Roperos: Wrangling over fuel

THERE is a reported decrease in the current prices of cooking gas which had lately risen in Cebu to almost P700 per tank.
 
I do not know the exact load of a tank of kitchen gas, but I do know that sometimes my gas would last for only a couple of weeks and at other times for a month. Truth is, the consumers do not have a way of knowing whether a gas tank has been loaded with the exact amount of gas or not upon purchase.
 
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In the absence of a tool to ascertain the tank’s content, the consumer has to bank on faith and on the honesty of the dealer. I am sure that given the expertise to ascertain the content of the tank, the consumers would have checked it each time they make a purchase. But right now they are at the mercy of the dealers.
 
The best way is to switch from gas to wood or charcoal for fuel, something I have partially done lately. At P120 a sack, the charcoal is used up in about a week with my two clay stoves. I also used firewood for a number of months as an alternate to gas. I used the gas only when we needed to cook fast. This is to say that I have not really given up on cooking gas.
 
But I have qualms of conscience knowing that what I am doing is against the call to protect the environment. I do not know what kind of wood the charcoal makers cut down, thereby adding to the dilemma of climate change. In this particular situation, one is faced with the realities confronting truly our own existence.
 
It is rather difficult, though, to overcome the practice I have done since I was a small boy hardly in knee pants. At the time when cooking gas was non-existent, my weekend task was to gather dried coconut palm.. 
 
Even in those days, the use of charcoal was not yet in vogue. Charcoal was used only for ironing clothes. And the problem of the women in the family, especially maidservants, was the kind of flatiron they had to use. A Japanese made flatiron was the least preferred because it was inferior. The German made was favored.
 
Dried coconut palm was the favorite fuel since even then the use of wood was not yet in vogue. There was dried coconut palm aplenty around town which you can gather without even asking permission from the coconut plantation owners who hardly ever care about the fallen coconut left un-gathered around the tree.
 
Those were the days when people of our town were still few, and the things one needed to live a comfortable life were grown plenty and free.