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in the US we’re looking at the very real probability of paying $4.00 $5.00 a gallon for gasoline (apparently we’ve already hit $4.00 in some parts of the country) in the not-too-distant future. meanwhile the people from papua new guinea are driving around on coconut oil. if nothing else, it means that, when we’ve suceeded in killing ourselves off, in 10,000 years, the planet may be repopulated by descendants of those people, who had an awful lot more sense than we had… if we didn’t suceed in killing off their ancestors, by accident, as well… 8/

Papua New Guinea islanders drive their cars on coconut power
May 9, 2007

London – Residents of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea have found an indigenous solution to high-energy prices, the ubiquitous tropical fruit, coconut.

The islanders are developing mini-refineries to produce a coconut oil that can eventually replace diesel.

Residents say, coconut oil has not only made them less dependant on expensive fuel, which had to be imported onto the island, enquiries about the fuel have even come from overseas, including Iran and Europe.

Matthias Horn, a German migrant and an engineer, who is operating one the several coconut oil refineries on the island, said, the oil is not only cheap but also environment friendly.

“They sometimes refer to me as the Mad German because how can you do that to your car… filling it with some coconut juice that you normally fry your fish in,” he said.

“The coconut tree is a beautiful tree. Doesn’t it sound good if you really run your car on something which falls off a tree and that’s the good thing about it; you run your car and it smells nice and it’s environmentally friendly and that’s the main thing,” the BBC quoted him as saying.