2008 يناير 15 « Space and Time

According to Richard Heinberg –one of the world’s foremost oil depletion educators- the era of cheap oil is already over as explained in his book: The Party’s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies. From the book reviews I read, it seems that R. Heinberg predicted that the oil peak has been already reached and the world should start planning for a post hydro-carbons energy era from now.He furthermore poses another question; “What Happens When Oil Runs Out?”, which sounds very dramatic, but true. Our present civilization is depending on oil in a greater degree and we cannot imagine any of its facets functioning in the absence of oil as a primary mover. Imaging for example a food industry which starts from the producing farmer to the processing plant to the marketing channels in absence of oil and in consequence that the working machines which are involved in these operations are setting idle. “Our global food system faces a crisis of unprecedented scope,” he argues. Quote; “This crisis, which threatens to imperil the lives of hundreds of millions and possibly billions of human beings, consists of four simultaneously colliding dilemmas, all arising from our relatively recent pattern of dependence on depleting fossil fuels.” Unquote…Furthermore, farmers in Britain and the States are growing more crops for bio fuels but as the crops from which bio fuels are made grow better in tropical countries and thus these rather poor countries will face more food shortages and we may see millions of people starving in order to supply the richer countries with fuel necessary to drive their cars.In his latest book ” Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines “ he states that “During the past few years the phrase Peak Oil has entered the global lexicon. It refers to the moment in time when the world will achieve its maximum possible rate of oil extraction; from then on, for reasons having mostly to do with geology, the amount of petroleum available to society on a daily or yearly basis will begin to dwindle. Most informed analysts agree that this will happen during the next two or three decades; an increasing number believe that it is happening now - that conventional oil production peaked in 2005–2006 and that the flow to market of all hydrocarbon liquids taken together will start to diminish around 2010.” We’re now in 2008. The alternative, experts say, is not in bio fuels, but it’s all around us and a plenty, it’s in Water, Wind and Sun Power.