The Peak Oil Meme Has Been Let Loose

Adapting to a world in energy descent will call for far more change than simply trading the family SUV in for a Prius. Oil is the miracle product of the past 150 years that permeates almost everything in our lives. Specifically, the petroleum molecule and its derivatives are used in the manufacture of medicines, plastics, alcohol, paints, building materials, cloth, glycerin, sulfur, detergents, synthetic rubber, solvents, nylon, polyesters, food additives, dyes and supplements, explosives, and insulating materials. It must be emphasized that our ability to grow food for 6.5 Billion people and transport it thousands of miles to local grocers is highly dependent on a steady supply of cheap fossil fuel.

Considering the many critical uses for petroleum, burning it for fuel is akin to burning a Picasso for heat. According to Ed Ayres, editorial director of the World Watch Institute, we face “something so completely outside our collective experience that we don’t really see it, even when the evidence is overwhelming. For us, that ’something’ is a blitz of enormous biological and physical alterations in the world that has been sustaining us.”

The various alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind power, are only capable of replacing a fraction of our current energy requirements. So-called “hydrogen energy” is viewed by many in the scientific community as little more than a cruel hoax. A return to burning coal will accelerate global warming.

PRWeb