Oil - The Blood Of The Earth - Part One - Overview

by Darren

Probably the biggest issues facing people in our times are related to energy consumption in general, and the use of oil in particular. Oil is the blood of the Earth, and has been helping man increase productivity at an impressive rate for the last century. It could be argued that the presence of cheap energy in the form of oil is the main driving force that has pushed the advancements of industrialized society forward. The “American Way of Life” could never have been possible without the constant supply of cheap crude oil which fueled the machines of commerce.

Experts fear that oil has peaked

Now there’s a great fear that Oil is running out. The “American Way of Life” worked so well in the United States that nation’s all over the world are emulating the behavior of the Americans, right down to basing their entire engines of economic development on a steady supply of petroleum. Cheap oil is what every nation in the world needs in order to establish and nurture their burgeoning middle classes. And herein lies the trouble.

Demand for Oil has never been higher. More and more motorists his the streets every day, and their demand for Oil is insatiable. But Oil exploration has been stagnant for decades, meaning current oil fields are being depleted, with no guaranteed means of finding replacement oil. Pessimistic experts insist that Peak Oil has already occured.

We already have some experience with just what happens when a nation runs out of oil. The United States was the largest supplier of Oil up until 1970, due to vast reserves that had been exploited in Texas. Many citizens of Texas assumed Oil could never run out, but when it abruptly did, it caused immediate economic chaos. This lesson is fresh enough in the minds of many experts, that it’s tough to minimize the danger facing our civilization if we do run out of oil, and don’t have an alternative in place before that happens. If we sit here, flat footed, waiting to react, it will be much too late to set up the types of alternative renewable energy sources that can replace the ubiquitous Black Gold we’ve all become addicted to.

In this series, “Oil - Blood of the Earth”, we plan on taking an in-depth look at such issues as:

1. The Historical Dominance of Oil
2. The historical causes of the current Oil crisis
3. Possible solutions that have been proposed
4. The effect of Oil on the economy
5. How Oil and War are close relatives
6. Why Business is ignoring the problem
7. Can our politicians possibly save the day?
8. How much does the average citizen know about this crisis?

Right now, it’s tough to be optimistic about a world without Oil. Society has become so dependent on oil, that you have to question how troublesome a change to the existing structure of people’s lives would be. This series of articles hopes to take a balanced look at this complex subject.

Continued in: Oil - Blood of the Earth - Part Two - The Historical Dominance of Oil