Peak Oil - Watch and Learn, Read and Understand

Oil reached a new high today. Stocks plummeted. The Dow was down over 135 points at the open, but have since rallied to being down only 100 points. This highlights the most important lesson that anyone can learn about our modern world. That is that oil is not just a commodity in our economy, it is the economy. Energy is the ability to do work. Less energy, less work. Declining energy, declining work. There is absolutely no other energy source that even comes close to the combination of energy density, transportability and range of use that oil has. It is this energy source that has allowed the world population to reach over 6.5 billion people. That energy source is declining, and most people do not know or believe in this issue much less the magnitude of it. Time is running out. Time may have already run out. But the only way we can even begin to find solutions to this problem is if the majority learns of the magnitude of the issues facing us. To that end I present two resources that have opened my eyes. The first is simply a web site called "Die Off". It is an alternate view of economics as it is taught today. The information is very extensive and highly controversial. You may never be able to read a paper, watch the news or read a blog through the same eyes ever again. That will be a good thing. It might even save your life though not your standard of living:

Die Off

The next is a documentary called "Oil, Smoke and Mirrors". It ties the impact of Peak Oil to the events we're witnessing today including 911. Here are three quotes from two of the most knowledgeable scholars on Peak Oil that I've found.

Richard Heinberg:

• "And yet people won't be talking about the Oil Peak. They'll be talking about the unemployment figures. They'll be talking about the high price of food. They’ll be talking about the fact that you can’t get on an airliner and travel any more because all the airline industry has collapsed. There are only a few carriers still in business, and the tickets are astronomically expensive. They’ll be talking about the latest war or terrorist incident. And they will have completely lost sight of the one event that caused all those effects."

Colin Campbell:

• "They're going to have to wipe out just mountains of capital."
• "Also, there is so much debate about this date of Peak (Oil). It really misses the point to a certain degree because whether the peak comes this year, next year, or in ten years time (it) doesn't really make that much difference because it's not a high peak. It's only the maximum of a rather gentle curve. And the real impact of that which is beginning to be realized is not the peak itself, but the vision of the long decline that follows peak. And that is a relentless, remorseless decline that goes on forever. At 2 or 3 percent per year that's not individually very much, but that eats into our supply very seriously and ever worse."

Does any of that sound familiar? Some may have noticed the source for the name of my blog is in one of the quotes by Colin Campbell. I believe it sums up the issue of Peak Oil quite nicely. The documentary was released in 2006. Since that time I have monitored the news for mention of the myriad effects caused by Peak Oil as outlined above by Richard Heinberg. If you have an hour to spare I urge you to watch "Oil, Smoke and Mirrors". If you have $20 dollars to spend I urge you to buy the DVD at their website. It has another hour or so of information on it.

Since 911 I have been trying desperately to make sense of the madness of the world today. There are many burning questions we all have as to why this great nation of our has fallen so far so fast. It seems to be continuing to fall at an increasing rate. I found the answers to those burning questions through many resources on the Web. None, however, has been as concise or as informative as these two.