Dry Observer
05-30-2008, 01:40 AM
Just an interesting link (http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_gastemperaturemap.aspx).
Before anyone asks, yes, the world burns one cubic mile of oil a year. Yes, we use it for transportation fuel, electricity, fertilizer, plastics, herbicides, pesticides and pharmaceuticals. Yes, the energy return on a barrel of oil invested on exploration and extraction has fallen from 100 to 1 in the 1850s (when we collected it from surface pools in Philadelphia) to 4 or 5 to 1 today. Yes, when the energy return on energy invested balances out, it will no longer make sense to use oil to provide energy (actually, it won't even shortly before that).
Oil production has peaked (hit its height, and is now declining), and if you look at the actual energy available in the volume of coal we mine, it has peaked also, probably around 1998 or so. Natural gas is peaking 'regionally,' because it's so incredibly hard to transport, especially by ship (each one is effectively a giant bomb). So basically, we're in the beginning of an energy crisis, if not an energy crash.
Perhaps, then, you'll choose to conserve. Or perhaps you'll choose to bankrupt yourself while waiting for a miracle cure, nevermind how long such a cure would take to deploy.
Either way, you might want to garden and stock up on a little food. You don't want to know just how dependent our food production is on fossil fuels (the average piece of U.S. food travels 1,200 miles before being consumed), and most Americans are blissfully unaware of the disastrous rice harvest in Asia, the collapse of Australia's food exports, the weather problems disrupting planting in the central United States, or the wheat blight wiping out 90% of all wheat it comes in contact with.
So I guess what I'm really saying is, good luck.
=)
Before anyone asks, yes, the world burns one cubic mile of oil a year. Yes, we use it for transportation fuel, electricity, fertilizer, plastics, herbicides, pesticides and pharmaceuticals. Yes, the energy return on a barrel of oil invested on exploration and extraction has fallen from 100 to 1 in the 1850s (when we collected it from surface pools in Philadelphia) to 4 or 5 to 1 today. Yes, when the energy return on energy invested balances out, it will no longer make sense to use oil to provide energy (actually, it won't even shortly before that).
Oil production has peaked (hit its height, and is now declining), and if you look at the actual energy available in the volume of coal we mine, it has peaked also, probably around 1998 or so. Natural gas is peaking 'regionally,' because it's so incredibly hard to transport, especially by ship (each one is effectively a giant bomb). So basically, we're in the beginning of an energy crisis, if not an energy crash.
Perhaps, then, you'll choose to conserve. Or perhaps you'll choose to bankrupt yourself while waiting for a miracle cure, nevermind how long such a cure would take to deploy.
Either way, you might want to garden and stock up on a little food. You don't want to know just how dependent our food production is on fossil fuels (the average piece of U.S. food travels 1,200 miles before being consumed), and most Americans are blissfully unaware of the disastrous rice harvest in Asia, the collapse of Australia's food exports, the weather problems disrupting planting in the central United States, or the wheat blight wiping out 90% of all wheat it comes in contact with.
So I guess what I'm really saying is, good luck.
=)