PEAK OIL
Among the multitude of terminal issues that threaten our present
civilisation, Peak Oil is a little known, but very basic issue - which
threatens the very basis of modern civilisation as we know it since the
past 250 years. Therefore, it is incumbent in every knowlegeable and
spiritual human being, to be acquainted with this potential "doom fuse".
Petroleum is a finite natural resource, but one with unequalled energy efficiency
and unrivalled uneiversal uses in modern civilisation. Our automobiles,
aircraft, ships, pharmaceuticals and fertilisers used in industrial
farming plus the plastics industry that underlies our whole
civilisation, its tools and electronics - all depend on petroleum, that
has only been ever been used since the 19th Century,
and is being guzzled at an alarming rate by modern "developed"
civilisation, shows us just how flimsy and ethereal the basis of our
phenomenal technological progress and prowess really is.
Peak oil has already been demonstrated in action, when the price of oil rose permanently from $25 a barrel in 2002 to $80 in 2007 - and thereafter spiked from $80 to $147 in just under a year.....that brought on the West's economic crisis....the destruction of demand brought the price down to $35-40 a barrel in December 2008, but now at this writing it is back again at $124, and is increasing.....any number of factors, plus its constant depletion will ensure its price rises, and the effect will be like a tightening noose around the neck of Western global capitalism. An analysis of all the present global conflicts, involving the US and its NATO allies in diverse places of geopolitical importance around the world, for the past decade - will show that it is actually a fight by the advanced countries of the world, to secure the last supplies of the world's oil (and its sister fuel, natural gas, which is also running out).
As Dragons, it is imperative that we be aware of what this entails: of the cutthroat greed and avarice capitalism engenders, and of the future of modern civilisation itself. Suppose the West does succeed in securing the world's remaining oil - at heavy cost - it will only keep modern civilisation afloat for another decade or two, at the rate that things are going now. Since capitalism believes in and promotes the concept of linear growth, this is expected to increase! On what, though? Not only that, but the other side of the picture is the resultant pollution that is poisoning the Earth and its ecosystem.
There is no available alternative to petroleum in energy sources, and it will take vast resources, infrastructure retooling and time to develop others to the level that they can be used to fuel the present momentum. There are other sources to derive petroleum and hydrocarbons from, but they are comparatively inefficient and messy. Petroleum will never "run out" but it will continue to be be less accessible, thereby undermining the present paradigm of exponential economic growth and living standards.
Peak oil has already been demonstrated in action, when the price of oil rose permanently from $25 a barrel in 2002 to $80 in 2007 - and thereafter spiked from $80 to $147 in just under a year.....that brought on the West's economic crisis....the destruction of demand brought the price down to $35-40 a barrel in December 2008, but now at this writing it is back again at $124, and is increasing.....any number of factors, plus its constant depletion will ensure its price rises, and the effect will be like a tightening noose around the neck of Western global capitalism. An analysis of all the present global conflicts, involving the US and its NATO allies in diverse places of geopolitical importance around the world, for the past decade - will show that it is actually a fight by the advanced countries of the world, to secure the last supplies of the world's oil (and its sister fuel, natural gas, which is also running out).
As Dragons, it is imperative that we be aware of what this entails: of the cutthroat greed and avarice capitalism engenders, and of the future of modern civilisation itself. Suppose the West does succeed in securing the world's remaining oil - at heavy cost - it will only keep modern civilisation afloat for another decade or two, at the rate that things are going now. Since capitalism believes in and promotes the concept of linear growth, this is expected to increase! On what, though? Not only that, but the other side of the picture is the resultant pollution that is poisoning the Earth and its ecosystem.
There is no available alternative to petroleum in energy sources, and it will take vast resources, infrastructure retooling and time to develop others to the level that they can be used to fuel the present momentum. There are other sources to derive petroleum and hydrocarbons from, but they are comparatively inefficient and messy. Petroleum will never "run out" but it will continue to be be less accessible, thereby undermining the present paradigm of exponential economic growth and living standards.