Geo-physicists and political scientists alike to this date debate the issue whether the amount of petroleum available on the planet is sustainable . For a long time cheap oil drilling on the order of some 8 to 12 million barrels daily could be counted on without any worry. But, according to modern era petroleum engineers and industry experts(Simmons, Deffeyes) we may have reached such a reduction in the ratio of production to oil reserves and could suffer the results of a spiraling economic decline; we have come to what is described as the other side of "Hubbert's" Peak, a term named after the scientist who predicted an oil-reduction/crisis would hit beginning somewhere in the 1970s.He stated from his analysis that after that time we would be on the down slope of a "peak" of available planetary oil supplies. The next 10 years means that we would have to produce 200 million barrels of oil a day to meet consumer demand for petroleum just to keep up with the pace of a growing consumer population. We are dealing with a supply and reserve and utilization issue hitting us all at once.
With the drop in production , we will see a potential sharp rise in prices( the law of supply and demand taking affect), but what would be affected directly? Those corporations that saw the multiple benefits of petroleum for energy, weaponry, chemicals, medicine, pesticides and plastics began to be consolidate there influence as the "Petro-Chemical-Industrial -Complex", which makes this network one of the most powerful if not the most influential conglomerate(cartel) that determines all human life's outcomes. Those who consume petroleum based products are its target.Petroleum based products include plastics. What products can you name that aren't made of plastics completely or partially? Water bottles, refrigerators, furniture, T.Vs, radios, cell phones and most other home products we buy daily such as furniture, light fixtures are petroleum based. Petroleum products also include pharmaceuticals , so that drug prices will be affected, rising sharply affecting the health care system cost . Most of the pesticides and herbicides are petroleum based which means agricultural and animal food products will be vastly affected, again with sky-rocketing prices. A great deal of war weaponry is also produced from petroleum so that war and defense contract technologies are direct beneficiaries of petroleum , but so are peaceful tools such as silicon for computers, microchips, CDs, DVDs, movie film included. Numerous chemicals and of course and our automobile gasoline. But, many parts inside of cars and other transport vehicles are petroleum-based end products. Humans have made petroleum a major staple of life and would have a difficult time without its availability.
The U.S. alone which represents one out of twenty two people on the planet utilizes 25 % of the oil in the world while only holding 2 % of the oil reserves. These statistics alone have made some developing countries quite dubious about the U.S.' utilization of the majority worlds resources. With this with contribute to being a big polluter on the planet. China has raised its importation of petroleum by 25% in the last year and continues to grow in population use. Perhaps what we are witnessing today from them with some of the aggression in the South China Sea is based on this "supply and demand" concern and the need of "grabbing" oil reserves before we head toward the other side of the peak of oil as a preventive measure. But, these measures may have a heavier cost to pay as the world edges toward another global conflict.
Two thousand years ago the world population was only about 300 million( the same population as the U.S.A is today). Today it is over 7 billion. China has a population of 1.4 billion and India is at 1.2 billion and they are both steadily growing even with population control measures in place. With these demographics comes the production and purchasing of more automobiles and need of more petroleum based products. Population experts at the United Nations are no longer looking at the population growth as before. Today its describe by some like a ticking time bomb, because at this point we can't describe it any longer as only as doubling , but must look at the effects in terms of exponential growth rates.
American dollars are directly tied to oil and petroleum-based products commodities stock market and the protectionism that affords our access to being able to drill it in not-so-friendly parts of the world. If cheap oil is not available further, then stocks and the companies owning them would appear as being over-valued. This can create panic in the markets on Wall Street and the Chicago Commodities Stock Exchange, alike. It is this type of rumbling that lead to what could tip our "hat" to an all out full economic crash.
There are three potential outcomes for our planet if we do not immediately take action: One, is hoping unrealistically that all people would be willing to reduce use of fossil based fuels on their own or accept a mandate to do so. Secondly, attempt to quickly convert to alternative fuels globally. The third possibility is that those two prior things do not work, the real chance of naked aggression on available oil reserves in "unprotected territories that are threatened will be a ongoing matter.
Technologies such as the micro-chip have slowly began to become accepted functioning as a means to control overuse, waste, loss, duplicity, help tracking or conserving a product. Perhaps we would see this tools will importance use with a chip that would interact functionally with a person's daily life as it is related to petroleum based product use. We are very close to that now. New 3-D printers and organic-based printers in theory could create any and all products for everyone at virtually little or no cost just be printing it, but there has to be pre-product to make copies of a truck, car , home or plane which many of them are petroleum based themselves. Organic 3-d based products have been looked at replacing human body parts as a way to competing with repeat surgery or surgical error with virtually perfect organs that are also replaceable to help reduce cost of poor health maintenance in illness and an aging population . Biological 3-D printers have the potential to copy a steak, a fish, orange juice and other edibles just by knowing the chemical code and copying it as the original. This is also an option to feeding the planet as genetic modified foods appear to have been perfected at this stage. Genetic therapy , however, has been proven to cure imperfections in our DNA to prevent cancer; would also be another means to try to reduce all cancer treatment costs. The genetic modification of crops needs to be perfected as to not cause more harm and to become the worlds new food source. The world will have to think much further outside the box by looking at fuels such as wind, solar, hydro, and even organic based . After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, nuclear based energy seems a whole less promising and effective, even "clean coal"(fracking has come under scrutiny as well. The primary utilization of fuel in our society such as our homes, office buildings, malls and transport will have to be persuaded to accept these newer fuels as well. The unfortunate , but real ugly alternative to these newer fuels will being caught up in a "fossil fuel-based " system with continuous regional and possibly world wars over the last bit of reserves until our planet is almost entirely annihilated . Time, how much of it is available to the human race? How little and how greatly precious it is to "re-design a whole new world order of life at the edge of planetary disaster"? It is time to look back at ourselves and determine the real cause of our own shortcomings. We must look back and when we do ,we will be looking at a struggling planet or we might be brave enough and look forward to the new model of not only human survival , but possibly future human success. "No species can survive itself" if it can not imagine the philosophical and technological consequences of our current state. There are many scientific and technological aids that are available to assist us move forward and face the storm that is coming. No longer can we bury our heads in the sand and hope that the storm blows over and we can just poke our heads out again and go on as if nothing has happened. This time the magnitude and consequences are to great and can not be bargained for . In the 21st century humankind
plays for keeps for everything it has including its next generation
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