June 30, 2009 01:40 AM UTC

Energy-THE topic for the foreseeable future

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• by: Sir Robin

This site:

http://theoildrum.com/

has come to my attention recently, and is one of the best sites for finding well researched, easy to understand, in-depth discussions about ENERGY.

Here’s a recent excerpt:

“Today we are an oil-based civilization, one that is totally dependent on a resource whose production will soon be falling. Since 1981, the quantity of oil extracted has exceeded new discoveries by an ever-widening margin. In 2008, the world pumped 31 billion barrels of oil but discovered fewer than 9 billion barrels of new oil. World reserves of conventional oil are in a free fall, dropping every year.

Discoveries of conventional oil total roughly 2 trillion barrels, of which 1 trillion have been extracted so far, with another trillion barrels to go. By themselves, however, these numbers miss a central point. As security analyst Michael Klare notes, the first trillion barrels was easy oil, “oil that’s found on shore or near to shore; oil close to the surface and concentrated in large reservoirs; oil produced in friendly, safe, and welcoming places.” The other half, Klare notes, is tough oil, “oil that’s buried far offshore or deep underground; oil scattered in small, hard-to-find reservoirs; oil that must be obtained from unfriendly, politically dangerous, or hazardous places.”

This prospect of peaking oil production has direct consequences for world food security, as modern agriculture depends heavily on the use of fossil fuels. Most tractors use gasoline or diesel fuel. Irrigation pumps use diesel fuel, natural gas, or coal-fired electricity. Fertilizer production is also energy-intensive. Natural gas is used to synthesize the basic ammonia building block in nitrogen fertilizers. The mining, manufacture, and international transport of phosphates and potash all depend on oil.”

The confluence of a destabilized global economy, and ever shrinking sources of inexpensive and easily extractable fossil fuels, will effect our future in ways that are still difficult to understand. Life will never be the same as it’s been enjoyed for well over a century of industrial development and general affluence in the West. Where and how we live, eat, drive, vacation….in short, everything s going to change in ways unimaginable in the next twenty-thirty years. The future is NOW. Sure. Michael Jackson is relevent, but compared to this stuff, he pales in comparison. (He’d like that)

We need to be talking about this more. The press needs to be doing a MUCH better job informing it’s readers on this topic. The government needs to be more forthright and well, show some leadership on this issue.

The entrenched interests that have profited heavily are facing drastic changes, and inexplicably arguing for the status quo. There may be exceptions to this statement, but I don’t see them often enough.

I know the readers at CoPols are an intelligent and well informed bunch. This site will only add to that, which many of you, already know.

http://theoildrum.com/