Oil seems to be a theme today so how about this nightmarish scenario:?

[Subdivisions]

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2966842.ece">Oil industry 'sleepwalking into crisis'

Former Shell chairman says that diminishing resources could push price of crude to $150 a barrel
By David Strahan and Andrew Murray-Watson
Published: 16 September 2007
Lord Oxburgh, the former chairman of Shell, has issued a stark warning that the price of oil could hit $150 per barrel, with oil production peaking within the next 20 years.

He accused the industry of having its head "in the sand" about the depletion of supplies, and warned: "We may be sleepwalking into a problem which is actually going to be very serious and it may be too late to do anything about it by the time we are fully aware."

In an interview with The Independent on Sunday ahead of his address to the Association for the Study of Peak Oil in Ireland this week, Lord Oxburgh, one of the most respected names in the energy industry, said a rapid increase in the price of oil was inevitable as demand continued to outstrip supply. He said: "We can probably go on extracting oil from the ground for a very long time, but it is going to get very expensive indeed.

"And once you see oil prices in excess of $100 or $150 a barrel, the alternatives simply become more attractive on price grounds if on no others."

-snip-

I keep telling you all that as my fellow brothers and sisters I love you all and I want you to think about this problem and decide for yourself. Don't listen to those who would drain every last dollar from your pockets before they will tell you the truth about what is really driving world events here in the 21st Century. Any dreams of human advancement in slowing aging or building colonies on other planets will NEVER be realized. Our efforts now should be on how we will all survive once the world stops moving. And, God willing, most of us here will be alive to witness the end of the Petroleum Age.

If you don't believe in what is about to happen to us all, ask yourself why Bush and Moon and many other rich people are preparing their post-petroleum bunkers. I don't have to mention Paraguay, do I?

Please, at least look at it.

[frogcycle]

1. They ARE ignoring it

because the few real decision makers thrive on instant gratification. They just don't CARE what will happen after they are dead. Period.

As a species, humanity needs to get its head out of its collective ass and realize it is self-destructing. Or, it can handle it the way some other species do - overpopulate until they exceed a critical mass, and then crash.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. As long as they keep interest rates artificially low & keep printing

& borrowing money, $100+ oil doesn't matter. Trouble is it's all short term bush stuff that can't be sustained.

[Ezlivin]

3. The vast majority of Americans do not realize to what extent they are WED to oil

A read of Kunstler's "http://www.google.com/search%3Fclient%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26q%3Dthe%2Blong%2Bemergency%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title">The Long Emergency" should be required of every citizen.

Nearly everything that we consider a part of the so-called American lifestyle is made possible by ample supplies of cheap petroleum. Once the supplies are constrained and/or prohibitively expensive, this lifestyle will take a huge hit. Whether they want to or not, people will be forced into a less energy-intensive lifestyle.

And the productivity of our farmlands will greatly diminish. This will lead to widespread famine and starvation. (Oil makes an acre of land about four times as productive through applications of petrol-based fertilizers, weed- and insect-control.)

As they used to say in the theater, "Hold on for the ride of your life!"

[daninthemoon]

4. Life in America will either get incredibly better with alternative fuels

replacing oil and coal, ot it will get devastatingly worse. Unfortunately, the same rapacious sub-umans who brought you Enron, Halliburton, and an unending war in Iraq are the one who can make that choice. Most of us are just along for the ride, aside from the conservation practices we can contribute at home.

[Subdivisions]

5. Shameless self-kick for the evening crowd...

Can we please discuss this. Everytime I make a post regarding our energy situation it dies a lonely death.

I swear, peak oil WILL KILL MOST OF YOU! We BETTER talk about this and work on getting it mainstream.

[Deja Q]

7. WHy do you exclude yourself from your own comment?

"YOU" versus "US"?

And what if there is nothing we can do? (there are some things we can do. I'm doing it. But many politicians who say there is a problem aren't changing their ways, so maybe I shouldn't be doing it then?)

[IDemo]

6. "- oil production (could) peak within the next 20 years."

Likelier much sooner, if it hasn't already. From the end of the article: The latest figures from the US Energy Information Administration show that global liquid fuels production in August was almost a million barrels per day lower than the same period in 2006.

Matthew Simmons stated that the global peak may have already occurred in 2005.

"And once you see oil prices in excess of $100 or $150 a barrel, the alternatives simply become more attractive on price grounds if on no others."

"oil majors must invest more heavily in developing viable alternatives to oil and gas."

-- A couple of problems with the above statements. To say that alternatives will become "more attractive" implies that they will inevitably become both plentiful and affordable. And to entrust oil companies with the task of development of oil alternatives flies in the face of logic.

Commenting on whether "peak oil" – the point when global oil production goes into terminal decline – was likely to be reached in the near future, he said: "In a way it scarcely matters; what really matters is the gap between production and demand. I don't know whether there is going to be a peak in world oil production, whether it's going to plateau and then slowly come down."

For anyone to have made a statement such as this, much less the former chairman of an oil major, is incredible. Unless one ignores the mountain of data on the exploration, development and subsequent depletion of oil fields, and believes global oil reserves to be literally infinite, peak oil theory is an inarguable truth.

[Deja Q]

8. Let me look up any reasons for a slowing of oil production...

such as hurricanes, damaged plants, shutdown plants...

Will the numbers add up? By and large, I suspect they might.

That doesn't mean we're nearing peak, but I don't think we're past peak yet.

[Mojorabbit]

9. I think we are past peak.

I also think the ptb have gamed this all out and have decided that it will not be pretty so they are getting theirs now and to hell with the rest if us. I read a DOD report on their predictions several years ago and it was not very optimistic.