(I also considered using "Fossil fuels are dead! Long live fossil fuels!", which may have been funnier, and a better choice. We'll never know, though.)
So peak oil is pretty much a given at this point. I mean, even the mainstream media (whatever that means) is picking up on it, and people [read: Americans] who have been living in caves the past however long are starting to realize [mostly due to increasing gas prices, which lead to increasing food prices as well as increasing energy bills] that the amount of oil we have readily available is, surprisingly, not going to last forever.
On the news (yeah, I know, look at the source) there was a report about Iran & Saudi Arabi threatening to withhold their oil supplies to OPEC, if the US did anything stupid like invade them. This would result in driving prices up to 200 dollars [US] per barrel. Which would double [or more] the price of gasoline currently, in a relatively short amount of time.
....Iv'e lost my train of thought, unfortunately.
Here's what this post was supposed to be about, bottom lined:
The Age of (cheap) Oil is coming to an end, whether we want it to or not.
This is going to revolutionize our way of living in a LOT of ways.
Some people (my past self included) believe that this will end up crashing civilization. I no longer really believe that civ. will completely crash. I can't explain very well *what* I believe, but ... I don't know. There's a lot of unknowns right now (aren't there always?) so predicting things is kinda pointless.
But here's the thing - we still want to get out of Las Vegas. Selling the house seems to be the best way of getting enough money quickly to obtain that goal. I guess the above mentioned news story made me wonder if the system will remain stable long enough for us to get the house sold at all. (Because, as I'm sure many of you have noticed, along with peak oil, the housing market has more or less gone in the dump. Even Las Vegas, which is generally pretty insulated from most economic woes has begun to have a huge slowdown in house sales. Hell, our neighbors two houses down have had their home for sale for six or seven months now.)
I don't know.
The whole thing will be moot in 5 years anyway, when the Mayan calender comes to an end. Nobody knows exactly what will happen on that day - perhaps nothing - but my money is on Zombie Apocalypse.
4 comments:
The general impression that I had is that the oil countries actually have a lot more than they're making it seem like they do. I don't know exactly how true that is.[/American] It does sound like the sort of thing we would do, though. If we, you know, had any oil.
In a similar vein, (heh), I really wonder if this will give the US enough of its favorite motivation, spite, to do anything. "We're going to start charging you double for oil!" "Oh yeah? Fuck you! Someone, quick, invent a car that runs on water."
I think environmentalism would have a lot more supporters if they marketed it better. Less touchy-feely-ness and thinking about the future, more self-interest and beating other people.
See, I heard/read/suspect that the amount of oil that people have is less than they'd been reporting. I guess the truth is that nobody knows how much oil there truly is.
And I think that fear and greed are bigger motivators for continuing our lifestyle than spite is, but that certainly plays a role in it, too.
The whole thing will be moot in 5 years anyway, when the Mayan calender comes to an end. Nobody knows exactly what will happen on that day - perhaps nothing - but my money is on Zombie Apocalypse.
Heehee, I think I love you. I, too, am watching the Mayan calendar count down with interest (that date marked pivotal events in both my NaNo novels), although I must say that my money is on Great Big Yellowstone Supervolcano. Go, Supervolcano!
We can compare notes on the day if we're still here after whichever apocalypse goes down...;)
p.s. Yes, fossil fuels was funnier. Because it's true!
Yeah, "fossil fuels" would've been a better choice. Live and learn.
And, hey, maybe it will be the Supervolcano and the Zombies! Two great tastes...
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