Re: “Kayakers depend on array of petroleum products,” letter, July 27.
Yes, we do depend on petroleum products! The big difference is we don’t burn our kayaks and create pollution. (We do paddle them to protest, and they are human-powered, not gas-powered.)
To take this myopic view is a bit over the top. No one is saying we need to stop all oil production. Plastics are a product used in almost every item we use daily, whether it is the keyboard I write this with, to tires (for electric cars) and more.
Some sources state that about four per cent of oil produced today is used for plastics production, and another four per cent is used as an energy source for that production, so less than 10 per cent.
If we stopped burning fossil fuels, the amount of oil taken from the ground would be a very small fraction of what is now extracted.
Rod Stiebel
Victoria
