Perhaps you haven't noticed or maybe you're numbly indifferent about it, oil prices have been going up, up and away by the day. What impact does this have on you as an individual, you may ask. Well, there is this picture that presents itself to us, it can be as inconvenient as the "Inconvenient Truth" that is global warming, here comes a more pressing issue which is "Peak Oil."
Peak Oil as I understand is when the world's total oil production reaches its maximum. Production then starts to decline but the demand for oil increases or remains constant. Some say that its fruition is nigh, others say that we have 20 more years before this peak is reached. Regardless, the imminence of Peak Oil is bad news indeed.
Peak Oil as an issue is far too deep for the likes of me to fully comprehend and I'm writing this not to act all smart but rather to shed as much light as I can to those who up to now, seem to be totally apathetic to the issue. I won't discuss this in detail, but its repercussions are now being felt and too hard to ignore. As an oil dependent country, and one that is almost totally run on imported oil, our economy is left at the mercy of oil price increase. Almost every facet of our lifestyle is based on crude oil, from the toothbrush and paste that we use every morning, to the very fruit or vegetable we fill our tummies with at dinner, crude oil is used to produce these things if not transport them to us end-users and consumers. So as soon as gas prices increase, so does the price of every product in the market, and living becomes more and more costly. With an economy as volatile as ours, and with terrorism, fascism and instability hiding behind the shadows of this crisis, who knows what to expect? Only time can tell when this country (and the world) implodes..
The questions therefore are:
What can we do to curb this crisis? Leaving our cars at home and taking the bike to work is not the answer as the problem goes beyond our mode of transportation and automobile fuel consumption.
How long do we have to wait in order for our leaders to spur into action? This problem is here to stay and it is futile to believe that oil prices will ever fall down. This is a matter that clearly needs government intervention, or heck, world intervention.
Why not turn to renewable energy right here right now? Maybe the cost of obtaining such sources are still so dependent on crude oil, i.e. the acquisition of raw materials are still based on petroleum-run machineries. If so, do the benefits outweigh the cost(s)?
The questions are endless that's for sure, but our future (that includes the near future!) isn't certain. It's as if Armageddon is drawing closer and this is the type of end that we as a people have chosen. The ultimate question is, as humans, as a race, how strong is our will to survive?
I don't mean to shut out all the optimism within us all, but isn't this the perfect time to show the wonders of human intelligence and the power of will? If one can create such vast technology to dig such vast a hole, the ability to create ways and means to climb out of that hole is also tantamount, right?
