– Of the various threats to our joint futures, Peak Oil is the one that I believe has the softest edges. It may come in like a lion, but the more I think about it, the more I expect it will come in like a lamb. Â
– So long as the structures of civilization hold together and the growth and consumption forever mantras are still being chanted in the board rooms and halls of governance, oil will be needed. And, as the supplies decline and the prices rise, the efforts to find ever more oil, even if it is expensive and environmentally suicidal to recover, will persist.
– So, whereas the Peak Oil folks have a beautiful curve for global oil production that looks a lot like the classic ‘norm’ curve, I think the reality will be a curve rising to maximum production and then exhibiting a long slow sloping off as ever more money and effort are poured into averting and slowing the decline as we struggle to recover and consume every last drop of the stuff. In essence, we will chose to continue to deny the truth that our oil-based economies are unsustainable – because they are based on a non-renewal resource.
– Geo-political instability is in our future.  Even as you read this, the worlds major oil consuming powers; China, the US, Japan, India, Europe, among others, are all jocking for position to secure their oil futures. Before this is over, wars will be fought. Some think that’s the real reason why the US is in Iraq – regardless of the reasons given to the public. Does anyone seriously think that China, for instance, is going to go quietly back to bicycles and hovels when there are still viable oil fields, say, in Central Asia?
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By Andrew Garber, Seattle Times
Food shortages, cars abandoned, another depression. It’s the stuff of nightmares — and the type of future an eclectic group of engineers, computer experts and others in Seattle believe could await us.
They’re not religious zealots predicting Armageddon, nor survivalists digging bomb shelters. They believe the world is about to start running out of gas.
Literally.
Members of Seattle Peak Oil Awareness expect world production of oil and gasoline to peak soon, if it hasn’t already, and hard times to follow. Similar groups are popping up around the country from Boston to Portland, despite oil-industry assertions that there’s nothing to worry about.
How bad things could get depends on whom you talk to. Some peak-oilers expect car travel to largely disappear and food supplies, which depend heavily on fuel to produce and distribute, to decline.
More… ➡
– Research Thx to Ken