But we face a very serious issue here. Global petroleum production has stabilized, not increased, since 2004, and prices continue to soar. We perhaps could drill for oil in this country, but that's terminally impolitic and increasingly so despite rapidly increasing prices. How do we personally ensure our survival in a world suddenly deprived of oil? What if the Islamic Republic of Iran successfully closes off the Straits of Hormuz, shutting in a good proportion of global oil supply?
And what happens when Hillary Rodham Clinton gains the Presidency? She won't drill for oil, and she might capitulate to the Islamofascist terrorists and their allies in the oil-producing regions. We get one-third of our oil from this country and import the rest. How do our families survive when we cannot import oil?
you’ll know that things are dire
when gore, bono, and all the bozos
stop flying around the world on jet airplanes.
I vote for teleportation.
The post-oil regime has been expected off and on for 150 years. It is not going to happen abruptly after all, but we will find ourselves in reduced circumstances and may have to forget about suburbia.
The simple answer to all of those far-fetched scenarios is equally simple - I will take what I need to ensure the survival of me & mine...
Some good points: education - already failed - and oil - billions to the enemy.
This is a bunch of garbage. Two new technologies are about to eliminate the energy problem. One is workable nuclear fusion. There are three new approaches that show extreme promise. One just got a huge cash infusion from Paul Allen, a man not known for wasting his money. The other is the new battery tech based on nanofiber Silicon. That’s been posted about here a couple times. It permits basically a ten times increase in the weight to energy storage ratio of batteries using existing technologies.
In short, in 5 years oil will be a thing of the past except for mfg. and legacy (i.e., your current car) uses. Gasoline powered cars won’t vanish overnight, but their numbers will go down significantly over time, and then the law of supply and demand will crush oil prices.
Of course, the greens-socialists will find something that will “kill us all” in this tech, too, I’m sure, but it will be a real stretch that most should have learned to see through.
People will figure out a way to make personal transportation happen. Count on it.
We can make oil from coal.
We can come up with better electric cars, and build more nuclear generating plants.
And that’s just for starters, with pretty well developed technologies. Algae-based biofuel is one that’s on the horizon (burning corn is a lousy idea). There are others.
We aren’t going back to walking and horses.
"Kunstler, who majored in Theater at college and has no formal training in the fields in which he prognosticates, made similar predictions for Y2K as he makes for peak oil.[5][6] Kunstler responds to this criticism by saying that a Y2K catastrophe was averted by the hundreds of billions of dollars that were spent fixing the problem, a lot of it "in secret," he claims.[7]"
It would appear that he's still majoring in theater.
Why not just reduce the population by 75% and avoid the problem altogether?
Learning basic archery using the crossbow will also prove to be a valuable skill, as will throwing the sharpened metal boomerang.
Stockpile ammo and firearms now. Don't wait another minute.
This person is a committed Marxist. He wants to remake society to suit his ideals. His thinking is not much different than the other grand Marxists except that he does not explicitly call for human slaughter. If Marxists like him gain power, they will use every coercive measure available to force us into their Utopian view.
We will only be deprived of oil if Marxists like the author get their way. They want to suppress the economic activity that they do not like.
not in MY lifetime...I’m still busy getting ready for the coming ice age.
Interesting topic, thank you. I wonder if any of the politicians know what they are talking about when they spout “energy independence.” When it comes to oil, we are locked into a certain amount of dependence forever. As I understand it, we need more refining capability; not sure what has held this up.
However, peak oil has some validity to it. We are well past our peak. And, for example, some of our resources are far more expensive to extract than the final product would be worth. The global oil market determines international politics, to say the least.
As for lifestyle changes, I would be all for being less car-dependent. Here in the big city, people could easily reduce car use by 1/3 if they had a mind to, but most prefer the car to stretching their legs a bit.
Also, I think straw-bale construction and energy-efficient remodeling are worth looking into. I would think FReepers would admire “off the grid” living.
Agenda? I was thinking more like a "manifesto".
On a summer day in the month of May a burly bum came hiking
Down a shady lane through the sugar cane, he was looking for his liking.
As he roamed along he sang a song of the land of milk and honey
Where a bum can stay for many a day, and he won’t need any money
Oh the buzzin’ of the bees in the cigarette trees near the soda water fountain,
At the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings on the Big Rock Candy Mountains
There’s a lake of gin we can both jump in, and the handouts grow on bushes
In the new-mown hay we can sleep all day, and the bars all have free lunches
Where the mail train stops and there ain’t no cops, and the folks are tender-hearted
Where you never change your socks and you never throw rocks,
And your hair is never parted
These people are certifiably out of their freaking minds. They want to put the world back to the 15th century. They have lost their freaking, what little they had, minds.
The black cold bleak heart of a liberal revealed again. It is all doom and gloom with these people.