The Age of Oil 1850 - 2050

this is a piece I wrote back in 2008, but bears listing again.

dated 26 feb 2008

Morning campers,

Now, you've heard me pass on information regarding the notion of peak oil. I am inserting a link below of an excerpt from a book called "Beyond Oil: The Threat to Fuel & Food in the Coming Decades" written in 1985 postulating the future of our civilization without oil.

It is interesting because it can be presented to those sceptics who see the current peak oil polemic as nothing but apocalyptic hysteria; written, as it is, not as a media story trying to leverage attention but as a hypothesis attempting to seriously examine the very real risks inherent in oil as a finite resource. It is absolutely in question, but for those who even vaguely ponder the future it has some simple ideas to consider in the paradigm of several millennia of human history.

I ask you to consider this in the light of continuing global economic uncertainty. ages, as we well know, define the history of modern man in his/her ascent from a nomadic (arguably more suited and natural state) to a settled, subsistence existence. in the last 100 years our economy has evolved into a monolithic beast feeding an ever hungrier, and expanding, population. in the last 30 years we have had ample opportunity to commence the transition to renewable energy sources and have steadfastly refused because of short sighted economic imperatives. The consequences of these choices are going to impact the next generation in many ways, not to mention the additional battle of reducing the amount of carbon we belch into the atmosphere, disrupting the climate patterns and further adding injury to the very earth we require for survival.

I ask you this: if your house and its surrounding environment provided you with all you needed to survive would you do the following: continue breeding if it meant that a member of your family had to go without and die of starvation? pollute your water source or contaminate your soil from which you would re-hydrate and feed yourself? pump exhaust from a vehicle into your house and overload the atmosphere with carbon monoxide?

The answers are obvious, but beyond this we continue to participate in a lifestyle that resolutely does all these things in the pursuit of a standard of living that demands more from the earth by way of resources than can be replenished.

There are solutions but in order to have them we will have to change the way we live. Are you prepared for this? If it were to happen suddenly, how would you cope? Adaptability is the answer to survival. Your readiness and willingness to accept the change when it comes will set you apart from those who believe it is simply not true and can never happen; the shock of dramatic change will make it very difficult for these people to transition to the new world.

While this may not be the cheeriest thought on a Monday, I am not concerned by whether you agree or disagree, I simply contend that you should consider it, especially if you have children, and make your own investigation, come to your own conclusion and make your own plans. Or not.

james


here are some other links to check out

www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlVNyJFBCxc


REVIEWS ON AMAZON FOR THE BOOK ARE:

"If we don't take seriously books like 'Beyond Oil', we shall some day have a hard time explaining to our children what went wrong." - Richard D. Lamm, governor of Colorado 1975-1986

"We need books like 'Beyond Oil', which lay out in a solid and unemotional way the information needed to begin planning a permanent and truly regenerative future." - the late Robert Rodale, founder of Rodale Press and godfather of organic farming

The belief that the United States can increase its per-capita material standard of living and its population ad infinitum is a myth that arose from more than a century of economic success. Though U.S. material wealth has increased tremendously, it was created by the extensive depletion or degradation of nonrenewable and ecological resources, a process which is accelerating.
_Beyond Oil_ asserts that the link between resources, energy use and economic activity is far stronger and quite different than most experts believe, and that dependence of vanishing resources implies that either the population or per-capita material standard of living must stabilize, or both.
The most thorough blueprint available for our energy future, _Beyond Oil_ is the result of one of the most ambitious computerized assessments of future U.S. energy supplies ever conducted. This study incorporates thousands of geological, social and economic statistics to project probable energy, economic and agricultural outcomes well into the next century. Many divergent opinions from opposing experts give the reader a wide overview of energy supplies and a basis from which to evaluate _Beyond Oil_'s remarkable findings.