Friday, March 24, 2006

oil age

fuel tank

yes, it seems to be a matter of time. What do we do after we're out of cheap oil? There are many alternatives actually, which are more or less not so easy to use today. Oil production is near maximum these days, and because of the lack of the new huge oil fields, big crude oil refineries are not built anymore. Demand for fossil-based fuel increases every day, but the production can not follow the speed. What is also interesting, is that we don't know if the information available in internet/media about oil resourses is accurate, because oil business is too big business to declare that.

So, what is the solution? No one knows so far, there are only speculations out there. Alternative energies are not so easy to take into use, all the infrastructure is based on cheap oil, producing alternative tehnologies to replace current infrastructure (solar panels, etc) takes too much fuel. Nuclear power yet to be developed to be effective and safe at the same time, meanwhile it is times more reconsidered than 20 years ago (Chernobyl disaster).

It has been told us that we're running out of oil, but we're still driving cars, heating our homes, and using this resource for many other applications. What will we do when it ends? Time to think about it, though there are still some big oil fields discovered, time by time ;)

here's also a pick of related links:

DIE OFF
Life after the oil crash
Alternative energy resources (1998)
EurekAlert (US science news)
Hubberth peak theory
NY Green Guerillas
revolution in public transport
ITER - new generation nuclear power
bio-diesel
price of oil over years & decades
energy bulletin

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