Hey Mick..Here is an intresting board you and I frequent..Maybe some of your readers that are intrested in oil would enjoy the reads on it..Hope you had a great weekend!
The title of this board, Peak Oil – Epochal Event of Our Lives, purposely includes the word epochal, meaning without parallel.
Why will Peak Oil be without parallel?
Look at past events in the Middle East, which interrupted the supply of oil throughout the world and especially in the United States. These disruptions were geopolitical events and were ultimately resolved with diplomacy.
Peak Oil, on the other hand, will be a geological event, something that mankind has never faced before and certainly cannot control. It will inevitably occur when mankind has consumed half of nature's oil, which is a finite resource.
Illustrated below is Hubbert's Curve, which shows the growth, peak, and decline of worldwide individual and regional wells. This sequence will occur while world population dramatically increases and as Asia, in particular, accelerates its industrialization.
Peak Oil will adversely affect many aspects of our lives. For example, over the last 100 years, gas powered engines have contributed to the discovery and expansion of the automobile and airplane industries. Recently the population of the United States reached 300 million and vehicles now total 225 million. Future population growth, with a corresponding increase in vehicles, will further deplete oil supplies.
Agriculture has changed from numerous labor and animal-intensive family farms to a machine-intensive industry controlled by corporations. Further, much of the increased productivity of farm soil emanates from petroleum-based fertilizers.
Farming and transportation are just two segments of society that must adjust to prospective oil declines. The critical question is how will our entire society adjust to a worldwide oil scarcity.
M. King Hubbert, a Shell geologist, predicted in 1956 that oil production in the United States would peak in 1970. In hindsight, it did. He also predicted worldwide oil reserves and oil production would peak between 2004 – 2010.
Mr. Hubbert's warning was given, yet it has been largely ignored. Oil discoveries and plentiful oil reserves in Alaska and the North Sea made many people complacent. In addition, new technologies were developed, so that oil was sucked up from the earth as if by giant straws. Although oil was abundant in the 1980's and 1990's, reserves in this century are in demonstrable decline.
China, in particular, recognizes the potential shortage of oil. It canvasses the world making oil deals to secure its energy future. It is also currently building 30 nuclear reactors and 7 hydroelectric dams to supplement its energy needs.
Sadly, the United States lingers behind. Its attitude seems to be that oil will always be abundant, probably because it has been in the past. Even with the dramatic crude oil price increases of this decade, there still is a reluctance to confront this potential problem.
PURPOSE OF THIS BOARD
One purpose of this board is to provide I-Hub members with a repository of Peak Oil articles. Hopefully these will stimulate interest in the topic and I invite readers to post their thoughts.
Another important purpose of this board is to help people in preparing for or coping with the Peak Oil event. To this end, various links by category have been supplied below.
A companion board titled "PEAK OIL - SUSTAINABLE LIVING" was spun off from this board to provide an archive of postings and sources of information which will aid the community to adopt and survive in a world of declining energy resources. Please review at: #board-9881
Megaprojects update: Just how close to Peak Oil are we? 10 18 07 Chris Skrebowski: Trustee of the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre http://tinyurl.com/33rl3q
Crisis, what energy crisis? Euan Mearns, The Oil Drum: Europe. 07 03 07 Over 50 links to Oil Drum articles from the past year are provided which combined provide a comprehensive overview of the issues surrounding peak oil and energy decline. http://www.energybulletin.net/31608.html
CRUDE OIL Uncertainty about Future Oil Supply Makes It Important to Develop a Strategy for Addressing a Peak and Decline in Oil Production, GAO Report, 03 29 07 http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07283.pdf
OIL: A TRAVELOGUE OF ADDICTION by Chicago Tribune, 07 29 06 (Suggested viewing: Open link and click on Watch documentary (left-hand column)). http://tinyurl.com/h78ve
Nuclear Energy and the Fossil Fuels by M. King Hubbert, 1956 Published on 8 Mar 2006 by Energy Bulletin. Archived on 8 Mar 2006. http://www.energybulletin.net/13630.html
A 10% Reduction in America's Oil Use in Ten to Twelve Years An Overlooked, Practical, and Affordable Approach Using Mature Existing Technology by Alan S. Drake, May 2006 • Rev. October 2006 http://www.lightrailnow.org/features/f_lrt_2006-05a.htm
Electrification of transportation as a response to peaking of world oil production by Alan S. Drake 12 19 05 in Light Rail Now http://www.energybulletin.net/14492.html
The U.S. produced less oil in 2006 than it did in 1950. This production fits a curve that would make M. King Hubbert sigh and nod sagely. He was the first to trace the patterns of Peak Oil, and he saw this chart coming half a century ago.
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