[MoogSM]

Does anyone know where I can find out how many gallons or barrels of oil (approximately) went into producing every items, like a cup of coffee, an apple, a computer, a car, etc.?

Any information at all would be incredibly helpful!

[SeaGypsy]

Does anyone know where I can find out how many gallons or barrels of oil (approximately) went into producing every items, like a cup of coffee, an apple, a computer, a car, etc.?

Any information at all would be incredibly helpful!

If you hunt around there are agricultural figures published for a lot of countries; but it's very difficult to do a serious guess on specific items as there are too may factors and variables. This tends to get summed up in the food miles movement and buy local campaigns. The peak bodies of the various agencies involved could be a source for more area specific information.

I'm guessing you want this information to try to win an argument about oil?
I think because accurate specifics are difficult and contradictory information abounds; it is easier to look at a specific day in the life of J6P.
How much energy of what original source goes into living an ordinary western lifestyle? I find many people think the only thing oil is really necessary for is transport; a little homework shows that virtually everything we touch, use, need, eat comes from oil. If it were not there tomorrow nor would society; overnight.

[MoogSM]

Yeah, obviously an exact figure is impossible, but even a ballpark number. I want to do a The Price is Right-like gameshow with contestants guessing how many barrels or gallons. So saying "at least X" would be ok too, if anyone has any idea or links...

[hillsidedigger]

I often wonder about that.

There's also the fuel-footprint from driving to an oulet to pick up an item.

Consider a carpenter who's building a house in a remote location and discovers that he needs one more board which will require a 30 mile drive into (and back from) the Lowe's store.

[kublikhan]

You might want to check out Tesco. A UK retailer, they started putting their products' carbon footprint info on the label. They already have over 100 products carbon labeled and hope to eventually have all of their products labeled.

Each sheet of Tesco recycled toilet roll produces around 1.1g of carbon compared to around 1.8g for Tesco standard toilet roll.

Tesco carbon labels toilet paper

From today, all Tesco own-label full-fat, semi-skimmed and skimmed milk ranges will display the carbon footprint label as part of an on-going drive to help shoppers make "green" purchasing decisions. It has pledged to "footprint" 500 products by the end of the year. The new labelling will not apply to organic milk, where greenhouse gas emissions are generally much lower than for conventional milk.

Tesco becomes UK's first retailer to display carbon footprint on milk

Walmart announced similar plans to have an eco-rating on it's products: Wal-Mart’s “green” push a game-changer

[JohnDenver]

The average is easy to calculate. World GDP in 2008 (from the CIA Factbook) is about $70 trillion. Liquids production in 2008 was about 85 million b/d = 31 billion barrels per year.

Dividing, $2258 of final goods or services requires (on the average) 1 barrel of oil to produce. Equivalently, $54 of goods or services requires 1 gallon, so roughly speaking, each time you spend $10, a liter of oil is going up in smoke somewhere.

[shortonsense]

The average is easy to calculate. World GDP in 2008 (from the CIA Factbook) is about $70 trillion. Liquids production in 2008 was about 85 million b/d = 31 billion barrels per year.

Dividing, $2258 of final goods or services requires (on the average) 1 barrel of oil to produce. Equivalently, $54 of goods or services requires 1 gallon, so roughly speaking, each time you spend $10, a liter of oil is going up in smoke somewhere.

Thats an excellent, and quite easy way to explain it. Thanks.