by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
We need to wean ourselves off our addiction to the black sticky stuff and we must do this now, voluntarily, before we be forced to it.
Drilling for oil at depths of several thousand meters in the oceans of the world is a disaster waiting to happen, and even more so if oil companies want to bring wells on stream quickly and cut corners to save money and time, as can be seen from the Deep Water Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico in Spring/Summer 2010. And, because they are profit driven they will cot corners again, and again, and again.
BP is now headed for the Gulf of Sirte off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean, as we have mentioned previously in this journal.
The drilling in that area will be at depths beyond that of the Gulf of Mexico disaster and the explorations off the Falkland Islands, we understand are in deeper reaches still. It is all entire madness the way we pursue oil.
We can either carry on with business as usual and destroy the Earth in such a way and to such an extent that human life will become impossible or we can make the needed turn around and step back from the abyss. The choice is the hands of each and every one of us, and it is ours alone.
Where do you stand on this, that is my question?
The way things look it may all happen on its own anyway and we will be forced off our addiction to oil by it running out; the cheap oil, upn which our economies have been based, for starters.
Will you still be able to afford gas or diesel for your car or truck when the price for a gallon will be at £15 or £20 in the UK or US$15 in the USA (The difference in prices here reflect the differences in taxes levied)? Most people, I think, will not.
When The End of Oil, the end of cheap oil, arrives, and this could be as early, it has been suggested, as 2013, if we do not start weaning ourselves off the stuff now, gradually, it will hit is like a tsunami.
Weaning ourselves off our addiction to oil is something that we must do now, without delay, and we must transition to a new way of doing things. We have no time to lose.
So far, as far as the powers that be are concerned, it is all but talk, expensive studies and lots of hot air, and that all in order to maintain the status quo of the business as usual model.
When the talk is of renewables they look at primarily doing it with huge arrays generating high voltages at mega- and gigawatts; again to maintain the BAU way.
The same is true with regards to alternative transportation. Instead of promoting real alternatives to the car the talk is of bio-fuels for vehicles with the infernal combustion engine and of electric cars. Walking and cycling feature little and the horse does not at all.
It is, however, those means of transportation that we must take into consideration as alternatives, which must become the norm, rather than cars of whatever kind.
It seems, though, that the majority simply cannot get away from the mindset of oil and the high usage of power that we have today.
When The End of Oil, the cheap oil and then the end of it proper, arrives, and this could be rather soon, most people, industry and countries will not be ready, as far as I can see it, in any way, shape or form – bar one country and that is Cuba – and chaos will ensue.
Only the right kind of preparations will make it possible for us to go from oil addiction to no oil and we must start now. Gold and silver coins and MREs do not feature in those preps at all, whatever some doom mongers may like to suggest to make a quick buck.
We must, and I am sorry if I keep repeating this, get off our addiction to fossil fuels now before we will be forced to do so by circumstances beyond our control and are forced to endure cold turkey and before we have entirely destroyed the Earth with our pollution from burning oil and from spilling it.
The biggest problem is, though, how everything is linked nowadays to the use of fossil fuels and especially here oil.
It is not just driving our cars, riding our motorbikes and all our other transportation that will be affected by the oil running out, and that is one of the main reasons that we should transition away from oil for personal transportation as much as possible, in order to preserve what is left, but so many other things.
Most of our electricity generating plants, presently, are run either on coal, which is dirty, despite the claims of “clean coal”, and “clean coal” is a bit like saying “dry water”, and also finite and the mining of which is a problem, or oil, and thus lack of either or both will affect our electricity at hand.
We are also not very far away of running short of natural gas and as far as energy security is going Britain is now importing more than it is producing and needs and thus we will be having a problem on he heating frond as well.
Everything, absolutely everything, will be affected by the oil, the cheap oil to start with, running out.
In addition to that the diminishing oil supplies will also have a serious impact on the growing of food as the fertilizers that are being used on most farms, unless they are organic, are, primarily, petroleum products and petro-chemicals. That is well aside from the impact on the use of machinery on the farms.
When you begin to look deep into the subject of so-called Peak Oil, or as I would refer to it as The End of Oil, things look rather scary for, and I will admit that, even I, having grown up with horse and wagon still during my childhood for some time, cannot come up with solutions that will work on a national scale here.
The first step to take, in my opinion, is for all of us to drive our cars less (those that have cars and trucks of which I am not one) and use alternative ways of personal transportation such as walking and cycling and, where not possible, public transport such as buses and trains, in order to preserve the oil stocks that there still are for the other, more important, needs of ours and those of society.
Turning down the thermostat, and not just at home but also in the office, to between 18C and 19C, will also go some way to preserving some of the fuel stocks, as does controlling our electricity usage.
Creating less waste and wasting less of what we have also goes some distance to conserving some of the stock of oil for the needs until such a time that we can meet most of our energy needs and those for heating, etc., from renewable sources.
Thus we must start the migration from oil addiction to no oil use now and slowly so that it won't hit us as the mentioned tsunami.
Cuba, for instance, met its own Peak Oil when the Soviet Union collapsed and it took many years of hardship and hunger before things leveled out somewhat in that country. But then Cuba is lucky that is it a tropical island, though rather large, and does not require much on heating for homes and businesses.
In Europe and the USA and Canada, for instance, the situation will be much different, as heating is required for a great part of the year and that it where and end of oil, of cheap oil, and gas, would, nay is going to, create real serious problems. Firewood is not going to be able to fill the needs everywhere. It just is not feasible.
While we must get away from burning fossil fuels and our addiction to them we also must do this transition slowly so that alternatives can be put on stream and, before anyone suggests it, nuclear, at least not fission, is not the answer. So we must get back to the drawing board and look at how we are going to overcome the problems that will occur when the oil runs out proper.
As I have said, everything is tied up with oil and other fossil fuels in the developed world and this is scary in the extreme.
Nearly each and every method of production of whatever is somehow to a greater or lesser degree tied into the use of oil, coal and gas, and without that stuff the great majority of production of everything will just cease.
Scientists already warned us in the 1890s already – and I know it is a little late to remember that now – not to base the economy on fossil fuels, then coal, and the emerging oil, for reasons of the stuff being finite and as to not destroy the Earth with the pollution from burning coal and oil but the coal and oil lobby was just too powerful and no one was willing to listen, least of all industry and the governments. Now we are so addicted to the stuff that we cannot even see a way out, properly.
During a conference in London in 1940 even stronger warnings were issued by scientists as to the use of fossil fuels and basing the economy on it as, as the scientists stated, they were finite and thus would run out sooner or later. The pollution also was mentioned as an issue and alternatives energy sources were suggested; sources that are being only tested now.
I will not even ask the question as to what took us that long for the answer is that every time someone was looking at alternatives and came up with working models the oil industry, and the coal industry too, blocked the further development of those. That is why the Severn Barrage has still not gotten anywhere despite the fact that it was first suggested at that 1940 conference in London.
The world, industry and all of us, have become addicted to oil in such a way that we simply cannot see a way out of it and all the alternatives that have been around as ideas and working models have been shelved or even had everything appertaining to them destroyed.
But if we do not get off our addiction to oil (and the other fossil fuels) in the next couple of years then the fact that cheap oil will suddenly be no more will hit us like a tornado unexpected and we will be in a situation 1000times worse that what Cuba found itself in after the collapse of the USSR and that will not be a pretty sight.
© 2010
