Well, going by the prices at the gas pump I’d say we were well past “peak oil” now. For those of you who just said, “Huh? Wassat?” Imagine that nasty old bell curve you always hated for your English or Math teacher to grade to. You know the one where the folks who scored the average grade were the ones at the highest point and they all got ‘c’s while those at one end or the other got either ‘A’s or ‘F’s depending. Only in this case instead of representing the class scores on a test it represents the oil left that we can cheaply or affordably get out of the ground! So let’s say that a point to the left of that big middle hump on this chart would be a point in time when we still had oodles of oil down there. A time when if we poked holes in the right spots that black gold would just jump out of the ground and beg to be used. That would make a point at the very top of that hump a point where we would be about half out of the stuff we could get hold of easy.
Guess what. We are on the right side of that little hump now and sliding down fast. Yep. There is still oil out there, BUT! And it’s a whopping big but. It is starting to take more to get the stuff out of the ground, lots more. Worse, part of the greater cost is the products of that black gold we have to spend to get more of it. Yeah that’s kind of convoluted I know. What I’m trying to get at here is that we are rapidly approaching a catch-22 situation where it costs more in gasoline, diesel, and other petroleum based chemicals to get oil out of the ground than we CAN get out of the ground. In simpler words: We goin’ broke folks.
Yeah. I can see some of you out there saying “So! Aren’t you the one yelling about green power, solar panels and windmills and all that other stuff.” Yep, I sure am but I have to point out a sad truth by asking a question. What do you think is needed to make those nifty keeno things that make electricity out of wind and sunlight? I’ll tell ya. You need plastic, a lot of plastic, and a lot of energy to make and transport the things to where they can be used. Where does that plastic and energy come from? Fossil fuels, mostly oil that’s where.
So we’ll go back to coal, you shrug. Ah, but there we run into another problem. Unless you like the really harsh and odd weather we’ve been having. That’s that global warming you might not want to believe in kicking in. Then again, with coal there is also the simple question of if you want to be able to breathe or drive your car. Personally I prefer breathing. It makes living easier that way.
Now, I think I’ll assign some homework. Sit there and think of all the places you go from your home and how you get there. Think about the work you do and what fuels that work you do or even makes the materials you work with. Now, what will you do when the oil runs out? How will you get to work, to the store, raise a garden, or even just go fishing? How will you eat? How will you stay warm in the winter or even cook your food? I’ll give hints next week.
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