Here's part of a very good short article from PublicService Europe, an online publication specializing in "European politics, public administration, management issues and key developments in the business world". It's a sober, direct look at the issue of Peak Oil, giving a European flavour to a global problem.
Peak oil - are we sleepwalking into disaster?(...) Unlike climate change, politicians seem unwilling to encourage public debate about the ramifications of peak oil. There has been no shortage of government-commissioned reports into the problem, but most have been kept from public view – Britain and the US, for example, have maintained the cloak of secrecy by not publishing many findings. This could be because politicians are concerned that doom-laden messages - like the prediction that ordinary families will only be able to use their cars for emergencies within 10 years because of spiralling fuel prices – will cause panic and civil disobedience on the streets. Or, a more cynical view, might suggest that governments and oil companies are so deeply entwined – in some cases like Saudi Arabia and Iran they are, indeed, the very same thing and we all know about the intimate connections between BP and the political world here in the UK – that educating citizens on the need to move towards conservation and away from consumption would damage business and tax revenues and possibly, even, the foundations of capitalism itself.
Acknowledging the current confusion and lack of interest in the topic - Keele University Professor Bulent Gokay urges politicians, educators and citizens to grasp the nettle before it is too late. "Every aspect of modern industrial life requires oil, we live in a petroleum landscape because it is still the most dense energy form we have ever found," he explains. "But discoveries are declining and the oil is running out. It is a finite resource because it takes millions of years to renew. Only the Middle East and Caspian Sea region now have spare capacity, everywhere else has reached peak – including the United Kingdom, Norway, China, Mexico, Venezuela, Indonesia, Russia, Syria, Libya, Nigeria and Qatar. The cheap oil is already gone – when you have to drill deeper and deeper and in regions like the Arctic, it is much more expensive and the quality is not as good and not so easy to refine – due to the high sulphur content."
In addition, the world's largest oil companies exist in nations where democracy and human rights are not top of the government's priority list, to say the least. Names such as the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, the National Iranian Oil Company, the Qatar General Petroleum Corporation and the Iraq National Oil Company are not well known to citizens in the west – but their geopolitical power is enormous, easily dwarfing the likes of Exxon-Mobil, BP and Royal Dutch/Shell. We know that 17 per cent of our energy is used for producing food – through oil for fertilizers, pesticides, packaging and distribution. And more than 90 per cent of energy consumed is from fossil fuels. They drive transport, sewage management and the defence industry as well as the production of plastics, water, pharmaceuticals and electricity. Even former Shell chairman Lord Oxburgh once admitted: "It may be too late to do anything about it (peak oil) by the time we are fully aware?"
So what will this mean for future generations in practical terms? "Oil prices will have to rise further to justify deep-water drilling," says Gokay. "You cannot stop this or control it; it's simply a fact of economic life and physics rather than the fault of greedy oil companies or speculators. There is no long-term solution except to reduce our energy consumption. It's not just about using bicycles, but radically reorganising society and there is no reason to think that will happen. Oil ruled the 20th century and shortage of oil will rule the 21st century. This is the secret ticking time bomb under the global capitalist system; we are nearing a real emergency scenario. In less than 10 years, many ordinary people will not be able to afford to use their cars."
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
