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– 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.

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– Research Thx to Ken

– Not to pick on China because she is doing no different than the rest of us are doing. It is just that she is the biggest, brashest and thus the most salient example of what humanity is doing wrong on this planet. China, India, the US and Europe are all aware that energy is going to be in short supply in the coming decades. Indeed, a wicked dance of prepositioning for future oil supplies is already well underway.

– This article discusses China unleashing her vast reserves of trade surplus money to form alliances around the world to help guarantee her energy future. The problem with this for everyone (and the other countries are doing the same thing that China is, if not with money, then with military power – think “Iraq”) is that there won’t be enough energy to meet everyone’s needs and our civilization depends on consumption and growth as necessary conditions for its continued health.

– This scenario, just as the earlier article about China and Climate Change, are just steps on the path to the coming Perfect Storm.

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China has signaled that it could use its vast foreign exchange reserves to bolster its strategic energy resources.

Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan said China needed to speed up the hunt for fresh oil and natural gas supplies.

China’s foreign exchange reserves are the world’s largest at more than $1 trillion (£511bn), supported by the country’s strong global exports.

China is keen to secure future reserves of oil, coal and other raw materials needed to fuel its booming economy.

Earlier this year, Beijing hosted a summit of African leaders, at which access to Africa’s natural resources was discussed in return for Chinese investment in Africa’s roads and railways.

China should “take advantage of the fact we have quite large foreign exchange reserves to enhance our national strategic energy reserves”, Mr Zeng told the standing committee of the Chinese parliament.

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