So I was listening to AM radio last night (am I getting old or what) and there was this guy on the talk show talking about how in 5 to 10 years the world will hit this thing called PEAK OIL - where we cannot get any more oil than what we are getting at this point (i.e. the most oil ever used and cannot get more ever). This is NOT the point where we run out of oil, but a point where we start seeing annual declines in worldwide production of oil on the tune of 3-5% annually until about 2050 where we run out completely. This put together with 3-5% annual increases in worldwide oil consumption means really bad thing are going to happen if it really comes true.
He said the 70's oil crisis was due to a 5% drop off in production so imagine a 10% shift.
The show went on for 3 hours or more and I gotta say it scared me enough to visit his website and spend an hour reading the main two pages, which scared me even more. Here is the link if you want to take a look around:
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net
Basically (to quote the movie Armegedon) it's the worst parts of the Bible...
1) Every aspect of our culture is driven by oil. Not only for the cars we drive, the plane we ride in or the trucks that deliver our goods to Walmart in, but almost EVERY aspect of it. Pestisides/herbisides are made from oil, farm EQ realy on oil, electricity that we use in our homes depend on oil, water purifcation, national defense, and modern medines all depend on oil for production, and so on down the list...
2) People will not be able to afford to drive to work as gas will go up to over $50 a gallon due to shortages. Goods will not get shipped. All of the clothes we wear and shoes on our feet are made over seas - no more ships to bring them here.
3) The global economy will die - billions of people will starve to death or be killed in the world war as countries fight for the remaining oil.
4) China and the US will likely end up in war fighting for oil and if their billions of people are not enough to finish us off, their nukes will (and ours will do them in too).
5) There is NO technology out there that can replace our dependance on oil. Everything out there either depends on oil to build or get or silver, uranium or platinum that is in such short supply that we would soon run out of that too. If we came up with a viable solution, it would take 25 to 50 years to make it widespread. Solar power and wind power is not enough, hydrogen cars require platinum (not enough), Shale oil and the oil in the sands of Canada is so expensive to extract and make usable oil would cost $50 a gallon, and so on!
6) The US reserve plus all the oil in Alaska could keep the US going for about 2 years then that would be gone too.
This list keeps going and the worse part is there is NO solution to the problems. If you have a bit of time on your hand, read the first two pages of the website. Then have a stiff drink, I know I did.
Flow