Dried Up?

[kalian]

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/SciTech/DyeHard/oil_energy_dyehard_040211-1.html

Feb. 11 — "Civilization as we know it will come to an end sometime in this century unless we can find a way to live without fossil fuels."

That's the way David Goodstein begins his book. And that's the way he ends it.

Goodstein is not an environmental extremist, or a doomsayer, or a political hack trying to make points with his constituency. He is a professor of physics and vice provost of the California Institute of Technology, one of the nation's headiest institutions.

...more...

This is another "peak oil" thread BTW...
What I find interesting is that the subject is starting to appear
in "watered down" versions within the media. Very interesting.

[papau]

1. it was a hot topic in 49/early 50's - at this point I wonder why?

:-)

[happyslug]

3. We had just beat Germany

And one of the reasons (and may be the MAIN REASON) is that after December 1942 Germany did not have access to enough Oil to supply its army. For example Von Paulus's Sixth Army's infantry Divisions, as the Sixth Army marched on Stalingrad were being supplied with only 10% of what the Pre-WWII Germany Army used in such Divisions. This was to preserve Fuel for the Tank divisions and German Air Force (Who also operated with reduced access to fuel).

Prior to June 1941 (when Hitler invaded Russia) Germany's main fuel source was the USSR. When Hitler failed to take Moscow by December, Germany was out of fuel AND HAD NO WAY TO GET MORE FUEL (The Romania Oil fields were a major Source as was the Coal Gasification plants but neither source made up the lost of direct shipments of Oil from the USSR).

Thus in 1945 the US and USSR faced each other with armies with sufficient access to oil. After that date the question became who would run out of oil first? Hubbert's research was part of that search (The US peaked in 1970, the USSR peaked in 1987, but the US could buy oil from the Mid-east, the USSR could not and thus died. Russian oil EXPORTS have increased since 1987 but at the expense of internal use. The Red Army no longer train as hard with its tanks, Helicopters and Jets thus all that fuel is free to be exported. Furthermore higher prices for Oil has caused people to upgrade their homes and car to save fuel. All of this permits more oil exports from Russia even as their oil production continue to decline).

[mhr]

2. Peak Oil Links Here

Websites of interest include:

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Home.html
http://globalpublicmedia.com/
http://www.oilcrash.com/
http://www.wolfatthedoor.org.uk/
http://www.asponews.org
http://www.gulland.ca/depletion/depletion.htm
http://www.dieoff.org/
http://www.oilanalytics.org/
http://www.greatchange.org/
http://www.oilcrisis.com/
http://www.after-oil.co.uk/
http://www.hubbertpeak.com/
http://hubbert.mines.edu
http://www.museletter.com/archive/cia-oil.html

Energy Resources
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/energyresources/

Alas Babylon
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AlasBabylon/

Running on Empty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunningOnEmpty2/