Rising Oil Prices and the Environment

Rising oil prices is a big help to the environment. It is very obvious, with the high price of oil, people are forced to walk, use bicycles, and commute. Here in the Philippines, the price of oil has increased by about 9.50php since the start of the year. The oil companies have been jacking up their prices weekly, and until recently they have been increasing by as much as 1.50php where as before they only raise it by only 0.50php. The effects of this increases is very evident in my family. We have only one car in the family, a 10 yr old stainless owner type jeep. It runs fairly well because it is maintained at tip top shape, its engine performance 10 yrs ago is still very much the same today. My father, who usually travels to and from work 6 times a week. Has now reduced his driving to 3 days a week. And if before he usually comes home at around 9:00 pm, he now comes home at around 6 pm for the first 2 days, and at 2pm during Saturdays. His job requires him to go to different places. What he did is to compress his driving time, wait till the orders are many, then drive to them in one day. The result is more than 50% reduction in oil consumption in the family. Which is a plus to the environment. The rising prices of oil will also pressure the governments to switch to renewable energy and other alternatives. However, alternative fuel production must not compete with food production, as what is happening today. For me, the oil price hike is a wake up call to everyone, to start looking into alternative sources of energy. It is a bitter medicine we have to take, to cure the environment.