Oil crisis

Do you dream of your life remaining as it is? A large part of planet Earth has come to depend on fossil fuels, for everything from synthetic clothing and shoes, paints and plastics to gas for heat and motor transportation.  An increasing controversy is linked to the actual quantity of remaining oil reserves.  How long we can continue living as we do before they're depleated? What would happen to life as we know it as we run out of oil?

Conventional experts suggest we have 30 years.  A large group of experts think we only have three.  Are we about to hit the oil crisis? Some experts believe by 2010, people will be shocked by oil prices.  Are they simply doomsday naysayers? Many practising petroleum industry professionals in big oil companies are in this camp. They fear the growing Asian petroleum product markets and the voracious demand that could become greater than modern levels western consumption.

Exxon Mobil (ESSO) is the largest oil company in the world. They employ over 20,000 scientists to investigate and follow the level of oil resources.  Exxon experts believe we have we have lots of time to develop alternatives (up to 60 years).  All oil fields make their way toward peak oil, but Exxon claims improving technology would supposedly enable the extraction of additional billions of barrels of oil.

How have we allowed our lives to become so dependent on cheap oil?  It takes 6 barrels of oil to bring one cow to market.  Can you begin to speculate on the amount of oil that is used daily to bring products to diverse international markets? The amount is astonishing.  Consider shipping, air freight, trucking, trains and other means of transport. Who stops to think that oil is a finite resource?

For a more personal approach, do you take what you eat and do in your life for granted? People in leading financial institutions and growing numberrs of retirees all assume they can continue to invest into oil in stock markets into the 21st century.  How many people are already thinking outside that box? Would you be one of them? Shouldn't we plan ahead differently to avoid real crisis?

I received a 12 minute Internet video about the imminent depleating of oil.  According to this international research piece, the world uses ~84 million barrels per day. The biggest find in the recent past was back in the 1970s in the north sea.  Most finds these days don't produce more than 50 million barrels (total). The big question is when will we reach half depleation in the world (half oil)?

The US reached peak oil in 1971, the UK (with its North Sea oil) in 1999 and Australia peaked in 2000.  Other places are less easy to pinpoint.  The Middle East provides 1/4 of the world's oil and refuse to permit other people in to verify how much oil they have.  In the 1980s, some places in the Middle East quoted figures that doubled, and other places published the same figures as if oil reserves hadn't depleated.  investigate the current state of reserves is unknown.

This is when  People don't understand the underlying causes of increasing oil prices.  You can slow the decline, but you can't stop it.  Can you imagine of people lining up for days to fill your tank? What about the people who suddenly wouldn't be able to heat their houses? Nobody can think of alternative fuel for airplanes. Its all about how we can get in an alternative infrastructure in place after the crisis hits.  Countries have plans for terrorist attacks and environmental crises, but where is the plan to assist societies to compensate adequately in their lives for peak oil? Consider what you can do to change your lifestyle to plan ahead.

Comments

[officeguru]

Advancements in solar and wind energy are extremely exciting. These types of energy are becoming more affordable and more readily available. The problem is that I am talking about these things as "affordable" in a day when people need two and three incomes just to put food on a table in their house that's about to be foreclosed on.

Alternative energy is where the future lies. How we get there and how fast we do it depends on what happens to individuals and families along the way.

[Liara Covert]

Points taken, officeguru, and very valid too. People who contemplate switching over to alternative energy have different economic and ethical priorities. The issue in present day that comes up the idea of "what is enough?" ; enough money to pay bills, to put aside for retirement, to buy those 'much needed things' , to pay for life experiences and child-rearing. How individuals and families determine their priorities, lifestyle spending and what they're willing or unwilling to change also factors into the equation.

I also like to think about government priorities. In different cities, we already begin to see alternative fuel public transport. When available, this sets an encouraging example. What we can afford is also partly what we choose to afford and when.