There is a storm brewing and pretty much everyone is on board our faltering ship.
The debate is over.
We are near the end of cheap oil. Maybe not as grim and bleak as this picture shows, but something is going to happen unless drastic changes and new innovations rise up to meet this challenge.
Oil demand is rising quickly, in places such as China, India and the Middle East -combined with the already high demand in all other developed countries around the world...
Meanwhile the supply is diminishing-(Oil is a non-renewable resource- no one is making more dinosaurs).
In the past, the International Energy Agency and the USs Energy Information Administration have forecast that oil supplies will increase with rising demand. They are not optimistic anymore. Recently the IEA conducted a large study of the 400 most important oil fields to determine the ability of the oil industry to keep up with the demand. The result is a "sharp downward revision of its oil supply forecast." Click here to read it.
So what we are looking at is...
no more cheap gas, cheap food, or cheap products (that use oil in their manufacturing). It means bankrupt businesses, and a depression..
and forget vacations and other air travel- this problem will ground planes (three major
This pending emergency will affect how we produce food, how we conduct commerce and trade, how we travel, how we acquire and spend money. It will affect every area of our lives from health care to feeding our families to our kids education.
The time to act is now-
The solutions:
1. Buy or grow food closer to home. Local farming. Start paying attention to agriculture. Learn fast.
2. Support the build up of creative, small urban economies/communities. Local shops, local suppliers. Local everything. Suburban sprawl needs to be retrofitted into sustainable communities. Do business over the Internet. Support industries that use and/or create renewable energy resources.
3. Move. Live close to where you work, shop and spend your time. Walking/ biking distance to everything. Small homes. High-rises. The mansions need to house more families.
4. Use less energy . Learn to live and be happy without dependency on energy and shopping. Read books, garden, eat raw, use solar products, cook from scratch, make homemade products. Lower consumption. Use thrift stores. Reduce. Recycle. Reuse. Read about the survivalists . Consider adopting some or all of their ideas.
5. Fix the passenger rail system. Improve all public transport.
6. We need to switch over to electric-powered or hybrid transport of all kinds, such as small cars, electric scooters and small buses.
7. Trucks and trains need to be converted from diesel to natural gas.
8. Farmers should run their equipment using biodiesel.
9. Everyone needs to focus on inventing/engineering new solutions. Invest in solutions.
10. When disaster strikes, don’t expect the government to save you. Learn how to self-sustain. (Check out this house) Be prepared.
The MAJOR concerns:
Pressure on government leaders over rising oil prices may cause the following (dangerous) actions , instead of the above
1. End the longstanding ban on drilling in environmentally sensitive areas including
2. Resort to dirty coal. Therefore abandoning lower carbon emissions goals, causing carbon dioxide levels to sky rocket to dangerous levels, setting the course for catastrophic, irreversible climatic disasters later on.
3. People will be unprepared, will play the blame game, and will get very angry. Public disturbances, riots, fights, etc. will cause communities to break down.
It will be a hard transition. Better start now.
Great Resources to check out: A Crude Awakening - The Oil Crash
The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream
What do you think? Do you have any other resources to suggest?
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