, and I can attest anecdotally that there are more bikes on the street and the train lately. Just riding the bus or the train is an increase in activity over walking from the kitchen to the garage.

As for food costs, distribution methods and makeup of processed foods, I might be reaching a bit more, but rising fuel costs will likely level the competitive field for local production of many goods currently being shipped over great distances. Will the familiar shiny boxes persist on grocery store shelves for some time? Perhaps, but if we're either lucky or smart, their market share will dwindle.

You do realize that poor foods are the cheaper ones, right?

Everyone just gets poorer until wages catch up with prices.

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Originally Posted by Seismosaur

You do realize that poor foods are the cheaper ones, right?

Everyone just gets poorer until wages catch up with prices.

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"Cheaper" is not a constant, as evidenced by corn which farmers are selling at more than double last year's price. The cheapness of Starlink corn is founded on 1) government subsidies and 2) cheap oil. Remove those props and it's a whole new ballgame.

less driving doesn't equate to more physical activity :?, it just means you stay home more

here in texas at least, you really can't walk to places. most streets here don't even have side walks. unless you live in a downtown area, you need a ride to get anywhere.

Eh. We can't live without cars. Period. People will just buy better cars, like the stupid consumers they are. Why do people pay more money on methods to quit smoking than they do on the cigarettes themselves? We like it the dumb way, because the media makes that appealing. Laziness of the consumer helps fuel the economy. In this case, laziness will create a push for alternative energies.

Also, I doubt ethanol is the best answer.

Nice thinking, though. I wish it worked like that. I swore to myself as a kid that I'd never drive a car. I'm on my own this year, still sticking to that, but with an added clause: pilot an aircraft prior to learning to drive. =D

Gas prices going up won't improve our health, the price of everything goes up when oil does, meaning food costs more, tires, brakes, printer ink, anything...

And along with that, stress goes up, stress isn't good for your health.

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Originally Posted by juroara

less driving doesn't equate to more physical activity :?, it just means you stay home more

here in texas at least, you really can't walk to places. most streets here don't even have side walks. unless you live in a downtown area, you need a ride to get anywhere.

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Originally Posted by Abra

Eh. We can't live without cars. Period. People will just buy better cars, like the stupid consumers they are. Why do people pay more money on methods to quit smoking than they do on the cigarettes themselves? We like it the dumb way, because the media makes that appealing. Laziness of the consumer helps fuel the economy. In this case, laziness will create a push for alternative energies.

Also, I doubt ethanol is the best answer.

Nice thinking, though. I wish it worked like that. I swore to myself as a kid that I'd never drive a car. I'm on my own this year, still sticking to that, but with an added clause: pilot an aircraft prior to learning to drive. =D

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Originally Posted by guerilla

Gas prices going up won't improve our health, the price of everything goes up when oil does, meaning food costs more, tires, brakes, printer ink, anything...

And along with that, stress goes up, stress isn't good for your health.

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We'll almost certainly see a range of responses, but I suspect climbing fuel costs will somewhat undercut the forces that have steered us toward sloth and skewed food markets in favor of liquid sugar. It won't change the behavior of every person, nor will every change be for the better, but we're already seeing cities retool around buzzwords like "green," "walkable" and "bicycle friendly." I don't expect us to build utopia anytime soon, but I would be amazed if the rebalanced exchange rate between crude oil and human effort doesn't increase both usage and value of the latter, given time.

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Originally Posted by Taosaur

"Cheaper" is not a constant, as evidenced by corn which farmers are selling at more than double last year's price. The cheapness of Starlink corn is founded on 1) government subsidies and 2) cheap oil. Remove those props and it's a whole new ballgame.

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I was talking about foods that aren't healthy.

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pricey gas = less driving = more physical activity (hopefully) = less obesity = less diabetes and heart disease

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What is disturbing about this idea is it is implying we need pricey gas to cause us not to get heart disease. Instead of looking at the bad food and living habits which cause it. This is about as incompetent as a foolish society can become while at the same time so insane that it's sadly amusing. At the same time I know what organizations would take advantage of it. When adds start appearing on television "prevent heart disease, support high fuel prices" You then know you have been duped again. When Obama hussein which sounds like some hybrid of two tyrannical leaders tells us he will increase fuel prices for the sake of our health in America. Then know he would be using that excuse to get more votes and not solve problems.

All this undermines the reality that fuel prices are rising anyway and is probably the cause for making excuses why it is needed. However the price only rises so much as it never produces an effect which will cause people any good. For instance if the price of fuel was this expensive at first no-one would have even thought about buying cars in the first place, they would have been interested in other means. But unfortunately the price has been rising slowly without disturbing the people. Just like a frog in a pot where the heat is slowly turned up and the frog doesn't jump out because it's a gradual adjustment for it's death which is required to trick it into not noticing.

In other words. You are getting ripped off.

Overall a change from the now oil Dependant society IS going to be painful. The question is when and how will the oppressive expensive unbalance finally give way to the reaction of a more free and balanced means of existing.