GuitARA Posted March 4, 2004 Report Share Posted March 4, 2004 Almost every current human endeavor from transportation, to manufacturing, to electricity to plastics, and especially food and water production is heavily intertwined with oil and natural gas supplies. Food Production and Oil: Commercial food production is oil powered. Most pesticides are petroleum (oil) based, and all commercial fertilizers are ammonia based. Ammonia is produced from natural gas. Oil based agriculture is primarily responsible for the world's population exploding from 1 billion at the middle of the 19th century to 6.3 billion at the turn of the 21st. Oil allowed for farming implements such as tractors, food storage systems such as refrigerators, and food transport systems such as trucks. As oil production went up, so did food production. As food production went up, so did the population. As the population went up, the demand for food went up, which increased the demand for oil. Within a few years of Peak Oil occurring, the price of food will skyrocket because of the cost of fertilizer will soar. The cost of storing (electricity) and transporting (gasoline) the food that is produced will also soar. Water Supply and Oil: Inexpensive oil is also needed to construct and maintain the massive infrastructure that delivers our fresh water. Healthcare and Oil: Oil is largely responsible for the advances in medicine that have been made in the last 150 years. Oil allowed for the mass production of pharmaceutical drugs, and the development of health care infrastructure such as hospitals, ambulances, roads, etc . . . Everything Else and Oil: Oil is required for a lot more than just food, water, medicine, and transportation. It is also required for nearly every consumer item, sewage disposal, garbage disposal, street/park maintenance, hospitals & health systems, police, fire services, and national defense. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Vancover Sun Swedish physicist Kjell Aleklett, ASPO president, speaks of an urgency to let the world know "the party is over. The depletion of oil ... heralds for mankind a discontinuity of historic proportions." In a nutshell, here's the situation. The world "oil depletion curve" -- which includes in its calculation expectations regarding as-yet undiscovered resources -- indicates world oil production will peak around 2010 (or slightly earlier.) The Hubbert Peak It is important to note that the point of maximum production (known as the Hubbert Peak) tends to coincide with the midpoint of depletion of the resource under consideration. In the case of oil, this means that when we reach the Hubbert Peak, we will have used half of all the recoverable oil that ever existed on our planet. Now comes the interesting part. Many estimates been have made of the world Ultimate for oil, a recent example being the 1995 USGS global survey. The value they published was 2275 Billion Barrels (or Giga - barrels, Gb). These studies are always based on estimates of reserves taken directly from producing countries themselves. Therein lies the problem. Many OPEC countries have been announcing reserve numbers which are frankly very strange. Either their reported reserves remain the same year after year - suggesting that new discoveries exactly match production, or they have suddenly increased their reported reserves by unfeasibly large amounts. Matthew Simmons, a key advisor to the Bush Administration The uh, I think basically that now, that peaking of oil will never be accurately predicted until after the fact. But the event will occur, and my analysis is leaning me more by the month, the worry that peaking is at hand; not years away. If it turns out I'm wrong, then I'm wrong. But if I'm right, the unforeseen consequences are devastating. But unfortunately the world has no Plan B if I'm right. The facts are too serious to ignore. Sadly the pessimist-optimist debate started too late. The Club of Rome humanists were right to raise the 'Limits to Growth' issues in the late 1960's. When they raised these issues they were actually talking about a time frame of 2050 to 2070. Then time was on the side of preparing Plan B. They like Dr. Hubbert got to be seen as Chicken Little or the Boy Who Cried Wolf... – Investment Banker Matthew Simmons Sorry to deliver the bad news, people, but life as we know it is rapidly changing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymouse Posted March 5, 2004 Report Share Posted March 5, 2004 Thank you for this enlightening information. We should spread the word as we stand in street corners with signs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gevo27 Posted March 5, 2004 Report Share Posted March 5, 2004 youll never realize why some large organizations are so interested to see if we can possibl live on mars... well.. as our natural resources run out, some people seem to think Mars would be better/cheaper/easier to live on.. lol.. i know this from first hand by chatting to a few NASA scietists over lunch at IN-N-OUT... btw, great place to eat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitARA Posted March 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2004 youll never realize why some large organizations are so interested to see if we can possibl live on mars... well.. as our natural resources run out, some people seem to think Mars would be better/cheaper/easier to live on.. lol.. i know this from first hand by chatting to a few NASA scietists over lunch at IN-N-OUT... btw, great place to eat Typical "modern" human thinking, "Let's go find another planet we can destroy" ... lord knows that would be easier and more practical than CHANGING OUR POLLUTING HABITS ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gevo27 Posted March 6, 2004 Report Share Posted March 6, 2004 Typical "modern" human thinking, "Let's go find another planet we can destroy" ... lord knows that would be easier and more practical than CHANGING OUR POLLUTING HABITS ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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