Looking Through Peak Oil Lenses

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The Peak Oil Crisis
Looking Through Peak Oil Lenses
By Tom Whipple

Once a person assimilates the idea that peak oil and its consequences are imminent, it radically changes one's world outlook. Nearly every issue one confronts will be affected by peak oil. In the last 100 years, oil has become so pervasive in our civilization that few issues or individuals will be immune to the reduced availability and much higher prices that will soon be upon us.

At the top of the list of problems coming with the peaking of world oil production are all manner of economic troubles. Optimistic students of peak oil say, at best, we are going to have a great depression lasting a couple of decades. Pessimists write of much worse. The bottom line is the good times much of the world has enjoyed for the last sixty years will not last long.

Start with the innumerable personal decisions you make every day. Is your job likely to be an early casualty of rising gasoline prices? If you make or sell SUVs, the answer is easy. If your job depends on people's discretionary spending— be wary. The polls tell us people will spend close to their last discretionary dollar on gasoline before giving up driving their beloved and "essential" cars. Thinking of buying or selling a home? The housing situation, particularly in the US , is going to be markedly different in a few years.

If, however, you are a farmer (and not many of us are anymore), you may be on the verge of the golden age. Chances are the world's farmers are going to be mighty busy growing plants that can be converted into liquid fuels as well as food. The golden age for some could start as early as this summer when large quantities of surplus corn are converted into ethanol for use as a pollution reducing gasoline additive. On the other hand, it seems some major droughts are shaping up across the world, possibly even in the US , so the golden age of farming may be delayed for awhile.

http://www.fcnp.com/605/peakoil.htm