More about Peak Oil

I realised last night's post was pretty brief so I thought I should explain more about what this whole "Peak Oil" thing is about. I have also read a few websites that reckon it's all a big conspiracy by governments to control people and that there's no problem at all. I would suggest that even if there is no shortage of oil, we should probably still use less of it to cut down on greenhouse emissions.

So why is Peak Oil such a big deal? Well, first of all we should consider what we use oil for. It's not just a question of finding something else to fuel our cars. (I always thought it was.) All plastics are made out of stuff derived from oil. Inks also come from oil. A lot of pharmaceuticals also rely on our supply of crude oil. Finally, almost all of our food industry in the west relies heavily on oil to exist. Tractors, farm machinery and of course the trucks that transport everything around are reliant on oil. If there is no oil, we have no food, medicine, transport or even ink. That's pretty bad.

The name "Peak Oil" refers to the global production of oil hitting the highest it will ever hit and then dropping off. Although that means we have only used 50% of the world's oil, it means the remaining 50% will be very expensive for a number of reasons. 1) The longer you extract oil from a field the harder it gets to extract the rest because it is initially under pressure. As the pressure drops off, water has to be introduced to force the oil out, which then has to be processed more afterwards. This is more time consuming and more expensive. 2) The demand for oil and the world's population have both been increasing so even though we may drop to a level of production that was sufficient 10 years ago, it might not be enough for today. Increased demand leads to increased price.

I don't claim to be an expert on this subject. I'm just very interested in what it could mean for the future of our society as we know it. I already have been feeling that we have been very wasteful of the Earth's natural resources and this is one more thing to consider. It's naive of us to think that oil will last for ever and when you look at how much of our society relies on oil, it makes you wonder how we'd cope if we suddenly had no oil to run our lives.

I've read some articles by people who say Peak Oil is just a big scam. They claim that oil as actually being produced by the Earth itself and that oil wells are being re-filled, resulting in an endless supply. They believe Peak Oil is a scare tactic by our governments to prevent us targeting them when oil prices go up. One article goes far enough to say it's a Misleading Zionist Scam. Not being an expert, I can't claim to know who's right. It does seem, though, that each website opposing Peak Oil has a decidedly mocking, critical tone which makes the whole thing seem unprofessional and childish. I'm not saying they're wrong, just that the people who believe Peak Oil is reality seem a lot better at articulating their story in an objective, grown-up way.

Maybe the whole topic isn't as clear cut as I first though. I still think it's worth looking into. If nothing else, we should all try to use less oil anyway to fight global warming. We are meant to be stewards of this planet and we're not doing a very good job, as far as I can see.

Here are some websites I've found interesting on this subject:

postcarbon.org
Peak Oil page on GlobalPublicMedia.com
BBC Article on Iceland switching to Hydrogen energy
Anti-Peak Oil site suggesting it's a Zionist Scam