You may have received a forwarded message in your email inbox lately with the following subject: Don't pump gas on May 15th!!

The idea is that if everyone who sees the email will refuse to fill up their tank on that day “it would take $2,292,000,000.00 (that's almost 3 BILLION) out of the oil companies pockets for just one day.”

Sounds good, until you think about it. Everyone who doesn’t buy fuel that day will have to hit the pumps in the following days, so we figure that those sales will even out Wednesday’s losses.

History has shown that boycotts pack a punch if they’re extended—the British boycott of sugar in the 18th century caused sales of the sweet staple to drop by a third and is credited with bringing down the global slave trade.

So if you really want to stick it to the oil industry, consider reducing the amount of fuel you consume for an extended period of time, and encourage your friends to do the same. You know what they say about the power of peer pressure—go ahead, be the first to jump off that bridge.

Posted by Alisa Opar on May 10, 2007 at 11:47 AM
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