Nightshade

This story may express the rapidly growing need for more Utility
cycles and utility cycling in north america. Better ,safer, roads that
have bike lanes , new laws to make room for utility cycling.

The story.........

"There is growing concern within the petroleum industry that we are approaching a limit to the amount of oil that can be pumped each day, and it might arrive before alternative fuels can be adopted on a large enough scale to avert severe energy shortages, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The story offers what the Journal calls "a significant twist" on the theory of peak oil while underscoring the urgent call to move beyond oil that the International Energy Agency made earlier this month in its annual World Energy Outlook. Taken together, they make a convincing argument that we've entered the end of oil and must move quickly, boldly and decisively to supplant oil as our primary source of energy."

The rest of the story.........

https://blog.wired.com/cars/2007/11/the-end-of-oil.html

Marrock

Oh my god! No gas anymore! What will I do...?!

Oh wait, I don't even have a car so what do I care?

Can I just point and laugh as the townies with their armoured personnel carriers have to give them away to homeless people for them to live in?

HandsomeRyan

I sincerely hope you are joking. On the off chance you are not... the goods and services we ALL depend on are dependent on gas/oil. Unless you are growing 100% of the food you eat and making your own clothing by shearing sheep you keep penned up in your back yard, an oil shortage WILL affect you. Personally, I like buying T.P. with the little quilting that doesn't irritate my bum, corn husks (the oil-free alternative) can be so abrasive on the delicate parts.

Marrock

There's always the three seashells...

And, if you'd notice, I said gasoline, I didn't mention diesel which has an easily and cheaply made replacement, biodiesel.

I've been doing some research into that and once I sort out the whys and wherefores of making my own I'll be looking into getting another vehicle, maybe a nice diesel Mercedes or a diesel powered pickup.

And considering some of the things they're making from corn and soy I'm not too worried about my trips to the supermarket... hells, you can even get a petroleum free chain lube now from an outfit called Bio-Lube.

kjmillig

Think about it: personal automobile usage will be restricted/regulated long before commercial transportation. We're not going to wake up one day with no petroleum. The USA and the American people need to get with the program.

Marrock

Can we still point and laugh at them?

Cyclaholic

"Although production capacity at new fields is expected to increase over the next five years, it is very uncertain whether it will be sufficient to compensate for the decline in output at existing fields and meet the projected increase in demand. A supply-side crunch in the period to 2015, involving an abrupt escalation in oil prices, cannot be ruled out."

Translation: The oil party is over, time for the morning-after hangover.... and it's going to hurt.

I for one am looking forward to fewer gas-burning cars on the streets.

Cyclaholic

I already laugh at the cagers around me every time I go past a gas station and see the prices.

cooker

Marrock, you may not realize that corn, soy, and perhaps to some extent biodiesel, are produced using fossil fuel for powering agricultural equipment, refrigeration and transportation of food, and production of fertilizer. No oil, no eat.

Marrock

Just about all agricultural equipment is powered by diesel... and I already stated how hard that is to work around.

BikeManDan

Sorry to burst your bubble but petroleum affects your life in far more ways than just how you travel.

What has to be considered are the transport of all your goods (such as food), the use of petroleum in manufacturing (such as plastics), aviation travel, home heating, etc.

wahoonc

The OP quoted an article from the Wall Street Journal...Tom Whipple a former CIA analyst writes a weekly column about Peak Oil.


Aaron

Marrock

They can make plastic from corn and soy, and diesel fuel from old used cooking oil, pretty much anything you need petroleum for can be made from plants or other renewable sources.

Do a little research online and you'd be amazed at the things they're doing now that they have no choice.

skingry

Then people won't stop driving:

and people won't have to:

cooker

You're really not getting it. To make all those plant-based products, you need large scale agriculture. Large scale argriculture runs on fossil fuel for planting and harvesting, providing fertilizer, transportation, refrigeration, packaging. Fossil fuels have some overlap and interchangeability. If the supply of oil doesn't keep up with demand, all fossil fuels will be in short supply before long. We won't grow as much corn, or soy, and what we do grow will either be protected for food, or people will starve.
It's going to be a hard transition. You can't replace all of America's oil-based products with plant based products if you suddenly don't have the oil to grow the plants.

Pippa

I think it would be possible to grow and harvest corn etc for fuel using vegetable oils, but I think that when you take out how much you will need to grow next years crop there may not be much left....

Marrock

I'm done trying to reason with you... it's like talking to a rock, or an SUV driver, instead go educate yourself.

https://www.biodieselamerica.org/

I'm out.

bmclaughlin807

Maybe it's YOU that is the rock???

Biodiesel can NOT replace the amount of oil that we're burning... not even if you take EVERY SINGLE bit of food crops and convert it to biodiesel.

And then... what are you gonna do for food?

bmclaughlin807

Oh... I get it.

Must be big news locally... lots of talk in the press about how it's going to save the world, right?

Check into how many gallons of oil go into producing an acre of corn... and then look into how many gallons of biodiesel that you can get out of one acre of corn... See how well it balances out.

Stax

No problem. You can make biofuels from human fat. Obesity epidemic and global warming solved. Where do I pick up the Peace Prize?

bmclaughlin807

I'll just leave THAT topic alone.

biketony

Time to reread essays by Wendell Berry. If you are not familiar with him, start reading his books. He wrote about agriculture, and had plenty to say about modern agriculture and petroleum. Rather than do his writings a grave injustice by attempting to offer a precis, check him out for yourself.

dr.raleigh

I grow vegies, shoot deer, get eggs from chickens, and soon to get a cow. I think the food issue is solved.

JusticeZero

The moment a food crisis hits, deer and other game animals wll go extinct within hours.
We do have plenty of alternative fuel options to run agriculture.. but not enough to commute and ship everything everywhere.

fordfasterr

better start growing your own deer !!!!