oil production is due to peak before 2010

[Roxy]

I read last night in the latest issue of Ode Magazine, that oil production is due to peak before 2010, after which the price of oil will be so high that traffic congestion will be a thing of the past. People just won't be able to afford to put their vehicles on the road.

It has been suggested that governments should try to set up some sort of fuel quota system, so that each individual/business/government would be allotted a certain number of units of fuel according to their need and that this could then be sold and traded. The system could be set up so that the amount of fuel used would never exceed the amount available.

On the good side, this would help the world cut back on fuel use to help get it to a sustainable level.

On the bad side, I can see a whole new black market in fuel, starting up.

[rantipole]

On the bad side, I can see a whole new black market in fuel, starting up.

Not to mention fuel riots. And, more vociferous calls to drill in wild places.

[DianeVegan]

Oh Roxy, could you see us in the U.S. agreeing to a fuel quota?

Sad to say that with fuel prices softening a bit since September, there has also been a die down of discussions amongst my co-workers about fuel-efficient cars. Things are back to "normal" here for most in the U.S.

[Hasha]

It's true that there are cars that are more fuel-efficient than the ones that your average American drives today, but there definitely is no such thing as a 'fuel-efficient' car. The US (and the rest of the world, of course) needs to transition, not to more efficient cars, but to no cars. And it will: it'll have to. The production of oil is about to start decreasing (if it hasn't already), and in a few decades, there will be no oil left to extract (or rather, it'll be pointless to try: the oil left in the ground will be so inaccessible and/or of such poor quality that it will take more than one barrel of oil to extract one barrel of oil).

And as for alternative sources... Cars running of sunlight? On wind? Hmm... As for hydrogen, it's important to realize that hydrogen is an energy carrier (like electricity) and not an energy source, and is as such a net energy loser. As it is right now, hydrogen is a derivative of natural gas, which is also about to become more scarce. My guess is that the hydrogen hype started with the hope that it would allow for (environmentally) cleaner cars. More fuel efficient? Don't think so.

As for me though, I don't give a $#!^ about cars: they were the worst thing we invented since agriculture! I am however worried about what will happen to food production. Fossil fuels are so heavily used in food production (fuel for machinery, fertilizers, pesticides, fuel for transportation...) that once oil/natural gas are no longer readily available... I remember reading this article once about how the greatest danger of peak oil is not that your SUV might go hungry, but that you and your children might go hungry. On the bright side, factory farms will become history. :)

[Roxy]

Oh Roxy, could you see us in the U.S. agreeing to a fuel quota?




LOL! :D

No.