Peak Oil - survey

What (if anything) do you know about Peak Oil and what plans are you putting in place to prepare or deal with it (if you do know about it)

I would probably fit in option 5 but not to a panicking extent. I am starting to grow my own food (vegetables so far). I have books on self-sufficiency that I'm reading a lot. I plan on learning some of the techniques in these books. I haven't gone as far as looking for a new and remote place to live or stockpiling food and water. In terms of preparedness, I have a LONG way to go (if the shit does hit the fan in the near future).

I'd also fit in option 3 (I think it is). I've told my husband about it and he believes Peak Oil will happen soon but thinks we will develop alternative energy sources in time. I emailed my sister about it and she didn't respond. I spoke to my father about it and he firmly believes we have 1000 years' worth of oil and natural gas left and it's alarmist thinking. He also believes that a lot of the claims out there are just a front to make money (ie to sell books or get research grants, like those scientists who talk about a greenhouse effect (!!!!)). He also believes we will develop alternative energy in time. My mother probably woudn't understand and just get depressed about it and not do anything, and my mother-in-law would just use it as an excuse to move in with us (insert hearty guffaw here)

 

To me, the proposition that global oil production is currently at or near its peak, if correct, is entirely good news.

If we were to continue on our present course indefinitely, it would lead ultimately to one of two scenarios: either we would run out of fossil fuel, or we would keep burning fossil fuels until we destroy ourselves with polution and climate change as we put more and more carbon from inside the earth back into the atmosphere (as it still is on Venus).

Of the two, I would find running out of fuel far preferable - especially if we are looking at a gradual decline in production giving us both the incentive and the time necessary to adjust.

So to me this is good news - bad news would be to find that we have enough cheap oil left for thousands of years - and nothing to stop us from killing ourselves with it before it's too late...

 

The world won't come to a screeching halt as oil becomes too expensive. It'll happen fairly gradually. Plus, there'll still be coal, roughly a couple centuries worth. Beyond both of those, there are fully renewable biofuels like wood and corn, which I think will be used much more widely as time goes on.

 

I sure do hope the optimists are right on this. Alot of people say that alternative energy sources will be found, and some places are making it work, but will it work for 7 billion people before wars break out over who controls oil production?

The fact is that we do have quite a bit of oil left. It will only cost 4 times as much to be able to get anything useful out of it.

 

Pumping oil from under the ground costs around $6 per barrel. Even tar sand is cheaper to produce from.

 

http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/whatsnew/techann/2004/2004-073.html

 

I don't plan on doing anything about it, partially because I am lazy, partially because I try not to do too much that involves oil and coal and all of that anyway, and partially because I am stupid

 

Peak oil is a farce that is being promoted by the establishment and big oil to jack up prices and promote artificial scarcity (which they will then offer the "solution" to). It's just another form of fear-mongering, to manipulate the public into accepting whatever cure the system offers.

If we do run out of oil, it's not going to be anytime soon, and certainly not within our lifetime. I, however, believe (based on the evidence I have seen) that oil is abiotic and thus self-renewing. Personally, I would love to see the end to the dependence on oil, but it's the same establishment promoting peak oil and manmade global warming, that wants to suppress any and all forms of environmentally-friendly free energy technology that would end our dependence on oil tomorrow.

 

I'm not sure to understand...
By beleiving in Peak Oil and Manmade global warming, people will tend to move away from oil and polluting energy, right?
So they'll be looking forward to energy like wind power, wich is more environmentally-friendly, right?
So this ''fear-mongering'', as you call it, can't possibly suppress these cleaner energies, right?
I guess you got confused... right?

 

Wind power is not true free energy. It's one of the "alternatives" they allow the public to have, but it's not really an alternative at all. It might help to supplement energy derived from oil, but would never work as a replacement to oil on a large scale. This is deliberate because the powers that be want to keep the world dependent on oil, so they only give the public alternatives that are not completely efficient or effective, which still keeps us dependent on oil. True free energy technology would completely eliminate our dependence on oil altogether. This technology exists, and it is being suppressed.

 

What's an example of true free energy then?

 

Zero-point energy and the water-fueled car are two examples.

