{"id":577,"date":"2006-08-13T10:27:29","date_gmt":"2006-08-13T18:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arcanius.silverfir.net\/wp\/577"},"modified":"2006-08-15T19:22:43","modified_gmt":"2006-08-16T03:22:43","slug":"577","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcanius.silverfir.net\/blog\/577\/","title":{"rendered":"On Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is the world running out of oil? The prospect seems unthinkable \u00e2\u20ac\u201d mostly because the consequences, if true, would be unimaginable.<\/p>\n

Permanent fuel shortages would tip the world into a generations-long economic depression. Millions would lose jobs. Farm tractors would be idled, triggering massive famines. Energy wars would flare. And carless suburbanites would trudge to their nearest big-box stores \u00e2\u20ac\u201d not to buy Chinese-made clothing, but to scavenge glass and copper wire from abandoned buildings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Paul Salopek, Chicago Tribune<\/p>\n

I’m no pollyanna, but I say that this sort of thinking in a load of bollocks. Will the looming (although not imminent, I believe) end of cheap fossil fuels lead to worldwide economic depression? I say no way, because we already have the technology to live without teh petroleum. Certainly, life after oil will be more expensive, but Americans, as well as those in much of the rest of the world, have proven that they are perfectly capable of seeing prices double or triple with minimal impact on ever-increasing demand. Certainly, I spend a good amount of money on gas, but it is nowhere near my largest expense.<\/p>\n

Take this a step further, and it seems perfectly reasonable to me that, when oil runs out (which will be a relatively slow process, considering the scale of the industry), we (the world) will be perfectly capable of absorbing another doubling in price, at which point ethanols, biodiesels, and perhaps other technologies will become extremely profitable, and will fill the energy demand. Will things become more expensive? Certainly! But most of us are so far above sustinence (as I sit here not needing to work typing on my computer thinking about a gift I am going to buy for a friend’s wedding…) that thinking things getting more expensive will somehow destory our lives is ludicrous.<\/p>\n

For how progressive so many claim to be, why are so many so afraid of change?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is the world running out of oil? The prospect seems unthinkable \u00e2\u20ac\u201d mostly because the consequences, if true, would be unimaginable. Permanent fuel shortages would tip the world into a generations-long economic depression. Millions would lose jobs. Farm tractors would be idled, triggering massive famines. Energy wars would flare. And carless suburbanites would trudge to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,7],"class_list":["post-577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-everything","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcanius.silverfir.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcanius.silverfir.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcanius.silverfir.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcanius.silverfir.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcanius.silverfir.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arcanius.silverfir.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1941,"href":"https:\/\/arcanius.silverfir.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions\/1941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcanius.silverfir.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcanius.silverfir.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcanius.silverfir.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}