Can we cope without oil - I think we are doomed?

Answer 1

Marcus, the human race existed without oil for many millenia. It's only since the industrial revolution, the past two centuries, that we've relied upon it.

Do we have the technology to exist without it? Yes, we do. We've had viable alternative technologies for over half a century. Indeed, our very first production car, the model T was designed to run on three fuel sources - petrol was only one of them. Most vehicles manufactured in the past 10 years will run fine on other fuel sources too. However, the petro-chemical companies, who after all have much influence in the White House and in governments world-wide want us to believe we have a greater dependence than in fact we necessarily need.

We have the ability, technologically-speaking, to produce eco-friendly homes that cost less than £100 a year to heat and light. Housing associations have been experimenting with the construction technologies for the past decade in England and delivering the houses for people to live in very successfully. The lucky beneficiaries have been largely unaffected by the last three years of fuel price rises whilst the rest of us have been left counting the cost, with a typical uk home's energy bill running at just short of £1,000 per year according to one newspaper estimate.

Equally, we have the technology to produce cars that run at over 100 miles per hour, but use electricity not petrol as their fuel source. We have the ability to micro-generate that electricity within the home using wind-turbines, photo-voltaic-electric roof tiles, and to do all of that without using the national grid, quite independently of any power station whatsoever,

However, we have all grown lazy as consumers, and we rely upon petrol for convenience. Our economy is based upon it and we foolishly have allowed a situation to develop whereby we simply do not factor into the equation that it is a time-limited source of energy.

When I was schooled in the 1970's, we were taught that the North Sea Oil fields had 15-20 years of supply. That would have meant that had no new fields been found, they'd already be empty. Yet, we make this assumption that this relatively cheap source of petrol and gas is always going to be there. We build houses with gas boilers as their heating source, rather than doing the sensible thing and putting a heat pump into the construction project and using it to pull the heat from the garden into under-floor heating on the ground floor. We know that the heat pump will still be possible to use in 30 years time, but we don't know whether there will be any gas - yet we still put gas boilers in. It's design obsolescence at its worst and it's laziness on the part of the housebuilders and their lack of innovation.

Similarly, when we buy a new car, we're more interested in how fast it can go than in what fuel source(s) it can run off, or what mile per gallon it can produce. If we were interested in that kind of stuff, we'd all be driving smart cars in urban areas, and the corporate-leased electric version at that. In the 1970's milk was delivered on electrically-powered milk floats in glass bottles which were re-cycled. The vehicles were re-charged overnight. Nowadays, each consumer drives their petrol car to the supermarket to buy a carton of milk that is sold in plastic (which consumed oil to produce) that goes onto landfill when disposed of. And that's meant to be progress?

We still have petrol and gas at our disposal at the moment. The responsible thing would be to manage the transition from one fuel source to another to sustain the life of the remaining black stuff as long as possible. That would mean not building any new gas-powered power stations for example. That would mean not building any new housing with gas boilers. That would mean increasing the number of wind farms, off-shore wave-stations, and putting insulation into existing homes. If we did that now, we would be resolving the problem for future generations rather than storing it up. Nuclear is not the option - it fails the sustainability test by creating a problem for the next generation to have to deal with. We're currently left with a legacy of decisions taken in the 1950's to build nuclear power stations that are now at the end of their life expectancy and going to cost billions to de-commision, with nowhere to handle and store the radioactive material they created. Sustainable energy does not create such a problem.

We have the ability to live without petrol. We do however need to take action now to ensure that the transition is a viable one and is managed with the minimum of disruption. The action that individually and collectively we are taking in the UK is insufficient and we really ought to be doing more.

Answer 2

the whole oil "shortage" is liberal propaganda. There is enough oil in the oil sands in Northern Canada to support bit the US and Canada for 400 years! And that is just the beginning.
Also at any one time there are between 12 and 16 tanker ships just sitting in the harbors waiting to be unloaded. And their they sit... until the oil goes bad and they have to dump it. Why? Because the liberals and the environmentalists will not let another oil refinery be built, and in fact they won't let the companies update the refineries, because it might hurt the environment, but we are hurting the environment because those plants haven't been updated since the 70's and there has been so many developments since then. So these plants are only running at 25 to 27% of capacity. So to answer the question are we doomed? Yes... because of the liberals and environmentalists!

Answer 3

Do not be nervous. The ingenuity of scientists knows no boundaries. I remember to have read one article in the Readers'Digest of the 30s about the development of a process for conversion of water H2O into oil . The experiment was actually conducted under controlled conditions ,though behind c doors closed by the inventor, the resultant product was found quite efficient as fuel. But as happens in bureacracies all over the world the US Army wanted some time to ponder over the matter. They pondered all they wanted and rushed to the inventor. They found devasatation. His flat has been ransacked and he has been kidnapped never to be found found again. it was suspected that oil interests were behing this as it would have crashed oil stocks to the bottomless pit. But if once this has been done surely some other innovator can duplicate this .There have in fact been similar claims in India but they were not found to be genuine. Such charlatans are bound to pop us but that need not make us nervours. THe Alchemists were nothing short of them and yet they gave rise to the field of science. Let us concentrate on this effort. The lookout of alternative forms of energy have also met with varying degrees of success.
The Doom's Day if at all it comes is far, far off.

Answer 4

we could have coped without oil a long time ago had we developed alternate fuel engines, but the oil industry is too strong and wants to sell its main product, not hippy juice.

Though fusion power as well as other sources of energy will replace oil and gas eventually.

dont worry about it, internet is a waste of time anyway

Answer 5

..... It's all about money in the governments pockets. There are many many alternatives to oil. In fact we can create oil now without using oil. But there is a problem with what to do with the infrastructure.

Answer 6

Eventually we will have to find a way but it is going to happen at some point.

If it happened today, we would be up a creek without a paddle. I don't think most ppl realize that oil is used in so many different aspects of our lives. IE, plastic products are derived from petroleum... think about that.. no plastic... omg

Answer 7

Put it this way, if all the wells run dry, some of the blue chip stocks will lose all value. It will cause chaos on the world markets. Economies will plunge into freefall and civilisation could collapse. Better start praying they sort the electric car out soon.

Answer 8

We couldn't survive without oil...It would be like Katrina hit almost the entire world. The thing is, we aren't going to run out of oil for at least 40-50 years. People have been saying that we would run out of oil since the '30's...I'll bet they feel pretty stupid now lol.

Answer 9

We have many alternative forms of energy and cars that can get up to 200 miles to a gallon if the governement had been willing to do it. Trouble is politicians own stock in OIL

Answer 10

A couple of thousand years ago the world was asking the same question about salt.
Yes Salt!!
Then new ways to process salt were found and it's not an issue anymore.
I think the same will happen with energy issues.

Answer 11

We need to get oil from Alaska and quit listening to those that are opposed to it because of environmental concerns. We have also found oil off of the coast of Texas and Florida, I believe. We need to get more agressive in finding our own oil.