 

i know about it and the (NON-combustion!) alternatives already exist and are well proven. what is apauling is the political obsticals economic intrests place in the way of implimenting them.

diminishing supplies of fossle fuels are a good thing, and would solve the other problem of global climate chainge, if they could run out quickly enough, which doens't look like is going to happen. even if we ran out of oil today, there's still unfortuanately another couple hundred years worth of coal lying arround. fissionables aren't forever either, nor is their use any kind of answer anyway. though it may be part of the stopgap.

this world is fucked up, and not just physicly, because of people who would rather drive arround in big cars then ride arround on little trains and live in big square houses instead of little, gratifyingly strainge ones.

but also even more because of cheerleading for there being ever more of us instead of reducing, accross the board percentage wise, without bias or exception, all human firtility.

(what the "wind alone" or "solar alone" won't cut it arguments are decieving by omission is that "oil alone" isn't doing it now either! wind AND solar AND micro-hydro AND geothermal AND the kitchen sink AND maybe a few nukes AND a lot of doing without what we take for granted but really get nothing out of, can more then adiquately replace oil AND coal AND nukes AND large scale hydro in the wrong places. it's NOT ONE thing replacing everything else, but one combination that can keep going the way nature keeps going and compatable with it, replacing the existing combination that doesn't and isn't and is only there because it enables the few to get fat off the virtual slavery of the many)

=^^=
.../\...

 

Don't forget that oil isn't just about getting your car from point a to b. The world depends mainly on oil to grow and ship food, produce textiles and plastics and so on... and from what I've heard, to switch to an oil free planet quickly enough before peak oil is socially and economically impossible.

 

I feel peak oil will happen in the next 2-5 years. Non-partisan experts have continuously shown that their findings are true.


I feel the Iraq invasion was partly because of this because they know soemthing we don't. They put us in place so we can get the last drops of oil....those last drops are maybe 100 years away, but we're still there with our hands in the cookie jar.

 

Who are we allowing to tell us when peak oil happens? I know about "peak oil", but I think it's a marketing term used to manipulate the world against it's self inorder to make money for a few. I don't buy into fear tactics.

Global warming, I don't see it...I see my energy prices go up every year, no matter how low I set my thermostat or how many blankets or jackets I wear.

 

Anyone remember Enron?

 

I remember my utility bills going up from 75.00 a month to 350.00 month one winter. I remember having to turn my heater off and freezing. I remember hearing the tapes of Enron executives laughing, I remember Bush and Cheney say California had to deal with it themselves. Did anyone go to jail? I'll never forget that winter. I still never turn my furnace on or my cooler. Maybe all of you have money to burn? Not that it is any better today, I just plan in advance and wear more clothes and keep my house closed up earlier. During the summer I take cold showers and try not to be home much. Nice lifestyle isn't it?

The Governator got elected because Gray Davis was made the scapegoat, but what exactly has he done for the people of California. Bush, Cheney, Arnold, none of them have done anything to protect the citizens of this country.

Basic utilities like power and telephone are necessary for life, but we've let them be sold out to political interests.

 

I personally feel the theory of Peak Oil is just similiar hype to that of global warming.

 

Oil is not renewable, and from the link provided, 16.51 billion barrels remained in 2001. Here is another link: http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10002504.shtml
OPEC does not believe they will be able to keep up w/ oil demand in a relatively short time from now. At that time, 29.5 million barrels of oil were pumped per day. This was in 2005, how much do you think is being pumped now?

There is also a problem w/ pumping oil too fast, and the oil fields can collapse, which makes the remaining oil unrecoverable, at least, until we develop different technology. Plus, not all of the oil is recoverable w/ the techniques available today.

According to this site, 61.48 million barrels are being produced per day, on average (based on top oil producers). All the while, 57.4 million barrels are being used per day on average (again, based on top oil users). If there really is over 16 billion barrels left, how long will that supply last if we are using 58 million barrels per day? 278.7 days (this is, if the oil reserves are correct). Anyone see a problem w/ this?
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0922041.html

Yes, there are other alternatives to petroleum- there is a large reserve of tar sand, but how much extra energy would be put into extracting the oil and processing it? How much more pollution would be created, since tar sands require much more refinement?

And to someone who claimed that oil is renewable, perhaps you should learn how oil is formed. Here are a couple sites:
http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/fuels/oil.html
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/geo/earth/flash/14_1.swf

Yes, oil is formed as we speak- however, it has taken hundreds of millions of years to build the reserves of oil that we have had and we are using more at a rate greater than it is being replenished. Oil production peaking is a threat and we must recognize the dangers before we become the civilization of Easter Island.

Peace and love

 

You're right, also the Sun revolves around the Earth and the Earth is flat and it's only 6000 years old. Oh, and I almost forgot that the moon is made of cheese.