The End of Oil

This was a very good video to watch, in my opinion, about the future of oil. Have we reached the peak of oil production, and what’s going to happen when we run out?

I think anyone who says that we will never run out of oil is an idiot. Like anything else on the planet, it is a finite resourse. Sure, there may be enough oil left to fuel the world for the next hundred years, but how about the next hundred?

This is why I think it is so important to develop the renewable energy sourses like wind and solar. When the oil runs out our way of life currently will come to an end. Car will stop driving, airplanes will stop flying, and most importantly, our agriculture will come to a grinding halt.

With so many people on the planet today if agriculture were to come to a stop, humanity would be in peril. There would be unimaginable famine, which would lead to war over food, and the use of nuclear war out of frustration. If we don’t find a way to power the world after the oil is gone, the world will go into a Second Dark Age.

We have relied for so long on a reasourse that was so abundant that nearly everyone takes it for granted now. It’s just always going to be there. The alarm bells have started to ring, unfortunately the world keeps hitting the snooze button. And somewhere down the road the world is going to wake up and realize that it’s overslept and now there’s nothing that can be done.

Not only do we need to find alternate ways to power the world, but we need to also find easier ways to harness that power. There are only so many hydroelectric dams that can be built. Nobody wants to build nuclear power plants. But solar panels you can put on every roof top, and windmills can be placed everywhere.

I think that in the future every home is going to have to be built with solar panels, and existing homes will have to have them installed. Let the home produce it’s own electrical needs. Cars are going to have to electric with the sale of gas powered cars stopped. I think if we can get electric cars to go 300 miles on a single charge that would be a great start. At 65 miles per hour 300 miles equals about five hours of drive time, which is a good amount for a day.

The idiot part then is to be sure that the recharging stations for the cars aren’t powered by gas fuels generators like the ones I’ve seen around the city. That kind of defeats the purpose of the electric car.

Flying is also going to have to take a serious downgrade. I don’t know if I like the thought of an electric airplane yet, but if somehow it could work I’d be game for it. We are going to have to seriously reduce the number of airplanes that fly. Unfortunately this means that air travel will get more expensive and you’re not going to be able to jet around for the weekend.

But look at the trade-off. We either change how we drive, how we fly, and I haven’t even mentioned change how we make products that are produced from oil, or we use the oil until it run out and destroy the world. Which one sounds better to you?