For those of you already worrying about $200 barrels of oil, you may want to stop reading now. The New Scientist recently released an interactive graphic of the world’s oil flows and chokepoints that highlights just how vulnerable the world’s oil supply is to conflict, terrorism, natural disasters, and other factors beyond our control.

In a related article in the NYTimes, Clifford Krauss focuses on the effects of high gasoline prices on rural areas in the U.S., where people are reeling under the triple strike of low incomes, fuel-inefficient vehicles, and long commutes to work. Here are a few highlights:

People are giving up meat so they can buy fuel. Gasoline theft is rising. And drivers are running out of gas more often, leaving their cars by the side of the road until they can scrape together gas money. . .

The extra dollars spent at the pump mean electric bills are going unpaid and macaroni is replacing meat at supper. Donations to church are being put off, and video rentals are now unaffordable. . .

Local fried chicken restaurants are closing because people are eating out less. At the hardware store here, sales have plummeted to $30 a day from $250 a day a month ago.

Local governments are leaving grass high along the roads and doing fewer road repairs to save on fuel costs.  . . Politicians are even considering replacing sanitation workers with prison inmates on some shifts to conserve money for fuel

This article also comes with it’s own graphics — this one illustrating the varying effects of gasoline prices across the country.