View Single Post
Old 05-31-2005, 08:48 AM   #1 (permalink)
zenmaster10665
Bokonist
 
Location: Location, Location, Location...
The End of Suburbia and Peak Oil

So, I just finished a trip back home to Sprawleigh, NC and while I was there, a friend of mine, had a get-together to take a look at a new documentary entitled "The End of Suburbia"

I was impressed by the film, and most of it makes sense (apart from the apocalyptic visions of Kunstler near the end.)

It was strange, because this documentary encapsultated a lot of the feelings that I have about the suburban way of life in the USA. After living outside of the US for almost 4 years, every time I return it feels a bit strange to see what has happened in my absence...more and more developments farther form the city-centre, more and more people moving to the fringes of their cities and spending more fuel to do it, another mega-mall where once there were fields...

The theory behind the film is the Hubbert "peak-oil" theory that was put forward in the 1956 and proven to be correct after predicting the time frame in which the US would hit Peak Oil produciton itself in the early 1970's. Since then, the theories and calculations of the late Geologist have been extrapolated to the present and currently predict that the world will reach peak oil sometime in the next 1-15 years. Most experts believe that we are currently very near the peak, however, it is the type of thing that you cannot say when you have gone over the peak until you see the effects on the other side.



My concern (and that of many experts in the field) is that the American way of life is so dependent on oil consumption that when the oil peak occurs, a period of shock and unrest will hit the US. People are simply not informed that this is an issue at all. I personally had never even heard of the problem until last week...

What we are talking about here is a life-changing event for all of us. After the peak of oil production is reached and passed, the remaining oil in the ground becomes harder to refine and retrieve as well as the fact that it becomes exponentially more expensive and demand outstrips supply....I, personally would not be surprised if we are paying 7-10 dollars per gallon in the US within 4 years...

How will people be able to afford to get to and from work?

How will our interstate-based food distribution systems function at such a high cost?

What other options will we have?


If you have some time, and are interested in the subject, take a look at a couple of webpages, or just pop "Peak-Oil" into your google...prepare to be amazed

Just to get the discussion started, here are a couple of links:

If you want to read a little about Hubbert, here is a link to his theories.

This is a link to a BBC news story on Peak Oil

This is a link to the movie's webpage

And this is a google-search for Peak Oil.


What do you guys think? (and PLEASE none of this leftist conspiracy stuff...)
__________________
"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.
He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way."
-Kurt Vonnegut
zenmaster10665 is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360