\n<\/p>\n
W<\/span>ith the US and Israel\u2019s war on Iran now in its seventh week, with a fragile ceasefire in place since earlier this month, Americans are continuing to feel the effects at the pump as global fuel prices rise.<\/p>\n For several readers who spoke to the Guardian, the impact has forced difficult trade-offs \u2013 from accessing essential medicines and groceries to facing the brink of homelessness amid an already rising cost of living.<\/p>\n For Mandy, a 42-year-old mother in central Utah, higher gas prices have made it harder to visit one of her children, who has disabilities and lives hours away.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore [Donald] Trump and [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu started their war, gas in my town was $2.70 a gallon. Now it\u2019s $4.19 and I\u2019m terrified it\u2019s going to go closer to $5 before all is said and done. One of our children is disabled and lives in a group home two and a half hours away,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was already expensive to go see her but now it\u2019s all but out of our budget, which is absolute anguish for her and me. We live in a rural area. There is no public transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n Even as she described the strain on her own family, Mandy pointed to the broader human toll of the conflict, referencing US and Israeli attacks in Iran and Lebanon, including a February airstrike that killed at least 175 people at an Iranian elementary school.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve just been feeling like this war will cause a recession. Even worse is what I imagine the civilians of Iran and Lebanon are enduring \u2026 I\u2019m furious about the bombing of that school, the horrible, criminal rhetoric coming from our secretary of defense and president. All of this is being done in the name of every American and it\u2019s disgusting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Lisa, a 56-year-old living with disabilities on a tribal reservation in Oregon, said rising gas prices had disrupted her ability to access necessary medication.<\/p>\n <\/span>Lisa.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy photo<\/p>\n \u201cMy caregiver and I have had to cut back our trips to pick up my prescriptions, even though they are necessary. Because I live in rural Oregon, the basic necessities are 40 minutes away, so if a doctor calls in an additional prescription after I\u2019ve already been in town for the week, that prescription has to wait for the following week for me to pick it up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cMedical transportation is now doubled up with many rides being a \u2018ride-share\u2019. So what used to be a four-hour trip is now easily five to six hours with the additional person \u2013 not great when you are dealing with numerous medical issues.\u201d<\/p>\n For Michael Adcox, a retired firefighter in Alabama, the rising cost of fuel \u2013 combined with broader inflation \u2013 is exhausting his household.<\/p>\n \u201cI am a disabled retired firefighter and we are on an extremely tight fixed income. My wife continues to work but the sudden increase in gas and the general inflation is collapsing our financial security. We are actually on the verge of homelessness,\u201d Adcox said.<\/p>\n Similarly, Melissa Meyer, chief executive of IPM Food Pantry in Cincinnati, Ohio, said rising gas prices had driven more people to rely on food pantries \u2013 even as those same costs strain the operations of local food banks and their volunteers.<\/p>\n <\/span>Melissa Meyer.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy photo<\/p>\n \u201cIncreased gas prices put additional costs on our operations as we must increase gas costs for picking up and delivering food across five counties of south-west Ohio \u2026 We are not cutting back our services in any way, yet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Still, Meyer noted she was \u201cespecially concerned about our rural neighbors and our working poor\u201d, adding: \u201cBoth depend on transportation to get to work or get food \u2026 When you are not making a livable wage, a dollar or two increase in gas per gallon is devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n Others described how higher gas prices were reshaping their working lives. Maverick B, a 35-year-old in California who works in training and development, said the effects extended well beyond everyday expenses.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has also impacted my work commute, making it where there is a risk of having to call out of work to conserve enough gas to make it to the next paycheck. We did not consent to this war, these decisions, the billions being sent to Israel for weapons. We should have more say in what our tax dollars go to, not have them held hostage by an administration that has no sense of reality on what we need,\u201d B said.<\/p>\n Rising fuel costs are also having indirect effects. Cathi Newlin, a 63-year-old ceramic artist in Sacramento, California, who also cares for her husband with Parkinson\u2019s disease, said her income had been hit as consumers pull back.<\/p>\n <\/span>Cathi Newlin.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy photo<\/p>\n \u201cA substantial portion of our household income is generated from the sale of my art and the classes I teach. These are surely luxury items in any economy but when people have to spend more on basics like gasoline, they don\u2019t have as much money or desire to spend on art. The rise in oil prices very much affects my income and the price of my materials,\u201d Newlin said.<\/p>\n The strain has also underscored the lack of alternatives to driving. A 30-year-old IT worker in Poulsbo, Washington, said the \u201crelentless rise in gas prices has fundamentally altered my daily decision-making\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI now seriously question whether any given trip is necessary at all,\u201d the IT worker said. \u201cUnlike residents of dense urban areas with robust public transit systems, many of us have no realistic option but to drive \u2026 That reality makes the price gouging at the pump feel even more egregious because there is no way to opt out. The ability to make independent financial decisions should not be held hostage by an industry we cannot avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n Katherine Botelho, a 63-year-old retired IT professional in Pompano Beach, Florida, said rising gas prices had forced her to \u201cseriously\u201d consider \u201cbuying an electric bicycle or scooter for some of my transportation needs\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, I would need one that is enclosed as I cannot tolerate prolonged sun exposure. An enclosed scooter is a very pricey item and not realistic in my current financial situation,\u201d Botelho said.<\/p>\n <\/span>Katherine Botelho.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy of Katherine Botelho<\/p>\n Forced into early retirement and now living on social security, Botelho described a growing sense of confinement: \u201cIt\u2019s as though I\u2019ve been forced to stay at home as a prisoner of a war that I neither support nor approve of.\u201d<\/p>\n For some, rising gas prices have also made holding a job financially unfeasible.<\/p>\n MA Tullos, an artist and mother near Austin, Texas, said: \u201cWhen my husband lost his job, he wasn\u2019t just the primary way money came into the household \u2013 he was how we managed our healthcare. So we had agreed that after spring break in March, if he hadn\u2019t found anything, I\u2019d be trying to get a retail job that at least offers insurance while he hunted for a new one and worked on freelance work.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Tullos explained that the only job that responded offered two- to four-hour shifts, six days a week, \u201cwhich after taxes and social security withholding, wouldn\u2019t cover the cost of commuting and paying for insurance for a family as a part-timer\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s literally too expensive to work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With the US and Israel\u2019s war on Iran now in its seventh week, with a fragile ceasefire in place since earlier this month, Americans are continuing to feel the effects at the pump as global fuel prices rise. For several readers who spoke to the Guardian, the impact has forced difficult trade-offs \u2013 from accessing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[7250,2273,13650,867,2586,150,269,1999,2975],"class_list":{"0":"post-48453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-consumers","9":"tag-devastating","10":"tag-dollar","11":"tag-gas","12":"tag-increase","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-prices","15":"tag-rising","16":"tag-toll"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}