<HOT Hot hot The Oil Drum DrumBeat: February 14, 2007>

84 comments on Water and Oil - another trip to Aramco's plumbing

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

| Show without comments | PDF version

ThatsItImout on February 14, 2007 - 2:53am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

So let me get this straight.....the inability to cope with the decline (which we have known was coming for at least a half century, and the really smart ones knew was coming starting after the first day of pumpling) of one cubic mile of liquid fuel is going to lead to the extinction of the human race, and leave nothing but a thin trace of pollution and fossils and wailing to the Olympian Gods....

O.K., just so I know I have everything in perspective, wouldn't want to be accused of exaggeration of any kind, right? :-)

gee, and we were worried that folks wouldn't take this issue seriously....

RC
Remember, we are only one cubic mile from freedom.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
mikey on February 14, 2007 - 8:47am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

It's a bit more nuanced than that. There is actually a choice.

Option 1:

  • drive less, live near work, carpool
  • consume fewer half-gallon slushies per day, eat more brown rice and the occasional egg
  • move in w/ your mother-in-law

Option 2:

  • die

Obviously, the first option is not a serious alternative...

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
dmathew1 on February 14, 2007 - 9:03am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hello mikey,

Option 1 v. Option 2 is flawed in several serious manners. You seem to approach this issue from a nationalistic standpoint while I am looking at the entire Earth (which is already filled with billions of impoverished non-drivers who are barely surviving these "good times" of increasing oil production).

From the standpoint of the United States, undoubtedly America could survive if Americans were willing to live with less. I would prefer that Americans consume less:

The U.S. trade deficit climbed to a record high for the fifth straight year, with 2006 imports exceeding exports by $764 billion, the Commerce Department reported yesterday. The gap reflects higher oil prices, which increased the nation's import bill, and American consumers' rising appetite for foreign-made goods.

The figures raised tensions in Washington, unleashing criticism on Capitol Hill of the Bush administration's pursuit of new trade deals. They also provoked a fresh round of demands for action against China, whose trade surplus with the United States swelled to a record $233 billion last year, according to the Commerce Department.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/13/AR200702...

But do you know what would happen to the American economy if massive numbers of Americans actually followed the advice of Option 1?

I imagine that the American economy would collapse because there are millions of jobs which are made possible by America's present (increasing) level of consumption. The value of stocks would decline tremendously, too, once everyone realized that America had entered an era of perpetually diminishing consumption.

Regarding Option 2: Extinction is not an immediate threat. Extinction is our species' ultimate fate.

David Mathews
http://www.geocities.com/dmathew1

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
dmathew1 on February 14, 2007 - 8:49am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

So let me get this straight.....the inability to cope with the decline (which we have known was coming for at least a half century, and the really smart ones knew was coming starting after the first day of pumpling) of one cubic mile of liquid fuel is going to lead to the extinction of the human race, and leave nothing but a thin trace of pollution and fossils and wailing to the Olympian Gods....

The consumption of two cubic miles of oil, the pollution that such consumption shall generate, the overpopulation which the oil made possible, the tools of technological warfare which oil also made feasible: These shall all work together to drive humankind to extinction.

Homo sapiens are not an eternal species. Extinction is real, inevitable, inescapable, and coming quickly. Does it make any difference whether extinction comes in ten thousand or one hundred thousand years? Not from a geological standpoint.

Humankind has thoroughly demonstrated an inability to cope with the increase of energy (see the 20th century). I imagine that humankind will cope with the decline of energy in a much worse manner.

For those who expect a smooth downslope: I doubt that the oil exporters will continue to export oil once Peak Oil reaches the general public's consciousness. The Muslims will probably not allow America's SUV drivers to burn away every last drop of their natural resource wealth. Those aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf are not merely a threat to Iran.

Civilization is winding down. Humankind's era of dominance over the Earth is coming to an end. Humankind's era of existence is also coming to an end. But all of these things shall occur more than twenty-five years in the future.

David Mathews
http://www.geocities.com/dmathew1

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

84 comments on Water and Oil - another trip to Aramco's plumbing

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

| Show without comments | PDF version