Let's stop making extra trips

To the Editor:

This letter is in response to the article in the April 14 A-D, “Gas prices are slamming locals.” They certainly are. At the end of 2010, the media everywhere was full of the good news that the economy is in recovery. I was watching the price of oil, because like many small businesses, we have only recently begun to recover from the 2008 hike in oil prices.

I know we’re working harder to get oil out of the ground every year, which means it’s costing more. That cost is passed on to consumers. Our modern methods not only cost more – they are also riskier. The measurable costs of clean up are passed on to consumers and taxpayers. The immeasurable costs are rarely tallied by those responsible. And will we ever know the true purposes and true costs of our military operations around the world, many of which are centered in areas where oil production peaked only recently, compared to oil production in the US?

The article, which was excellent in many ways, stated that I am “worried” people will not wish to make an “extra trip” to shop at Fare Share and other local businesses. Please. Let me make myself perfectly clear. In the interview, I said that some people may not want to make extra stops, not extra trips. We all need to stop making extra trips into town. If the price of oil is going up, it’s because we are using up this finite resource. We need to slow our consumption of oil by making fewer trips into town, combining errands, and purchasing goods produced locally and regionally rather than shipped from halfway around the world. We need to decrease our dependence on finite resources and distant factories and factory farms.

What is good for our community is good for downtown Norway. Extra trips, using more gasoline, are not good for our community. Fewer trips with more stops, errands shared with friends and neighbors, support of local farmers, producers and businesses: these are all good for community. Welcome to our new world. Let’s make it a good one.

Claire Gelinas

West Paris