We're doomed. Doomed! DOOMED!!!
Posted on 03/14/2005 7:16:08 PM PST by jaime1959
Dear Reader,
Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon. This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of the best paid, most widely-respected geologists, physicists, and investment bankers in the world. These are rational, professional, conservative individuals who are absolutely terrified by a phenomenon known as global “Peak Oil.”
"Are We 'Running Out'? I Thought There Was 40 Years of the Stuff Left"
Oil will not just "run out" because all oil production follows a bell curve. This is true whether we're talking about an individual field, a country, or on the planet as a whole.
Oil is increasingly plentiful on the upslope of the bell curve, increasingly scarce and expensive on the down slope. The peak of the curve coincides with the point at which the endowment of oil has been 50 percent depleted. Once the peak is passed, oil production begins to go down while cost begins to go up.
In practical and considerably oversimplified terms, this means that if 2000 was the year of global Peak Oil, worldwide oil production in the year 2020 will be the same as it was in 1980. However, the world’s population in 2020 will be both much larger (approximately twice) and much more industrialized (oil-dependent) than it was in 1980. Consequently, worldwide demand for oil will outpace worldwide production of oil by a significant margin. As a result, the price will skyrocket, oil-dependent economies will crumble, and resource wars will explode.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifeaftertheoilcrash.net ...
It is warmed-over leftist drivel, IMO.
You read the whole thing in one minute?
You read the whole thing in one minute?
That theory has been floating around for years.
Time to get off our duffs and start building nuke power plants to handle the future load.
There's 180 billion to 1 trillion barrells sitting in the Albert tar sands. There's another several trillion sitting in the oil shale deposits out west. Are we running out?
Unhhh, if the price gets high enough, then alternative supplies kick in. Think shale oil and tar sands. The problem up to this point is that it has been too cheap for the Saudis to pump oil. They kept the price low enough to discourage investment in alternative sources.
I am depleted of strong drink in the house but this is depressing news. But if I d-r-i-v-e to the store solely for alcohol to relieve my melancholy, am I not contributing to my own demise?
Yeah, but the cost of extracting that oil is a heck of a lot more expensive than it is pumping from liquid reserves.
While drilling for oil in ANWR will certainly make a lot of money for the companies doing the drilling, it won't do much to help the overall situation for three reasons:
1. According of the Department of Energy, drilling in ANWR will only lower oil prices by less than fifty cents;
2. ANWR contains 10 billion barrels of oil - or about the amount the US consumes in a little more than a year.
3. As with all oil projects, ANWR will take about 10 years to come online. Once it does, its production will peak at 875,000 barrels per day - but not till the year 2025. By then the US is projected to need a whopping 35 million barrels per day while the world is projected to need 120 million barrels per day.
Well, it's too bad you think it's just leftist drivel, because that means it's going to be the left that's prepared to "solve" the problem.
Educate yourself. The right needs to make itself aware of the issue, otherwise the left will run wild with their "solutions" before we're even out of the gate.
This article pure crap.., O.K. it is not pure..
Pardon me... but.. I used to live in Southern California in the mid 80's and my newlywed husband and I had a good life due to the California oil fields off of the Santa Barbara Coast, the enviro Whackos got a hold of coal tar on the beach and we had no jobs.
This problem is SELF IMPOSED by enviro nuts and the PC police, it's a huge issue that has been so demagogued that folks such as yourself actually believe this crap.
I thought the main attraction about ANWR was its natural gas reserves, not its oil.
In any event, the author's prejudice regarding ANWR doesn't invalidate the rest of his argument.
And it will also be worthwhile to pursue technologies that generate better gas milage. And, on the morbid side, as the price rises, some folks are more willing to drive smaller cars that put them at greater risk of getting wadded up like a spent Kleenex.
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