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unplug magazine asks you to unplug from your current modes of thought and look at life in a new way, whether this means unplugging from our toxic consumer culture, mainstream society, the tv, or a limiting mindset. author megan prusynski explores life's alternatives and discusses activism, progressive thinking, and moving towards a "green" & sustainable life.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Tough Times Ahead: Surviving Peak Oil

Our current way of life is completely dependent on cheap oil. Despite knowing that it is a finite resource, we continue to use it in large quantities for just about every aspect of our lives, especially in America. Petroleum does not just fuel our cars, it fuels our entire agricultural system (fertilizers and pesticides are made with oil and natural gas, not to mention the fuel needed to harvest and ship food around the world) and is our main source of energy. It is even a major ingredient in many of the products we use every day - such as plastics, pharmaceuticals, beauty products, and cleaning supplies. It's not money that makes the world go round, it's oil.

Our petroleum addiction comes at a high cost: not only in the increasing costs of finding and extracting oil, but in the long term environmental effects of its use as well as the political and social harm that comes from fighting over a dwindling resource. Even though we may not run out of oil completely for hundreds of years, it is becoming more and more difficult and expensive to find and produce. If you've been to a gas station lately, you've obviously noticed the rising cost of oil. It's certainly not getting any cheaper. But what happens when oil is more expensive to produce than it is worth on the market?

That's where peak oil comes in. Simply put, peak oil is the point at which, on a global scale, we extract the most oil from the earth that we ever have or ever will. It represents a halfway point in the earth's oil supply, not an end. The problem is that the second half of the oil that we have not yet extracted is more difficult to get to and more expensive as well. According to wikipedia:

Peak oil is the point or timeframe at which the maximum global petroleum production rate is reached, after which the rate of production enters its terminal decline. If global consumption is not mitigated before the peak, the availability of oil will drop and prices will rise, perhaps dramatically. M. King Hubbert first used the theory in 1956 to accurately predict that United States oil production would peak between 1965 and 1970. His model, now called Hubbert peak theory, has since been used to predict the peak petroleum production of many other countries, and has also proved useful in other limited-resource production-domains. According to the Hubbert model, the production rate of a limited resource will follow a roughly symmetrical bell-shaped curve based on the limits of exploitability and market pressures.

Since our current lifestyles are so dependent on oil, a decline in its availability (and a rise in the cost of getting the last half of it) will have dramatic effects on society. America got a glimpse of peak oil in the early 1970s during the oil crisis, when there were long lines at the gas pump and President Carter began urging Americans to curb their energy usage. But when that crisis blew over, it seemed as if Americans forgot it ever happened. Instead SUVs surged in popularity and oil and energy use rose even more. It's as if we're ignoring our impending doom, and doing nothing to prepare for the drastic changes that peak oil will bring.

Of course, society does not have to be doomed by peak oil, which many scientists say is coming soon, if it's not already here. Some major changes will need to be made, most notably in the way we think and the way we live. But we can survive if we focus on alternatives for our energy, transportation, and agricultural needs. One group dedicating their time and resources to finding a solution to peak oil and climate change is The Community Solution. This organization advocates "culture change, conservation and curtailment" to survive this crisis. The Community Solution states:

Through reductions in resource consumption, dramatic conservation and curtailment of energy use coupled with an increase in local community living we can survive peak oil and create a sustainable world in its wake.

And they offer an example of a society that has had to face severe shortages in oil and lived to tell about it: Cuba. In 1991, the Soviet Union fell, and since the US placed a trade embargo on Cuba, a Soviet ally, their supply of petroleum was abruptly halted. Energy shortages and famine spread, but luckily Cubans have since figured out a way to get by on less energy and less petroleum. They returned to organic farming, creating small-scale local farms all over the island and in every empty plot of land in urban areas. They turned to bikes and public transit for transportation and alternative and more sustainable forms of energy production. Food production, education, and industry became much more localized. Cuban communities began to thrive, taking care of each other and supporting themselves. What happened in Cuba offers a glimpse of what a post-peak oil society might look like, if we learn to consume less, help each other, and return to more traditional and ecological ways of farming and living.

You can watch The Community Solution's documentary "How to Survive Peak Oil: The Cuba Model" as a six part series on YouTube. It shouldn't be surprising to anyone that reducing our energy consumption and finding alternatives to our petroleum addiction lead to a more sustainable way of life. This is what Cuba has done, and although their journey is still evolving, the rest of the world may soon be adjusting to peak oil's effects.

Let's hope that we can learn to live as sustainable, efficient, localized communities as the peak oil crisis approaches. The days of cheap oil will soon be over, but that doesn't mean that society will end. I believe we will learn from the "oil age" that we can't rely on finite resources or short-term solutions. If we're going to be in it for the long haul, we're going to have to work together, with each other and with the earth. We will have to learn to work with nature and not against it, and this learning process begins with a new way of thinking and seeing the world. Let's start now!

Labels: energy, environment/sustainability, lifestyle