Peak Oil Crisis

[joules99]

I am guessing that this is going to be in the news more and more over the next few years starting soon, I believe it will be go into our vocabularly like global warming or greenhouse effect, and as far as I can tell, there are a few variables, but it is imminant. There are two well documented outcomes; Apocalyptic or Oppurtunity, (it is beautiful to think what could happen with oppurtunity, but is it possible? ) I was wondering what Abers feelings are on this, as I am interested if people are taking this seriously yet?

[jake-the-peg]

For those who don't know what this is about check out

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hubbert_peak

I clearly remember being 12 or 13 in the 70's oil crisis wondering whether with 30 years supply of oil left  I'd ever get to own and drive a car.

This whole theory could be massively thrown out of kilter by the discovery of oil fields in the North Atlantic or other areas. And there are a thousand billion barrels left

However fundamentally we do need to move from oil at some point and the sooner the better. Our decendents will want that oil for plasticswe can't burn it all!

Hydrogen fuel cells are the clear way ahead for mobile fuel sources such as transport but we need a hydrogen source that means electrolysing water.

You're simply not going to get that sort of energy on demand from wind and wave power so that means nuclear nobody wants to go back to old fission reactors and the nuclear waste which is why last weeks ITER announcement was so important.

Yes I think people will start worrying about it sometime soon because nuclear fusion needs a big shot in the arm.

Unfortunately oil reserves are estimated at 100 years and politicians typically serve 5 or 10.

[twiglet4frog]

i think once the oil runs lower and costs of having it start to get too high then governements will run for the alternatives quickly and become the next superpower by having the best hydrogen fuel etc over other countries. i mean, USA will want all there tanks running in the future with cheap fuel as opposed to russia etc struggling to pay the �50 a litre petrol bill that they will be forking out from what little oil reserves are remaining.

At the moment there is still too much and too cheap to worry about the cost of a new source

[Andy008]

The rise in the oil price is driven by the staggering demand from China and India.

As a businessman myself, I view the world in terms of profit. If I invest in these countries in a sensible fashion I will surely succeed.

As an observer looking at the more expansive effects of oil, they may yield very different viewpoints.

[Ralph]

One book I can heartily recommend on this very subject is The End Of Oil by Paul Roberts http://tinyurl.com/b54m2 which is a very good account of what we had, what we've got and what we will have as well as how the alternatives fare.

It isn't a rant a-la Michael Moore, just an objective look at an enivetable end to cheap oil, followed by an end to even the expensive oil, as well as the environmental aspects. Well worth a look.

[joules99]

Thanks Ralph, I've just ordered it.