Without the discovery of oil

[The2ndWheel]

what do you think America would look like in 2006?

[paparush]

1. Run by a Cabal of Coal Men

[Deja Q]

2. Wouldn't know.

None of us would be on DU.

None of us would probably be.

[Redstone]

3. There wouldn't be ONE whale left, that's for sure.

Redstone

[charlie]

4. Like a steampunk novel

With a few "modern" accoutrements like telephone, TV, formica, and chrome.

[DUHandle]

9. Nuclear powered steam engines

who wrote that one? Paul DiFilippo?


Man, when I picked up the Steamfunk Trilogy and started reading it, well, you know.....

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. Much less populated.

More polluted thanks to more extensive burning of coal (in applications ranging from industry to home heating to powering railroad locomotives).

More rural and urban; suburbs as we know them wouldn't exist.

Agriculture would still be the primary employment of most of the population (and agricultural yields would be much lower, without petrochemicals, diesel tractors and harvesters, et cetera).

Chances are that the US would not have become the industrial power it became; the rise to industrial dominance of the US in the early part of the 20th century was largely fuelled by oil (of which the US had the world's largest known reserves and greatest production, at the time). The US would also probably be at best a second-rate world power; Europe most likely would have maintained its dominance of international affairs.

We wouldn't have plastics. Or home computers. Or synthetic fibres. Or synthetic rubber. Or asphalt-paved roads.

The Second World War would not have happened, or if it had would have happened very differently (no oil = no tanks, no airplanes, no Blitzkrieg, and no strategic reason for Germany to invade Russia).

Our consumer economy (which really got its start in the boom of the 1920's, but didn't pick up steam until after WWII thanks to first the Depression and then the war) would not exist.

Travel for leisure rather than necessity would still be solely for the rich (as it was in 1890).

Most of the American West would be thinly settled, and places like Phoenix and Santa Fe would be sleepy backwaters.

Those are just a few of the differences I can think of; there are, I'm sure, many more.

[earthside]

6. We Will Find Out Soon n/t

[TX-RAT]

7. A dark haze would cover North America

And most of our trees would be gone.

It wasn't that long ago when coal oil and wood was the primary source of energy in the US. I've got pictures of the Los Angeles basin in the early years when the wood smoke was so thick you couldn't see 5 blocks. Most of the surrounding area's were completely cleared of trees.

[dysfunctional press]

8. steam-powered airplanes?

WW1 and WW2 would have been much different.

[Javaman]

10. I envision a world straight out of an HG Wells novel.

Everything made of iron with big weld bolts, powered by steam, coal and wood.

More passive air vehicles: blimps.

However, all kidding aside. I think we would have been farther along than just coal and wood. If anyone studies history, the exploration of the atom was started well before the oil revolution. I do believe we would have had some sort of nuclear power, how advanced, well that's another thing. I also believe we would have had flight, but in much limited versions. Liquefaction of coal is not a new idea, it's been around for a while. As far as a means of transportation, I think we would have various but not a single type of light rail or other monorail type of conveyance.

We wouldn't have gotten to the moon by now or have mass air travel or super sonic jets.

Medicine would have advanced but at a much slower rate.

What I think would have actually happened is if you took the 20th century and stretched it out over 500 years. That seems more likely to me.

[AngryAmish]

14. Streetcars

Some were run on steam I thnk.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. It would be totally disinterested in the Middle East.

[AngryAmish]

12. A lot more horse poop around

Plus many more horse flies. Ouch.

[AngryAmish]

13. Seriously, tho

The human population would be much lower. There is no way that transport of food could be accomplished without oil. We would be a much more homogenious society. Immigration would have been ended long ago. I suspect it would be a much more bigoted place because people would not move around as much and less interaction with different people (more Chinatowns, Little Italys, etc).

The industrial center of the US would be the Pacific Northwest (hydropower). I suspect there would be much more nuclear power if it could be invented but I suspect that much innovation would be retarded by lack of power to run things. No plastic anything so we would have fewer forests.