Peak Oil

Dear Reader,Great change is coming to industrial civilization as we know it. The earth contains a finite amount of oil, and the rate at which we extract this oil is defined by a Hubbert Curve - essentially a bell curve the top of the bell curve is peak oil.The demand for oil is growing, not shrinking; and the world population is growing, not shrinking, while our conventional oil reserve is nearly 50% depleted. All aspacts of modern industrial civilization is dependent of oil. Many people think it only affects what you pay at the gas pump, but this is not the case. It has far greater implication then this. Oil use is not limited to food production, in which approximately 10 calories of fossil fuels are required to produce every 1 calorie of food eaten in the US. Modern medicine, industrial processes ,water distribution, and national defense are each entirely powered by oil and petrochemicals. Oil is entirely used to make petro-chemicals, which in turn is the backbone of plastics, the precurser to alot of consumer goods. Not only that all is pegged to our GDP, which our economy is dependent on it for growth.The peak of global petroleum discovery was about 1962 -- we cannot extract more oil than has been found.A couple years ago, the world burned 4 barrels for every one that was found.2003 was the first year when no new major oil fields (over 500 million barrels - one weeks’ worth) were found. On a PER CAPITA basis, peak energy was reached in 1979 and food production per capita is currently in decline..................................................... .............................................. While there is renewable energy will do little to ameliorate the situation. Oil has a superior energy return on energy invested (EROEI) this is the amount of energy invested to obtain energy. While the EROEI of renewable sources barely breaks even. Solar, Wind, Nuclear, Geothermal, Hydro,Biomass: Mainly used to generate electric power, not power transportation. Hydrogen has a EROEI that is nagative, therefore it's not an energy source, but only a carrior just like electricity. It’s hard to substitute one form of energy for another coal, oil, hydro, nuclear, solar, wind are difficult to mix'To sum it up, peak oil is inevitable, it's a matter of when? It is not after running out of oil, it is running out of cheap oil. During the 1970s oil shocks, arabic countries set an oil embargo. This was due to poitical reason and the shortfall is only a few million barrels, yet this causes an economic recession. Imagine as each year oil production declines 2-3% a year after peak, while our demand for oil keeps rising 2-3% a year, producing a 4-6% shortfall each year. Runaway inflation will soon set in as our system is dependent on growth, each year it will keep declining, and imagine the market shattering effects year after year. If industrial civilization does not figure out how to survive and thrive without cheap fossil energy, then technological civilization will be a short blip in the history of our species, hence the Olduvai theory. As we slide into the dark ages, the stone age is just around the corner.