Second Session: Petroleum Products

Recently in this planet's northern hemisphere, in what is known as the Gulf of Mexico, south of the North American continent, an oil refinery exploded and crashed into the sea. It was of a deep-water make and salvaging the broken pipes and stopping the gushing oil source took, according to my records, nearly 90 rotations.

Most humans viewed this as a disaster rather than a way of life. Petroleum depletion has advanced to just before the stage of petroleum cypher. How has this happened without their obtaining an alternative fuel source?

As I stated in my first session human beings are a lot like us, they prefer swift solutions to dilemmas. Their error, however, is in their intrinsic short-sightedness. The Central Intelligence Agency (which I can only assume is the receptacle of curious interventionists) has compiled a list of 224 countries and their mortality rates. It ranges from Monaco (at 89.78 revolutions) to Angola (38.48 revolutions). The North American continent's residents, the U.S.A.s, are 49 on the list, living an average 78.24 revolutions.

I think the board will agree that this information almost speaks for itself. Human beings are short-lived relative to the majority of the galaxy's inhabitants. I would be apt to claim this is a result of poor breeding habits or their relative savagery but in truth neither of these answers is sufficient. The terrestrials of Earth are not really that different from most of the outer rim's civilizations.

There is a steadily growing dependency on stimulation, however, that is not unlike some of the wilder remnants of the Blue Diaspora Tribe (more on that in later sessions).

For now I mean to point out that the humans are perfectly willing to let disasters such as the "British Petroleum" oil platform continue. As it degrades their ocean quality and ravages further an already quite-depleted marine population and drives up the price of petroleum across the sphere they simply wait for more of it, carefully packaged and prepared for them like so much gourmet comestibles. Unfortunately they, unlike us, are already on an unstoppable path to strange and bitter disappointment. Fortunately we were able to designate the when and how our petroleum would dry and were able to plan accordingly. The humans, however, short-lived as they are, cannot (and may, in fact, be technically incapable to) predict this folly.

I will illustrate my hypothesis. Below is a list of products the humans use in every rotation, many of which are essential for preservation of quality of life. All are based on petroleum products:

Gasoline
Toothpaste
Refrigerators
Artificial limbs
Anesthetics
Telephones
Heart Valves
Corrective Glasses
Surf Boards
Wheels
Pillows
Aspirin
Cameras
Enamel
Parachutes
Digital Versatile Discs
Umbrellas
Nylon
Yarn
Toilet Seats
Fertilizer
Paint
Oil Filters
Glycerin
Vitamin Capsules
Food Preservatives
Antiseptics
Ink
Asphalt
Paraffin Wax
Tar

This is a short list. And in saying so I would like to add that my needs are relatively few. I make my second request for immediate transfer to Venus.