“Without oil everything stops” - Science Snippet
Gee - really? Why is it that everyone is just now realising this?
The title of this post is a line from the feature article in the latest NewScientist. The title of the article is Final Warning, and I think that’s appropriate. For those of us who are interested and engaged with sustainability, peak oil has been an issue we have all known about for a long time.
The article cites a survey from 2007 where industry experts were polled and came to a consensus that peak production would occur in 2010. I think it is only due to the fast rise in petrol prices that ‘normal’ people are finally realising the crisis we’re facing. As the article says: “there is growing realisation that we are teetering on the edge of an economic catastrophe which could be triggered next time there is a glitch in the world’s oil supply” (NewScientist - Vol 198 No. 2662). The article goes on to discuss the major oil supply sites and the supply chain, and how susceptible both are to interruption or damage.
The article concludes by making our choice clear - we have to find alternatives, and fast!
The truth - which many people fail to realise, or simply don’t want to know - is that within my lifetime, oil and petrol will become a thing of the past. I’ll tell my grandkids about a time when we were all completely dependent on this black goo sucked from the ground - how we ran all our cars, planes, trucks on it; how all our plastics were made from it; basically, that it was the thing that kept our society functioning.
I hope I can tell them that from the security of a world that worked out a solution to the crisis in time - rather than one that has fallen apart because of it. Come on, oil companies!! If you want to stay profitable - you need to be at the forefront of new technologies, not holding them back and suppressing them!
This crisis will only escalate if nothing is done on a global scale to overcome it. The price of petrol will only rise. Get used to it - it’s not going to get better, only worse. The ‘good old days’ I remember - when I first started driving in 1998 - when petrol was expensive if it hit 80c per litre, are gone.
We can’t change global and national policy on our own - but we can make small differences in our life to reduce the oil we consume, and to invest our own money in alternative options. As individuals, we hold little power - but as a community, we can make an impact.
July 04 2008 01:24 pm | Oil and petrol and economy and science snippets
July 5th, 2008 at 8:54 am
I would like some things to stop.
I don’t really want electric cars - I want public transport and people living close to their work with most necessities produced locally.
I don’t want to see our current lifestyle fuelled by a different substance. I think our current lifestyle is profoundly awafu.
I hope we take the opportunity to change it.
July 5th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
It’s just so mind-blowing, isn’t it, to think how different life will be for our grandkids. Hopefully it will be better!
July 5th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Kez - it certainly is… I think back to what life was like for MY grandparents when they were young - and I can barely comprehend what life will be like in another 50 years time.